This post is for Subscribers only. Bari Weiss, the former New York Times editorial page editor who popularized the term “Intellectual Dark Web” and now runs her own Substack newsletter, was recently on Bill Maher’s TV show to declare, “I’m done with Covid!”, “Cloth masks do not do anything,” and a variety of similar sentiments. Here’s the relevant segment.
It is a bitter indictment of the state of conservative Christianity that we actually need to be reminded that atheist lesbian Jews are not our friends.
Like Zman points out continually, conservatives are guaranteed losers because they share the same morality as their leftist masters, even if they insist on walking a few centimetres behind them being dragged on a chain.
In leftist morality, white Anglo-Saxon Christians are the outdated past who aren’t worth listening to and have no right to advocate for their own interests. Conservatives 100% agree with this so are constantly looking for someone who is NOT them to make their case for them. Their doing this is a sign of utter moral defeat.
Mr. Renn makes excellent points about signal boosting, and not becomingly naively fond of figures whose Venn diagram overlaps with your own just slightly. But, not too weigh a single word too heavily or miss the general point, as a generally traditional Catholic conservative I certainly consider Dave Rubin and Jordan Peterson "friends." I think Peterson first came to major prominence from refusing to be compelled to use "preferred personal pronouns" at university. His Bible lectures show fascinating if not perfect insight and certainly warm feelings toward the Jewish and Christian stories. Dave Rubin has migrated steadily to the right even if he can go only so far, welcomes all comers, and like Peterson is another desperately needed power in favor of free speech and against cancel culture. So in my scheme these are friends and allies. Some of my *actual* friends are less welcoming.
But I take the point. I also pushed back against Rod (with a tiny Twitter account I use primarily for monitoring) when he faulted people rolling their eyes at now-you-tell-us Bari Weiss's latest epiphanies. For similar reasons--my main point being that many had suffered and are still suffering anthema and banishment, if not outright loss of employment, over the Covid saga. Watching Weiss being carried on a royal litter with palm fronds was a bit much.
So help me out here. Aaron doesn’t want us to signal boost Bari Weiss when she talks about Covid, Covid restrictions, etc. Other than seeing a headline with her name, I didn’t know much about her, so I read the NYT thing and watched a snippet of the Maher interview. A big so what as far as I’m concerned — lots of people wanting to get to post-pandemia.
But here’s my question for Aaron since he’s taken people to task for being influenced by Bari Weiss and others, and boosting their signals. If I wanted to signal boost Aaron Renn on the same topic, where is the post? Correct me if I’m wrong, but Aaron has said zilch about Covid policy, the OSHA mandate, private mandates, Covid threat inflation, etc. No leadership at all from him on the most controverted issue of the last two years. Correct me if I’m wrong — with links. Or at least Aaron could signal boost some alternate sources that are on topic — but I don’t see that he’s done that either.
I wish I could write more, but I don’t have the time…I just had to take a moment to say “Thank You!” for this insightful and honest article, Mr. Renn. I totally agree with your assessment of the members of the IDW. Cheers!
I appreciate commentators and thinkers who exhibit intellectual honesty to their presuppositions versus resorting to power plays, irrational agenda pushing, or blatantly asserting double standards. It's hard to find these people in the media. And, when I do, it's a breath of fresh air. Now, I don't agree with a number of Bari's presuppositions so I don't see her as a champion to herald. The same is true when it comes to Jordan Peterson. However, I think it's important to hear from those who don't share my worldview. Confining myself to an echo chamber isn't healthy. So, I follow those who exhibit the most intellectual integrity, and use a lot of discernment.
Everyone in the Intellectual Dark Web that I can think of (someone can feel free to point out an exception) is just a second or third rate liberal thinker who has happened to get ambushed by wokeness. They can put out some good stuff: Weiss does some good journalism in the Wokeness Gone Wild genre, James Lindsay's New Discourses site is a good collection of articles on postmodern/critical theory issues, etc. But platforming them as public intellectuals is foolish because they're only occasionally insightful.
If you're going to look to secular gadfly writers for insight on current issues, you're better off looking to some of the good dissident right thinkers (e.g., Richard Hanania, Steve Sailer, and Charles Murray, but avoid the alt-right and white nationalists) or the group I'd call "black critics of leftist orthodoxy" like John McWhorter and Glenn Loury.
At time the incident with Gonzalez happened, I speculated part of the reason Murray and Weiss didn't mention Chronicles was A) they knew their arguments would go nowhere with Paul Gottfried and B) they didn't want to bring attention to Chronicles. Being seen as gatekeepers for what is respectable on the right is more important to a lot of these people than stopping the left. The most effective ways they have done this is largely ignoring any criticism they get from the right, and taking every opportunity to denounce these critics, especially when the left asks/demands that they do that.
Being a conservative should not be defined as simply being in opposition to the left, which is what so many of these people and groups do. Gottfried recently had a good blog post on this, pushing back against Gracy Olmstead, who had published a list with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute of "Modern Conservative Thinkers." The list is idiotic if the word conservative has any meaning at all and includes several people who openly hated the conservatives of their day. As Gottfried points out, the list is little more than a list of people Olmstead likes and wants others to read. She clearly has been indoctrinated in the idea that the left sets the frame. Anyone who accepts that is not our friend.
Appreciate this. Personally, I keep many of these at an arm's length. It's interesting you group Jordan Peterson with them, which makes sense considering who he hangs out with. However, I tend to group Jordan Peterson separately at this point. My guess is that he has moved more and more right and more and more appreciative of Christianity, although that may be an illusion. I wonder if you have any thoughts on that particularly?
This is EXACTLY RIGHT!!! I heard Weiss on a variety of forums right after she left the NYT and realized immediately that she is no friend of those of us who consider leftism an existential (sorry, I know this word is overused, but it is precisely the right term here) threat to the WEST and the USA.
She is also a fool who, like most all of the folks Aaron listed, doesn't understand the threat the left poses to everything we hold dear.
However, I have not had that impression of Douglas Murray. I know he is gay. But it seems that he does get the fight we are in. I can be persuaded though.
Another figure in this arena is Alex Berenson, who has done yeomen's work on Covid and the vaccines and appears to value Truth but had to virtue signal to all of his old friends on the left, that he really is still one of them by ambushing Dr. Robert Malone on Tucker Carlson Tonight last week.
One thing that almost all of them have in common is they would rather have their eyes gouged out of their heads with dull, rusty spoons, than be called one of those, mean, hateful, stupid, unwashed, bigoted, racist, misogynist, uneducated, CONSERVATIVES!!!
Cuz those people are ICKY!!! Oh, and WHAT ABOUT TRUMP!!!
I predict that Weiss, who doesn't seem to be strong enough (or really smart or wise enough) to stand alone without being on a team, once she sees that there isn't much of a team for her on the right, will fade to obscurity and/or go back to being on the left.
Also, this phenomenon is why Liberalism/Leftism is so popular with the low information crowd. They have been very successfully brainwashed into believing that R's and Cons are mean, hate the poor, hate minorities, want to stone gay people, and on and on. As a result, even though they have never spent ONE MINUTE thinking about policies and economics and other issues of import that make up our body politic, they are REFLEXIVELY LIBERAL because to be called something else isn't cool. To be a Con is to be mean and judgie. Can't have that.
It is a bitter indictment of the state of conservative Christianity that we actually need to be reminded that atheist lesbian Jews are not our friends.
Like Zman points out continually, conservatives are guaranteed losers because they share the same morality as their leftist masters, even if they insist on walking a few centimetres behind them being dragged on a chain.
In leftist morality, white Anglo-Saxon Christians are the outdated past who aren’t worth listening to and have no right to advocate for their own interests. Conservatives 100% agree with this so are constantly looking for someone who is NOT them to make their case for them. Their doing this is a sign of utter moral defeat.
Mr. Renn makes excellent points about signal boosting, and not becomingly naively fond of figures whose Venn diagram overlaps with your own just slightly. But, not too weigh a single word too heavily or miss the general point, as a generally traditional Catholic conservative I certainly consider Dave Rubin and Jordan Peterson "friends." I think Peterson first came to major prominence from refusing to be compelled to use "preferred personal pronouns" at university. His Bible lectures show fascinating if not perfect insight and certainly warm feelings toward the Jewish and Christian stories. Dave Rubin has migrated steadily to the right even if he can go only so far, welcomes all comers, and like Peterson is another desperately needed power in favor of free speech and against cancel culture. So in my scheme these are friends and allies. Some of my *actual* friends are less welcoming.
But I take the point. I also pushed back against Rod (with a tiny Twitter account I use primarily for monitoring) when he faulted people rolling their eyes at now-you-tell-us Bari Weiss's latest epiphanies. For similar reasons--my main point being that many had suffered and are still suffering anthema and banishment, if not outright loss of employment, over the Covid saga. Watching Weiss being carried on a royal litter with palm fronds was a bit much.
So help me out here. Aaron doesn’t want us to signal boost Bari Weiss when she talks about Covid, Covid restrictions, etc. Other than seeing a headline with her name, I didn’t know much about her, so I read the NYT thing and watched a snippet of the Maher interview. A big so what as far as I’m concerned — lots of people wanting to get to post-pandemia.
But here’s my question for Aaron since he’s taken people to task for being influenced by Bari Weiss and others, and boosting their signals. If I wanted to signal boost Aaron Renn on the same topic, where is the post? Correct me if I’m wrong, but Aaron has said zilch about Covid policy, the OSHA mandate, private mandates, Covid threat inflation, etc. No leadership at all from him on the most controverted issue of the last two years. Correct me if I’m wrong — with links. Or at least Aaron could signal boost some alternate sources that are on topic — but I don’t see that he’s done that either.
I wish I could write more, but I don’t have the time…I just had to take a moment to say “Thank You!” for this insightful and honest article, Mr. Renn. I totally agree with your assessment of the members of the IDW. Cheers!
I appreciate commentators and thinkers who exhibit intellectual honesty to their presuppositions versus resorting to power plays, irrational agenda pushing, or blatantly asserting double standards. It's hard to find these people in the media. And, when I do, it's a breath of fresh air. Now, I don't agree with a number of Bari's presuppositions so I don't see her as a champion to herald. The same is true when it comes to Jordan Peterson. However, I think it's important to hear from those who don't share my worldview. Confining myself to an echo chamber isn't healthy. So, I follow those who exhibit the most intellectual integrity, and use a lot of discernment.
Everyone in the Intellectual Dark Web that I can think of (someone can feel free to point out an exception) is just a second or third rate liberal thinker who has happened to get ambushed by wokeness. They can put out some good stuff: Weiss does some good journalism in the Wokeness Gone Wild genre, James Lindsay's New Discourses site is a good collection of articles on postmodern/critical theory issues, etc. But platforming them as public intellectuals is foolish because they're only occasionally insightful.
If you're going to look to secular gadfly writers for insight on current issues, you're better off looking to some of the good dissident right thinkers (e.g., Richard Hanania, Steve Sailer, and Charles Murray, but avoid the alt-right and white nationalists) or the group I'd call "black critics of leftist orthodoxy" like John McWhorter and Glenn Loury.
At time the incident with Gonzalez happened, I speculated part of the reason Murray and Weiss didn't mention Chronicles was A) they knew their arguments would go nowhere with Paul Gottfried and B) they didn't want to bring attention to Chronicles. Being seen as gatekeepers for what is respectable on the right is more important to a lot of these people than stopping the left. The most effective ways they have done this is largely ignoring any criticism they get from the right, and taking every opportunity to denounce these critics, especially when the left asks/demands that they do that.
Being a conservative should not be defined as simply being in opposition to the left, which is what so many of these people and groups do. Gottfried recently had a good blog post on this, pushing back against Gracy Olmstead, who had published a list with the Intercollegiate Studies Institute of "Modern Conservative Thinkers." The list is idiotic if the word conservative has any meaning at all and includes several people who openly hated the conservatives of their day. As Gottfried points out, the list is little more than a list of people Olmstead likes and wants others to read. She clearly has been indoctrinated in the idea that the left sets the frame. Anyone who accepts that is not our friend.
https://www.chroniclesmagazine.org/blog/stop-calling-these-people--conservative-/
Insightful. Thanks.
Appreciate this. Personally, I keep many of these at an arm's length. It's interesting you group Jordan Peterson with them, which makes sense considering who he hangs out with. However, I tend to group Jordan Peterson separately at this point. My guess is that he has moved more and more right and more and more appreciative of Christianity, although that may be an illusion. I wonder if you have any thoughts on that particularly?
This is EXACTLY RIGHT!!! I heard Weiss on a variety of forums right after she left the NYT and realized immediately that she is no friend of those of us who consider leftism an existential (sorry, I know this word is overused, but it is precisely the right term here) threat to the WEST and the USA.
She is also a fool who, like most all of the folks Aaron listed, doesn't understand the threat the left poses to everything we hold dear.
However, I have not had that impression of Douglas Murray. I know he is gay. But it seems that he does get the fight we are in. I can be persuaded though.
Another figure in this arena is Alex Berenson, who has done yeomen's work on Covid and the vaccines and appears to value Truth but had to virtue signal to all of his old friends on the left, that he really is still one of them by ambushing Dr. Robert Malone on Tucker Carlson Tonight last week.
One thing that almost all of them have in common is they would rather have their eyes gouged out of their heads with dull, rusty spoons, than be called one of those, mean, hateful, stupid, unwashed, bigoted, racist, misogynist, uneducated, CONSERVATIVES!!!
Cuz those people are ICKY!!! Oh, and WHAT ABOUT TRUMP!!!
I predict that Weiss, who doesn't seem to be strong enough (or really smart or wise enough) to stand alone without being on a team, once she sees that there isn't much of a team for her on the right, will fade to obscurity and/or go back to being on the left.
Also, this phenomenon is why Liberalism/Leftism is so popular with the low information crowd. They have been very successfully brainwashed into believing that R's and Cons are mean, hate the poor, hate minorities, want to stone gay people, and on and on. As a result, even though they have never spent ONE MINUTE thinking about policies and economics and other issues of import that make up our body politic, they are REFLEXIVELY LIBERAL because to be called something else isn't cool. To be a Con is to be mean and judgie. Can't have that.