The mainstream media has never been more afraid of alternative news. Free thinking and unfiltered media is the direction online users are looking for. The Rubin Report, The Joe Rogan Experience, Waking Up with Sam Harris, and the Jordan B. Peterson Podcast, are just a few of the YouTube channels viewed by millions per week that provide intellectual discussions on a diverse group of topics. Topics consisting of political polarization, economics, history, environmentalism, psychology, and feminism to name a few. However many of these issues and the people discussing them have been deemed too controversial. Therefore they are completely ignored by the mainstream media. However, having discussions about controversial topics helps keep our democracy strong.

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So what do we call this group of controversial figures discussing controversial topics?

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Eric Weinstein, an economist, writer, and managing director of Thiel Capital calls it the “Intellectual Dark web.” The term “Dark Web” makes reference to the actual dark web. People have been told to be fearful of its intentions, but they don’t realize the good it can provide. This misconception is being enforced by the mainstream media. As the intellectual dark web continues to grow the mainstream has only doubled down on its harsh rhetoric. “I saw a counter-culture developing which the main media institutions were mostly intent on ignoring or deeply miss portraying,” Weinstein said.

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Despite the persecution by the media, the “Intellectual Dark Web” is the future. This new format has allowed a wide range of opinions on the political spectrum to be reasonably discussed in an unreasonable time in politics. Opinions that have broken boundaries where someone on the left like Sam Harris who opposes the principles of religion, Ben Shapiro, a Jewish conservative who opposes gay marriage, and Jordan Peterson, a clinical psychologist who opposes postmodernism (an ideology based on skepticism), can find common ground on a political issue like free speech.”

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The Intellectual dark web is reintroducing the dialectic forum of conversation western society has lost. Identity politics is a toxic ideology that is tearing American society apart. If we live in a society that considers these intellect’s ideas as “dark” then we’ve lost the narrative that makes democracy a tool to the diversity of thought. However, this new wave of thought will swell old media because, as Nicholas Klein said, “first they ignore you. Then they ridicule you. And then they attack you and want to burn you. And then they build monuments to you.”