Once upon a time there was a good book titled "The Way of the Intellectual Dark Web," by Jamie Q. Roberts. It was published by Routledge in January 2024. But you won't be able to buy it, because the publisher suspended the book from sales shortly after publication. I guess I'm one of a very few readers who have the book.
I found a downloadable PDF copy of the book while searching for something else. I downloaded the book, and loved it. Then I wanted to buy a Kindle edition, but the Kindle edition never came out. I found this surprising but now, after a conversation with the author, I know what happened.
"In early 2024 'The Way of the Intellectual Dark Web' was published by Routledge," Roberts told me. "I was surprised that the book made it as far as it did: each chapter breaches innumerable academic taboos. Within two weeks it was suspended from sales."
"I was told that there had been complaints; however, despite asking, I was never told who complained nor the nature of the complaints," continued Roberts. "The book was then investigated and it was determined that it could not return to sales in its current form."
While the publisher didn't choose to communicate the nature of the complaints to Roberts, I think it is easy to guess. The book was politically incorrect and didn't pay due homage to "cultural" (scare quotes intended) norms. Therefore, the publisher canceled it.
The publisher wanted a major rewrite. But after experiencing decades of censorship in one form or another, Roberts wasn’t going to compromise. "Pretty funny that the first major book about the premiere free speech movement of our time was silenced," he says. "But then, it had to be that way."
But things are different in 2025. The book has been republished with the title "The Intellectual Dark Web: A History (and Possible Future)" (2025). And yes, you can (and should) buy this edition. The new publisher, Pitchstone, states on its website that, "it is committed to freedom of thought, freedom of expression, and freedom of conscience."
The new edition has a new preface, titled “The IDW Just Won the Election!”
Roberts' book provides a compelling history and a thoughtful analysis of one of the most interesting cultural movements of our time. Actually, I think it is the most interesting one.
The book explores the Intellectual Dark Web (IDW), a group of thinkers who shaped public talks. This group includes people like Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, Ben Shapiro and, especially, Joe Rogan. In fact, the canceled first edition was subtitled "What Joe Rogan and His Associates Can Teach Us about Political Dialogue."
I'm one of those who, unrepentantly and unapologetically, praise Joe Rogan. In particular, I like the fact that he is willing to tackle controversial topics. He gives a platform to new, unconventional science and technology that the public is not yet aware of. For example, Rogan has recently interviewed maverick scientists Sonny White and Hal Puthoff on his extremely popular podcast. I think Rogan's podcast is a very useful source of scientific information. He hosts Nobel Prize winners, but also less known and more controversial scientists and engineers. Perhaps not all the information presented is always correct, but I think some of the more controversial ideas presented by Rogan's guests might, some day, find their way to a Nobel Prize. Lex Fridman, another popular podcaster who often interviews movers and shakers in the world of science and technology, is close to the IDW.
Other public figures in the IDW include Steven Pinker, Jonathan Haidt, Bret and Eric Weinstein, Dave Rubin, and Claire Lehmann. Roberts categorizes them as core IDW members. Besides the core members, many public figures are categorized by Roberts as near core, near and distant associates.
Elon Musk is an interesting case in point. He is categorized as near core. "Musk’s politics were centre-left, but in recent times (post 2022) his politics... can be explained by a well-known cartoon produced by Colin Wright," explains Roberts in the book. "As Wright describes it: 'At the outset [2008], I stand happily beside my fellow Liberal, who is slightly to my left. In 2012 he sprints to the left, dragging out the left end of the political spectrum and pulling the political ‘center’ closer to me. By 2021 my fellow Liberal is a Woke Progressive, so far to the left that I’m now right of centre, even though I haven’t moved."
Similarly, now liberals want their own Joe Rogan, but "liberals already had their own Joe Rogan," notes a recent article published in Reason. "His name was Joe Rogan."
"Strange how we once thought that the purpose of academics was to put forward bold ideas for the greater good of society," Roberts told me. "Now the purpose of academia is for pseudointellectuals to trade fashionable lies so that they can build their pseudo careers."
Roberts wanted to write a book about the IDW because the battles of the figures within it were his own battles, he explained to me. "Since 2002 I had been struggling against identity politics and postmodernism, and trying to talk about the corrupt university hierarchy, the failures of liberal feminism, the wisdom in classic works, and so on and so on."
"While I’m wary of scaremongering, I do wonder where the world is going," he added.
You can only bend reality so much within a complex system before you pay a serious price. So long as the engineers keep doing their job, maybe we’ll be ok. But I dunno. Are prosperity and peace invariably followed by decadence and collapse?
I totally agree. The IDW started and prospered as an intellectual movement to counter some serious reality bending that was going on. It has been the antithesis of a thesis that had been taken too far. Of course, we can't expect the IDW itself to have all the answers and the final truth (there's no such thing). But I think the IDW has been and will continue to be, with other names and leaders, part of the ongoing dialectic evolution of our society.
"At the deepest level, I struggle to understand why so many people put social games ahead of truth," concluded Roberts. "There is no point to any success that is founded on lies. I mean, sure, you might get some money, but everything else is hollow. And in the end, we are all alone with ourselves."
I consider myself a follower of the IDW, and I thank Roberts for providing a thorough and thoughtful description of my cultural home.
