# "Intellectual Dark Web" Stupidity Omnibus **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [January 4, 2019, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193 "2019-01-04T13:53:38Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 12:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/61 "2019-01-05T12:33:08Z")
> [@Ale](#): > > It boggles the mind that there are people that would take that exchange as proof of how right wing (wink-wink-nazi-nudge-nudge) they guy is. > > He was throwing back their worst insults back at them and racking them in their hypocrisy, which led to actual Nazis going after him. > > It’s world distorting hysterical stupidity wrapped up in self righteousness. This is how deranged conspiracy theorist operate, they take any evidence against their delusions as proof of an even bigger conspiracy. > > And I don’t even like Carl Benjamin all that much. > > As for the OP the two people that come to my mind when I hear Intellectual Dark Web are Bret Weinstein and Jonathan Haidt, that BPC things it’s an evil right wing cabal speaks more about his detachment with reality than anything else. > > You are modern day Don Quixotes, a man who went insane after stewing in fantasy writings for too long, you are tilting at windmills and assume everyone that points out the windmills are not giants it’s a bleeping giant apologist in your fevered minds. > > Insanity, sheer, insanity. Y’know, there’s another thread over here about how people are upset you can’t say “Nigger” anymore. (Very few points for guessing that that thread was started by local incel and shitstain **Blalron**.) And there was this little insight in there: > [@The recent taboo of using the N-word under ANY circumstances](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-recent-taboo-of-using-the-n-word-under-any-circumstances/827189/14): > > I agree. The problem is how some people kept looking for loopholes that allowed them to say it. > > “Can I say it if I’m quoting Mark Twain? Can I say it if I’m quoting Quentin Tarantino? Can I say it if I’m quoting the lyrics to a rap song? Can I say it if I’m being ironic? Can I can it if I’m wearing a disapproving look? Can I say it if I pronounce it slightly differently? Can I say a word that sounds like it?” > > If you tell these people they can’t say it a thousand times a day, their response will be “So it’s okay to say it nine hundred times a day?” > > Eventually you just have to tell these people that they can never say it under any circumstances. It’s the only way you can stop them. Carl, as someone who has made his personal brand and indeed his career on being a reactionary and punching down at any nut he can pick, is not someone who we can rely on to shout racial slurs in a reasonable manner. Even if the context is “making fun of nazis by comparing them to people they hate”. Actually, come to think of it, that’s a really shitty context no matter how you spin it. “You are acting like a nigger” is still a really shitty thing to say in that context. Sargon continues to be an incredibly shitty person, and the fact that he’s being deplatformed is not something anyone reasonable should lose sleep over. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/62 "2019-01-05T16:58:15Z")
> [@Elmore](#): > > Also, the IDW isn’t right wing. Harris and Rogan are both left-leaning Democrats. Bret and Eric Weinstein are progressive. Maajid Nawaz ran for UK Parliament as a Liberal Democrat. Jordan Peterson is a right-leaning centrist. Dave Rubin is left-libertarian. The only two IDW members who are proper right wing are Ben Shapiro and Douglas Murray, and Murray is English so his conservatism is still moderate by American standards. Speaking of which here is left-libertarian Dave Rubin praising famed leftist Bolsonaro for pushing “SJW things” out of schools and opposing “marxism”. No word on whether the deforestation campaign is a good idea. Sieh dir den Tweet von @NoOneCorrectMe an: [https://twitter.com/NoOneCorrectMe/status/1081267286021996550?s=09](https://twitter.com/NoOneCorrectMe/status/1081267286021996550?s=09) To quote Three Arrows: ““I dont know enough about him although I talk about politics for a living but yesterday I saw a tweet from him” is peak IDW.” ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/63 "2019-01-05T19:05:53Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Well, I have to apologize for assuming that you had the basic intellect that would allow you to look at where the multiple numbered citations pointed at in the site that was linked to in the recent post. > No, I don’t apologize as it makes you look like a doofus once again. When have you hesitated to post a wall of text from editorial sources? You only avoid posting primary sources and claim they are buried in your cites. ---
**Author:** ![Dacien](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dacien/32/5663_2.png) [@Dacien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dacien)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/64 "2019-01-05T19:50:34Z")
> [@BigT](#): > > All that shows is that he’s a decent human being, believing what people regardless of party used to believe until Trump came into office. > > Looking him up on RationalWiki, he apparently pushes conspiracy theories (while debunking others). In particularly, he pushes that ADHD and autism are fake. He is also anti-transgender. > > But, looking into it more, the main reason he seems to be on the list is that he likes to promote the other people on the list. He will retweet the garbage they say, have them on his program to push their ideas without actually rebutting them, and pushes the anti-liberal agenda a lot. > > He reminds me of our own **SlackerInc**. Not in the exact beliefs, but in the weird mix of having some liberal beliefs while pushing some alt-right nonsense **SlackerInc** even pushes at least one part of the IDW: Sam Harris. > > I’m glad he’s apparently a decent human being on immigration. But that doesn’t make him not part of the problem. He’s not anti-transgender at all. He takes a “let people do what they want if it’s not hurting other people” approach, except when it comes to a biological man who becomes a woman and then destroys women in MMA fights, or any biological man who competes against women and destroys them. That… seems pretty reasonable. Biological males have biological advantages in physical competition. I have never heard of him saying autism or ADHD were fake, so I looked up the video. Looks like a single clip, which I guess people can make up their own mind about. Sounds like he’s mostly questioning the possibility of over-diagnosis to me, particularly ADHD. [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1\_JNLXZ7-A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1_JNLXZ7-A). He’s also had people on, including very recently, talking about autism solutions. He pushes back on people plenty of times, including right-wing Steven crowder on marijuana legalization, and right-wing Candace Owens on climate change. He’s actually a pretty reasonable guy. Maybe I don’t agree with him on everything, maybe I think he’s 100% spot on on some issues, but just because I don’t agree with him about everything, that doesn’t make him “part of the problem”. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 8:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/65 "2019-01-05T20:00:48Z")
> [@elucidator](#): > > She’s got a swan’s neck, a girlish giggle and a mind like a steel trap. And a Ph.D. You got any of those? Not to mention being a Rhodes Scholar. ---
**Author:** ![sps49sd](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@sps49sd](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sps49sd)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 8:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/66 "2019-01-05T20:23:45Z")
> [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](#): > > …Some prominent figures include: > …- Joe Rogan Thinkers? Come on. And, just asking: is it necessary for so many posters to write out the ‘n’ word? I don’t approve of it’s use in any context, and do not see the necessity of repeating it. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 5, 2019, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/67 "2019-01-05T21:27:05Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > When have you hesitated to post a wall of text from editorial sources? Lets rewind to show all what a doofus you are, so I posted this earlier: [https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Dave\_Rubin](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Dave_Rubin) > [@](#): > > Rubin has referred to organisations like the New York Times, CNN, the BBC and USA Today as “fake news”,[33][34][35] even claiming that he “won’t watch” CNN as long as it employs Reza Aslan.[36] However, Rubin has claimed that Rebel Media is “doing a pretty good job from everything I’ve seen”[37], appeared on The Alex Jones Show to talk about the “Cult of the Left”[38] Now, one only needs to go down the web page to find the quote and also: drop to close to end to see the cites, you would had seen that for [33][34][35] Rubin does call the New York Times, CNN, the BBC and USA Today “fake news” so for starters: it was not an editorial source, the source was Dave Rubin himself falling or spreading the manufactured right wing conspiracy of calling other media (including the BBC) fake news. As for the Alex Jones reference, You Tube banned the ass of Jones so there is no longer a link to the “cult of the left” that had Dave Rubin showing how silly is to see him as center left guy. He is like what I pointed before, (and like many of the Dark Web guys) former left leaning guys or intellectual light ones that fall for Conspiracy Central. Falling for Conspiracy sources that are making conspiracies geared to undermine progressives, leftists, Democrats etc. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > You only avoid posting primary sources and claim they are buried in your cites. First, that is rich coming from a guy that told us that skimmed what a dark web guy was spewing. And then it is clear that I noted that one of the sources was Dave Rubin himself. Not my problem that you are telling all that you can not even identify the horse’s mouth. ---
**Author:** ![snoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/43a26b/32.png) [@snoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/snoe)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/68 "2019-01-06T01:18:03Z")
> [@psychonaut](#): > > Maybe you could enlighten me… You’re the second person who’s hinted to me that [Scott Alexander is] actually a member of the alt-right. So I (pretty much) stopped reading Alexander a couple-three years ago because of his weird rightward drift, but used to really enjoy his early non-fiction blogging. I’d call him not alt-right, but “neoreaction-curious,” if you get my drift. He’s an interesting figure, and the [rationalwiki article](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Scott_Alexander) covers some of his more problematic beliefs. Neoreaction was/is a more sophisticated precursor of alt-right thought – to grossly overgeneralize. Alexander did an "[anti-FAQ" on NrX here](https://slatestarcodex.com/2013/10/20/the-anti-reactionary-faq/). It was a fairly harsh critique, but he was so fair and fact-focused that lots of kooky rightists ended up digging it and becoming online friends of his, either in his comment section, on his [sub-reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/slatestarcodex/comments/ab427z/culture_war_roundup_for_the_week_of_december_31/), or on their own blogs. He took their ideas seriously. For instance, if someone claimed to prove [insert scientific racist hypothesis], Alexander would … look at the evidence they present, not dismiss them outright. _This is much nicer than the average non-mouth-breathing normal person treats them_. So his community started swarming with anarcho-capitalists, trad Catholic/Orthodox monarchists, LDS converts, climate change deniers with engineering degrees, Steve Sailer, etc., etc. (This had the side effect of driving all but the most patient left-of-center types _away_ from his community some time ago.) Another angle: Alexander also has an issue with SJW types (sorry to use that term, but it’s handy shorthand). He has said that this is rooted in some early negative experience. (I don’t know what the mean feminists did to him all those years ago – wedgies?) Anyway, he does this big show of tip-toeing around “tribal” or “culture war” issues like an abused housepet, tagging some posts [things I will regret writing](https://slatestarcodex.com/tag/things-i-will-regret-writing/) and banning “culture war” topics on some threads – not because he disapproves of discussions of edgy far-right ideas but _because he doesn’t want to attract too much negative attention_. (**[One of those edgy posts is, indeed, on the IDW, and is typically not-unsympathetic](https://slatestarcodex.com/2018/05/23/can-things-be-both-popular-and-silenced/)**.) It’s a meeker and cringier cousin of the “triggered now libs?!” schtick. Oh, and one more way he’s right-adjacent: Alexander was, and I assume still is, some kind of transhumanist/singularitarian. He believes that a god-level AI is very likely to be built in the fairly near future, and that humanity’s top priority should be surviving as a species until we all get uploaded into its loving arms/revived from our cryogenic slumbers. Seriously. So if a democratic welfare state is going to be less survival-focused than an an-cap theocratic ethno-state where we create genius CRISPR-kids (or whatever), Alexander is at least willing to muse about whether the latter might be a better choice than boring old democracy with its SJW mobs and street crime and stuff, where incels don’t get to have girlfriends. (In this way, he’s a bit analogous to the pre-tribulation rapture believers who don’t care about the environment.) ---
**Author:** ![Covfefe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/ee7513/32.png) [@Covfefe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Covfefe)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 5:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/69 "2019-01-06T05:35:02Z")
Of what little I know of him, Scott Alexander does have detailed annual readership surveys on his site. Taking a glance at the comments on last year’s, it seems around two-thirds of readers are left-leaning; however those folks are apparently not the majority of regular community participants. I have seen the OP link to Alexander’s blog before, so maybe I’ll let him handle, if he wants, the post above that is informative and also marinating in bias. (An incel mention apropos of nothing more than the singularity???) ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 5:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/70 "2019-01-06T05:39:23Z")
> [@Rick\_Kitchen](#): > > Not to mention being a Rhodes Scholar. Didn’t want to over-do it. Her restraining orders have gotten more friendly of late. Well, less threatening. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 5:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/71 "2019-01-06T05:50:31Z")
> [@Dacien](#): > > He’s not anti-transgender at all. He takes a “let people do what they want if it’s not hurting other people” approach, except when it comes to a biological man who becomes a woman and then destroys women in MMA fights, or any biological man who competes against women and destroys them. That… seems pretty reasonable. Biological males have biological advantages in physical competition. > > I have never heard of him saying autism or ADHD were fake, so I looked up the video. Looks like a single clip, which I guess people can make up their own mind about. Sounds like he’s mostly questioning the possibility of over-diagnosis to me, particularly ADHD. > [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1\_JNLXZ7-A](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N1_JNLXZ7-A). He’s also had people on, including very recently, talking about autism solutions. > > He pushes back on people plenty of times, including right-wing Steven crowder on marijuana legalization, and right-wing Candace Owens on climate change. > > He’s actually a pretty reasonable guy. Maybe I don’t agree with him on everything, maybe I think he’s 100% spot on on some issues, but just because I don’t agree with him about everything, that doesn’t make him “part of the problem”. Okay. When I called you on your strawman before, that wasn’t an invitation to make more. I never once said that he was “part of the problem” because I disagreed with him. He’s part of the problem because he promotes the IDW people and their ideas. I literally just went to his Twitter when I posted that, and he is openly supporting Jordan Peterson’s cries of censorship. He promotes Andrew Shulz defending Louis CK for going after the Parkland students. He promotes this guy named Jonathan Heigt, who pushes the canard about fighting bigotry being limiting freedom of speech. You can pick any of the IDWs and see them on his program, spewing their lies without any push back. Just now, I ran into one about Caitlyn Jenner where Crowder called her a man and Joe’s response is to make jokes about being triggered. You can sit here and lie to my face all you want, but this guy would not be linked to this IDW group if not for his constant actions that show he is a part of it. Since we are a board about fighting ignorance, not perpetuating, we don’t like this bullshit. If someone spews nonsense, you don’t give them a platform to spew their ideas without challenge. You debunk them. Without them even there, because science and facts are not a fucking debate where you need people fighting back. Just cite the fucking sources. And, well, he himself appears to claim the IDW label along with the others. If he’s so at odds with them, being the one guy who goes against their garbage, why does he consider himself one of them? Finally, I believe Rational Wiki over your claims. I pulled the stuff you argued with from there. The way you argue has not led me to believe you are particularly honest. And you act very much like an IDW followers, isolating the one guy you think you can make palatable. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 5:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/72 "2019-01-06T05:52:34Z")
> [@Elmore](#): > > The OP said it though No, the OP called the IDW largely right wing. Rogan is just the asshole who keeps on having those right wingers on his program to promote their ideas. ---
**Author:** ![Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/budget_player_cadet/32/205_2.png) [@Budget\_Player\_Cadet](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Budget_Player_Cadet)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 9:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/73 "2019-01-06T09:52:43Z")
> [@Covfefe](#): > > Of what little I know of him, Scott Alexander does have detailed annual readership surveys on his site. Taking a glance at the comments on last year’s, it seems around two-thirds of readers are left-leaning; however those folks are apparently not the majority of regular community participants. > > I have seen the OP link to Alexander’s blog before, so maybe I’ll let him handle, if he wants, the post above that is informative and also marinating in bias. (An incel mention apropos of nothing more than the singularity???) I’ve cooled on Alexander significantly over the past year, mostly because I noticed a lot of the same dynamics at play with him that I noticed with Harris. Specifically, it’s really fucking _weird_ when you’ve got this liberal free-thinker who supports a lot of leftist policies and is thoroughly reasonable… And the comments section is full of terrible garbage people. Like, if the blog in question regularly publishes deep dives into the evidence on certain subjects, what the hell is going on when they do a deep-dive into environmentalism and the comments section is full of garden-variety global warming denialists? It’s a pretty accurate take (although, let’s be clear - his anti-feminist writing is some of the best and clearest I have ever seen). I certainly doubt he’s a cryptofascist or any shit like that, but he does give certain really bad ideas far more airtime than he should. ---
**Author:** ![drad\_dog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/aeb1de/32.png) [@drad\_dog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drad_dog)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/74 "2019-01-06T18:12:18Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Why should he do that? Are _ **hysterical leftists** _ like Maddow similarly condemned by you? Isn’t it embarrasing for you to use that phrase in 2019, I mean really…Look up from the keyboard. The boat sailed. We have a compass and everything. ---
**Author:** ![Guest-starring\_Id](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guest-starring_id/32/21736_2.png) [@Guest-starring\_Id](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guest-starring_Id)\ **Post date:** [January 6, 2019, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/75 "2019-01-06T23:01:19Z")
> [@drad\_dog](#): > > Isn’t it embarrasing for you to use that phrase in 2019, I mean really…Look up from the keyboard. The boat sailed. We have a compass and everything. _Nooooooooo_ shit. **Will Farnaby** : cite even _one_ nasty-woman hysterical leftist quote from Maddow. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/76 "2019-01-07T00:23:21Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Lets rewind to show all what a doofus you are, so I posted this earlier: > > [https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Dave\_Rubin](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Dave_Rubin) > Now, one only needs to go down the web page to find the quote and also: drop to close to end to see the cites, you would had seen that for [33][34][35] Rubin does call the New York Times, CNN, the BBC and USA Today “fake news” so for starters: it was not an editorial source, the source was Dave Rubin himself falling or spreading the manufactured right wing conspiracy of calling other media (including the BBC) fake news. > > As for the Alex Jones reference, You Tube banned the ass of Jones so there is no longer a link to the “cult of the left” that had Dave Rubin showing how silly is to see him as center left guy. He is like what I pointed before, (and like many of the Dark Web guys) former left leaning guys or intellectual light ones that fall for Conspiracy Central. Falling for Conspiracy sources that are making conspiracies geared to undermine progressives, leftists, Democrats etc. > First, that is rich coming from a guy that told us that skimmed what a dark web guy was spewing. And then it is clear that I noted that one of the sources was Dave Rubin himself. Not my problem that you are telling all that you can not even identify the horse’s mouth. As I stated, his assessment of media sources tells us nothing about his placement on a political spectrum. Political ideology has to do with beliefs about the role of the state in society. If you listen to his opinions, he’s center left. Your insistence on placing him based on his assessment of private’s organizations makes about as much sense as placing him on the spectrum based on whether he prefers a PC to a Mac. Back to the activist-o-sphere with you ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 12:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/77 "2019-01-07T00:57:57Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > As I stated, his assessment of media sources tells us nothing about his placement on a political spectrum. Political ideology has to do with beliefs about the role of the state in society. If you listen to his opinions, he’s center left. Now we have to add reading comprehension to your many faults, read it again, I mentioned already that many of the ones from the Dark Web do follow issues that are supported by people that are left leaning, but fall for disinformers that want to add weaponized wedge issues. My point is also that conspiracy minded folks can be intelligent in their field of research or left leaning, but fall for many conspiracies that are propped up by groups with lots of time and money for the purposes of preventing change, like in the case of telling us to not control emissions to prevent further climate change. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Your insistence on placing him based on his assessment of private’s organizations makes about as much sense as placing him on the spectrum based on whether he prefers a PC to a Mac. I go for Linux, so on even that you demonstrate what an ignoramus you are. > [@WillFarnaby](#): > > Back to the activist-o-sphere with you Better to be there than in the bat-shit insane one. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 1:30am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/78 "2019-01-07T01:30:26Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Uh, that is why debates are preferred by the likes of Peterson, talking pretty carries the day while scientists that disagree with him and have the facts can succeed in a debate, but not always. So being successful in debating in favor of contrarian ideas is not as impressive as one would think. I was less impressed by seeing his page on rationalwiky, but I was thinking that he was very intelligent. **Intelligent in his area of expertise** , yes. But he really becomes like the others described in the OP when he goes to places like climate change denial: > > [https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Jordan\_Peterson#cite\_ref-starvation\_155-0](https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Jordan_Peterson#cite_ref-starvation_155-0) > > [That was about Bjørn Lomborg, and yes, he is a contrarian of the evidence.](http://www.desdemonadespair.net/2015/03/bjrn-lomborg-is-wrong-about-bangladesh.html) This post reminded me of a video of Peterson I’d seen: [Jordan Peterson’s Most Pseudoscientific Claim Ever](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iIfLTQAKKfg) In a nutshell, he talks about the representation of entwined snakes in ancient art meant those people had knowledge of the structure of DNA, in some instances gained by “tripping” on natural plants (insert Big Pharma conspiracy here). Because this double helix motif is found everywhere, Peterson says he believes these are representations of DNA. When challenged about that, he backs off and says he “suspects”. The video maker points out that ancient people on every inhabited continent would have had occasion to have seen two snakes fucking in nature. ---
**Author:** ![WillFarnaby](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/willfarnaby/32/514_2.png) [@WillFarnaby](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillFarnaby)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 1:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/79 "2019-01-07T01:47:51Z")
> [@GIGObuster](#): > > Now we have to add reading comprehension to your many faults, read it again, I mentioned already that many of the ones from the Dark Web do follow issues that are supported by people that are left leaning, but fall for disinformers that want to add weaponized wedge issues. My point is also that conspiracy minded folks can be intelligent in their field of research or left leaning, but fall for many conspiracies that are propped up by groups with lots of time and money for the purposes of preventing change, like in the case of telling us to not control emissions to prevent further climate change. > I go for Linux, so on even that you demonstrate what an ignoramus you are. > > Better to be there than in the bat-shit insane one. I recommend increasing your nutrient intake, bud. Good luck to you. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [January 7, 2019, 2:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193/80 "2019-01-07T02:07:15Z")
> [@WillFarnaby](#): > > I recommend increasing your nutrient intake, bud. Good luck to you. I feel fortunate when scientists from the SDMB already told me that I do understand subjects like Climate Change, you? You need remedial education. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/intellectual-dark-web-stupidity-omnibus/827193.md?page=5)