Simon Edge is a British writer and anti-transgender activist.
Background
Simon John Edge was born on December 25, 1964 in Chester, England. Edge graduated from King’s School, Chester, then earned master’s degrees from St Catharine’s College, Cambridge in 1986 and from City University in 2006.
From 1993 to 1995, Edge was editor of Capital Gay, a publication founded in 1981 that folded in 1995. Edge was freelance and on staff at several publications, including the Evening Statndard, Daily Express, WhatsOnStage, and Attitude. Edge has done press for Green Party candidates.
Edge was married to former Catholic priest Ezio Alessandroni from 2014 until Alessandroni’s death in 2017.
Anti-transgender activism
Edge wrote the 1995 nonfiction book With Friends Like These: Marxism and Gay Politics, which attacks progressive aspects of the LGBTQ rights movement.
Edge was a signatory of a 2020 Sunday Times open letter supporting anti-transgender activist J.K. Rowling. Edge said, “Like many others, I was horrified by the grotesque treatment of JK Rowling, who has received the vilest abuse for daring to challenge extreme gender ideology.”
Edge published The End of the World is Flat (2021) and In the Beginning (2021), satires of the transgender rights movement.
References
Edge, Simon (1995). With Friends Like These: Marxism and Gay Politics. UNKNO, ISBN 9780304333202
Greenhalgh, Hugo (September 29, 2020). Literary figures defend JK Rowling, say she’s been subjected to ‘an onslaught of abuse.’ Sunday Times https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2020-09-29-literary-figures-defend-jk-rowling-say-shes-been-subjected-to-an-onslaught-of-abuse/
Edge, Simon (2023). In the Beginning. Lightning Books, ISBNÂ 978-1785633546
Resources
Simon Edge (simon-edge.com)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Twitter (twitter.com)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
Milo Yiannopoulos is a British right-wing extremist and troll. Yiannopoulos is a key figure in the alt-right and intellectual dark web movements.
Background
Milo Hanrahan was born on October 18, 1983 in Chatham, Kent, England to Catholic parents who soon divorced. Yiannopoulos is the surname of Milo’s subsequent stepparent.
Yiannopoulos attended University of Manchester and Wolfson College, Cambridge, but did not earn degrees from either. Yiannopoulos published works and photos as Milo Andreas Wagner around this time. Yiannopoulos founded Wrong Agency Limited in 2009. It dissolved in 2011.
Yiannopoulos wrote for the Catholic Herald and covered technology for the Daily Telegraph. There, Yiannopoulos developed a knack for clickbait and anti-progressive trolling. Yiannopoulos co-founded technology “drama” blog The Kernel and subscription newsletter The Nutshell with Stephen Pritchard. Following closure over unpaid debts, investor Berlin42 purchased the domain and settled all debts, relaunching The Kernel with Yiannopoulos as editor. In 2014, The Kernel was acquired by Daily Dot Media, and Yiannopoulos stepped down.
From 2014 to 2017, Yiannopoulos covered technology for Breitbart News. While there, Yiannopoulos was a key figure in Gamergate, a complex misogynistic online harassment campaign and right-wing backlash against feminism, diversity, and progressivism in video game culture. Yiannopoulos was also a key figure in the 2016 presidential candidacy of Donald Trump.
Yiannopoulos left Breitbart in 2017, founded Milo Worldwide LLC, and self-published the book Dangerous after it was dropped by publisher Simon & Schuster after earlier comments Yiannopoulos made about pedophilia resurfaced. The ACLU filed suit on behalf of Yiannopoulos after transit ads for Dangerous were rejected by the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority,.
In 2018, Yiannopoulos self-published the books How to Be Poor and How to Be Straight. In 2021 Yiannopoulos claimed to be an ex-gay and began fundraising to create a conversion therapy center in Florida. In 2023, Yiannopoulos was involved in the presidential campaign of Kanye West.
Anti-transgender activity
Yiannopoulos made countless inflammatory statements about transgender people during the 2010s, especially in connection with Donald Trump.
Hereâs the dirty secret that only the progressive left doesnât understand: Nobody cares about trannys. There arenât any of them anywhere. No one cares. If youâre obsessed with gay issues, if you are gay and you go to gay clubs and you only read the left wing press, all youâll ever hear about is âpeople want to cut their (expletives) off.â But the rest of the country doesnât care. There just arenât that many of them around. Who cares? And Donald Trump knows this, which is why it wasnât damaging to him when he said he doesnât care what bathroom Caitlyn Jenner uses, and itâs not damaging to him now when heâs gone the other direction and said he doesnât want them in the military. No one in America actually cares, and Donald Trump instinctively understands this.
Mitchell (2017)
References
Dowell, Ben (July 7, 2012). Milo Yiannopoulos – meet the ‘pit bull’ of tech media. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/media/2012/jul/08/milo-yiannopoulos-kernel-technology-interview
Williams-Grut, Oscar (June 2, 2013). The Kernel’s back to make new enemies. The Independent https://www.independent.co.uk/news/business/news/the-kernel-s-back-to-make-new-enemies-8640597.html
Dunbar, Max (January 9, 2013). Milo Yiannopoulos and the Kernel. WordPress https://maxdunbar.wordpress.com/2013/01/09/milo-yiannopoulous-and-the-kernel/
Reynolds, Daniel (October 26, 2016). Milo Yiannopoulos Takes Transphobia on Tour. The Advocate https://www.advocate.com/transgender/2016/10/26/milo-yiannopoulos-takes-transphobia-tour
Lynskey, Dorian (February 21, 2017). The rise and fall of Milo Yiannopoulos â how a shallow actor played the bad guy for money. The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/world/2017/feb/21/milo-yiannopoulos-rise-and-fall-shallow-actor-bad-guy-hate-speech
Long, Camilla (February 26, 2017). Milo Yiannopoulos is not so âfunny and hot and rightâ any more. The Australian https://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/the-times/milo-yiannopoulos-the-pied-piper-of-hate-goes-up-in-flames/news-story/a302709bea5b6fdc571c3a025992f3ff
Mitchell, Conner (July 31, 2017). Yiannopoulos doesn’t hold back on transgender rights, women in military, more. The Palm Beach Post https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/politics/2017/07/31/yiannopoulos-doesn-t-hold-back/7089635007/ [archive]
Resources
RationalWiki (rationalwiki.org)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Twitter (twitter.com)
- nero [suspended]
- KernelMag
Wrong Agency Limited [UK]
Sentinel Media Ltd [UK]
The Kernel (kernelmag.com) [archive]
Milo Worldwide LLC
Milo Entertainment Inc.
Milo Inc.
Dangerous (dangerous.com) [archive 2017-2019]
Flickr (flickr.com)
- Milo Andreas Wagner
- flickr.com/photos/milo_wagner/
- The Kernel
- flickr.com/people/37025991@N08
Daily Dot (dailydot.com)
- The Kernel [archive]
- kernelmag.dailydot.com
Eric Weinstein is an American mathematician and former hedge fund manager. Weinstein was a managing director of Thiel Capital from 2013 until 2022.
Weinstein coined the term intellectual dark web (IDW), a social movement associated with anti-transgender activism and extremism. Weinstein has expressed fairly nuanced views of trans issues compared to most people considered part of the intellectual dark web.
Background
Eric Ross Weinstein was born on October 26, 1965 and has a younger sibling, Bret Weinstein. They grew up in Southern California.
Eric Weinstein earned a bachelor’s degree from University of Pennsylvania, then attended Harvard, earning a master’s degree, then a doctorate in 1992.
After teaching at MIT and Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Weinstein served as a managing director for Peter Thiel at Thiel Capital from 2013 until 2022.
Intellectual dark web
Weinstein coined the term intellectual dark web (IDW) in 2017 as a name for a loose alliance described as a “gateway to the far right.” Many are opponents of transgender rights. Members typically get money and attention by claiming to be “canceled” or silenced by the minorities and progressive movements they criticize (called DARVO in general; see also the Dregerian Narrative in relation to trans issues, named after IDW inaugural member Alice Dreger.
Podcast
Weinstein hosted a podcast called The Portal from 2019 to 2020. Guests included several critics of the transgender rights movement and their supporters, including Douglas Murray, J. D. Vance, Ross Douthat, James OâKeefe, Bret Weinstein, Anna Khachiyan, Tyler Cowen, Sam Harris, Bryan Callen, and Peter Thiel.
42: Cashing Out My Trump & IDW Positions
41: Douglas Murray â Heroism 2020: Defense of Our Own Civilization
- Douglas Murray 23 October 2020
40: Introducing The Portal Essay Club – What if everyone is simply insane?
39: Admission To Sugar Baby U.
- Kimberly de la Cruz 29 July 2020
38: Mass Media, Markets, and Human Malware: A Portal Q&A
37: Surfing the Wake of The Woke
- Andrew Marantz 1 July 2020
36: Dark Matter, Black Matters and All That Jazz
- Stephon Alexander 11 June 2020
35: Balaji Srinivasan – The Heretic & The Virus
- Balaji Srinivasan 21 May 2020
34: Zev Weinstein – On Parenting, Boys & Generation Z
- Zev Weinstein 13 May 2020
33: Josh Wolfe – The Mind Financing The Future
32: J. D. Vance – American Dreams and Nightmares
- J. D. Vance 29 April 2020
31: Ryan Holiday – Conspiracy, Manipulation & other Pastimes
- Ryan Holiday 23 April 2020
30: Ross Douthat – The Rave Before the Fall
- Ross Douthat 16 April 2020
29: Jamie Metzl – The Bio-Hacker will see you now, Ready or Not
- Jamie Metzl 12 April 2020
Special A Portal Special Presentation- Geometric Unity: A First Look
28: Eric Lewis – The Singular Genius of Elew
27: Daniel Schmachtenberger – On Avoiding Apocalypses
- Daniel Schmachtenberger 27 March 2020
26: James OâKeefe: What is (and isn’t) Journalism in the 21st century
- James OâKeefe 19 March 2020
25: The Construct: Jeffrey Epstein
24: Kai Lenny – To Play and Flirt with Giants
- Kai Lenny 28 February 2020
23: Agnes Callard – Courage, Meta-cognitive detachment and their limits
- Agnes Callard 24 February 2020
22: Ben Greenfield – Wheat From Chaff in Human Fitness
- Ben Greenfield 15 February 2020
21: Ashley Mathews (aka Riley Reid) – The mogul and brains behind America’s Sweetheart
- Ashley Mathews (aka Riley Reid) 31 January 2020
20: Sir Roger Penrose – Plotting the Twist of Einsteinâs Legacy
- Sir Roger Penrose 24 January 2020
19: Bret Weinstein – The Prediction and the DISC
- Bret Weinstein 18 January 2020
18: Slipping the DISC: State of The Portal and Chapter 2020
17: Anna Khachiyan – Reconstructing The Mystical Feminine From The Ashes Of âThe Feminine Mystiqueâ
- Anna Khachiyan 20 December 2019
16: Tyler Cowen – The Revolution Will Not Be Marginalized
- Tyler Cowen 16 December 2019
15: Garrett Lisi – My Arch-nemesis, Myself
- Garrett Lisi 6 December 2019
14: London Tsai – The Reclusive Dean of The New Escherians
- London Tsai 30 November 2019
13: Garry Kasparov – Avoiding Zugzwang in AI and Politics
- Garry Kasparov 23 November 2019
12: Vitalik Buterin – The Ethereal Prince and His Virtual Machine
- Vitalik Buterin 21 November 2019
11: Sam Harris – Fighting with Friends
- Sam Harris 15 November 2019
10: Julie Lindahl: Shaking the poisoned fruit of shame out of the family tree
- Julie Lindahl 31 October 2019
9: Bryan Callen – Cracking Wise
- Bryan Callen 30 October 2019
8: Andrew Yang – The Dangerously Different Candidate the Media Wants You to Ignore
- Andrew Yang 2 October 2019
7: Bret Easton Ellis – The Dark Laureate of Generation X
- Bret Easton Ellis 29 September 2019
6: Jocko Willink – The Way of the Violent Intellectual
- Jocko Willink 7 September 2019
5: Rabbi Wolpe – âSo a Rabbi and an atheist walk into a podcastâŠâ
- Rabbi David Wolpe 31 August 2019
4: Timur Kuran – The Economics of Revolution and Mass Deception
- Timur Kuran 20 August 2019
3: Werner Herzog
- Werner Herzog 25 July 2019
2: What is The Portal
1: Peter Thiel
Welcome to The Portal
References
-https://twitter.com/EricRWeinstein/status/1104080066139500544
Joe Rogan #1320 Gender Binary is a Form of Oppression – Eric Weinstein | Joe Rogan -https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl9SBJ4JsAw
Resources
Eric Weinstein (ericweinstein.org)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
YouTube (youtube.com)
Twitter (twitter.com)
Facebook (facebook.com)
Edge (edge.org)
Peter Thiel is a German-American entrepreneur and investor.
While Thiel has not been explicitly anti-trans in public statements, many people and institutions Thiel supports are anti-trans. Thiel is closely associated with several anti-trans Republicans and has provided them significant campaign funding, most notably Donald Trump, J.D. Vance, Blake Masters, and Ted Cruz. After Trump won election in 2016, Thiel was part of Trump’s transition team.
Thiel is associated with the anti-trans intellectual dark web and has collaborated with other members, including Eric Weinstein, Joe Rogan, Bari Weiss, Tim Ferriss, and Dave Rubin.
Background
Thiel was born on October 11, 1967 in Frankfurt am Main, West Germany. Thiel’s parents moved to America soon after, then to South Africa before moving to the San Francisco Bay area. Thiel has a younger sibling.
Thiel earned a bachelor’s degree from Stanford in 1989. While there Thiel co-founded and edited conservative publication The Stanford Review. Via Newsweek:
Some of the wealthiest men in the New Billionaires club are Peter Thiel (who financed Zuckerberg) and David Sacksâtwo guys who spent their formative years at Stanford in the 1990s writing anti-feminist screeds for their school paper. According to Kantor in The New York Times, “In the pages of [Stanford’s] The Review, they defined feminism in negative termsâalarmist, accusatory toward men, blind to inherent biological differences.Â
Thiel earned a law degree there in 1992, then clerked for 11th Circuit Judge James Larry Edmondson. After a couple of years working in finance on the east coast, Thiel returned to California and founded Thiel Capital Management.
One early investment got developed into PayPal, which merged with X.com founded by Elon Musk. PayPal went public in 2002 and was bought by eBay for $1.5 billion. Thiel is a co-founder of Palantir Technologies and Founders Fund. Thiel was the first outside investor in Facebook. These investments earned Thiel billions of dollars.
Thiel was outed as gay in 2007 by the Gawker gossip blog network. Thiel then funded a successful $140 million lawsuit against Gawker brought by Hulk Hogan for invasion of privacy. The 2016 verdict led to a $31 million settlement that effectively ended Gawker.
The Thiel Foundation supports young adult visionaries, speculative scientific research, AI, life extension, and seasteading.
Thiel has citizenship in Germany by birth, the US via naturalization, and New Zealand in 2011 through investments there.
Thiel married longtime partner Matt Danzeisen in 2017. Thiel was also reportedly in a relationship with model Jeff Thomas, who died in 2023 at age 35.
Anti-transgender activism
In 1995, Thiel and David O. Sacks co-authored The Diversity Myth, an attack on progressive policies in higher education. Thiel is a Republican and has become a major figure in conservative gay activism. Thiel has been a major donor to Republican and libertarian political candidates and founded Free Forever, an America-first political action committee.
Thiel was a major contributor to Donald Trump’s first presidential campaign. In 2016, Thiel spoke at the Republican National Convention, saying “I am proud to be gay” and criticizing the GOP focus on cultural issues:
“When I was a kid, the great debate was about how to defeat the Soviet Union. And we won. Now we are told that the great debate is about who gets to use which bathroom. This is a distraction from our real problems. Who cares?”
In 2016, Thiel was revealed to be the instructor behind a “Heterodox Science” course offered by the Berkeley Institute, a private academic institution that Thiel bankrolls. “Heterodox” is a term popular among right-wing academics like anti-trans activist Jonathan Haidt, founder of Heterodox Academy. The Berkeley Institute course description included buzzwords used by anti-trans academics, including “sexual differences,” a term frequently used in anti-trans fields like eugenics, evolutionary psychology, “race science,” and “sex science”:
This seminar will discuss possible instances of âheterodox science,â fields of study that dissent from mainstream science. Areas to be examined will include neuroscience and human consciousness; biology and human nature; evolution and sexual differences; and economics and urban social policy.
The seminar was later removed from the Berkeley Institute website.
At the 2022 National Conservatism conference, Thiel discussed “wokeness” in California, likening it to Wahhabism, an orthodox Islamic reform movement in Saudi Arabia:
In his view, the main problem with California is that, like Saudi Arabia or Venezuela, it is the victim of a âresource curseâ. That is, the wealth generated from Californiaâs tech sector is so tremendous that it ends up distorting the stateâs entire political economy. âWokenessâ, he posited, plays the same role as Wahabbism in the similarly afflicted Saudi Arabia.
In 2024, Thiel reiterated these views on the Joe Rogan Experience.
In 2023, Thiel decided not to fund political candidates, “reportedly voicing frustration over the right’s attacks on abortion and transgender rights,” according to Vanity Fair.
References
Warnke, Melissa Batchelor (December 21, 2016). Peter Thiel is almost definitely behind this mysterious âHeterodox Scienceâ course. The Verge https://www.theverge.com/2016/12/21/14025760/peter-thiel-heterodox-science-class-berkeley-institute
Pershan, Caleb (July 22, 2016). Gay Tech Billionaire Peter Thiel Belittles Trans Rights In Republican Convention Speech. SFist https://sfist.com/2016/07/22/peter_thiel_gay_republican_hypocrite/
Holden, Dominic (July 21, 2016). Peter Thiel Calls Transgender Bathroom Access “A Distraction” At GOP Convention. BuzzFeed News https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/dominicholden/peter-thiel-calls-transgender-bathroom-access-a-distraction
Ecarma, Caleb (April 26, 2023). Peter Thiel Reportedly Doesnât Want to Give Republicans Any More Money, for Very Confusing Reasons. Vanity Fair https://www.vanityfair.com/news/2023/04/peter-thiel-reportedly-doesnt-want-to-give-republicans-any-more-money-for-very-confusing-reasons
MacDonald, Park (September 12, 2022). Peter Thiel: wokeness is like Wahhabism. UnHerd https://unherd.com/newsroom/peter-thiel-wokeness-is-like-wahhabism/
Resources
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Ballotpedia (ballotpedia.org)
X/Twitter (x.com)
Zero to One (ZeroToOneBook.com)
Lindsay Shepherd is a Canadian writer and anti-transgender activist. Shepherd is part of the so-called intellectual dark web, described as a gateway to the far right.
Background
Lindsay Shepherd was born on December 7, 1994 and grew up in Burnaby, British Columbia. Shepherd earned a bachelor’s degree form Simon Fraser University, followed by a master’s degree from Wilfrid Laurier University in 2018.
Anti-transgender activism
Shepherd became a cause cĂ©lĂšbre among transphobes from the “academic freedom” faction after a 2017 classroom controversy at Wilfrid Laurier University. Shepherd showed students two clips of Jordan Peterson criticizing Canada’s Bill C-16, which added gender identity and expression to the list of prohibited grounds of discrimination in the Canadian Human Rights Act and the list of characteristics of identifiable groups protected from hate propaganda in the Canadian Criminal Code.
Shepherd was called into a meeting with administrators after a student complaint, and Shepherd’s supervisor agreed to review Shepherd’s future class materials. Shepherd secretly recorded the meeting and released it to the press, which led to apologies from Shepherd’s supervisor and the college president. The university opened an independent inquiry that found no wrongdoing by Shepherd. The incident led to lawsuits by Shepherd and Peterson, as well as countersuits against Shepherd.
Shepherd appeared in the 2019 film No Safe Spaces to discuss the incident.
In 2019 Shepherd began work with anti-trans organizations Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms and True North Centre for Public Policy.
The Boston Herald identified Shepherd as a member of the intellectual dark web. Praising “intellectually curious podcast hosts like Dave Rubin and Joe Rogan,” the anonymous editorial lists “victims of these progressive mobs”:
People like Jordan Peterson, Eric and Bret Weinstein, Sam Harris, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Douglas Murray, Christina Hoff Sommers, Steven Pinker, Ben Shapiro, Lindsay Shepherd and Owen Benjamin, to name just a handful.
Shepherd was briefly banned from Twitter in 2019 after exchanging insults with litigant and troll Jessica Yaniv.
Shepherd has written for several anti-trans publications, including The Post Millennial, Macleanâs, National Post, Ottawa Citizen, and Quillette.
References
Editors (May 14, 2018). Editorial: Truth requires free thinking, honest talk. Boston Herald https://www.bostonherald.com/2018/05/14/editorial-truth-requires-free-thinking-honest-talk/
Krishnan, Manisha (July 16, 2019). Free Speech ‘Activist’ Lindsay Shepherd Was Banned From Twitter. Vice https://www.vice.com/en/article/xwnbxd/free-speech-activist-lindsay-shepherd-was-banned-from-twitter-and-its-very-sad
Hutchins, Aaron (December 11, 2017). What really happened at Wilfrid Laurier University: Inside Lindsay Shepherdâs heroic, insulting, brave, destructive, possibly naĂŻve fight for free speech. Maclean’s https://macleans.ca/lindsay-shepherd-wilfrid-laurier/
Myers, Fraser (July 23, 2019). “I was banned for trans heresy.” Lindsay Shepherd on the Jessica Yaniv balls-waxing controversy. Spiked https://www.spiked-online.com/2019/07/23/i-was-banned-for-trans-heresy/
Amundson, Quinton (May 16, 2021). Lindsay Shepherd carries on fight for free speech. The Catholic Register https://www.catholicregister.org/item/33101-lindsay-shepherd-carries-on-fight-for-free-speech
Resources
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Twitter (twitter.com)
YouTube (youtube.com)
Maajid Nawaz is a British media personality and activist. Nawaz is considered part of the intellectual dark web. Nawaz has platformed and supported other members who hold anti-transgender views.
Background
Maajid Usman Nawaz born on November 2, 1977 in Southend-on-Sea, England. Nawaz’s sibling became involved in Islamist political activity through Hizb ut-Tahrir, and Nawaz also got involved.
Nawaz attended Newnham College. While in school, Nawaz had a year abroad in Egypt. Nawaz was arrested and imprisoned there for involvement in Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Upon release, Nawaz returned to the UK and earned an undergraduate degree at SOAS, University of London, then earned a master’s degree from the London School of Economics.
Nawaz founded the Quilliam Foundation, a counter-extremism think tank, and became a critic of Islamism. Nawaz has written about leaving Islamist extremism and ran for office as a Liberal Democrat.
Anti-transgender activity
Nawaz is critical of a kind of progressivism dubbed “control left,” which includes people supportive of gender minorities. Nawaz accuses the control left of “post factual behaviour, violence being seen as an option and prioritising group identity over individual rights” and “they want to control our lives, control what we think, control how we even feel.”
Nawaz hosted a weekend afternoon radio show on LBC from 2016 to 2022.
Nawaz has appeared on shows with other intellectual dark web figures, including Joe Rogan and Sam Harris. Nawaz hosted the podcast Radical and covered gender on several episodes, including one devoted to the anti-trans propaganda piece What Is a Woman?
Media
LBC (May 22, 2018). Jordan Peterson On Why He Refuses To Use Special Pronouns For Transgender People – LBC https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_UbmaZQx74
Sky News (Feb 14, 2020). Should gender transition for children take longer? | The Pledge https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tG6SPmqVUw
References
Nawaz, Maajid (November 20, 2016). Maajid: The Left Is No Longer Liberal. LBC https://www.lbc.co.uk/radio/presenters/maajid-nawaz/maajid-the-left-is-no-longer-liberal/
Resources
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
“Akira the Don” is the stage name of Adam Narkiewicz, a British musician, DJ, and producer. Narkiewicz creates lo-fi music tracks featuring vocals from anti-trans extremist Jordan B. Peterson (JBP) and other members of the intellectual dark web. Fans call the subgenre “JBPwave” or “meaningwave.”
Narkiewicz has discussed this work and its political philisophy on Rebel Wisdom and other anti-trans platforms supporting the intellectual dark web.
References
Sweeny, Andrew (April 19, 2018). Jordan Peterson âthe 21st Century Battle Rapperâ vs Akira the Don. Rebel Wisdom https://medium.com/rebel-wisdom/jordan-peterson-the-21st-century-battle-rapper-vs-akira-the-don-a39d2f51ad3c
Media
David Fuller (Apr 19, 2018). Jordan Peterson, 21st Century Pop Superstar. The Origins of JBPWAVE. Rebel Wisdom https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RMxpSLWXgvs
Resources
Meaningwave (meaningwave.com)
YouTube (youtube.com)
Bandcamp (bandcamp.com)
Facebook (facebook.com)
Instagram (instagram.com)
Twitter (twitter.com)
Reddit (reddit.com)
OpenSea (opensea.io)
LinkedIn (linkedin.com)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
IMDb (imdb.com)
Stefan Molyneux is an Irish-born Canadian podcaster and key figure in the alt-right and the so-called intellectual dark web. Molyneux’s anti-feminist and white nationalist views have resulted in removal from many online platforms.
Podcast
Molyneux was an early adopter of social media and podcasting. Molyneux has participated in episodes with many key figures in the anti-trans movement, including Steven Crowder, Douglas Murray, Jordan Peterson, Dennis Prager, Joe Rogan, and Michael Shermer.
Guests include:
- Cordelia Fine
- Nicholas J. Fuentes
- Rebecca Hargraves / Blonde In The Belly Of The Beast
- Stephen Hicks
- Katie Hopkins
- Stephen Hsu
- Phyllis Schlafly
- Michael Shermer
- Tommy Sotomayor
- Lauren SouthernÂ
- Roger Stone
References
Jurg, DaniĂ«l; SchlĂŒter, Maximilian; Tuters, Marc (May 17, 2023). Inside the Cult of Stefan Molyneux: A Historical Exploration of Far-Right Radicalisation on YouTube. Global Network on Extremism and Technology https://gnet-research.org/2023/05/17/inside-the-cult-of-stefan-molyneux-a-historical-exploration-of-far-right-radicalisation-on-youtube/
Resources
Southern Poverty Law Center (splcenter.org)
- Stefan Molyneux
- splcenter.org/fighting-hate/extremist-files/individual/stefan-molyneux
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Freedomain (freedomain.com)
Twitter (twitter.com)
Alex Jones is an American far-right conspiracy theorist. Jones is a key figure in the alt-right and so-called intellectual dark web.
Background
Alexander Emerick “Alex” Jones was born on February 11, 1974 in Dallas, Texas. Jones’ family moved to Austin, Texas when Jones was a teen. Jones attended Austin Community College but did not get a degree.
Jones became interested in right-wing conspiracy theories as a teen. Around the time of the seige of the Branch Davidian compound in nearby Waco, Jones began a call-in radio show. Jones claimed the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was a false flag operation by the government.
In 1999 Jones and spouse Kelly founded InfoWars as a way to sell their conspiracy materials
Anti-transgender views
Jones was warned and ultimately banned by Facebook for “violent or graphic content,” including one with anti-trans content. Another was flagged for anti-transgender content in which Jones appeared to threaten transgender people.Â
Jones has appeared in media with conservative transgender troll Blaire White and numerous personalities who platform anti-trans guests and views, most notably Joe Rogan. In 2018 Jones inadvertently revealed on camera recent browsing history that included trans porn star Marissa Minx.
References
Kacala, Alexander (August 7, 2018). Infowars’ Alex Jones has a long history of inflammatory, anti-LGBTQ speech. NBC News https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/infowars-alex-jones-has-long-history-inflammatory-anti-lgbtq-speech-n898431
O’Hara, Mary Emily (August 28, 2018). A Trans Porn Star Reacts to Her Video Appearing on The Alex Jones Show. them. https://www.them.us/story/trans-porn-alex-jones-show
Resources
GLAAD (glaad.org)
Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)
Twitter (twitter.com)
https://www.infowarsstore.com/
PrisonPlanet.com
InfoWars.com
NewsWars.com
IMDb (https://www.imdb.com/name/nm1093953/)
Stephen Hicks is a Canadian-American philosopher, considered part of the so-called intellectual dark web. Hicks and Jordan Peterson have overlapping anti-trans positions.
Background
Stephen Ronald Craig Hicks was born on August 19, 1960 in Toronto. Hicks attended University of Guelph, earning a bachelor’s degree in 2001 followed by a master’s degree. Hicks earned a doctorate from Indiana University in 1991.
Hicks began teaching at Rockford College in 1992. Hicks was a Fellow of The Heritage Foundation in 1996 and served as director of the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship.
Hicks is known for the 2004 book Explaining Postmodernism: Skepticism and Socialism from Rousseau to Foucault. It was influential among lay critics of postmodernism and progressivism. Hicks believes that Western society has experienced a failure of epistemology, which is basically a study of the way we know things.
Hicks’s thesis is that “the failure of epistemology made postmodernism possible, and the failure of socialism made postmodernism necessary.” In other words, Hicks believes that postmodernism is an intellectual reaction to the failure of communist, collectivist, and socialist political thought. Hicks believes those ideas failed when put into practice, and intellectuals needed a new form of political philosophy to explain those failures.
Anti-trans views
Critics of postmodernism sometimes see “gender ideology” as an aspect of postmodernist philosophy. As an example, the nonbinary gender identity emerged from deconstructionism, a school of thought which seeks to break down social constructs, many of which operate under what philosopher Ferdinand de Saussure calls binary opposition. As an example, the long-held idea of âopposite sexesâ creates the category of âsexâ as one of two mutually exclusive opposing terms: male or female. In this school of thought, binary opposition created a hierarchy where one of the two components is dominant.
Challenging binary oppositions is an important part of postmodernism, an intellectual movement that uses rhetorical, critical, and strategic means to destabilize concepts and beliefs that some people consider stable or even unchangeable. When academics say that race, sex, and other characteristics are socially constructed, they are challenging the deeply held beliefs of many people.
Critics of postmodernism and relativism also believe that these ideas will lead to loss of freedoms, the end of reason, and a number of other existential threats to society and humanity.
Academics are often concerned about freedom of speech in general and academic freedom in particular. Some believe these freedoms are threatened by postmodernism. They see things like expectations to use preferred names and pronouns as “compelled speech.”
Hicks gives an example:
Demanding that people call you by your preferred name is already a retreat from civility, and that should be a two-way street. You also have to respect the other personâs context and what kind of linguistic framework that they are operating within.
Lewis (2016) [transcript]
Hicks was an early adopter of YouTube and social media to present these ideas. Hicks has appeared with a number of anti-trans figures, including Jordan Peterson, Konstantin Kisin and Francis Foster of TRIGGERnometry, Michael Nayna, Glenn Beck, and Benjamin Boyce.
Media
Jordan Peterson Aug 18, 2017 Postmodernism: History and Diagnosis…. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyzSrtr6oJE
Jordan Peterson May 27, 2019 Stephen Hicks: Postmodernism: Reprise https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwW9QV5Ulmw
TRIGGERnometry Dec 12, 2021 The Truth About the Nazis with Stephen Hicks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gAydErHRJ9w
Sovereign Nations Sep 3, 2021 Encroaching Darkness | Stephen Hicks, James Lindsay, & Michael O’Fallon | Changing Tides Ep. 6
Michael Nayna May 16, 2020 Stephen Hicks & Mike Nayna – PhDs and Passive-Aggression https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K7iFIhUVHuw
Benjamin A. Boyce Dec 11, 2019 Postmodern Monsters | with Stephen Hicks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FEGMoQkgXf8
Mark Michael Lewis Dec 12, 2016 Ayn Rand Hero: Professor Stephen Hicks – Postmodernism and Making Work Beautiful Stephen Hicks https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTKE00OQTpE&t=1841s [transcript]
Glenn Beck Dec 17, 2018 Dr. Stephen Hicks | The Glenn Beck Podcast | Ep 15 BlazeTV https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8fs0HFRwqrY
- https://possiblycorrect.com/show/open-college-with-dr-stephen-hicks/
Resources
Stephen Hicks (stephenhicks.org)
Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship (ethicsandentrepreneurship.org) [archive 2008-March 2020]
YouTube (youtube.com)
Facebook (facebook.com)
Twitter (twitter.com)
instagram.com/stephenhicksphilosophy