NEW PALTZ- Jacob Kleiger, 33, has a dream: to someday join a loose group of public personalities who often inveigh against political correctness while championing Western Civilization and reasoned debate. They’re known as The Intellectual Dark Web (IDW) and include such members as Sam Harris, Jordan Peterson, Ben Shapiro and Joe Rogan (above).
Supporters say the group is taking up the mantle that always been held by the intellectual: To enter the arena, look at the world and always say just what they think; to refuse to pass over uncomfortable truths, even if they know their words will lose friends and comfort enemies, because there are many who tell lies of commission and omission to serve a higher purpose but few willing to make clear and honest expression of the truth a purpose in itself; and to trust that the steadfast application of these principles will, in the end, earn the grudging respect of all factions and esteem of posterity. But critics say their invocation of the Enlightenment and past thinkers is a fig leaf that barely conceals the essentially reactionary nature of the movement, that their support comes almost entirely from their criticism of progressive ideas about feminism, transgender rights and structural racism, and that the group serves as a gateway to more extreme views.
Although many Americans have never heard of it, the IDW has achieved a cult-like following through members’ lengthy podcasts and YouTube discussions, and both its influence and polarizing effect was on display this last week in the reaction to Bernie Sanders’ touting of Rogan’s endorsement.
Like many IDW followers, Kleiger says he considered himself “basically a Democrat” until around 2016, when he feels the election of Donald J. Trump drove many formerly center-left institutions and voters to adopt radical political positions and an intolerant attitude toward dissenters and free speech generally. Now calling himself a “classical liberal,” Kleiger says his goal is not to advance the interests of any single political party or movement, but to help foster reasonable, fact-based discussion between individuals concerning the major political and cultural issues of our time, even if that means upsetting “the social justice warrior / cultural Marxist left.”
His problem? So far no one is listening.
“With most IDW members, there was an inciting incident in which they fearlessly slayed one of political correctness’s sacred cows, which led to them becoming extremely popular almost overnight,” said Kleiger. “That hasn’t happened for me yet.”
He recalled how several months ago at a New Paltz bakery, he referred to a transgender woman employee as “he” even after being corrected. “I stand by that decision,” said Kleiger. “It was a biological man on the other side of the counter with an x and y chromosome. That’s just science.”
But Kleiger says that unfortunately, neither his YouTube channel nor his Twitter account gained any new followers as a result of the exchange.
Another time, he and a group of friends were discussing contemporary issues at a local bar when the topic turned to the gender pay gap. “I explained to them that it was total bullshit, and once you adjust for different career choices, time outside the workforce for child-bearing and care, and different levels of ambition for the different sexes – which by the way are totally predicted by evolutionary biology – that the so-called ‘gender-pay gap’ basically evaporates,” he said.
Kleiger said at the time, none of his friends could point to evidence disputing the statistics and peer-reviewed studies he deployed in his argument, but nevertheless, the group didn’t seem convinced. “I felt like the skunk at the garden party,” he recalls. “Speaking truth to power is ennobling, but speaking truth to a small group of friends is just awkward.”
“Jacob is facing a common difficulty for startups, which, as a would-be public intellectual, he is,” said Jessica LeFevre, a professor of marketing at Bard College and author of The Startup of One: How to Get Focused, Get Noticed, and Get Paid. “It’s never been easier to reach large numbers of people, but conversely, there’s never been more noise for your signal to break through. Which idea or issue is Jacob’s killer app? Sam Harris has the whole ‘atheist meditation guru/Islam critic’ segment covered and Jordan Peterson of course has the ‘empowerment for lonely young men through Jungian archetypes and Old Testament exegesis’ market cornered. Jacob has to find his ‘Blue Ocean,’ the unexplored market, that he can stake out as his own.”
As a straight, white line cook with slightly above average intelligence and cultural literacy but relatively unremarkable life experience, and no unusual talents or skills, Kleiger has found this to be difficult.
“Look, I’ll be frank with you– I hate identity politics, but the fact is, building my brand would be a lot easier if I were saying these things as the member of a minority group,” he said. “A straight cis white guy is easy for the leftists to dismiss. But if were gay, as Douglas Murray and Dave Rubin have shown, then my defense of Western Civilization would hit differently, especially when I point out the greater rights, freedoms and quality of life enjoyed by homosexuals in the West vs. in the Islamic world. Or if I were a woman, like Christina Hoff Sommers, then my take on the excesses of the #metoo movement and third-wave feminism, as well as my more nuanced view of abortion, would have to be reckoned with. And in addition to those advantages, you’re also much more likely as a minority to be invited on one of the big podcasts, because your very presence lends tacit approval to the controversial statements the straight white male host might have made about your race, gender or ethnicity in the past.”
What’s next for Kleiger? He says he was hoping this article would lead to a “Twitter pile-on by the Woke Brigade” if our reporter was a strident leftist sent to “misconstrue [Kleiger’s] statements in bad faith,” but was disappointed when we sent an apolitical young male intern. He’s also signed up for Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu lessons after noticing how frequently IDW members discussed the martial art, and is thinking about getting into bowhunting.
“This culture war stuff is just the way to get my foot in the door- I really want to get into issues like how our nation can move forward as a multi-racial, fully enfranchised Democracy,” he said. “There’s never been such a thing. And what about our spiritual side? Can aesthetics replace God, as Schopenhauer would have it? Is Buddhism the answer? How can we maintain our humanity as we inevitably merge with machines as AI becomes more powerful?”
In the meantime, he plans to continue to speak his mind and hope he can achieve enough prominence to end up in the sights of Progressive activists. Once he becomes notorious, he hopes to land a book deal and begin a speaking tour of American universities.
“Ironically, I need to gain some kind of platform first so I can then be deplatformed,” he said. “That’s when you start making the real money.”
