Against the Web
A Cosmopolitan Answer to the New Right
What's it about
Tired of watching online outrage and tribalism tear the world apart? If you're looking for a way to push back against the toxic tide of the New Right, this summary offers a powerful intellectual toolkit for a more compassionate and connected world. You'll learn how to dismantle reactionary arguments by understanding their psychological roots and historical context. Discover Michael Brooks's vision for a "cosmopolitan socialism"—a practical and hopeful alternative that champions universalism over nationalism, helping you argue for a better future, both online and off.
Meet the author
Michael Brooks was the revered host of The Michael Brooks Show and co-host of The Majority Report, where he became a leading voice of the international left. His deep analysis of global politics and culture, combined with a profound sense of humor and empathy, informed his critique of the "Intellectual Dark Web." Brooks dedicated his work to building a more just and cosmopolitan world, passionately arguing for a universalist politics against the divisive forces he identified and challenged in this book.
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The Script
Have you ever wondered why figures like Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, and Ben Shapiro dominate online discourse? They present themselves as rebels, champions of logic and free speech. But what if this entire intellectual movement was just a rebranding of old ideas? What if the "Intellectual Dark Web" wasn't a new frontier, but a familiar fortress in disguise?
Michael Brooks's book, Against the Web, argues that to understand the power of these figures, we have to look past the surface-level debates and see the bigger game being played. Brooks wrote this book because he saw a dangerous void—a generation, especially young men, feeling alienated and adrift, looking for answers. The Intellectual Dark Web was ready with simple, compelling stories about lobster hierarchies, the glory of "Western civilization," and the threat of "cultural Marxism." Brooks saw that these narratives, while appealing, were intellectually hollow, often recycling old conservative talking points. He argued that simply mocking them wasn't enough. The Left needed to offer a better, more honest, and more compelling alternative to the audience these figures attracted. Against the Web is his attempt to build that alternative—a critique, but also a call to action and a guide for building a politics based on solidarity.
Module 1: Deconstructing the "Intellectual Dark Web"
The so-called Intellectual Dark Web, or IDW, presents itself as a group of brave, freethinking rebels. They claim they are challenging a stale, politically correct consensus. Michael Brooks argues this is a carefully crafted illusion. The IDW is a strategic rebranding of old ideas for a new medium.
The first step is to recognize that the IDW repackages old conservative arguments for a digital audience. Brooks shows how the IDW’s greatest hits are just remixes of familiar tunes. Their panic about "free speech under siege" on campus echoes conservative critiques of academia from the 1950s. Their attacks on "identity politics" are modern versions of old arguments used to defend existing social hierarchies. Figures like Ben Shapiro, for example, hold views on foreign policy and social issues that are nearly identical to traditional right-wing commentators. The only difference is the platform. They use YouTube and podcasts instead of talk radio, reaching a new generation with the same old message.
This brings us to a crucial point. The IDW uses superficial diversity to mask a unified anti-left agenda. It is not a monolithic group of conservatives. You have atheists like Sam Harris alongside religious conservatives like Ben Shapiro. You have figures like Dave Rubin, a married gay man, who uses his identity as a "classical liberal" to argue against civil rights protections. This ideological variety is a feature that allows the group to appear as "unclassifiable renegades" who are just asking questions. But Brooks argues their core function is always the same. They consistently defend the existing economic order and American foreign policy while directing all their fire at the left.
So how do you counter this? Brooks is clear. An effective response must expose the historical and material roots of inequality. The IDW’s arguments thrive on abstraction. They naturalize social hierarchies by appealing to biology, evolution, or a mythical version of history. Jordan Peterson uses lobsters to argue that dominance hierarchies are natural and inevitable. Sam Harris promotes race-based IQ arguments from controversial books like The Bell Curve, suggesting racial inequality is biologically fixed.
Brooks insists we must reject this. The answer is to bring the conversation back to history and economics. Why do these inequalities exist? They exist because of specific historical events. Think slavery, colonialism, and economic policies that benefit the few at the expense of the many. By historicizing these issues, you dismantle the very foundation of the IDW's worldview. You move the conversation from "Are hierarchies natural?" to "Is this specific hierarchy just?" And that is a conversation the IDW cannot win.