. Hey, here's a story that this is not like a big news story, but people flagged it for
me.
And it's just kind of, you know, anytime there's a win in the battle of the churning of ideas,
that's the new hot phrase to churn ideas like butter.
I do like to mention it.
Eric Weinstein is a member of the Intellectual Dark Web.
Nice guy.
I've spoken to him a few times.
He was interviewed by a guy named David Fuller, who has a YouTube channel called Rebel Wisdom.
I've been interviewed by David Fuller.
Previously, they had a conversation a couple of days ago, and David Fuller asked Eric Weinstein
an interesting question.
Are there any critiques that you think have been valuable or useful now?
I can't actually tell whether the question is, are there critiques of the intellectual
dark web that have been useful or are there critiques of the left by people on the left
that have been useful?
I'm not actually sure which.
The question is asking.
But what was interesting was that Eric Weinstein said a lot of people are doing schoolyard
type stuff.
But when David Pakman is at his best, which clearly is not all the time, that's OK when
I'm at my best.
I've done some good critiques.
And again, I don't know if it's of the idee w or of the left from the left.
Let's take a look.
Are there any critiques that you think were invaluable and useful?
Very few.
There've been a few, but very few.
Nine.
It's really been pretty slim, Pickens David Pakman at his best.
I think has been a pretty astute and fair observer on the harder you want to call it,
harder left me.
He served sort of weirdly between the WOAK and the Ivy W..
Are there people who are very smart?
Like, for example, I think of Sam Ceder as being very informed on policy terms, like
he's actually following a particular bill or, you know, probably knows the names of
staffers on the Hill, that kind of granular detail.
The problem with him is that he's got a strong trolling game and kind of a comedic ridicule
game that is a turnoff to me.
OK.
As a wit.
But it's not OK as a main course.
And so I think that you could pick through the Sam Cedar stuff and find reasonable stuff,
but I wouldn't recommend that because of the reliance on ridicule.
So there is Eric Weinstein saying, I think if I understand it correctly, that when I'm
at my best, which is not all the time, of course I've done some okay critiques either
of the intellectual dark web, or maybe he means critiques of the left from the left.
I believe that this is a compliment.
Now, if you've not been following the intellectual dark web or Wolken s, he says I'm between
the idee W and the WOAK left.
These are two different movements that have surfaced, at least starting online.
The intellectual dark web is a sort of group of commentators who could be on the left or
on the right.
But their big thing is they're opposed to identity politics.
They're opposed to political correctness and sacred cows, language policing, restrictions
on speech taboos, etc.
It includes people like Eric Weinstein himself, as well as his brother, Brett.
Includes Sam Harris and Michael Shermer.
And then I don't know who else is within it or outside of it.
I'm not really sure the WOAK movement or WOAK ness refers generally to the left wing movement
that includes a particular type of cultural awareness around race and feminism and LGBT
activism and socially liberal causes.
Racial justice is a big thing and it's sometimes used as a pejorative and sometimes it's not.
Sometimes it's.
Have you become WOAK as a positive thing?
I think in this context, Eric is using weakness as a pejorative and idee w as good and maybe
as placing me between the two.
So as soon as this happened, there were people online furious that if Eric Weinstein is saying
something good about David Pakman, David Pakman must be really bad.
Other people saw this and said, hey, that's actually pretty interesting what I'm hearing.
I'm leaving it at this.
It sounds to me like Eric is just saying I'm at least honest and genuine in my critiques.
I know that Eric has not agreed with every one of my critiques of the idea w we've spoken
about it before and that's fine.
But for me this is less about, oh, where do I agree or disagree with the woak left or
with the idea.
W for me it's more about my commitment to you as a viewer or listener has always been.
I'm not going to just say stuff for clicks when it's not really what I believe.
If what I really believe generates interest and builds an audience, that's great.
If it doesn't and you all know there have been cases where I've just given you my opinion
and lost subscribers, well then that's too bad.
But my priority is I'll tell you things as I see them.
And hopefully me being genuine and honest is what Eric is pointing to here.
I've spoken to Eric about having him on the program.
Still an open invitation to do it anytime he's ready.