This is the eighth in a series on “2nd Wave Internet Skepticism”. 2nd wave internet skepticism seems to fold tribalism (and grifting) in under the guise of critical thinking. It includes a lot of rhetoric that I first saw in the “Men’s Rights Activism” movement. I imagine many skeptics will disagree with the ideas I am presenting here, and that’s fine. It’s been 4 years or so since I last published an article on this matter. It might be 4 years before my next one. Or 1 month if this one gets under peoples’ skin. The subjects of this article are always welcome to come on The Intellectual Dollar Tree to explain how I have them all wrong. Enjoy!
Deep in thought, clearly
Right around the time that Bret Weinstein, Heather Heying, and a bunch of other IDW figures or adjacent assholes went antivaxx, I found myself in a community of people on Twitter who saw fit to go after these folks, with a laser focus on Bret and Heather for obvious reasons. As with these kinds of online communities, there are rings around any given individual in that community with people or entities that are super close and communicate a lot being in one’s immediate ring, a ring outside of that where there’s less direct communication but people are still swimming in the same pool more or less, and outward from there.
Probably in the 4th or even 5th circle out from me in this imaginary orbit diagram is a fellow named David Fuller. David runs a YouTube channel called Rebel Wisdom. I’ve gone after him on Twitter for being a huckster and was blocked shortly thereafter. Here’s why:
And this isn’t even the worst of it. There’s this:
The event has passed and there’s no price listed anymore. But take my word for it, this shit was $700+ for a few zoom calls about “breathwork”. We did an episode of The Intellectual Dollar Tree about it.
But this clear attempt to grab money from credulous fools is not how Fuller got on our radar. His somewhat awkwardly edited YouTube videos, which he refers to as “films”, are an exercise in Fuller trying desperately to look thoughtful while his guest says whatever it is they’re going to say. Sometimes it’s just mundane “look how smart I am” shit, and sometimes it’s Eric Weinstein saying the most whacked out thing you’ve ever heard in your life. And this is just kind of par for the course for anyone who’s gonna interview people like Eric. If you push back on any of the absolutely batshit things he says, you’re never gonna hear from him again. So David, ever the lapdog for the IDW, does what’s expected.
To his credit, David has posted positive messages about vaccines on Twitter and his blog. He’s also posted negative things about the anti vaccine community on Twitter and his blog. But not to his credit, he won’t say anything approaching these statements on his YouTube channel, where the vast majority of his audience and following resides. His Twitter, at the time of this article being written, has about 13k followers. We can only guess how many regular readers his blog posts get. Maybe he can hook us up with some metrics, though not likely, as he blocked me immediately when I started talking about his very expensive “breathwork” event. His YouTube channel has over 230k followers at the time of this article being written. His recent videos get between 10 and 30k views. Not huge. BUT, when he has someone like Eric Weinstein on and just sits there trying to appear thoughtful while Eric makes increasingly grandiose and, well, let’s just say it, delusional statements about himself, his brother Bret, and the state of the world around us, he gets more than 10x his average views.
Among his most popular “films” is one where he fawns over the so-called Intellectual Dark Web. This is almost certainly the first piece of his work we watched on The Intellectual Dollar Tree. In this “film” which he calls A Glitch In The Matrix, he very thoughtfully (looking) interviews Jordan Peterson about the online phenomenon. His questions are basically statements, and I would say that about half of them are just straight up stroking Jordy Pete’s ego. He follows this up with another “film” (okay an edited interview) called Glitch In The Matrix II with Eric Weinstein. The opening of this is all you really need to listen to honestly. David does everything short of giving Eric a handy during this interview. I could go on… like this shit about Ivermectin, largely presented as “well this person says x and this other person says y”… but let’s just stop here.
So thoughtful
When I went after Fuller on Twitter I was quite surprised by some of the responses I got. I was told that he’s just a nice guy who sometimes gets himself into situations where he appears to be misguided. I was asked to view more of his content, the claim being he does ask difficult questions of the IDW cult figures he has on to make his “film” with, I just need to watch more of his content (where have I heard this before?). I was told that the rest of his content isn’t as important as the fact that he is against medical misinformation (see the paragraph that starts with “To his credit”). I was even told that my criticism of his scam is just mean and that the breathwork thing is just some harmless hippy shit that I shouldn’t be so up in arms about.
It occurred to me then, but I waited to write about it till now, that there’s some tribalism at play here. The space I became a part of, especially as I move out from that inner ring of people I really like interacting with… it’s all dudes. And it’s all fuckin white dudes. Vast majority of them are straight too. And the civility porn that comes with white intellectual spaces, especially ones populated with almost all straight white dudes, has created its own tribe. It’s a tribe I am not and will not be a part of, not just because I don’t want to be a part of it, but because that tribe will always reject someone who is willing to be “uncivil” in favor of getting to where the rubber meets the road. See part 6 of this series from way back when if you want to know what I thought then, and largely still think about that right now.
I don’t reject civility as a means to an end, I reject it as an end unto itself. I reject the idea that someone politely sitting there being a conduit for Jordy Pete’s sexism and Eric Weinstein’s delusional self aggrandizing is good or useful in any way. The idea that Fuller has ever asked any of these IDW people any question that made them uncomfortable is a complete joke. Or if he did, it hit the cutting room floor and was not included in any of his “films”. And I flatly reject the notion that just because such a person has some good takes on vaccines occasionally on Twitter or his blog, we shouldn’t have him in our metaphorical crosshairs in this, the war of bad ideas.
