The old left and right are fading. For generations, the political divide was between those who favoured small government, low taxes and free markets and those who wanted central planning, public ownership and wealth redistribution. It was a simple fight between capitalism and socialism; between rivalling economic models, concentrated on who should own the means of production.
Of course this fight is still ongoing. The popularity of socialism has experienced a worrying resurgence and the importance of defending capitalism has arguably not been more important in generations. But more and more, the political fault line is a cultural one. The fight is increasingly between those who subscribe to politically correct identity politics and those who stand up for heterogeneity of thought and freedom of speech.
Eric Weinstein, an American economist, coined the phrase the Intellectual Dark Web to describe a group of academics and commentators characterized by their opposition to the politically correct monoculture and defence of free speech. Members count libertarians like Dave Rubin, conservatives like Ben Shapiro and self-identified lefties like Joe Rogan, Sam Harris and Weinstein himself. This diversity of political allegiances has of course not spared the group from being cast as the ‘thinking wing of the Alt-Right’. This is how the new war of ideas is being fought by the left: by labelling opponents as beyond the pale, their personas are being discredited so their ideas do not need to be addressed: you do not debate with a Nazi.
The grotesque fact that a group of people who disagree politically but are willing to debate in a civil manner without prejudice is cast as suspect outsiders, is a telling sign of the state of modern day politics. In the era of no-platforming, hate speech laws and political correctness, openness to debate is taken as a sign of extremism.
Of course, these ‘extreme’ views are not so offensive or even controversial outside the woke political commentariat and the moral Twitter police. Rogan, Harris and Shapiro routinely draw audiences of one million or more to their online shows. Rubin is not far behind. These are numbers to rival any political show on the mainline networks. Another member of the IDW, Jordan Peterson, draws thousands to his worldwide speaking tour despite being demonised and routinely misrepresented as a misogynist and homophobe by mainstream media outlets.
Since the dawn of democracy, politics has been a battle of ideas fought in the arena of public debate. The left is attempting to change the rules by only allowing one combatant in the arena. That fight is marking the new battle of ideas. It is a battle that unites the right with those on the left who acknowledge the danger of allowing a loud minority to be gatekeepers of free speech. But for us on the right the fight is obviously more critical. As libertarians we are used to being misrepresented. But if misrepresentation spills over to deplatforming and exclusion, the battle is lost. So while we must continue to advance the ideas of free markets and capitalism, we must recognise that in the cultural battle with the regressive left we have a common interest with some of our traditional foes on the left. There’s a new fault line in politics. And it calls for new alliances.