Groomer panic is sweeping the nation as right-wing types turn against LGBTQ rights, and the talking pointsas with the backlash against Critical Race Theory (CRT) in schoolscan directly be traced back to a group of anti-woke activists on the intellectual dark web.

As The Daily Beasts senior opinion editor Anthony Fisher notes in the latest episode of Fever Dreams, this group of self-identified disaffected liberals coalesced against the idea of hyper-political correctness as early as 2016 or 2017, and were made famous in a profile by former New York Times editor and writer Bari Weiss. Among the biggest stars are Joe Rogan, controversial Canadian professor Jordan Peterson, YouTuber Dave Rubin, Peter Thiels righthand man Eric Weinstein, and Ben Shapiro, the only one in the group who cops to being a true conservative.

These people claim to be lifelong Democrats, some of them say that they were Bernie Sanders supporters and theyve not had a nice thing to say about a single Democratic politician or liberal commentator or liberal idea in the last six years I think theyre more defined by what theyre against rather than what theyre for, Fisher says, adding, a lot of these people are anti-left, all the things they see on the left are things that are threatening Western civilization, which is why they latch onto people like Tulsi Gabbard, somebody whos nominally a Democrat but for the most part seems to be playing toward the MAGA right audience.

As Fever Dreams co-host Will Sommer points out, this groups strand of thinkingwhich focuses on the excesses of the left, particularly in academiahas now gone from being chatter on Twitter to fueling so many of the national culture wars. Specifically, the rights language around Critical Race Theory and the lies about Disney grooming children can directly be traced back to dark webbers Christopher Rufo (whom the Times profiled this week) and James Lindsay. Theyve created this groundswell that is absolutely affecting policy, Fisher says, pointing out that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis own press secretary is now parroting the leaders of the movement. Meanwhile, some dark webbers are finding their allies on the right are turning against them; Rubin, who is gay, recently came under attack from several conservative outlets and members of his audience for his and his husbands use of a surrogate to build their family.

Elsewhere on the podcast, Sommer and co-host Kelly Weill discuss how Elon Musks successful bid for Twitter is galvanizing the right, raising the prospect that some of their favorite characters like Proud Boys founder Gavin McInnes and Milo Yiannopoulos might get their accounts back. Meanwhile, it really does seem like [former president Donald Trumps rival network] TRUTH Social is now going to be dead in the water. Trump doesnt even post there, Sommer notes. And lest you think theres no QAnon angle to the Twitter deal, think again: conspiracy theorists have added up the letters in Elons name via arcane numerology, and theyre pretty convinced that a great plan is in motion.

Finally, the co-hosts discuss how newly released texts show Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene pleading with Mark Meadows to tell the president to calm people on Jan. 6 (before deciding the rioters must be antifa); and how two manosphere influencers in Romania have been raided in connection with an human-trafficking and rape investigation. As Weill points out, its just interesting that this keeps happening to the people who make the loudest noise about the supposed trafficking panic.

Listen, and subscribe, to Fever Dreams on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher.

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How the Intellectual Dark Web Spawned 'Groomer' Panic - The Daily Beast