The term “Intellectual Dark Web” was created as a smear against a group of academics, pundits, and others who actively rejected “progressive” politics despite being in the exact fields where “progressive” politics tends to find the most fertile soil.

The idea was to scare people away from looking these individuals up or anything that they had to say, part of a larger effort on the part of a number of people who do practice “progressive” politics to try and prevent competing ideas from being heard.