The pseudo-intellectual poser is almost always a creature of the Left, but they do turn up on the Right as well. They cultivate a certain look and a superficial knowledge of many subjects, but never enough to really know much about them. It’s not just their pretentiousness, but also their precociousness that defines them. They are too good for the rest of us. One such example is Jamie Bartlett, a blogger at the Telegraph, who is worked up over those of us on the Dissident Right.

Since 2012 a sophisticated but bizarre online neo-fascist movement has been growing fast. It’s called “The Dark Enlightenment”. Its modus operandi is well suited to a digital society. Supporters are dotted all over the world, connected via a handful of blogs and chat rooms. Its adherents are clever, angry white men patiently awaiting the collapse of civilisation, and a return to some kind of futuristic, ethno-centric feudalism.

It started, suitably enough, with two blogs. Mencius Moldbug, a prolific blogger and computer whizz from San Francisco, and Nick Land, an eccentric British philosopher (previously co-founder of Warwick University’s Cybernetic Culture Research Unit) who in 2012 wrote the eponymous “The Dark Enlightenment”, as a series of posts on his site. You can find them all here. 

HBDChick does an excellent job taking the guy apart. It explains the liberal use of the word “fascist” in his rants. Marxism, like all groups on the Left needs bogeymen. The Marxists call their bogeymen fascists, which is a catch-all phrase for the undifferentiated other they fear is on the other side of the door, ready to burst in and snatch them away. It says something about the world when it is OK to be a Marxist, despite the fact that cult has murdered about 100 million people worldwide.

From his blog, it appears he is writing a book about the dark forces he and his fellows are fighting against on-line. In another age, they would be writing hotly worded letters, that were never sent or read. Today, they end up on blogs at the Telegraph or the Times. Of course, they never take on anyone with real power. The so-called Dark Enlightenment types are just people with other opinions. They don’t have spots in mass media or positions of authority. Jamie Bartlett can attack them without fear of retribution.