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The Phenomenon of the "Intellectual Dark Web"
Drake, Daniel ; Miessler, Jan (advisor) ; Lütke Notarp, Ulrike (referee)
This paper investigates the topic of the "Intellectual Dark Web" - a supposed grouping of academics, authors and other personalities, whose opinions are deemed to be controversial. Due to a lack of academic coverage, the paper pinpoints the background from which this term had arisen and tries to find out whether the group can be considered a coherent entity. The research part of the thesis is divided into two phases. In the first, the three most prominent protagonists (Jordan Peterson, Sam Harris, and Ben Shapiro) are subjected to a Critical discourse analysis from which the five most recurrent themes emerge. These are identity, free speech, anti-left, anti-elite, and appeal to reason. Subsequently, ten content pieces for each of the authors are analysed to find out whether these five topics overlap across time and different types of media formats. The biggest overlap was detected in the anti-left rhetoric, although there seemed to be a subtle difference in what the respective men mean when they use the word "Left". Similar conclusions were made on the topic of identity and the opposition to elites. The analysis also showed that in addition to the identified common topics, each of the authors focuses on a somewhat different area, in which, due to their different ideological and, above all,...
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Atheism in America
Koranda, David ; Robbins, David Lee (advisor) ; Ulmanová, Hana (referee)
This diploma work analyzes the contemporary rise of the number of atheists in the United States of America, basing this presupposition on numerous nation-wide surveys, primarily conducted by Gallup Poll and Pew Research Center. It goes into depth on the definition of atheism and strictly delineates the meaning of this word and the use of its alternatives in the work. Given the fact that the thesis is written by a Czech author, it also provides necessary background covering the differences between Czech atheism and American atheism. Since the work is purposely not one of literary analysis but rather of socio-political and cultural nature, reasons for this decision are given in a separate subchapter analyzing Flannery O'Connor's novel Wise Blood. History of atheism in America is touched upon in the beginning of Chapter 3, but since the fundamental focus of this work is on the contemporary state of affairs, the roots of modern atheism in America are sought after mainly in the twentieth century. In particular, the greatest causes of the weakening of church's power and the rise of secularism (or atheism, for that matter) are given as following: Madalyn Murray O'Hair's fights against church's influence in public schools and against its public funding; the argument about the non-scientific nature of belief...
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