Joe Rogan Saves America
Joe Rogan saves America
Cancel culture has finally taken a swipe at Joe Rogan.?
For anyone who’s been paying attention to pop culture over the last 5 years or so…or been on Twitter at any time ever…this doesn’t come as a surprise.
In fact, I’m personally shocked it didn’t come much sooner.
If you don’t know, Joe Rogan -? who has the largest podcast in the world to the tune of 12 million listeners, caught flak for allegedly spreading misinformation on his wildly popular podcast.?
Specifically, the episode prompting the outcry featured Robert Malone - a former mRNA researcher and more recently a critic of vaccines and vaccine mandates.
Malone alleged the beginnings of something he calls “mass formation psychosis.” a collective public mood which he compared to the mood in Germany at the beginning of Nazism.
Now if you know Joe Rogan this is par for the course.
He has had alt-right darlings Gavin McInnes, Milo Yiannopoulos, and Alex Jones on the podcast.
He also threw his support behind Bernie Sanders in the Presidential election.
Put another way he simply has guests he finds interesting on the podcast and spends up to 3 hours an episode having a lengthy conversation.
It’s a throwback to times when open conversation was a part of public life.
And that era is long since gone…
The protests and outrage began when 80-year old rock star Neil Young publicly denounced Spotify claiming misinformation and requested his catalog of music be removed from the streaming service.
Artists like Joni Mitchell, Graham Nash, Failure, Nils Lofgren, and Bene Brown all followed suit in support of Young.
Joe Rogan responded by issuing an apology and offering to be more diligent in his podcast episodes.
Public reaction was swift and “news” outlets like CNN leapt to the attack denouncing Joe Rogan’s spread of “dangerous information” and presumably burned a book for good measure.
The C-suite media and several “very important”? celebrities? called on Joe Rogan to be deplatformed for his audacious beliefs or even…shudder…canceled.
If you are hearing about this for the first time please feel free to check Google for different versions of the story.
And if you’ve been following this since the beginning you probably already have your mind made up one way or another.
But I suggest reading until the end because there’s a few important things you should consider.
Two things about this whole drama stand out as dangerous to me.?
The first is the sheer speed with which people rushed to have Joe Rogan “canceled” or deplatformed in order to “protect against the harmful spread of misinformation.”
?
It skipped every form of discourse and jumped the queue right to outrage.
People with strong opinions went straight from accustion to demanding censorship and deplatforming.
On the other side outlets like Fox news defended Joe Rogan, taking the time to slam the liberal left for censorship.
Now despite the fact I have a clear opinion on which “side” is right here, and in my opinion it’s glaringly obvious - something takes precedence over my personal opinion.
?Good old fashioned free speech!
I’d wager few people denouncing Joe Rogan, like Neil Young, even watched the podcast or know who Joe Rogan is.
But Fox news and Joe Rogan’s loudest defender Tucker Carlson don’t have a great record listening to opinions other than their own.
They took the opportunity to add? throw soaking red meat to their base and moved on.
Which is “almost” as bad as the people who wanted him censored.
Because here’s the thing…
If you are ready to take to the streets to defend Joe Rogan’s right to have whomever he wants on his show…
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But on the other hand you're ok with Donald Trump being deplatfomed by Big Tech and platforms like Twitter or YouTube…
Then you don't actually support free speech and the free exchange of ideas.
You just support free speech when it agrees with your ideas.
For example, you might think Donald Trump is loathsome and vile.
But whether or not you do, you should at the very least feel “uncomfortable” with the former-President being silenced by a handful of tech companies that dominate our daily lives.
Take it a step further - Trump’s major platform was Twitter and the platform and decision were likely made by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
In other words, the censoring of the former-President came down to one man and possibly a few shareholders.
And you should feel a little queasy about a small handful of people possessing the power to shut down an ex-President.
If you support Joe Rogan - and in my opinion you really should - you should support the right to free speech regarding all ideas regardless of how you feel about them.
Truckers in Canada…
Donald Trump…
Joe Biden…
Pro-Vaxxers…
Anti-Vaxxers…
?…And even Neil Young and his right to request his catalogs removal from Spotify.
They all have a right to a voice.
There’s a saying that used to be heard a lot but isn’t in vogue these days.
“I might not agree with what you say but I will fight to the death for your right to say it.”
Free speech and other liberties we take for granted are rarely easy or convenient but they are bedrock of the world we know and rely on.
You might find an idea revolting but if you're only exposed to or around ideas similar to your one then you’re yelling into the echo chamber.
And that’s the slippery slope of culturally approved censorship.
The second danger comes from who wants Joe Rogan canceled.
The legacy media quickly called for censorship jumping directly onto their soapbox to amplify lies - or “misinformation” - about him.
The very same institutions that have lied about:
Now, while I just stated above all voices must be heard that places a lot of responsibility on the veracity of the platform.
The media and journalists were once known as “the fourth estate.”
Meaning that after the 3 branches of government - executive, legislative, and judicial - the unofficial 4th historically is the media.
I use the word “was” because Americans no longer believe the media represents the truth anymore.
?
And yet, you will never hear the legacy media asking why America trusts a podcaster whose interest is in having cool conversations with interesting people.
The reason this? will never be asked is because the answer is too difficult for media elites to consider, namely, Americans are right.?
The mainstream media in America should not be trusted and as far-right as Fox News - CNN is equally far-left and partisan.
And until that changes Joe Rogan podcasts - which is incredibly fun and entertaining - will keep adding viewers to its 12 million-strong viewership while Fox, CNN and the rest of the legacy media will keep pulling up the year flailing to keep a million or so viewers….entertained.
That’s all I got for now but I’m going to revisit this.
Dave Maswary
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