Podcasts

Joe Rogan and his fans are insufferable.

Apart from often giving a platform to vile dickheads, he also frequently sounds off on political and social issues which, as far as I'm concerned, he doesn't have any insights on. Not saying he isn't allowed an opinion, but I don't think he has much to offer in discussion, at least outside the realm of comedy. Worse yet are a good chunk of his fans who worship at his altar and view his podcast as the height of critical discourse when, by his own admission, its just him talking to people he finds interesting. I wouldn't mind so much, except the people he finds interesting are hateful assholes, and that a lot of episodes tend to be Rogan letting people like Ben Shapiro rant about how transgender people are mentally ill or Jordan Peterson on how universities have been infiltrated by Postmodern Neo-Marxists threatening to upend Western civilization, and Rogan will seldom challenge this shit.

That's exactly why people dig him, he just wants to have conversations with his guests.  I don't listen to every episode but I've enjoyed most of the ones I've listened to even if I don't agree with the people he has on.  He's had everyone from Neil deGrasse Tyson to Jordan Peterson and he doesn't want to grill them, he just wants to talk about ideas and he frequently pushes back without coming off as combative or overly partisan.  I don't think he's ever labeled himself as being an authority on anything outside of mixed martial arts but the people he has on are often experts in a ton of fields from economics to music to mental health.

But I don't think he wants to, he wants to have a discussion instead of a brawl. Peterson for example, and Shapiro for that matter, are not only highly educated and highly intelligent, they're very, very skilled debaters whether you agree with them or not. I don't think having bare knuckle debates is the kind of podcast he wants to have, we have our news stations for that. He wants to talk to people about ideas and why people have them and he also probably knows that if he were to press someone like Peterson or Shapiro he'd probably get destroyed.  

The best thing Jon Lovitz ever did was punch out Andy Dick.

For that alone, I will buy him a free drink if I ever see him.

And I'm fine with that when he's just shooting the shit with eccentric people talking about art, comedy, or MMA, but when dealing with real issues that really effect people, I'd argue there's a greater responsibility to consider what messages you're enabling.




This is a side-tangent, but I totally disagree that these two are good debaters, especially if what you value in debate is a discourse of ideas. Shapiro doesn't care about anything but showing that he's right and proving that the other person is wrong, so he'll twist their words, through out uncited statistics/claims, and just ignore claims that challenge his position, no matter how valid. If your only goal in debating is to "win", then this is an effective strategy, but it's not intellectually honest. Peterson's whole tactic, meanwhile, is to throw out provocative dog whistle statements that send his messages, while simultaneously being vague enough to have plausible deniability. For example, the dude will say something like that women who wear make-up and high heels in the work place are displaying themselves sexually in a conversation about sexual harassment in the work place. The obvious implication is that women who wear make-up and high heels are asking for it, but Peterson is vague enough that when someone calls him on it he plays dumb. Basically the only reason these two come off good in debates is because of disingenuous tactics which are about protecting themselves and their brands first and foremost.

Shapiro and Peterson are frauds.

I love that show so much.

#Season3OnNetflixPlease

I make a point to not know shit about anything I criticize. It makes my inane ramblings more amusing.

Halloween Unmasked is pretty good