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.

The problem is some of his guests should be challenged. I added some to my original post, but to reitterate, having someone like Peterson go on unchallenged rants about how Universities are indoctrinated and will lead to tyranny are ideas that should be challenged. Consider that Peterson was really railing against was a bill that added gender identity/expression to the Canadian Human Rights act, basically to protrct trans people from discrimination and hate crimes. Yet to listen solely to Peterson is to get the impression that you could be arrested for misgendering something and that this was a frequent problem in Canadian universities (I work for a Canadian university; it isn't). But instead of challenging any of this, Joe just nods along and agrees.

Joe may never have claimed himself to be an expert, but his show has a huge audience and influence. As far as I'm concerned, that comes with it a responsibility to consider what messages his content produces, and who is harmed. This is also why having "expert" guests is an issue, as it means someone like Ben Shapiro can spout his hateful bullshit and Joe doesn't have the background to be able to counter his points.

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.

I'm pretty surprised he still gets comedians and stuff to come on, I guess its a huge market share so you wanna sell your shit, hence why Gaffigan was on stumping his new special, but you gotta think with all the news now that a lot of people will be reticent to come on.

So you're gonna see more more obscure guests and a whole lotta old 'favorites'.

Went and checked his guest list just now... He had Jordan Peterson on just a few episodes ago.

Where have I heard that before?

Only took a quick few months but they digging up some real racist comments from rogans past, if Spotify needed a moralistic clause to cancel the contract this is prob it. Covid misinformation is a bit of a gray area, but these gems he's apologizing for today are cut and dry.

Only took a quick few months but they digging up some real racist comments from rogans past, if Spotify needed a moralistic clause to cancel the contract this is prob it. Covid misinformation is a bit of a gray area, but these gems he's apologizing for today are cut and dry.

Had no idea there was so much Fear and Loathing negativity out there. Always thought it was part of the "dorm room movie" canon and that everyone loved Depp's take on Thompson.