The value of the show directly correlates with who was on it.
Yeah, I haven’t listened in quite awhile, but usually enjoyed any of the science centric and some of the comedy guests. Most of the time I skipped political ones, though I did catch the Bernie Sanders interview… I still hold his interview with Michael Osterholm as an example of an early expert getting the dangers of the then new Covid 19 pandemic right. Olsterholm is now on Biden’s Advisory board. I’d like to see a follow up on his views.
Anyway - it is a no brainer they curated some of the most toxic guests from the selction.
He is part of the alt-right pipeline. He might be an early stage in the pipeline, but it is not a pipeline anyone should want to be part of unless they are a fascist.
and he is right wing to far right on several others, one of which is critical to me.
I listened to Air America for a while before it imploded. I guess left-wing politics is as ill-suited to talk radio as right-wing politics are to comedy shows on Fox.
I don’t think he’s ever been a skeptic. He had reputation as a conspiracy theorist even back when he was on News Radio, with other cast members joking that he was basically playing himself on that show.
He was pushing the stoner end of the UFO thing in his comedy long before he had a podcast, and early days that and some bonkers shit about psychedelics and health seem to have been the core appeal.
Thing is he learned rapidly to play the “just asking questions” card very well. He’s been hiding behind the “interested in debate” and “challenging myself” canards for years. That gave him a veneer of skepticism to those not over familiar, and a plausibly skeptical or not fringe right argument for followers.
At best he was always the sort for whom open mindedness was uncritically accepting all claims as equally possible.
He’s actually been out there recently claiming Spotify is censoring him and dictating content on his show. His listeners and some other right wing personalities are a bit up in arms after some one pointed out an earlier show where he said that Spotify asked nicely he take down these episodes and that he “didn’t care” and did so voluntarily.
It depends on how far left you go. The real far left will argue with each other all day if there isn’t a critical issue that requires unity. Liberals, not so much, unless you get someone from the real far left with them then they will go into attack mode.
The problem is that American Media assumes that liberals are the far left, and not give any air time to anyone further left than them.
That video is a bit of a hatchet job for my taste. The biggest culprits in that video is the editing of carefully selected soundbites and - apparently - You Tube’s algorithms, the latter of which Rogan has no control over. Implying that Rogan is any sort of entry point into a right-wing rabbit hole presumes - 1) You listen to most or all episodes 2) You believe most or all of everything you hear. I don’t care for theories that suggest people lack free agency.
Rogan is part of the alt-right pipeline in the same way that Oprah is part of the woo pipeline. Sure, much of her show is not about putting rocks in your vagina or taking vitamins to prevent cancer, but she constantly gives her immense platform to people who say those things, and that matters. She’s making the world a stupider place by doing that.
Rogan is the same- I don’t care what else you believe if you hand your bullhorn to a Nazi “just to see what they have to say”. At some point, when you’ve invited enough Nazis on to your show, it’s fair to start asking if you have some Nazi inclinations yourself.
For all these reasons, Rogan is hard to explain to all the curious-but-naïve bros who listen to him and like his schtick. When you give equal weight to an interesting chat with a COVID vaccine researcher and the guy who thinks we should beat women because lobsters do it, well, we have a problem. Rogan is a key element of the “dark intellectual” movement that is taking over conservative white men (as well as slowly radicalizing fence-sitters).
But much like The Lobster Guy, as soon as you try to criticize Rogan, his legion of bro fans appears like magic and an argument ensues.
I’d say about half of his episodes are crap. The rightwing idiots like Jones and Crenshaw are unlistenable, the alien stuff is nonsense and the UFC is not for everyone.
But some are really good. I give them all a chance. There’s some good stuff in there. Also some really really bad stuff.
It’s cancel culture gone bad if you dismiss all of it. But up to you.
I do not believe there are causal disbelievers of Nazism. There are some absolutes. No one holds the opinion “I don’t really care about Nazis either way. 6 of one, half dozen of the other.” Anyone publicly spending time discussing how there were some OK things to come out of German National Socialism and its attempt to take over the world with the stolen loot of murdered Jews and Roma is a Nazi and not an open mind looking at things non-critically.
We either miss believe that Nazism is correct or we do not believe Nazism is correct. You are or you are not a Nazi. People aren’t Nazi-sympathizers, they are nazis.
Nazi Enthusiasts, also Nazis.
Rogan can have Bernie on, the vast majority of his guests aren’t proposing social progress in the United Stares, they are looking to start stoner HOAs on Mars, get old people to throw their money away in the stock market, add lipids to coffee, and incite insurrection against the United States. This is Q-adjacent gateway punditry.
I believe saying ‘Oh, come on! He’s a great guy and just has one or two problematic people on to show how awful they are’ is absolutely disingenuous and should cause folks look deeper inside themselves.
If 50% of something is crap, then what is the point of toshing though it trying to find gems? I can easily find more good things than I can possibly watch or listen to, why should I waste my time doing something unpleasant?
Cancel culture used to be called the marketplace of ideas. What happened?
But some people definitely put blinders on and refuse to believe the nazis are, in fact, nazis. And Rogan is the problem/poster child of this horseshit. He, and the fans defending him, hide behind this to allow the alt right assholes on and give Rogan a pass.
It’s extremely dangerous, and we got a clear demonstration in January. (I also have an ex-friend who decided this was a hill to die on right before the election; he pushed the “they’re not really nazis” argument with a Jewish friend in a group chat.)
Or maybe we don’t find his stuff nearly as interesting and compelling as you seem to (which is just fine, of course), as much of it is not that new or insightful. It’s not “cancel culture” (a bullshit construct anyways) to dismiss yet more warmed over “intellectual discourse” from yet another mediocre white dude… But YMMV, of course.
I’ve only listened to a couple of his podcasts (Neil DeGrasse Tyson and I think one other). I know his shows are apparently huge in some circles.
My ex-coworker who was deep, deep down the rabbit hole of crazypants conspiracy theories was a huge fan of Rogan for awhile, until he decided Rogan was part of the coverup (of the secret space program and bases on Mars, not kidding).
I have watched a couple of his comedy specials and found them damn funny.
That being said I have no problem with Spotify choosing not to provide a platform to nutbars like Jones, even if they are on someone else’s show.
But YMMV, of course.