Joe Rogan is a crazy (moon landing denier amongst others) dip-shit that gives voice to the worst kind of woo, or worse. He’s absolutely a massive net negative to the world
Just quoting the whole thing for truth.
I think he’s very, very clever when it comes to being a talk show host. Rogan doesn’t have quacks and lunatics on because he doesn’t know they’re quacks and lunatics. He has them on because they boost his ratings. And he doesn’t have that many of them on.
Here’s his upcoming guest list, 20 guests out:
Oliver Stone, filmmaker
Jordan Peterson, self help guru
Adam Curry, anti-MSMS podcaster
Glenn Greenwald, journalist/podcaster
Ric Flair, wrestler
Rob Wolf, diet guru
Joey Diaz, comedian
John Dudley, athlete
Randall Carlson, anthropologist and podcaster
Adam Greentree, “Adventurer”
John Parr, kickboxer
Rizwan Virk, tech entrepreneur
Rory McDonald, MMA fighter
Greg Hardy, MMA fighter
Mike Posner, musician
Megyn Kelly, TV host
Ryan Hall, MMA fighter
Jamie Foxx, actor
Mark Schultz, wrester
Sylvester Stallone, Sylvester Stallone
This is rather clearly a list meant to appeal to bros between the ages of 18 and 35; a lot of people who punch and kick for a living, a cool actor, Jordan Peterson, and a lot of podcasters Rogan’s listeners might also listen to. Only one woman. No medical quacks, though, and I am absolutely shocked that none of the names are crypto or NFT evangelists; they must have had one cancel.
Rogan is nobody’s fool. He knows exactly who he is selling to and what to sell them.
Which one is that?
Ugh, this piece of shit, really?
That seems like it’s giving him too much credit. He’s a bro that invites bros that do bro-stuff on his show, and as a result gains a large bro audience. It just comes naturally. Why him and not someone else? It probably could have been someone else, but there’s a self-reinforcing effect where if you get interesting guests, you’ll get more in the future.
I’m guessing Jamie Foxx, not the mummified remains of Sly Stallone.
Jamie Foxx.
I’ve no idea who Greg Hardy is beyond that he fights other guys.
Hardy was previously an NFL player who was essentially hounded out of the league after he beat the shit out of his girlfriend. Hardy originally played for the Carolina Panthers, who released him after the evidence of his abuse surfaced. The Cowboys signed him the following year, but also got sick of him and let him go. It was after that that he took up MMA.
He’s good at marketing himself and entertaining an audience, apparently, but he’s not playing dumb for ratings. I remember listening to an interview with him on a radio show in something like 2005, back when he was on fear factor. He was going on about how - it was either scientists or people who used psychadelics, I can’t remember - but he talked about how we’ve discovered how to speak the dolphin language and we’ve been talking to them for a while. He was just totally convinced we could talk to dolphins and share wisdom with them and this wasn’t even in doubt. This was over a decade before a podcast and he was totally sincere and talked about a bunch of other complete nonsense beliefs he spouted. He’s been doing the “guy who will believe any dumb shit you put in front of him” thing for at least 15 years, I’m almost certain it’s not an act.
I think Alex Jones is probably someone who doesn’t believe any of the shit he peddles - or maybe only a fraction of it - but I think Joe Rogan genuinely and enthusiastically believes whatever nonsense you throw in front of him, and it’s not some savvy act to rope in idiots - he is the idiot.
As far as his choice of guests appealing to 18-35 year old men - it’s certainly possible he has audience savvy, but Joe Rogan mentally is always going to be a 22 year old guy, so he’s basically just doing what he would want to do, no pandering to his audience necessary. He’s just a dumbass dudebro who somehow managed to become king of the dumbass dudebros and now he just interviews and says whatever he wants and somehow he has a huge audience.
He really doesn’t know they’re quacks and lunatics. Critical thinking is not his strong suit.
The anti-masker who took ivermectin when he got Covid? He’s pretty fucking foolish.
… If that’s true.
He said it himself. Even NPR has covered it:
You can, of course, argue he’s lying. But why? Taking discredited drugs doesn’t seem like the thing that would appeal to a “dude bro” audience. Well, unless “dude bro” means “antivax idiot.”
As for how bad he is? I don’t see why it matters what the bulk of his line up is. He still gives a voice to people who have lost their voice for a reason. And, given that he’s bringing on Jordan Petersen, he’s not changed his tune. And it’s not like he’s able to rebut anything.
And, @bump, the difference between the people you are talking about and Rogan is that he has a very wide reach and influence. The OP wasn’t upset at the idea he does all these things, but at how big his audience is.
I don’t think anyone would have any problem with him if he just stuck with the actual entertainment stuff. If that’s really his goal, why doesn’t he do that? Why doesn’t he shy away from politics and such if they are not the point?
It’s certainly on brand, though, and being on brand is basically the guy’s personality and income stream. I don’t KNOW that he’s lying, but it just wouldn’t surprise me. You can’t trust anything these people say.
To make money. His mix of guests appeals to his audience and makes him lots and lots of money. He can’t have MMA fighters on every day, it would start to bore his audience. That’s it. Of course I’m sure he also just likes having a lot of different guests on, and they’re not all cranks - he’s had Neil deGrasse Tyson on, who isn’t on there telling people to take horse dewormer, but he’s an entertaining guest.
I’d argue he descends more from a late-night talk show host lineage, than anything else. He’s got a variety of guests- if anything a little less relentlessly entertainment focused than the actual late night hosts, since he tends to have more in the way of political and scientific guests than say… Jimmy Fallon or Stephen Colbert.
Here’s the thing- large audience and what he does on his show are inextricably intertwined. One can’t bitch about him having a huge audience and being somewhat idiotic, without acknowledging that something about his format is appealing to a great many people. You can’t be upset with him for having a large audience without also being tacitly upset with what he’s doing to get it.
Late night hosts have guests on for 5-10 minute interviews. Most of Rogan’s interviews tend to be much longer.
You can acknowledge it while also condemning it. There is something about Trump that is appealing to a great many people.
Sure, but I don’t see what’s wrong with being upset about his tactics in appealing to the basest of lowest common denominators.
Sure, but he’s a podcaster, not a television host. His format doesn’t have to conform to things like having commercial breaks every so often, etc… and nor does he have to stick to the same broadcast format- his show is basically all about the interviews- there’s not a monologue, no games, no skits, no band, etc… Just interviews. So of course they’ll be longer than on a TV talk show.
My point was that he’s less Hardball and more Tonight Show, in that it’s primarily an entertainment show. And if you’re going to be mad, be mad at the idiots who actually listen to the guy, not the guy himself. He’s not the problem; the idiots are.
Like Rogan, Dick Cavett did long-form interviews. This runs the risk that the subject might die mid-discussion.
I’m not sure the reason for your contraction there. I was pointing out ways in which your analogy to a television host is flawed.
Right, because the point of his podcast is the interviews. I’m really not sure what you are trying to correct here, except the analogy that you made.
I don’t understand the point of characterizing things as “being mad”. Can’t I just think that he’s a piece of shit who perpetuates harmful rumors about Covid and other important issues that damage our society?
And the idea that we can’t hold him accountable for what he says, does, and promotes is just bizarre. Should we not be be “mad” at Hitler, just at those who followed him?
I can think that idiots that rally to idiotic causes are idiots, but I can also hold in contempt those doing the rallying.
He’s certainly made a lot of money from the show, but I don’t think that’s what he’s thinking about when he chooses his guests. I think he just has on people who he personally finds interesting. It just so happens that the things he’s interested in have a lot of popular appeal. A lot of people who are famous or semi-famous only became so after they went on the podcast. And if you look back to the earliest shows, where the setup was amateurish, the sound quality was terrible, and nobody was listening, he was still interviewing the same sorts of people he is today; fighters, comedians, and scientists. I think he’s the kind of person who, if he was only interested in stamp collecting, would only have stamp collectors on and he wouldn’t care that no-one listened.