I know of someone who says they listen to Joe Rogan podcasts (political I assume) but I don’t know what this means or what the connotations are. Both this person and I live in east asia.
I know of someone who says they listen to Joe Rogan podcasts (political I assume) but I don’t know what this means or what the connotations are. Both this person and I live in east asia.
Well first his show is one of the biggest podcasts in existence and spent a lot of time at the #1 spot - it’s not just a new thing.
Compared to other career interlocutors we might name from old media like Barbara Walters or Michael Krasny, Joe Rogan is a major step down on intellect. He doesn’t really prepare for interviews - reading the subjects book or whatever. He just wings it and spends a lot of time nodding and saying “wow.”
This is a problem when he invites on guests who spew misinformation. Joe doesn’t know it’s misinformation because he doesn’t research. And in fact he seems to think he’s a rebel journalist who hosts people that others want to silence. And he himself falls for many conspiracy tropes, frequently throwing out phrases like “they don’t want anyone to know this.”
So you’ve got a big dumb show full of misinformation that reaches a lot of young people. This is a problem for a lot of folks.
Others love Joe and find his lack of intellect relatable. He’s just a “regular Joe” to them. Maybe they don’t want a fancy interviewer who’s read all the books. Maybe they want someone just as uninformed as them so the information conveyed in the interview arrives at their level.
Sadly, Joe’s now hosted many of the top minds in the world. People like Neil DeGrasse Tyson just see him as a podcast host who’s popular with the youths. So why not go on his show. These people have boosted his numbers even more and legitimized him. Then he brings on a vaccine denier and it all goes to shit. He seems to thrive in the criticism, too, doubling down on the fact that he wants to investigate the things everyone else wants to bury (when his critics say he’s just giving the worst people in the world a platform).
Nah you’re looking at it all wrong. Nobody watches JRE for Joe, they watch it for the guests.
Joe is pretty close to a blank slate, once you hear him long enough and besides a few exceptions where he intends to be ""hostile “” the whole interview he just will essentially smile and not and just ask exploratory questions you would expect from a Bernie loving stoner (although now he’s in his Texas conservative friends arc). He’s a meat head but it works to his advantage in what I like to call the “one hour test”.
A lot of the people who come on his show (let’s say to say the earth is flat). They’re used to getting immediate pushback and arguing. But Joe is usually like yeah cool, tell me more about the rocks, wait but how does the sun work? What’s on the bottom? Typical softball questions.
I’ve found personally after about an hour these types of people just plain run out of material to talk about that they’ve really polished to sound convincing and the real crazy starts to come out. There are quite a few where they start out with like “according to the water mark striations on the Egyptian riverbed” and you’re like this is interesting…an hour later they’re like “you see the energy gets focused at the top of the pyramid, and they had secret technology that the illuminati hold in secret…” it’s fantastic. They can’t help but drink in that they’re going completely unchallenged on the biggest podcast of the world, and then, the pride before the fall, they step too far and you realize how crazy they are and it all comes crashing down.
If that’s too much time for you to listen to, I understand it’s not for everyone. But it’s good to have under your belt imo just because it’s just like the old Oprah show. It’s a great water cooler background discussion. People know and talk about it (how much they love or hate it) and it’s an easy pop culture win in my book.
You make it sound like he just uses the Socratic method to give weirdos the rope they need to hang themselves. And maybe that’s true for a sophisticated audience who already come in with solid critical things skills in place. When they don’t, as is often the case for his under-25 audience who are still coming up, the appearance is that he treats them as legitimate - the same as he treats NDGT.
Even if what you’re saying is true, you’re implying there are “dangerous” ideas that can’t be discussed because someone might believe them. I don’t really believe ideas should be coddled. If these ideas just take over the minds of the impressionable then surely something else will do the same shortly. The exposure rate to ideas in 2023 is very quick. Just because someone has serious beliefs in astrology over astronomy doesn’t mean that we compromise one of the key ideals of being an American.
OMG now you sound like him. “They want to silence this!”
I said nothing about disallowing discussion. Or any other action that should be taken. We have someone here asking what’s up with JRE and I’m telling them. Are you trying to silence me!!! You want to censor this!!!
But more seriously:
Is it possible for media to spread disinformation? Can that be dangerous?
These are unambiguous “yes” and “yes” answers. And that’s what happens with this show. Period.
Lol nobody is silencing him, he’s getting paid 100 mil from Spotify and has creative control.
And he’s podcast not the news. I’m pro podcast just like I’m pro fediverse. The fact an independent creator can reach such heights should be celebrated. But as much as you want to be uncle Ben from spiderman, just because his podcast becomes popular doesn’t mean he now needs to change how he is.
Dudes been talking about ufos for years but now is that no longer “disinformation” because congress had a hearing on it?
So dumb. If people want to talk about ghosts and goblins let them. If this is more of a “we have to stop hateful ideology” thing, It kind of sounds like you need to listen to someone like Daryl Davis a bit.
One way I celebrate his great heights is by treating him as the major media source he is. You want to have it both ways: celebrate his massive success but treat him like just some jackass talking about conspiracies. #unclebenwasright
Dude, you’re misunderstanding. No one is saying the ideas can’t be discussed. People are saying he’s irresponsible for giving his platform to these people without doing his due diligence to inform the audience when they lie or say things that just aren’t true. It’s his platform and his responsibility to not send the information out in a vacuum that gives it space to spread without informing people of its (il)legitimacy.
Check out ONRAC for what I’d say is a pretty responsible way to discuss fringe (or just plain wrong) ideas.
I listen to Oh No Ross and Carrie frequently, and it does a similar thing except they actually do research and make sure to inform the listener about what they say that’s wrong, misconstrued, or a lie. They look into the background of the people and their history and a whole lot of detail into what they’re pushing. They don’t just give them a platform that doesn’t push back. It’s irresponsible to do otherwise.
I stop listening to anyone who uses the word “misinformation” unironically.
I can’t believe you would tell on yourself like this
You know that’s a real word that applies to things right? If someone is saying the earth is actually flat and making up things to prove it, that’s misinformation.
It’s just used as an excuse to shut down speech the government/tech companies don’t like because it doesn’t fit their narrative.
So what if someone believes the earth is flat, let the people hear and decide for themselves. That’s a bedrock of democracy, people are capable of making decisions for themselves. Not you or anyone else has a right to tell them what to believe or filter down the information they get.
No one is shutting down anything, they’re using their speech to classify things as misinformation. You’re allowed to note things are lies or untrue just as much as the people spewing it. There’s a reason regulations and rules exist in the first place, you can’t just lie about ingredients in food for example to protect from harm.
Regardless, misinformation is a real word that applies to things. If you tell someone that says they heard “if I drink bleach it’ll cure my cancer” that is not true and is false information (which can cause harm), there’s nothing wrong with that.
lol this ain’t the flex you think it is, chief.