Joe Rogan & JRE, the last thing that ever needs to be said on either
The above commenter essentially said it all, despite a few things suggesting the post was written with help of AI, there is nothing in the post I disagree with.
Solely for context I will write my additions. I listened to the first ca. 1500 episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience. My best guess is that up to 80% of those, I listened to from beginning to end, all three hours.
Got me through many a work day and even some days when I was really struggling. I still do not regret listening to those as such. Especially the first 1000 episodes or so, he had not yet gone off the deep end nearly as much. Back then he did also have more reasonable, centrist or left-wing or liberal or democratic people on, as well as the opposite of all that. There was balance of sorts.
And he especially had more people on with an actual legit scientific background. Sure, he had a few weirdos, conspiracy theorists and bad faith actors since day one, that was always clear. But the lack of balance and ratio were not so utterly messed up as they later became.
Back then, he had not yet publicly endorsed Trump, in 2016 Joe went on record that he voted for "neither major candidate", so neither Trump nor Clinton.
Simply put: in his earlier podcasting era, he had not yet gone far down the Alt-right rabbit hole nor embraced delusion. And it showed, in his guest selection and his ideas.
I honestly believe that there is a very good chance that Trump would not have won the 2024 election if it wasn't for an absurdly soft-ball-questions-only, almost gushing and utterly incurious, nearly 3 hour ""interview"" on JRE episode #2219, posted on 26-10-2024, barely more than a week before the election. It was absolutely an endorsement, Rogan even doubled down on that in a post on X on 05-11-2024.
I am not alone in my thinking that JRE was instrumental to Trump's second Presidency happening.
"How Joe Rogan and the right-wing ‘manosphere’ helped propel Trump to victory in 2024" https://archive.is/9oH2D
The visit and picture below, of Joe visiting Trump in the white house -with his whole family and daughters- was taken around 01-06-2025
All the above Rogan chose to do years after it was utterly clear that Trump was a great friend of Epstein for many years. Joe did all that, long after the 06-01-2021 attack on the Capitol, after it was absolutely clear and factual that Trump has 1000s of bald-faced lies on record. After Trump was accused of sexual assault by at least 23 women.
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2017/06/23/opinion/trumps-lies.html
Knowing all that, and then still platforming, helping and strongly endorsing such a person into power is utterly unconscionable and unforgivable.
It means one can never take anything such a person says seriously ever again. I will forever have to be skeptical of, and examine each statement, from someone who can make such horrific value judgements and terrible decisions, specifically and especially anything he says that is in any way political.
Not until 25-06-2025 did Joe criticize Trump's handling of the Epstein files.
Indirectly, Rogan had some hand in ICE coming into existence. No second Trump presidency, no ICE. Not until early 2026 did Joe say some things critical of ICE.
Absurdly too little and too late in both cases. The extensive and irreversible damage was long done. And is being done, every day, by Trump, with no small thanks to Rogan.
Why did I ever listen to and enjoy JRE?
Simply put: he was not always the trash human he became. He was way better and a lot more apolitical, when I started listening. Though there were always signs, that he had deep-seated issues, low intellectual honesty and very lacking emotional maturity. And that when the mood struck him he could be an absurdly ignorant bully and roid-head, that would absolutely lose it on people and utterly believe he was in the right, even when it was so obvious he was patently mistaken.
This utterly shameful exchange was aired on 27-09-2005: https://futurism.com/joe-rogan-yelling-scientist
I only became aware of that disgusting display about six years ago.
I have had a keen interest in MMA and BJJ and stand-up comedy for 2 or 3 decades. The same is true for psychedelics, science (very much in a layman way) and more. In the early days, JRE was (also) a great source of information about those topics and more. The show was often funny, and entertaining, and only very rarely was vicious. I'd even go so far as saying that not a small number of early podcasts could be wholesome and helpful even. Plenty were certainly educational, primarily when he had reputed scientists or well-regarded experts on.
The change and decline was quite gradual, until it wasn't. The guest list had conspiracy theorists and kooks on since the very first, but it had very few outspokenly alt-right grifters and con-men for a long time. That ratio completely changed later. Joe himself didn't get involved heavily with politics and endorsements until very late in his podcasting career.
It would almost be sad if it wasn't so unnecessary, damaging and infuriating. For very long now Rogan has been insanely rich, and massively influential and powerful in terms of: comedy, public opinion and politics. For at least a decade he has been one of the people in the world most likely to be able to make others famous or wealthy with just one single appearance on his podcast. For these reasons almost nobody around him, never mind his guests, almost ever challenges him. On anything.
The people and even friends who did give him even a little push-back and criticism, even in a mild, kind way, like Sam Harris (who has always been extremely critical of Trump), get ousted. He stops speaking to them and will never have them on the podcast again. Rogan willingly crawled into a deep rabbit-hole and dark echo-chamber. And to a large degree he and his sphere are, and perpetuate, that hole and chamber as well,.. Without being dramatic: they spread and normalize that darkness. They lower the bar and worsen the discourse.
It has been sad to see that people and comedians whose work I otherwise enjoy, even a few that I also respected for their moral stances, will go on his podcast -they all know an appearance can be life-changing in terms of: exposure, money and opportunities- and not challenge Joe even a little. Not even on his dumbest, most vitriolic, erroneous and society damaging opinions and takes.
If they disagree with him at all, it will almost always be later, on their own platforms and podcasts. And they will almost invariably do it under the guise of "I am just joooking, I love Joe!" and make the most luke-warm statements along the lines of: "Well, this (often utterly insane and disastrous) statement by Rogan, I don't think that is the best, I don't agree with that,.. but.Joe.is.cool.in.this.&.that.way. though!"
Pathetic.
