Rogan is like the Snoop of podcasts. He will do anything for money.
So a whore?
Rogan is a great example of a few things:
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The Dunning-Kruger effect
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“I’m just asking questions” being used as an excuse to host an unbalanced number of individuals purporting one specific worldview
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Toxic masculinity posing as intellectualism
He is extremely popular with one particular demographic. That demographic tends to share the toxic masculinity and the Dunning-Kruger-fueled belief that they can be experts at everything from the armchair.
“I’m just asking questions”
Glenn Beck was (is?) big on that one too.
Glenn Beck can fuck off too
We can see how Joe’s dad was towards Joe very clearly. Here’s an ibteresting take that aligns with stuff I was thinking before but had not put together like this article did: https://open.substack.com/pub/alisav/p/are-americans-just-stupid?r=5hnm1
I work with a kid who I know listens to JRE often. He’s kind and very smart. What I’ve found is that he lacks confidence and prefers not to speak even when he thinks he has the right answer, for fear of being wrong. He’s depressed, and around this time last year checked himself into a hospital for a week. I know he recently started going to church, likely to try and find answers and support. He seems to mean well. All this to say, listeners of JRE may not be stupid or bad people. Some of them, a lot of them, I’d be willing the guess, are confused young men being brought to bad conclusions because they sound like answers and are wrapped with an “I’m just asking questions,” bow.
Yes, I agree with that about confused young men. However, at the end of the day, if JRE turns them into toxic men, then they’re still just toxic men.
I would hope that doesn’t happen. In general I think we as a society need to be kinder to these confused young men before they take that path. It’s a more difficult conversation to have and the solution is not very clear.
Either way, JRE is dangerous because it offers propagandistic suppositions as answers to people with big questions.
prefers not to speak even when he thinks he has the right answer, for fear of being wrong
One remedy for that is to stop listening to Joe Rogan
Speaking of toxic masculinity, I remember Joe Rogan during Covid saying that he decided to stop masking and isolating because it made him “feel like a pussy” IIRC.
It’s weird to me because in my view, a strong person doesn’t care what other people think of them. Rogan’s actions just seem extraordinarily cowardly and weak to me.
Like, he needed to eat elk meat to feel like a man? I understand we all have negative thoughts like that, but to be compelled to act out of your own fears doesn’t strike me as masculine in the least.
Is that a part of toxic masculinity? That it’s centered around fear of judgment and a low sense of self worth? That they feel a need to project an image that’s exactly the opposite of how they really feel?
Because if so, then it seems like even the slightest bit of critical thinking ability would easily steer men clear of it.
Because if so, then it seems like even the slightest bit of critical thinking ability would easily steer men clear of it.
Absolutely correct, in my view. “Fear of judgment and a low sense of self worth” is also spot on.
Rogan gave national voice to plenty of people who regularly used the term “snowflake” to describe what they saw as weak people who like to complain (I’m speaking from memory here and generalizing; Rogan probably has also used this term himself, but I’m not searching transcripts, so take all this with a grain of salt). By this logic, a “snowflake” is someone who is perceived as weak because they let so much affect them emotionally.
But these toxic men are “snowflakes” in every sense of the term. They go on Joe Rogan to complain about trans people, or gay rights, or “the war on Christmas”, or the perceived persecution of “alpha males”, or any number of other issues. Some guests are only famous because they complain about such things.
So what is the difference between a toxic “alpha male” on Joe Rogan and one of the “snowflakes” they like to complain about? Absolutely nothing, except that the toxic men believe that anger doesn’t count as an emotion, so their insecurity allows them to show it regularly.
(And to be clear, there is nothing wrong with showing emotion or caring deeply about something – that’s not a point I’m trying to make)
For what it’s worth, to your clarification at the end, after reading I in no way thought you were talking bad about showing emotions.
Every element of the whole toxic masculinity influencer thing is just an expression of weakness and insecurity framed as “manliness”.
It’s all performative. Every ounce of it. Goth kids don’t put as much effort into appearance. Their version of masculinity is being loud, obnoxious and putting themselves above others. It’s a dentist on a $30,000 Harley going 15mph while making 160 decibels, wearing $200 T-shirts and $500 jeans to mimic the hard-earned look of a working man. It’s weak, fearful men spouting off constantly about the second amendment and their right to defend their families but wouldn’t touch a weapon if it didn’t look tacticool enough. Esthetics over everything. They’re not brave enough to be original in thinking or appearance. Not strong enough to be the rock of servitude that holds people together in hard times. The embodiment of paper tigers.
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God, why would anyone subject themselves to this?
The podcast is very good, I highly recommend picking out a few episodes that look interesting and diving in.
It’s quite remarkable how he launders dumbass galaxy-brain conspiracy theories to his audience and drives the conversation towards PR for billionaires.
Mark Andreson led him around like a bull with a ring through his nose; the guy is one of the most useful idiots in history.
Edit: For people who didn’t read the article, I’m talking about the author’s podcast, The Know Rogan Experience.
I oddly haven’t tuned in yet, but I remember when they started the podcast since Marshall is a regular on atheist podcasts I regularly listen to, like God Awful Movies.
He’s always subjected himself to bullshit though; after all, his other work has him interviewing batshit crazy conspiracy folks and scammy snake oil woo folk.
Thanks for the recc. I have a feeling I might like it because I’ve been pretty into Knowledge Fight for a while. If you didn’t know about that one, it’s a podcast that covers Alex Jones and people in his sphere, including Joe Rogan on occasion.
Yeah, I need to listen to most recent one; I’m curious how Jones is dealing with the attack on Iran.
still wild to me this guy has a following. Im like who is this guy and why do I care. wait. its the guy from new radio and fear factor. seriously. well I guess reagan was president.
That seems to keep happening. Trump was supposed to always be “that guy with that shitty reality show boomers watched” but instead, millions of people wanted that trainwreck to combine with national and global politics. What a great idea that was.
God bless the author for getting past 3 minutes of that dreck.
Did nobody ever watch The Man Show? He showed you who he was then.
