The Joe Rogan Experience Podcasts

I was one such person. Some lockdown scepticism was given voice in British and American media. Irish media were exceptions in their blinkered adherence to the government position. In doing that, they were mirroring the prevailing view in Irish society.

I do not think they are unbiased. But what you call an agenda is merely the outcome of sincere but biased journalists trying and failing to be objective.

Freedom of speech only relates to government action/censorship. A newspaper not running a piece written by say someone with fringe beliefs on covid is not a free speech issue he newspaper is a private business and can choose to host the piece or not. I think Joe could leave Spotify and publish interviews with alex Jones or whoever he liked on his own website, he just wouldn't get all that lovely moolah.

Yes, I largely agree. I’m very sceptical of the classical liberal assumption that the truth always wins out. And even if it does, at what cost?

But by ‘in the mainstream’ I didn’t mean airing them on Prime Time. I meant continuing to host them on Spotify, etc - the edge of the mainstream, where they can be partly restrained. Taking Boards.ie as an example. Some pretty wild stuff gets said around here. But the presence of moderators and the occasional expression of dissent from someone who has seen the thread on the front page keeps things grounded, I think.

I dont have an issue with people using their free speech to remove themselves from a platform or even putting up a 'either him or me'ultimatum like Neil Young. Nor those who want to signal their virtue by doing stupid things. I do take issue w the fact that it seems the whole mainstream media is leaning in one direction and that alternative views are belittled and dismissed. Couple that with increased legislation and strong arm politics there is more than a hint of the fascist approach in the eye of the observer w a sense of history. This mission kreep seems to be accepted as normal. The pandemic has accelerated the process to no end. The take of the mainstream media about the truckers in Canada is the latest example of a deliberate blindness. The opposite of what happened during the 'righteous' cause of BLM in which the very real violence and destruction was seen as not a problem. Now the truckers are 'getting out of control', painted as a kind of new Trumpist jan 6 movement. Id laugh if it wasnt so sad..

Well, according to Gads definition, Spotify have no right to cancel Rogans contract even people leave in droves. I have no right to cancel my Spotify subscription either. Precisely why it's a ridiculous definition of free speech. Interesting to see that guy regularly blocked people on twitter and tried to get someone kicked out of university because of a tweet.

The flat earth conspiracy has grown. I don't pretend it's believed by a big proportion of people but it has grown in the times pan you asked about. That's why I used it as an example. Clever people will use sunlight to disinfect, but qanon and things like the has thrived amongst stupid people precisely because its been given sunlight.

Put this stiff on a slick show that looks like news like Fox news, or a slick podcast like JR, and there you have it. And they can say they're just discussing the controversy, but that's not really all they're doing.

Is it much missed? I use to use it myself a lot but as I've gotten older and I know how offensive it is to people with intellectual disabilities, I don't use it anymore. Plenty of other words out there to describe people's stupidity.

Edgelords and people who don't acknowledge that things change over time, still use it. It's very cool and very impressive in some circles.

Q anon is a conspiracy theory. It's roots don't have a kernel of truth. They started as trolling on 4Chan and then 8Chan. Trump being back in the white house last August didn't have a kernel of truth. Biden being dead doesn't have a kernal of truth in it (neither did Clinton being dead and replaced by a body double). It's not abstractive reasoning, it's a conspiracy theory and it didn't grow through censorship. It grows through exposure on the likes of right wing American news stations like Fox news and talk radio.

You can call it whatever you like, but it's a conspiracy theory and it's grown huge in the US through exposure, not through censorship.

Its not so much the democratisation of knowledge, its the democratisation of the ability to spread any kind of information. Qanon information is equal to genuine knowledge and true information. Is that the kind of democratisation of knowledge you're in favour of?

Qanon and the likes are fine and dandy, so is JR, but if you can't tell the difference between interesting thoughe experiment and complete bullshyte, then you're on for serious trouble.

You're worried about the davos types, but in reality I don't know who is behind the qanon conspiracy (adjective reasoning, if you prefer), but I can't see how it leads anywhere good. There are other conspiracy theories like The Big Lie where its easy to see who is behind it and why. But then you're back to wealthy and powerful people using the democratisation of knowledge for their own purposes. What difference does it make if they're inside Davos or are p1ssed off that they're a tier below Davos?

I don't think what is,happening to Joe rogan is a concerted attempt to discredit it's,just an old fashioned pile-on on someone popular. In a few weeks someone else famous will be the object if their scorn. I don't see why flat earth qanon or trump election fraud conspiracies are mentioned in the same breath of Rogan. He doesn't support any of them and to my knowledge hasn't hosted supporters of them.