Seriously: Why should I care about Joe Rogan?

[brooklynite]

Yes he's got a large audience of frat boy wannabes. So did Howard Stern. If he's not influencing political decisions (and I have not seen indications that he is) why not just ignore him?

[PJMcK]

1. I'm with you

I’ve never listened to him and don’t plan to. I don’t subscribe to Spotify anyway.

[dchill]

2. I don't know. Ask him.

https://www.democraticunderground.com/100216328048

[brooklynite]

8. Do you think Obama cares about him?

[NoRethugFriends]

3. Joe Rogan is not Howard Stern

Howard Stern has some degree of a moral compass. Rogan has none.

[forthemiddle]

22. Howard Stern has a moral compass?

Howard Stern has also used the N word, and I believe even wore black face in the past.
Hardly a moral icon.

[womanofthehills]

25. There is a beyond disgusting skit of Howard Stern's on Twitter right now

He’s in blackface joking about black people using the n word making believe the person with him is Whoopi and calling her a smelly n. Repeating making jokes with the n word. It’s one of the most disgusting clips ever. To disgusting to repost.

[BlackSkimmer]

34. The person with him was the guy who played George Jefferson years ago.

Sherman Hensley? Something like that.

Stern was imitating Ted Danson who wore blackface at some awards when he was dating Whoopi. So, he was actually mocking Ted Danson wearing blackface. Still wrong, but there was context. The skit was many years ago. Is making te rounds on Twitter now because the right is using it in a “what about” way.

There was a big stink at the time, and he did apologize. And has since.

[Klaralven]

4. Podcasts are like the talk radio part of the streaming business

So it is no surprise that you get "shock jocks" doing podcasts.

It raises two issues:

Is mass media dead, or must any media in the future be addressed to a specific audience?

Can media addressed to different specific audiences coexist on the same platform, or must platforms also be addressed to specific audiences?

[marmar]

5. Because this country ignores racism much too often.

[femmocrat]

6. I never heard of him until recently.

He is getting too much attention, IMO.

[Klaralven]

7. There are probably Joe Rogan bots on both sides of the issue whipping up interest

[True Blue American]

10. The MSM seems to be

Overwhelmingly concerned about Rogan. Never heard of him, could care less.

[Hoyt]

9. As long as we are not forced to listen, can disagree and express disagreement, etc.,

don't think he is a big threat deserving of silencing. I've never heard him, nor care to.

[Scrivener7]

11. 11 million young white men being inculcated into the idea that what he says

("racism is good, sexism is good" ) and how he says it ("isn't it funny that those women and brown people think they're as human as we white men?" ) are acceptable and contain truth.

And let's face it. Whether we like it or not, white men are still the ones who get most of the power. So these frat boys are the leaders of tomorrow.

It would be nice if we could move away from that shit in the future and not farther toward it.

The very least we should all be doing is to not financially supporting it in any way.

[brooklynite]

12. But he's not inculcating them...

For the same reason people tuned in to Howard Stern to hear interviews with porn stars, Rogan is attracting a crowd that already agrees with him.

[Scrivener7]

14. Do you believe Limbaugh intensified the racism and sexism of many if not most of his

listeners? Did hearing someone express the worst thoughts, ones they did not acknowledge before he said them, make them believe those thoughts were acceptable?

I think they did.

This is the same.

[brooklynite]

24. No, I don't believe that...

Limbaugh let them feel that the thoughts they had were okay. If he was knocked off the air, his fans would simply migrate to someone else that did.

[Scrivener7]

32. By the same token, then, do you believe that right wing radio has nothing to do with

the state of the republiQan party of today?

[womanofthehills]

26. Joe is definitely not a racist - he has many black comedians on his podcasts

And they talk of touring and hanging out together. Joe’s oldest daughter, Kayja Rose, an R&B singer, is black. He legally adopted her when she was a child.

[Scrivener7]

31. And yet, he says so many racist things. Go figure.

[Demsrule86]

33. Joe uses the N word and is a racist...he called a black neighborhood...planet of the apes...

He is also Anti-LGBTQ. I heard some of his shit when my son listened told him. I told my son to use headphones or don't listen...he eventually came to me after a particularly virulent attack on LGBTQ and said that he would never listen to Rogan again and hasn't. Our daughter- his sister is gay...and I looked into Rogan during the time my son was listening. He is racist, misogynistic and a homophobe...you should have heard the filth he used about Hillary Clinton and various sexual acts. Why would you like this guy? Because he is anti-vax? He is a piece of crap.

[ismnotwasm]

13. You think Howard Stern wasn't influential?

I don’t know how old you are, but Rogan can make the difference between that young edgy libertarian stage and whether someone grows up to be a Democrat or devolves into being a Republican.

We need numbers. You know this.

[Scrivener7]

15. THIS. This is what I tried to say above, but this is much better stated.

[USALiberal]

16. Lighten up!!! It's a discussion board! Nt

[Sympthsical]

17. Social media boredom

There was this chart that I wish I could find. It was basically, "Stuff We Cared About Online" and it was a long calendar of ten years highlighting the social media obsession of any given week.

As I scrolled through it, I was almost always thinking, "Wow, I had completely forgotten that was a thing." 90% of what was on there just did not matter in any kind of medium or long term.

It literally didn't matter at all. But at the time, it was The Most Important Thing that we had to spend endless amounts of time and effort on.

But man, I wish I could find that chart. It's hilarious just how stupid our social media obsessions become.

CNN has a Joe Rogan subsection at the top of their page. Let that sink in for a moment. The important issues of the day. Russia/Ukraine. Whatever China's doing. Our economy and inflation. Covid.

And Joe Rogan.

We're a ridiculous people. I get absorbed in it, too.

[PortTack]

19. Because he is rush on steroids...there's nothing he won't do or say to get attention

his content is downright racist, antivaxx and dangerous

[beaglelover]

20. I agree.

[FrankBooth]

21. Rogan is both symptom and disease

When Limbaugh started out 30+ years ago the attitude was similar to what you're saying about Rogan now--he was some whack job lying on the TV and radio to people who, for the most part, already agreed with him. Since those days there's been decades of FOX News and blanket 24/7 AM radio saturation of agit prop from the likes of Limbaugh and his shameless minions. Some could argue the political impact of this is debatable, but I think it's had a huge impact. Fast forward to Rogan today--a slightly sanitized millennial Limbaugh-lite. He wallows in the same fake libertarianism, racism, sexism and disregard for science/authority that Limbaugh always did, but without old Rushballs' nasty misanthropic veneer. This makes Rogan somehow more palatable to the modern listener. Many Rogan listeners probably do already agree with him, at least on some issues, having been have been softened up by the likes of Limbaugh and his ilk, (even if they only absorbed it second hand through their parents.) It's very easy for the modern listener to be influenced by the crap Rogan is peddling, they're already conditioned to receive it. It took Limbaugh's movement decades, but with the help of the catalyzing agent in 2016, the Limbaugh doctrine of toxic contrarianism finally ascended to it's current position, which is indistinguishable from the mainstream GOP. And Rogan is cashing in on it because he's doesn't give a shit.

[crickets]

23. Well said. nt

[ibegurpard]

27. Yeah and just ignore talk radio

And right wing "news" like FOX...
that's worked so well for us hasn't it?

[brooklynite]

28. Neither has attempting to boycott them.

There will always be a media market for people who want to be told that their biases are okay.

[ibegurpard]

29. It has silenced some of them

Meanwhile we continue with the failed strategy of parachuting in at election times and thinking we can counteract 24/7 programming of "Democrats are bad." We have to figure out how to invest in our own communication infrastructure to counteract this. Ignoring it has been a huge error.

[0rganism]

30. Reminds me of how I used to regard Limbaugh and his ilk

Yes, why bother paying attention to that stinking pile of manure?

And then I discovered that the pile of manure was blocking my driveway, and covering the streets beyond.

Liars and charlatans pollute the body politic and contribute to the erosion of our commons. Left unchallenged, they can metastasize into a deadly condition.

Yeah, why indeed?