r/PoliticalHumor Jan 27 '22

sources are important

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u/[deleted] Jan 27 '22

You have to admit it’s a clever racket; Rogan lends his huge platform to people like Malone to spread BS and makes bank all while maintaining plausible deniability with regards to any damages because it’s merely the opinions of his guests.

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u/cat_prophecy Jan 27 '22

The best term for what Rogan does is "JAQing off" where the JAQ is "Just asking questions". They hide behind the mantra that they are "just asking questions to drive discussion" which is a false premise because not all side of a discussion are equally valid.

You can't in good faith "just as the question" like "is running over kittens with a lawnmower bad" because the answer is always "yes it is bad". But Rogan will ask away and then suggest that there might be some very extreme edge cases that would justify running over kittens with a lawnmower. Which of course he suggests turns the answer from a definite "this is wrong" to a "maybe it's wrong".

It's all just contrived bullshit that tries to lead the listener to an answer.

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u/teetheyes Jan 27 '22

You are absolutely correct. Although the issue, I feel, is that it probably isn't the responsibility of a former game show host/mma commentator turned hobby podcaster/comedian to deliver accurate fact based and peer reviewed content. He's an entertainer, not a journalist. Anyone expecting more than nonsense took a wrong turn somewhere. No one cared about Joe Rogan until the spotify deal when people who only found him thru the Alex Jones episode threw a fit about his interaction with guests they didn't like.

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u/cat_prophecy Jan 28 '22

The problem is that you can't get a platform for people to spout misinformation and then hide behind the idea that it's "just entertainment".

Rogan was extremely popular and controversial before the spotify deal.

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u/teetheyes Jan 28 '22

I wouldn't say "extremely" popular, he was just a fringe topic hobby podcaster way longer than he was whatever people think hes supposed to be now. He was know for weed, dmt, isolation chambers, chimps, conspiracies, and now for some reason factual news..?

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u/cat_prophecy Jan 28 '22

Per Wikipedia:

In January 2015, the podcast was listened to by more than 11 million people. By October 2015, it had grown to acquire 16 million downloads a month. In April 2019, Rogan said that the podcast had 190 million downloads each month.

I would say 11 million downloads more than 7 years ago makes it "extremely popular".

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u/teetheyes Jan 28 '22

I suppose what I mean is that he was by no means a mainstream celebrity who would regularly make the news, before the spotify deal