Joe Rogan once branded me an “a–hole” after I called for more gun restrictions in America — and said my British accent should itself be restricted to “selling mops and non-stick cookware” on late-night TV.
To be fair, he was probably speaking for many of his fellow countrymen who understandably objected to being told how to live their lives by a snooty reincarnation of George III.
But in another of his shows, Rogan praised me for questioning scientists’ big bang theory of our existence on the basis that human brains can’t comprehend what existed before nothing, which suggests there must be higher powers than we mere mortals.
And when I labeled the Left “unbearable” for their illiberal new woke form of fascism, he tweeted that I was “completely spot-on.”
This all suggests that Rogan’s got an open mind; like me, he doesn’t park himself into any particular political or social tribe, nor does he like or dislike people according to their partisan allegiance.
He describes himself as a “socially liberal” man who supports gay rights, women’s rights, universal health care and recreational drug use, and he has publicly endorsed Ron Paul, Bernie Sanders and Tulsi Gabbard.
But Rogan also believes strongly in free speech, hates cancel culture, supports the 2nd Amendment and loudly condemns the appalling way conservative voices are constantly vilified and censored by liberal-run media.
Honestly, if it wasn’t for his love of guns, tattoos and Bernie’s socialism — and of course, his weird accent — we could be twins.
I regularly listen to his podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience” and it’s a brilliantly free-wheeling, wide-ranging, sometimes combative, always fascinating series of conversations with people from all walks of life who hold all manner of opinions.
I don’t always agree with what Rogan or his guests say, but why should I?
We’re not living in North Korea, we’re allowed to hold different views from each other.
But what I like most about him is his fierce curiosity and refreshing willingness to admit when he’s wrong or has simply changed his mind.
Yet today, he’s at the center of a ferocious firestorm driven by the permanently outraged woke brigade that is designed to cancel him from his $100 million Spotify deal and silence his supposedly “dangerous” thoughts.
Specifically, the furor surrounds interviews he conducted with two doctors who have opinions that counter current thinking about COVID-19.
Unlike, I suspect, most of Rogan’s furious critics, I’ve actually listened to them and found them very interesting, just as I did when he interviewed my former CNN colleague Dr. Sanjay Gupta, who holds very different views about the pandemic.
As Rogan — who’s made it repeatedly clear he’s not himself an anti-vaxxer, saying, “I believe they (vaccines) are safe and encourage many people to take them” — explained in an Instagram post last night about his decision to book the two controversial doctors: “They have an opinion that’s different to the mainstream narrative, which is why I wanted them on. I’m interested in finding out the truth and having conversations with people who have different perspectives.”
Rogan added that given that the science has changed repeatedly throughout the crisis over everything from whether cloth masks are effective, to the ability of vaccines to stop infection or transmission, and if COVID-19 started in a Wuhan lab, then why is it wrong to challenge it?
But for doing so, he’s been lambasted in an open letter from 270 doctors and scientists, once-liberal but now-censorious rock dinosaurs Neil Young and Joni Mitchell have quit Spotify in protest, and in a new low, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex have demanded the Swedish streaming platform — which paid them $25 million last year to do their own podcast — do something about Rogan’s “rampant misinformation.”
Sorry, WHAT?
A pair of two-bit minor British royal family renegades best known for spewing outrageously harmful misinformation to Oprah Winfrey are trying to suppress an American’s First Amendment right to free speech?
I wouldn’t trust Meghan “Princess Pinocchio” Markle — who last year pressured UK company ITV to fire me for calling out her lies — to make me a cup of tea, let alone preach to the world about truth and honesty.
How dare she and her equally hypocritical husband, Harry, make any demands from a company that’s paid them a fortune to so far produce one podcast that was so bad, I needed urgent brain cell restoration surgery after enduring it?
If the choice of whom to listen to in America is a curious, smart man who listens to myriad views to get to the truth, or a pair of fork-tongued, woke wastrels whose only currency is trashing the royal institution that gave them their titles to exploit for vast financial gain, give me the former anytime.
Spotify should do us all a favor by tearing up Meghan and Harry’s contract and giving their money to Joe Rogan for more of his shows.
