{"id":127250,"date":"2020-12-05T19:23:00","date_gmt":"2020-12-05T16:23:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/why-the-left-is-lashing-out-at-joe-rogan-and-his-podcast\/"},"modified":"2020-12-05T19:23:00","modified_gmt":"2020-12-05T16:23:00","slug":"why-the-left-is-lashing-out-at-joe-rogan-and-his-podcast","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/why-the-left-is-lashing-out-at-joe-rogan-and-his-podcast\/","title":{"rendered":"#Why the left is lashing out at Joe Rogan and his podcast"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#Why the left is lashing out at Joe Rogan and his podcast<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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While 2020 has been a bad year for most, it\u2019s been a roaring success for podcaster Joe Rogan. As of Dec. 1, his show, \u201cThe Joe Rogan Experience,\u201d is now exclusive to Spotify after reportedly inking a $100 million deal this summer.\u00a0<\/p>\n

After its humble beginnings in 2009 where Rogan, a UFC commentator and comedia<\/a>n, chatted with a friend and listeners in a home studio, the show has morphed into a fascinating salon where some of the world\u2019s greatest nonconformists \u2014 including renegade journalists like Glenn Greenwald and Bari Weiss, multimedia creatives like Kanye West and Whitney Cummings, and politicians like Bernie Sanders, Tulsi Gabbard and Andrew Yang \u2014 discuss their ideas. It\u2019s been said<\/a> that one three-hour podcast with Rogan yields more book sales than any international tour, TV interview or public event.\u00a0<\/p>\n

At the same time, a progressive antipathy towards Rogan is reaching new heights of hysteria \u2014 not because the 53-year-old podcaster is some kind of dogmatic, Trump-supporting conservative. Far from it. Rather, he is a progressive-minded thinker supportive of LGBT rights, a woman\u2019s right to choose, and drug legalization who also consistently challenges the orthodoxies of the left, such as the more concerning dogmas of trans advocacy, the excesses of the #MeToo movement, and the popular conflation of Trump\u2019s most egregious characteristics with the millions of Americans who voted for him.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\"Rogan's
Rogan\u2019s podcast with controversial writer Abigail Shrier, talking about the dangers of trans identification among teenage girls, enraged several employees at Spotify.<\/figcaption>
Andrea Cimini Photography<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

His signing with Spotify has ignited plenty of internal debate about censorship and freedom of speech. Rogan\u2019s recent podcast interview with Abigail Shrier, the author of \u201cIrreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters<\/a>,\u201d a controversial book about the dangers of trans identification among teenage girls, enraged several employees at Spotify, prompting 10 separate meetings<\/a> to debate the removal of the episode.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s a thought process now,\u201d Rogan stated<\/a> in a following episode, \u201cthat if you\u2019re talking at all about trans people, you have to be 100 percent supportive. You can never question whether or not children should be allowed to transition .\u2009.\u2009. All this is madness.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

Rogan is a fundamentally critical thinker who formulates his views on a case-by-case basis rather than adhering to ideological narratives. The same man who describes himself as \u201cleft on everything\u201d also asserted earlier this year that \u201cI\u2019d rather vote for Trump than [Biden]\u201d because of his concerns about the former VP\u2019s mental decline. For some, Rogan\u2019s fluid, open-minded philosophy makes perfect sense, but for others it causes cognitive dissonance.\u00a0<\/p>\n

For those heavily invested in political narratives, Rogan\u2019s platform presents a mortal threat \u2014 a grave transgression to their narrow-minded thought bubbles and ideological safe spaces. Unlike many ideologues, Rogan daringly humanizes perspectives that deviate from his own. \u201cI like being proven wrong,\u201d he said in a recent episode.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Rogan's
Rogan\u2019s endorsement of Bernie Sanders brought ire from many groups.<\/figcaption>
NBCU Photo Bank via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

As a result, his loose endorsement of Bernie Sanders earlier this year drew explosive backlash among leftist activists within the Democratic Party. A piece in Slate<\/a> this year lambasted the \u201cunchecked bigotry\u201d and \u201ctransphobia and sexism\u201d of Rogan\u2019s platform. Prominent LGBTQ advocate Charlotte Clymer urged<\/a> the Sanders campaign to \u201cacknowledge that Rogan is a transphobe and move away from this.\u201d Meanwhile, a recent essay in The Atlantic confoundingly speculated<\/a> that Joe Rogan might be \u201cAmerica\u2019s Next Authoritarian\u201d leader to fill Trump\u2019s shoes.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Last month, I personally experienced the progressive backlash against Rogan after I wrote an op-ed<\/a> for Canada\u2019s The Globe and Mail explaining how his podcast profoundly impacted my life at 19. Mere hours after its publication, my essay ignited a firestorm of viral outrage and controversy, trending No. 1 on Twitter in Canada. More than 7,000 critical tweets included prominent biology professor Carin Anne Bondar who said she was repulsed by my praise of Rogan because he is a \u201c#whiteman\u201d in a now-deleted tweet<\/a>. Four days later, The Globe and Mail published an alternative perspective<\/a> entitled, \u201cJoe Rogan\u2019s podcast is a vehicle for intolerance<\/a>,\u201d in which the writer claimed he will \u201cpray for the victims of these friendly conversations\u201d on Rogan\u2019s show and \u201cfor all those whose human rights are fragile.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"Journalist
Journalist and Rogan guest Glenn Greenwald said \u201cin a world of script<\/a>ed orthodoxies and partisan dogma, it\u2019s easy to see why [his show] resonates for millions.\u201d<\/figcaption>
DPA\/AFP via Getty Images<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Over the past decade, Western discourse has degenerated into detractive identity politics, woke slacktivism, and spiraling ideological intolerance. Mainstream media networks have only fueled the fire<\/a>, drumming up sensationalist headlines that exploit political division along racial and gender lines.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Unforeseen by everyone \u2014 including Rogan himself<\/a> \u2014 \u201cThe Joe Rogan Experience\u201d has become one of the last, few unwavering pillars of American liberalism, critically dissecting important topics in conversations that are simultaneously rigorous and breezy. His show has ushered in a renaissance of long-form, exploratory dialogue that has made intellectual inquiry appealing to a wide audience. (On Tuesday, Spotify revealed that Rogan\u2019s podcast is the most popular podcast of 2020 on its platform, with hundreds of millions of downloads a month.)\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDuring the three hours of doing Joe\u2019s show, you get taken on a journey: from politics and culture to spirituality and introspection,\u201d Greenwald told me of his recent appearance on Rogan\u2019s podcast. \u201cEvery word he says, you can feel the sincerity of someone doing their best, and not always succeeding, to understand the world and all its complexities. In a world of scripted orthodoxies and partisan dogma, it\u2019s easy to see why it resonates for millions.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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