Bad Takes: COVID-19 disinformation spreader Joe Rogan is a perfect fit for Texas. Sadly.

[TexasTowelie]

Bad Takes is a periodic column of opinion and political analysis.

“I’m not an anti-vax person. When I say something stupid, I’m not thinking about what I’m going to say before I say it. I’m just saying it. If you say you disagree with me, I probably disagree with me too. I disagree with me all the time. I’m not a doctor, I’m a fucking moron, and I’m a cage-fighting commentator who’s a dirty stand-up comedian. I’m drunk most of the time, I do testosterone and I smoke a lot of weed. I’m not a respected source of information.” — Joe Rogan, April 29, 2021

“You kind of need the shitheads so that you can say, ‘Here’s why they’re wrong.’ And in the age of social media, that’s where it’s weird, because these shitheads never really had a platform before, and they can develop massive followings saying crazy shit.” — Joe Rogan, December 7, 2021


When writer Ernest Hemingway covered the Spanish Civil War from the frontlines, his dispatches didn't indulge in any out-of-school criticism that may have endangered the anti-fascist cause. After the Loyalists' defeat, however, with the dictatorship of Francisco Franco firmly entrenched, Hemingway wrote a masterpiece, For Whom The Bell Tolls, fictionally depicting in gruesome detail atrocities committed by all sides of the conflict. His journalism proselytized an unabashed faith in the ascendant glory of a free Spanish republic. His novel conceded moral ambiguity and exuded a tragic sense that, despite their best efforts, the republicans — small r — were doomed from the start. He was right both times.

Prospects are bleak for those of us who hoped vaccines could bring a swift end to the pandemic. Mere weeks ago, the first five cases of the stunningly contagious omicron variant of coronavirus were detected in San Antonio. On the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr., almost 9,000 Bexar County residents tested positive — the highest number of new cases ever in a single day. And this figure is surely an undercount, given that we do not know how many people are relying on at-home tests or did not bother to wait in line at testing locations.

Once again, hospitals and intensive care wards are being stretched beyond capacity across the country, and thousands of Americans are needlessly dying. Only 30% of Texans have received a booster dose that's proved necessary for significant protection from symptomatic illness, and it's overwhelmingly the unboosted who require emergency medical care.

Recent California-to-Texas émigré Joe Rogan, the most popular podcaster in the world, chose this winter to host a pair of COVID vaccine-skeptics in two three-hour interviews broadcast to an audience larger than anything cable news can muster. The shows were summarily pulled from YouTube for violating that company's community standards, but they remain up on Spotify.

Read more: https://www.sacurrent.com/sanantonio/bad-takes-covid-19-disinformation-spreader-joe-rogan-is-a-perfect-fit-for-texas-sadly/Content?oid=28071794

[jimfields33]

1. I still can't believe he has the number 1 podcast in America

Although he lives in Texas, his message is all over the country.

[Javaman]

2. rogan is a fucking moron.

my wife's son was into him. she started listening to him until I gave her a few transcripts to read from his "less" popular episodes.

she dropped him like a hot rock.

I think her son listens occasionally still, but he got his shots, at least.