Spotify Loses Billions Over Joe Rogan Controversy

[Seshmeister]

Pulled that off of a FaceCrook "blog" did you?

It's quoted on a CNN fact check

https://edition.cnn.com/2021/07/22/politics/fact-check-biden-cnn-town-hall-july/index.html

[Kristy]

Joe Biden, CNN town hall, July 2021:

Pulled that off of a FaceCrook "blog" did you?

[Nickdfresh]

Joe Biden, CNN town hall, July 2021:

But by-and-large that's true. A tiny percentage of the fully vaccinated may have died of Covid complications but for the most part it is unvaccinated people in the ICU's and you can just as easily point to the retards that died of Covid believing it was all a "plandemic"....

[Seshmeister]

To clarify I don't think I've said Rogan should be shut down or censored I'm just ranting about how wrong he is.

That statement by Biden was dumb but I hear he has a reputation for that.

[Terry]

On this one issue he has been a menace. One of my friends in his 50s cites the Rogan podcasts as the reason why he is refusing to get booster vaccine or any more COVID vaccines. This gives him a 50-80 times higher chance of being hospitalized by a COVID infection. He's fit enough so 80 times quite a small number but it is what it is.

This ties into my post above.

And it's not to necessarily look down my nose at your friend in terms of his ability to make well-informed choices, because living in Florida I have (as you may well imagine) more than a few friends who took their covid cues from Donald Trump and refused to so much as even wear a mask or social distance ALL ALONG, much less get ANY vaccines AT ALL: their dubious rationales didn't make me blame Donald Trump for their lack of critical thinking. More than a few of my anti-mask/vaccine friends were in their 40s and 50s. By that age, you generally have a developed capacity for critical thinking or you don't. If you don't, which particular huckster leads you astray is pretty much irrelevant, because if it wasn't Joe Rogan it could have as easily been any other entertainer your friend liked.

[FORD]

Joe Biden, CNN town hall, July 2021:

Biden's an old guy who's had brain lapses ever since his aneurysm. So in context, the first sentence you "bolded" there is the important part. I'm guessing the second one was his attempt to repeat what he said the first time, but he misspoke, as Biden often does. Taking his entire quote in context, it's clear that he's saying that vaccines don't stop the virus from spreading, they just stop it from killing you, or making your life fucking miserable for weeks or months.

And you know I ain't Joe's biggest fan.... but it's not much of a mystery what he was saying there.

[Terry]

What Rogan didn't get and is maybe just starting to is that there is a line when it isn't just you shooting the shit getting stoned in your 'mancave' and that line is way before you have millions in your audience. If you are on Spotify being paid tens of millions you are the fucking Mainstream Media. After all these years he's still doing the bullshit he used to do when he was a moon landing denier of saying 'Hey i'm just asking questions'. I'll go straight to Hitler to save time, Rogan would have given him a 3 hour podcast saying he had some interesting ideas.

Terry, Rogan isn't stupid but he's not wise because he has no clue about critical thinking, he doesn't have any skills in working out what is true and what isn't especially when it comes to anything scientific. He's the kind of guy who believes the last thing someone said to him.

Also it's pretty ironic that if you look at virtually any story about this you have a total pile on of 100s of Rogan podcast viewers shouting everyone down about how they want to do their own research and shut up.

People seem to have forgotten that until recently his main advertiser was 'magical' brain supplements that claimed to make you smarter... talk about snake oil the jokes write themselves at that point.

Watching some of the reaction in the last week is like when you see Sharon Osbourne playing the character of the loveable mother hen on daytime TV and everyone lapping it up because they weren't paying attention during the prefame decades...

Which I wouldn't disagree with in terms of Rogan perhaps lacking wisdom re: lack of strong critical thinking skills. Like more than a few people, Rogan could well be comfortable 'knowing what they know' and nothing short of a situation that affects him personally in a manner contrary to what his beliefs were will change his thinking on any given topic.

I think I'm closer to the mindset of Nitro Express in that for me Joe Rogan is entertainment. Yes, entertainers have - for whatever reason(s) - social influence over some people. However, if people are intellectually incurious to the point where they're taking their covid cues exclusively from Joe Rogan (or whatever sports/tv/movie/internet personality figure)...I'm not sure there's much one can do with folks who are lacking in perspective and critical faculties, outside of trying (again and again, and possibly in the end to no avail) to educate them. I'm certainly not going to blame their susceptibility to dubious influence on Joe Rogan (or Alex Jones, or Kim Kardashian, or Donald Trump, or Neil Young, or Joni Mitchell or whoever).

Some folks look at the Snake Oil Salesman barking on his wooden box as entertainment that neither picks their pocket nor breaks their leg. Others buy the Magic Elixer the salesman is peddling. Doubtless there is a cost to ignorance, but it isn't illegal to be functionally illiterate. People are free to side with or be influenced by Rogan, or Young/Mitchell. People are free not to give a shit about anything Rogan, Young or Mitchell say or do.

I don't think Rogan has explicitly advocated on his podcast for his listeners not to get vaccinated, although I may be wrong about that. Even if he has, that in and of itself isn't illegal, just as it isn't illegal for people to opt out of getting vaccinated. Spotify is a privately-owned internet site/business, isn't it?

Should Rogan and everybody else - famous or not - take the time to perform due diligence about the basic science behind covid and vaccines before they go on public platforms and make pronouncements?

Yep.

The flip side of the coin for me is that I'm taking my covid cues from the scientific community, not celebrities/entertainers.

[twonabomber]

Just nonsense no one ever said it made you invincible.

Joe Biden, CNN town hall, July 2021:

This is a simple, basic proposition. If you’re vaccinated, you’re not going to be hospitalized, you’re not going to be in an ICU unit, and you are not going to die.


But, again, one last thing. We don’t talk enough to you about this, I don’t think. One last thing that’s really important is, we’re not in the position where we think that any virus, including the Delta virus, which is much more transmissible and more deadly in terms of unvaccinated people, the — the various shots that people are getting now cover that. You’re OK. You’re not going to — you’re not going to get COVID if you have these vaccinations.

[Kristy]

Well, there's always Apple Music. Remember them?

[ZahZoo]

The interesting irony of all this... is the old rebel becomes the establishment he used to call out and protest over.

The media outlier becomes the mainstream attraction which he was previous famous for bashing...

Neither party seems or appears comfortable with their role juxtaposition but has no graceful way out of the mess they created.

[Seshmeister]

Anyone who thinks Joe Rogan is a menace is an idiot.

On this one issue he has been a menace. One of my friends in his 50s cites the Rogan podcasts as the reason why he is refusing to get booster vaccine or any more COVID vaccines. This gives him a 50-80 times higher chance of being hospitalized by a COVID infection. He's fit enough so 80 times quite a small number but it is what it is.

[Nitro Express]

Anyways people need to stop wasting their time with all this entertainment shit. You know why 1% of the population control most the assets? They play the rest of the population like a fiddle with divide and conquer games and they rob everyone blind. They’ve made billions off of Covid while everyone else are running around in circles arguing over silly shit like Joe Rogan.

[Nitro Express]

Joe Rogan is entertainment. He’s not doing a medical show. He’s a pot smoking Art Bell. My hell, everyone has their panties in a bind over nothing. Fuck. Get ten doctors you will get ten different opinions. One thing for sure. If you say something the big pharmaceutical companies don’t like they will come after your ass. They are the biggest advertisers in the media and they are big lobbyists. Seems to be most the establishment is in their pocket. Anyone who thinks Joe Rogan is a menace is an idiot.

[Nitro Express]

In principle, I'd prefer a podcast that was totally uncensored. It was only a couple of weeks ago - before the Neil Young biz - that I actually watched an entire episode of Rogan's podcast, as opposed to just clips of interviews.

Dunno quite how 'counter culture' one can be on a Spotify platform making $100 million or whatever, though doubtless some who watch him regularly think he is edgy or outside the mainstream. I'm not really sure Rogan in terms of his personality or persona is quite my cup of tea, but he is not an unintelligent person to be sure. From what I can tell, his show doesn't have any direct sponsorship, which is a plus. I mean, the guy has had a massive degree of success with the podcast and according to him it all has been 100% on his terms, so who am I to nitpick?

Joe is far from done.

[FORD]