Cancel Culture isn’t done with Joe Rogan yet.
What’s clear, though, is the first attempts to silence the world’s most famous podcaster failed in more ways than one.
The burly comic survived rocker Neil Young’s cancellation crusade earlier this year. The musician yanked his iconic tracks from Spotify, home to “The Joe Rogan Experience,” to protest Rogan’s supposed “misinformation.” The media and progressive Left scurried to Young’s side, along with musicians like David Crosby, Joni Mitchell and India.Arie.
Rogan backpedaled and apologized after an embarrassing montage of out-of-context- “n-words” went viral and vowed to do better. And for those who understand Cancel Culture 101, he gave his critics more ammunition.
As Adam Carolla astutely observed, “you retreat, they encroach.”
But a funny thing happened since then. Rogan stopped apologizing and got back behind his microphone. More importantly, he didn’t change his ways. Sure, he’s not talking about COVID-19 as much as before (who is?), but he’s revisiting his preferred targets — media corruption and Big Tech censorship — with equal, if not extra, vigor.
Rogan recently railed against woke attacks on his line of business, comedy. He chatted with fellow stand-up Tom Papa, and the two commiserated on the lack of R-rated comedies in the Age of Woke.
Where are the “Hangovers,” “Wedding Crashers” and “Step Brothers,” raucous comedies you can’t wait to tell your friends about, the duo asked? Woke culture, Rogan declared, killed the comedy movie. He even diagnosed a key reason why.
“There’s a weird thing that happens when you’re making fun of something … it’s supposedly an endorsement of what that activity is, even if it’s completely unacceptable.”
A great example? USA Today savaged the iconic college comedy “Animal House,” in part, because John Belushi’s character peeps into a sorority house’s bedroom.
Rogan also teed off on Big Pharma, once targeted by the Left but now part of the COVID-19 narrative that shant be questioned. He called the heads of major pharmaceutical companies, “the lyingest liars that ever lied.”
That episode featured another concept the Left loathes – forgiving past transgressions. Guest Daryl Davis, who is black, famously bonds with racists to help them change their hateful ways. And it often works — witness the KKK hoods he has in his possession, donated to him by former racists who grew as a result of their time with Davis.
That same “JRE” episode found the host questioning platforms like Facebook and Twitter which aggressively silence voices that often deserve a fair hearing.
“There’s an ideology that’s patched to all the big tech companies. … you have to be what they think is woke. Right? You have to subscribe to a certain way of thinking and anyone who deviates from that line of thinking gets suppressed, minimized, or banned!”
Rogan also won’t stop hammering CNN, the far-Left news organization which directly maligned him last year following his brief battle with COVID-19. CNN, like too many other outlets, incorrectly said Rogan took “horse dewormer,” AKA Ivermectin, to fend off the virus.
Rogan skewered that untruth on his podcast, even to CNN contributor Dr. Sunjay Gupta’s face.
He’s still pummeling CNN these days, saying the cable channel lacks honesty.
“If you’re in business and your business is the news and you want to get more people to pay attention, you should be honest …And my thoughts for CNN, my advice to them: I don’t hate CNN. I used to go to them every day for the news until they start f—-ng hatin’ on me.”
Rogan isn’t just focused on CNN’s duplicity. He’s aghast at extreme media bias.
“[Reporters] don’t just love a good story, they love a narrative. And they’re willing to ignore facts to promote that narrative. That’s what scares me.”
That conversation naturally segued to the Hunter Biden laptop story, which Big Tech and mainstream media outlets treated like a “Bat Boy” update from Weekly World News when it was, in fact, accurate.
“It’s safe to say some f***ery is afoot … no one’s apologized.”
It helps to understand why Rogan’s critics attack him in the first place.
Why not similarly target “The View,” the syndicated talk show which regularly spews misinformation? Need one example? The ill-informed panel warned children are at significant risk of death from COVID-19. That kind of reportage does real harm.
What about outlets NPR which threw professionalism to the wind in order to dismiss the Biden laptop story without doing any real reporting to disprove it, let alone the Russian collusion hoax?
Besides, Rogan isn’t a news anchor or pundit. He’s not even conservative, although his enemies lazily dub him “right wing,” much like the current assault on fellow firebrand Russell Brand.
He became Public Enemy No. 1 because he has a huge following, and critics wanted him to stop questioning their preferred narratives. If Rogan spent his time blasting Fox News and Fauci critics, they wouldn’t mind if he swore the moon was made of swiss cheese.
Or, if he won’t stop debunking narratives, Spotify must censor his show.
Spotify stood by their massive investment. Rogan, for his part, refused to do what Jimmy Fallon did after the “Tonight Show” host playfully tousled Donald Trump’s hair weeks before the 2016 presidential election. Fallon became Stephen Colbert Lite, turning his NBC platform into another progressive mouthpiece.
Rogan bent but did not break.
He’s still questioning authority, still sharing content that made him a superstar in the first place. He hasn’t chatted up controversial figures like Dr. Robert Malone or Alex Jones lately, but it’s clear he’s doing his podcast his way… still.
And, unless his critics can uncover more damaging material in his past, he will survive the current and future fights.
The views expressed in this opinion piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.