It’s said that it takes a big man to admit it when he’s wrong. It also sometimes takes at least a medium-sized man to accept an apology gracefully.
And some would say that the Establishment vs. Joe Rogan battle is at least one man short.
Rogan is America’s most popular podcaster, with each of his shows drawing approximately 11 million listeners. But he has been on the run recently due to “misinformation” allegations relating to his having interviewed guests with non-Establishment views on COVID-19. After all, nothing but the government-approved narrative is allowed now.
Rogan has apologized, too, essentially for not being perfect; that is, everyone at times spreads “misinformation,” defined as the unintentional expression of an untruth. And his mea culpa was issued at the behest of an Establishment that actively spreads disinformation, the intentional expression of untruths (a.k.a. lying). Yet it hasn’t mollified his critics.
And now the next shoe has dropped. A growing number of Rogan’s podcasts have been removed from streaming platform Spotify, with the number currently up to 113, according to JRE Missing, a site that’s tracking the episodes’ deletion.
The Daily Mail provides more details on the continuing saga:
- Spotify has been the exclusive home of The Joe Rogan Experience since the streaming giant paid $100 million in 2020
- Rogan is accused of spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines
- Musicians Neil Young, Joni Mitchell, and India Arie have pulled their music from the platform in protest
- Rogan himself has also apologized to Spotify over the backlash it’s facing
- His latest episode was uploaded to Spotify on Friday after a week-long gap
- Spotify CEO Daniel Ek has defended Rogan and said that he will continue to remain on the platform
While some have accused Rogan of “folding,” it’s not quite that simple because he’s also pushing back. As the Mail further reports, relating what he stated on his Friday podcast:
‘I put out a video a couple days ago; other than that, not much I can do,’ Rogan said, referring to his Instagram posting Sunday in which he insisted he was ‘not trying to promote misinformation.’
When you’re hearing it from people who are losing the information attention game — people like CNN — when they’re calling for other networks or shows to be censored or limited, it’s like, ‘Just do better.”
Rogan, 54, went on to state how lockdowns ‘don’t stop the spread’ of coronavirus before declaring Montreal’s 10pm curfew to be ‘wild’.
‘What happens after 10? They’re shutting down restaurants and bars in parts of Canada where they are already barely staying open, they were already barely alive,’ he explained.
Despite having a basis in science and reason, Rogan’s above remarks are of the kind that made him a target, so it’s commendable he hasn’t changed that tune. Yet there’s a new attack, with critics now maligning him for having used the n-word for illustrative purposes (not as an epithet) in older podcasts. Some, if not all, of his podcast episodes removed from Spotify are those containing the term.
Consequently, Rogan has apologized, again, issuing a video (below) that originally appeared on Instagram.
Yet this is a mistake, say many. For example, the Independent Sentinel wrote Saturday that apologizing “only makes it worse. It looks bad and it tells the Left that there’s blood in the water. They’ll come in for the kill.”
Respondents under the above YouTube video also grasp this. “What’s ironic is, the people who understand context, you don’t need to apologize to; the people who don’t, no apology will be understood,” noted commenter Dustin Mercer yesterday. “He’s trying to be sensible to ideologies that aren’t sensible,” observed “Clear Adventure.” “It never works.”
Now, Rogan has confessed to not being an expert on too many matters, to his credit. Yet this is currently a liability as naïveté is perhaps showing.
For instance, the podcaster said he never expected that anyone would smear him by putting together, out of context, a compilation (below) of his n-word use. He clearly doesn’t know the Left very well.
In reality, Rogan would’ve been wise to remember that the best defense is a good offense. He said in his n-word apology video that as soon as you have to say “I’m not racist, you’ve f****d up.” He’s right, too — but not for the reason he thinks.
Reality: As soon as you lend a racism charge credence by playing defense, you’ve fouled up.
Here’s how Rogan should’ve handled the situation. Say, “If these hypocrites are so upset about white people’s illustrative use of the n-word, then they should first get on the white music company executives who make millions putting it in songs. In fact, the cancel cultists owe me — and all of America — an apology. Because we’re tired of these lowlifes telling us how to walk and talk and act and think.”
Rogan could’ve also pointed out that Joe Biden used the n-word for illustrative purposes as well (video below).
As for “misinformation,” Rogan should’ve simply told the disinformation specialists in the mainstream media to remove the beam (click here for elaboration) from their own eye before worrying about the speck in his.
Apologizing here is a no-no, however. Oh, Rogan perhaps did what he did because he’s a man’s man. Yet while we should apologize in interpersonal relationships when we’re wrong, never say sorry merely for being politically incorrect. Moreover, never apologize to leftists collectively, for a simple reason:
They’re not operating in good faith.
They’re not interested in reconciliation or finding common ground, but in destroying you by any means necessary. And an apology to them is like chum to sharks: They swarm and pounce.
Such capitulation also robs you of support. As I explained in 2016:
Imagine you went to a John Wayne movie years ago and the Duke, instead of being an intrepid champion of good, sheepishly apologized to the villain. You might have wanted your money back. For a hero stands up for what’s right, against all odds and even in a hail of bullets. And were he to back down, he would relinquish hero status.
Yet backing down is par for the course when confronted by the thought police. People will cower and apologize — thus relinquishing any support they might have had. Why would fellow citizens stand up for you if you won’t even stand up for yourself?
Rogan’s loss of support is evident, too, in the comments under his apology video. “The only people Joe needs to apologize to are the people that listen to him for capitulating to the people that don’t listen to him,” wrote viewer Roxanne Barton. “So sad to watch.”
“[W]e believed he was a thought leader just like you but he’s no one special[,] clearly,” added another respondent.
The lesson here is simple: If you’re a Braveheart facing down devils against all odds, many run with you. If you run for cover, you run alone.
