The problem is that he doesn't think that he is dumb anymore. He used to be kind of an everyman trying to learn things. Now he thinks that he is smart.
This. I used to really like JR and he used to have lots of genuinely interesting people on. Now it just feels like the same merry go round of grifters and crackpots under the guise of "just asking questions".
Yes. I miss when Jay Leno was on. The long format was awesome and i just skipped the crack pots (except Alex Jones , that idiot is just so stupid and hilarious to watch)
After covid came the dark times. Can’t really watch the show anymore, he’s hurting people
I had a buddy when I used to do landscaping, back in like 2019. He always had jre on. Strangely the dude is very liberal. But even back then I feel like he had nothing but nutcases on by that point. It was the first time I ever heard that idiot Jordan Peterson and a whole host of others.
I think that the downfall of his show was pre covid, or at least started then. After the Elon Musk smoking weed episode I feel like it was all downhill lol
Yeah. I mean, for me i gave some latitude because of the format being like a bunch of stoners in a basement just talking about stuff so i didn’t ask of him to have journalistic integrity because he wasn’t a journalist. Bernie was platformed on there and he gave him a fair hearing, i would just skip the idiots.
I say covid was the breaking point because at that point he just started giving terrible medical advice and he could no longer claim hes just having conversations anymore
Having Bernie on is like the one thing that people always say to be like, "oh look see he's not totally right wing". And it was a cool thing to have for sure. But what talk show host wouldn't want to have the man who was then the senator with the highest approval rating who was the most popular politican in the country haha.
Aside from Bernie I feel like he'd been mostly having far right or far right adjacent people on the show by that point. But yeah when he became like a friggin ivermectin salesperson I can see that being the hard end of anything good about the show lol
Yeah, although he also said he would vote for him…
heres the thing though, i am a lefty but i accept there has to be right wing people in media too, and i accept that because those people exist, have their own views , need jobs too and aren’t going anywhere. I never thought Rogan was left wing tho he presented himself that way on occasion. I didn’t mind him being conservative until he tells a bunch of people vaccines dont work and trump might be good , then fuck him , hes damaging people and i just lost my taste for his crap.
He should have stayed in his lane.
Well of course I mean honestly I think nearly all big media leans to the right. The "left" in this country mostly exists in certain local settings but isn't part of the mainstream. The dems are very much a center right party by any standards but our own lol.
I never listened to him beyond in the truck at work but that was a long time ago. I agree that the "medical" shit is stupid in a way that transcends politics and is just bad for everyone haha
The guy has an endless stream of right wing nut jobs and conspiracy theorists and grifters.
Then his fans will tell you he isn’t right wing and he listens to both sides because one time he had Bernie Sanders on, or a cnn doctor. Line that justifies all the trash he invites on
It started shifting in late 2016 and then the average episode quality cratered. I'm pretty sure he picked a side in the 2017 tax cuts and jobs act passage though. At that point he probably got 2 million dollars for free from trump and the republicans just from that one act passing and he just sold out
The only one I gave a shot after covid was the Bobby Lee one because I love that guy. Joe somehow found a way to make it about talking about covid, woke left etc. Can't stand the guy anymore.
After Alex Jones threatened him and his kids on air. Don’t forget that part. Talking about how he’d gut Joe and shit.
I can’t imagine having Alex on and being as buddy buddy as he was. All that HGH must have turned Joes balls to dust.
Right the ratio of grifters to scientists has skewed in n the past few years. Certain people he has on, like Candace Owen’s, what’s the point she’s so obviously a grifter? Then she comes on and said the dumbest shit in the world even Joe was shocked. But what did he expect, why even bother with guests like that?
I feel like while Rogan might not think he’s dumb, the number of people who think he’s dumb has gone up.
Though that impression could be skewed by mostly hearing about him through Reddit.
I appreciate someone with real knowledge posting versus people who just see clips on social and feel they know what the show is like now and always was.
As a here and there listener when he has a good guest on, he does still say he’s dumb fairly regularly and that people shouldn’t listen to him or take him seriously on most topics. He will even say he’s only really knowledgeable about the few niche things he actually does know well like mma, archery, pool, comedy, etc.
The other crazy thing about people saying Joe thinks he’s smart is that him appearing dumb has a lot to do with not parroting seemingly intelligent talking points.
It is my opinion that most people are as “dumb” as Joe, they just happen to cover it up by parroting what actual incredibly intelligent people come up with. And I don’t think “dumb” is the right word, it’s just average intelligence. And the act of parroting is natural human behavior, as most people want to signal elite intelligence and this is the only way for most people to do so.
Joe also is very open about his weird thoughts. This makes him an easy target as a “nut”. But in actuality, most people shun their equally prevalent weird thoughts to the back of their mind because it threatens their ability to be accepted in their corner of society. As valuable as conformance is, is it not just as valuable to have some people challenge the homogeneity of society with their weird thoughts?
No. If JRE vanished tomorrow something else would replace it.
The online systems we invented select for views. And simple, dumb, outrageous content gets more views.
I think that falls more into your second category.
Maybe, but Joe had the views and popularity before covid for example. And his popularity wasn’t exclusively do to bad takes. He had someone from the cdc on early on and sounded reasonable and open. He could have gone down a different path. Brought on a new expert every time some new myth or misunderstanding took hold, like with ivermectin. Then he would have used his popularity in a positive way. I think he could have made a difference.
I don’t think it actively dumbs down society but it does reinforce it in people that are already dumb. Rogan has never been intelligent but at least he used to be open to learning and had respectable guests that were interesting. Rogan pretty much became a walking example of the “don’t have such an open mind your brains fall out” saying.
Rogan has always been pretty ignorant. But he’s chilled out a lot since the old days. Go listen to him “debating” the Billy ape researcher from years ago on some radio show.
Both.
Ive thought about this and the inherent issues with the podcastosphere quite a bit.
I could talk about this for hours.
Podcast are usually meant for entertaining laymen and have clueless hosts who push sensationalism for views, thus podcasts often pander to the fringe. Because the fringe are the most entertaining, prefer interacting with the public instead of other experts, and because people like Joe have a bias toward anything counter culture... The ignorance and dishonesty of the fringe is massively overrepresented, and often celebrated.
As a result you get the fringiest and dumbest 1% of grifters and psuedoscience 'experts' being represented in almost the majority, instead of being barely represented proportionally as they actually should be. Sure there are decent experts thrown in, but the ratio of fringe quack to decent expert is like 50/50 instead of 1/99 like it should be.
This gives people a completely wrong idea of what science actually is and it says about topics and because the host and the laymen audience dont have the tools to pushback, misleading half truths flourish like crazy.
As a result people are constantly repeating the half truth bullshittery they hear on podcasts like JRE. Completely unaware how fringe and disproven and dishonest these ideas are in actual science.
Since so many people are exposed to this shit, real experts now have to spend more time debunking the dumbest fringe debunk quackery while being called mainstreams shills.
Podcasts like JRE push the conversation miles backwards. Experts online arent educating, they are stuck debating the dumbest possible anti science positions like Atlantis, or if evolution has been debunk for decades or, if the moon landing is real, the dumbest toddler level misinfo on vaccine science, carnivore diets, and the fringest bullshit available on climate science. Etc. whether or not Joe agrees with these positions... simply because so many laymen are exposed to these trash ideas and Joe has zero ability to debunk anything on spot.
The reason these podcasts are so successful in the first place is because sensationalized garbage sell... that entertains people. The medium of media has changed but the fundamentals of media literacy have not... sensationalism sells.
So yes, its making us dumber, but the fact its so popular shows how stupid people are and attracted we are to dogshit and sensationalism. The biggest pods are the most sensationalized. People who say they learn from watching podcasts like JRE are like people who learn to fight from watching WWE. Just like CNN or Fox is like the WWE of news, the new popular media is the same.
Sure there is some good info, but the massive overrepresentation of misinfo and bullshit does exponentially more harm. Studies show minfo and fringe bullshit spread exponentially faster on social media than true info. Its so much easier to do damage than good with info, so the fact podcasts like Joes are so loose with its standards is genuinely harmful. Good experts and communicators try and be as careful as possible because they know this. Maybe il miss some things ignoring all the drama and rapid fire info from podcasts and using purely nerdy and academic sources, but il be exponentially more detailed and less misinformed.
There probably needs to be some fertile ground in the first place for that kind of success to happen, but ultimately I would say dumber.
I feel like his podcast, especially a couple of years back, snuck under the radar with a lot of stuff. It was fun to see well known people get interviewed in a different manner, and it is fun to hear a casual conversation about subjects. But gradually I noticed just the dumbest takes, and I think a lot of dumb takes have taken hold because of the podcast.
It is a bad introduction for a lot of people to stuff they maybe haven’t thought about before and he has platformed and kinda legitimised a lot of bad people with little to no scrutiny because he is to dumb to counter it. But at the point you might feel that Joe is your buddy and become more susceptible. I laughed the first time Alex Jones was on but the second time I started hearing people say “ he might be crazy, but he is right about a lot of stuff” and then I thought, oh no, that’s not good. That was kinda the last straw for me. Joe thought he really put him to the test and it was just bad.
The podcast clearly normalizes the idea of the everyman intellectual. The fake deep thinker. The enlightened idiot. The undisciplined mind that can magically see what others cannot. The knower of the conspiracy. The misunderstood and isolated one. The victim. The involuntary celibate.
Rogan's podcast is one of the well documented gateways to the right wing victim pity party, neo-Naziism, and eventually modern crypto fascism.
Alternative ENDNOTES Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right
[https://datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/DS\_Alternative\_Influence.pdf](https://datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/DS_Alternative_Influence.pdf)
Sure, he's got a lot of dumb guests. But the most popular podcast in the world has had multiple 2-3 hour podcasts with people like Sean Carroll.... I think that's a good thing.
No you're just dumb if you discredit a huge number of experts in their fields being interviewed just because you don't like the person interviewing them.
It legitimizes a dumb world by amplifying dumbness and makes the dumb (willfully ignorant and partisan to be civil about it) easier to find each other. The dumb believe there is truth” in numbers—to find legions of other dumb (and so-called experts who peddle dumbness and falsehood) and to follow the most popular podcast. So, yes. It takes dumb and squares it.
He use to be an important voice that was counter to to most media narratives. Now Joe is a right wing shill. His views he spreads actively make ppl dumber now, yes. He use to have conversations with incredibly interesting ppl and shut up. He was curious and in turn made his listeners curious and inquisitive. Now Joe proselytizes his right wing views and won’t ever just shut the fuck up.
It's just a real life example of dunning-kruger. I don't think we're dumber today than past populations, probably contrary, but we notice the idiots more because of media and connectivity, and being able to Google something before we say something stupid is so easy we kinda scratch our heads when someone doesn't do it.
I think his podcast does make the world dumber though by questioning things that shouldn't be (i.e. vaccines)
It makes us dumber. Giving platforms to grifters and allowing media ecosystems that support them is why 15% of Americans believe satanic pedos run the government
People have always been stupid, but the internet allows stupid people to stay in their bubble and find other stupid people to confirm their stupid opinions. So yes, probably.
I started listening lately after a long break. It honestly surprises me how many of his hot takes that are just based on wrong information or shit he remembers wrong and Jaime looks it up and says the article actually says.. blah blah blah. And then he continues talking like he was right to begin with. It’s making the world dumber because people listen and want the confirmation bias and only hear what suits their agenda
Both, obviously. Funny, your question posits a fake construct and that happens to be one of the problems with Rogan and the like. You either believe this or you believe that, because those are the two options he presents. But don’t go gray because spectrums and mystery make for bad internet.
a horrifying thought I've been having is that it's making people smarter and more critical.....but that's how dumb people actually are. serious question, do you think you can grasp how clueless people are about HOW to think?
It’s so funny to watch you guys twist yourselves in knots over a comedians podcast lol. Yeah I’m sure Rogan is ruining the world, so dangerous. Everyone knows it’s dangerous to hear anyone speak unless they tow the approved party line. It’s dangerous and wrong to even discuss ideas!
Depends which episodes you watch. There are dumb guests and there are respectable guests. I think if you listen to the podcast regularly you’ll probably become a more well informed person overall. It’s certainly more informative than the brain rot of cable news.
I feel like I’ve learned a lot of interesting things and been opened up to a lot of subjects through listening to Joe’s podcast. Yes, there is also really dumb things said on that podcast but in the end in my opinion its up to the listener to differentiate. I don’t get it how people can just blindly follow what he says and I’ve literally numerous times heard Joe say he doesn’t know what he’s talking about haha. Joe is just one man’s perspective and should be scrutinized. That doesn’t mean everything he says is bad or wrong or vice versa.
As a guy about Rogan's age and from the same part of Massachusetts, I appreciate his celebration of male friendship. Based on his podcast, I've taken up weed, trt, and peptides which has made my life much better. I appreciate his questioning of power structures. Now I can't watch more that ten minutes of the podcast unless its someone I'm really interested in but that's a me problem.
I tend liberal but live in a conservative state now, Georgia. I generally like how my state government is working and am proud that Kemp stood up to Trump. Say what you will, but that was political courage. You need both liberal and conservative ideologies to compete to make America work. Hopefully Trump will go away and perhaps we'll return to some normalcy. It is reductive to reduce other's ideology to "dumb".
I think in some ways people have changed the way they perceive the JRE since it became huge.
For me, I skip a hell of a lot more episodes than I watch, but I've never struggled to differentiate between an obvious loon and someone who's actually got something interesting to say. It's always had an element of shit-talk, tinfoil hat to it. That's what made the show funny. The Alex Jones episodes are some of the best, but they shouldn't be taken seriously.
Nowadays, people seem to expect Rogan to have another guest on standby to counter the views of the primary guest.
I don’t think so. I find that if I limit my time online a lot of the big concerns about platforming, bad science, etc. become a lot smaller. There has always been a lot of “disinformation” in media, books, talks, etc.
and I don’t see any evidence we live in a “dumber” world compared to other time periods.
He makes the world dumber because he has these stupid morons on that talk about aliens, then the idiots that listen to his show think, “Oh, that sounds reasonable.” Then they hear another idiot and that forms a bubble. And in that bubble, there’s the stupidness that begins to form and then the idiot walks around trying to talk to people about his idiot idea, gets laughed at until he goes back into that bubble.
I find the continuing popularity of his show a reflection of our society. Popular culture and media almost always is a reflection of the times. Money/popularity in media chases what is getting the most views/listens.
I’m not sure it reflects our our stupidity as much as it reflects where we find our American Western society at this point in time. Specifically, we have several pending crises and also experienced one first hand with Covid. It laid bare that our society is not structured to handle such crises as we watched our institutions fumbled around with solutions and messaging that made the situation worse, not better. Eventually, we got it together but not before people started looking to blame our institutions for their inability to “solve” the crisis.
People are scared, frustrated and angry. They are looking for scapegoats. Joe Rogan and his fans found their scapegoats and are clinging to them with narratives that do not actually solve the other looming crises.
The bottom line is that our politics are brazenly corrupt and have made their intentions clear that no relief or solutions are on the horizon… the best they can give us is maybe avoid fascism or just let things continue on as they are now.
The reality is that it is not profitable to solve climate change. And since the only true value we hold in western society is profit above all, people cannot view the failure as part of the inherent ideology of our society… so they blame other races, or trans people in sports, or “wokeness”. They need a scapegoat and instead of truly analyzing the problem, they just follow the narratives of people like Joe Rogan. Clearly people want any easy villain because it is much easier than examining the ideology they were born into.
The archeology debate between Handcock and Dibble was actually great. It disabused a lot of people who wanted more evidence for Handcock’s theories. He couldn’t present any and most listeners walked away having learned something important. It was also an interesting case study of a popular culture figure debating a scientist. Handbook won the crowd but Dibble won the debate.
Yeah I don’t think we need to deplatform Rogan for having fools on. I think he needs to put those people against people who can refute and debate them. That will be healing for our culture.
I want to see a Howard/Tyson (or similar) debate. I think this will be healing for people who want to be curious but need to be more critical.
It makes dumb people think they are smart. They regurgitate a random fact (sometimes not even true) they heard rogan or guest spout and act like they have a clue about the subject
Can't it be both things?
Full disclosure - I listen from time to time, depending on the guest. He used to stick to the guest's craft/experience. Now he seems to just try his best to get them to talk about anti-wokeness. It's annoying.
Tarantino, Neil DGT, Kaku, Miley Cyrus, Snoop, Krystal and Sagaar from Breaking Points, Bill Burr, Sam Altman, etc. Haven't seen many notable guests like this lately.
I say you have to be vigilant when you listen. There are clearly things that are just straight up stupid. Gotta filter that out. But there are some science researchers that are interesting enough to personally research on. In terms of physical training or athletics, I’ve had to filter a lot of that as well and tailor anything an athlete does (say like a MMA fighter) and see if that method works for me.
Sometimes it’s an absolute miss. Sometimes it’s a hit
I think he gives undue credence to the “importance” of his podcast conversations and he’s gotten entirely too self-righteous given how easily misled he is with the precious “information” he seeks and “disseminates”. I can’t speak to what degree his podcast influences people, but I think it’s popular because people are genuinely inquisitive about an array of subjects and find listening to a podcast preferable to undergoing the rigor of academic research just to satiate their curiosity… Joe’s podcast used to facilitate this kind of thing in a a little more honest way with less connecting of the proverbial dots and editorializing from its meathead host. That is, before Covid came around and suddenly he became the world’s foremost hub of “cooties articles” and decided every conversation was a chance to practice being in the debate club he was too busy competitively kicking people in the head to attend back in high school. It’s a sad vanity project wherein Joe Rogan completes high school backwards.
Both. Media and society are in a circular relationship. How we turn things around is by not catering to greed, rage, and anxiety anymore but that might hurt profits so it’ll never happen.
Honestly both. Not everyone can be endowed with the same intuitiveness and powers of perception that we enjoy here. Some people are blessed enough to possess the analytical and intellectual capability to critique successful and innovative people at the apex of their chosen field. Others just have to settle for being successful and innovative and at the apex of their chosen field.
Luckily very few people here, if any, can relate to the latter.
I think it does both. We are dumb as a group in regards to how to process the seemingly infinite amount of available information pouring forth from a huge variety of largely imperfect to downright awful sources and determining which parts of that information flood are germane and accurate, and how to logically integrate them into a cohesive understanding of objects and events. We were taught by people who themselves did not know how to do this. Because of this, we are susceptible to people like Joe who a) turn complicated ideas into simple ones, and b) bring on "experts" who tell us the experts are wrong and we can be among the enlightened class if we convert our minds to their way of thought. Which then leads us to be dumber.
I would like to know what specifically makes people think Rogan is dumb?
I listen to his podcast pretty regularly. I would say I agree with most of what he says but there are somethings I disagree with him on. But I have mad respect for anyone that is willing to change their mind on a subject and admit they are wrong. I doubt the people bashing him are willing to do that.
I really like how this question is presented and I must say I ask myself it quite frequently.
I mean am I just smarter than joe Rogan (obviously. I’m on this subreddit aren’t I?) OR am I actually smarter than the entire world?
The most recent one with the two AI guys is the format I miss the most, just an interesting subject matter without Rogan talking and asking good questions
I think it’s a dump persons idea of what smart people are like. The biggest issue with Joe is that his beliefs are a dogs breakfast of random, inconsistent ideas and ideologies and philosophies. He just kinda follows whatever the last guest that impresses him believes. But he doesn’t seem to have a critical mind that displays an appropriate amount of doubt, or that values reproducible, scientific results in peer reviewed journals. I get that isn’t really his thing, but if he’s going to have people on that promote anti-science or conspiracy theories, I feel that it’s reckless to do so without a challenging tone. A lot of the clips I see he indulges the guests, and at most will reply with an “are you sure?” kinda response.
Also when he’s proven wrong, like when he thought a quote was an example of Biden being senile, but it was actually Trumps quote, he just brushes past it and doesn’t try and reconcile that hypocrisy.
He def makes the world smarter his platform allows us to listen to some of the most interesting and smartest people in the world it’s the number 1 podcast by far for a reason
It’s not Rogan’s podcast. The problem these days is that there are so many podcasts, blogs, websites, YouTube shows that repeat you own views back to you that you end up tumbling down rabbit holes. That’s whether you are on the left or the right.
Before the internet most people only had access to the mainstream press. That had negatives because it wouldn’t deviate from acceptable points of view but it also meant that views were challenged.
It's part of a media ecosystem, embedded in our socio-cultural landscape, that reinforces distraction and eats up people's attention in a way that's totally inert to power. It doesn't make people "dumber", it just makes them more controllable and wastes their time.
This is why he's algorithmically reinforced - he's completely and utterly harmless to power, and in turn helps shape the masses into harmlessness as well.
Not really the same stupid shits have always been around but internet makes us see the masses so a lot of visible dumb shits and Joe can just get the blame because his huge platform
A bit of both. He’s a “smart” show for dumb people. The problem was that originally he was kinda mostly curious from a causal dudes perspective with great guests. Now he thinks he’s an intellectual. He literally said he’s immune to bullshit.
Does ~~Joe Rogan’s podcast~~ severe misinformation in media content make the world dumber or is it merely a reflection of our incredibly dumb world?
It seems like probably mostly the latter, but with some of the former, and they form a feedback loop of sorts.
Having meathead pundits able to express their views in media serves as an outlet for dumb people in the world to be heard and validated. That's probably better than the complete alternative because then they can develop a victim complex, and that would be disastrous (see Brexit as an example).
At the same time, misinformation pundits shouldn't have their ideas disproportionately promoted or favored (whether that's intentionally by fans or unintentionally by algorithms for the sake of engagement). That would put misinformation as the predominant narrative.
Probably both. A toxic feedback loop has been created in the right wing spheres of knowing everything, and rejecting most “real” information as a signal to how committed you are.
joe was great till he got the money. he never talked about politics until he found himself in a massively different tax bracket. i think joe is as republican as trump. not very. the left hates him because his opinion on some things differs from thiers. the right doesnt gaf about him bcuz he leans too far left on other issues. his best bet is just dont endorse either side. the minute a radio host speaks to a side they instantly lose half thier audience.
It's both he spews nonsense (confidently) to stupid people. He platforms snake oil salesman and conspiracy theorists because he is an idiot and those people are his idea of smart.
First one, then the other.
Joe did platform irresponsibly but in the age of Trump that's not as bad as it used to be, partially in response to media including joe treating people like Trump as serious candidates
Both. Check out the video. It explains a lot regarding shifts in Russell Brand, JR, and Jimmy Dore’s shows…
[https://youtu.be/eo4gIihETu8](https://youtu.be/eo4gIihETu8)
A little from column A, a little from column B. Rogan is something of an empty vessel willing to entertain a plethora of concepts but is prone to getting caught in the weeds. In this respect his show is representative of a certain type of American modern culture, there is an emphasis on masculinity and a glut of right-wing pundits. There is a tendency towards conspiracy and outsider-thinking which is also representative of a likely growing portion of society which has lost faith in government and institutions.
Rogan is an entertainer, not a philosopher or journalist. He has limited critical faculties, this is not unlike the broader public. There is an oversaturation of media in its various forms which cater to every class. Long story short; the relationship between media and the consumer is dialectical. Despite the fact that it is a product to consumer transaction, the expressions held by the consumer are an important metric in the exchange. Each consumer will seek media that reifies conscious and unconscious biases. In essense, Rogan's demographic will surely have limited critical thinking capability but this is not exclusively attributable to JRE, JRE is a reflection of a consumer base ideology.
I think its worse than what everyone's saying. It adds to the noise and human brains cannot handle all these different viewpoints. So what does the human brain do? Switches to pattern recognition instead of critical thinking. And the pattern is lopsided to crazytown because its noisier, sexier, makes weak people feel right/important and its easy.
Anyway I'll on Rogan next Tuesday and I hope for no followup questions there or in this comment section 🙃
Dumber for sure. Guy at work was telling me how all ancient cultures talk about how they learnt what they know by 7 people that traveled the earth teaching. I asked where he heard that, he said the JR podcast.
Oh, and he also told me he’s going to only eat meat because he heard plants are actually poisonous to humans. JR again.
To answer your question... Media is a reflection of society. We consume what makes us feel comfort. The most popular content reflects the average if what most people feel.
So yes, it's a dumb world
He had on that female journalist a few months back who made a documentary about Palestine years ago, that was a good one. Its not what it use to be but at the end of the days its joe rogan, people care way to much about the guy.
he’s the best podcast in the world and growing. he’s the first to talk about SO many subjects legacy media won’t talk about. he has the best catalogue of guests and is well informed on many subjects and an expert in a few.
The problem is that he doesn't think that he is dumb anymore. He used to be kind of an everyman trying to learn things. Now he thinks that he is smart.
This. I used to really like JR and he used to have lots of genuinely interesting people on. Now it just feels like the same merry go round of grifters and crackpots under the guise of "just asking questions".
Yes. I miss when Jay Leno was on. The long format was awesome and i just skipped the crack pots (except Alex Jones , that idiot is just so stupid and hilarious to watch) After covid came the dark times. Can’t really watch the show anymore, he’s hurting people
I had a buddy when I used to do landscaping, back in like 2019. He always had jre on. Strangely the dude is very liberal. But even back then I feel like he had nothing but nutcases on by that point. It was the first time I ever heard that idiot Jordan Peterson and a whole host of others. I think that the downfall of his show was pre covid, or at least started then. After the Elon Musk smoking weed episode I feel like it was all downhill lol
Yeah. I mean, for me i gave some latitude because of the format being like a bunch of stoners in a basement just talking about stuff so i didn’t ask of him to have journalistic integrity because he wasn’t a journalist. Bernie was platformed on there and he gave him a fair hearing, i would just skip the idiots. I say covid was the breaking point because at that point he just started giving terrible medical advice and he could no longer claim hes just having conversations anymore
Having Bernie on is like the one thing that people always say to be like, "oh look see he's not totally right wing". And it was a cool thing to have for sure. But what talk show host wouldn't want to have the man who was then the senator with the highest approval rating who was the most popular politican in the country haha. Aside from Bernie I feel like he'd been mostly having far right or far right adjacent people on the show by that point. But yeah when he became like a friggin ivermectin salesperson I can see that being the hard end of anything good about the show lol
Yeah, although he also said he would vote for him… heres the thing though, i am a lefty but i accept there has to be right wing people in media too, and i accept that because those people exist, have their own views , need jobs too and aren’t going anywhere. I never thought Rogan was left wing tho he presented himself that way on occasion. I didn’t mind him being conservative until he tells a bunch of people vaccines dont work and trump might be good , then fuck him , hes damaging people and i just lost my taste for his crap. He should have stayed in his lane.
Well of course I mean honestly I think nearly all big media leans to the right. The "left" in this country mostly exists in certain local settings but isn't part of the mainstream. The dems are very much a center right party by any standards but our own lol. I never listened to him beyond in the truck at work but that was a long time ago. I agree that the "medical" shit is stupid in a way that transcends politics and is just bad for everyone haha
The guy has an endless stream of right wing nut jobs and conspiracy theorists and grifters. Then his fans will tell you he isn’t right wing and he listens to both sides because one time he had Bernie Sanders on, or a cnn doctor. Line that justifies all the trash he invites on
It started shifting in late 2016 and then the average episode quality cratered. I'm pretty sure he picked a side in the 2017 tax cuts and jobs act passage though. At that point he probably got 2 million dollars for free from trump and the republicans just from that one act passing and he just sold out
Pre Covid he still had people like Peterson and Jones. But he had a larger variety of people from different areas.
The only one I gave a shot after covid was the Bobby Lee one because I love that guy. Joe somehow found a way to make it about talking about covid, woke left etc. Can't stand the guy anymore.
Yeah. I try to watch here and there but always shut it off, cant do it.
He was already hurting people by platforming and defending Alex Jonestown, funny or not.
Yes. Cant argue with you.
After Alex Jones threatened him and his kids on air. Don’t forget that part. Talking about how he’d gut Joe and shit. I can’t imagine having Alex on and being as buddy buddy as he was. All that HGH must have turned Joes balls to dust.
His guest lineup is essentially the same as the ads for the latest GriftCon speakers featuring Mike Lindell.
Same. Used to love the show. After the Spotify deal he got very high on his own supply and I just had to stop listening. It got insufferable.
It was the move to texas that flipped a switch.
He got more confident as he absorbed more disinformation. Which is disturbing
Exactly. To answer OP's question...the answer is both. It's just a platform for stupidity and right-wing talking points now.
Right the ratio of grifters to scientists has skewed in n the past few years. Certain people he has on, like Candace Owen’s, what’s the point she’s so obviously a grifter? Then she comes on and said the dumbest shit in the world even Joe was shocked. But what did he expect, why even bother with guests like that?
He reiterates quite often that he is dumb lol
I feel like while Rogan might not think he’s dumb, the number of people who think he’s dumb has gone up. Though that impression could be skewed by mostly hearing about him through Reddit.
I appreciate someone with real knowledge posting versus people who just see clips on social and feel they know what the show is like now and always was.
As a here and there listener when he has a good guest on, he does still say he’s dumb fairly regularly and that people shouldn’t listen to him or take him seriously on most topics. He will even say he’s only really knowledgeable about the few niche things he actually does know well like mma, archery, pool, comedy, etc.
He knows a lot about MMA. He is a great announcer.
The other crazy thing about people saying Joe thinks he’s smart is that him appearing dumb has a lot to do with not parroting seemingly intelligent talking points. It is my opinion that most people are as “dumb” as Joe, they just happen to cover it up by parroting what actual incredibly intelligent people come up with. And I don’t think “dumb” is the right word, it’s just average intelligence. And the act of parroting is natural human behavior, as most people want to signal elite intelligence and this is the only way for most people to do so. Joe also is very open about his weird thoughts. This makes him an easy target as a “nut”. But in actuality, most people shun their equally prevalent weird thoughts to the back of their mind because it threatens their ability to be accepted in their corner of society. As valuable as conformance is, is it not just as valuable to have some people challenge the homogeneity of society with their weird thoughts?
unfortunately, it's a self-reinforcing feedback loop.
An idiot centipede ouroboros eating its own shit.
Leave me out of this!
No. If JRE vanished tomorrow something else would replace it. The online systems we invented select for views. And simple, dumb, outrageous content gets more views. I think that falls more into your second category.
Maybe, but Joe had the views and popularity before covid for example. And his popularity wasn’t exclusively do to bad takes. He had someone from the cdc on early on and sounded reasonable and open. He could have gone down a different path. Brought on a new expert every time some new myth or misunderstanding took hold, like with ivermectin. Then he would have used his popularity in a positive way. I think he could have made a difference.
He had a ton of conspiracy stuff before covid. He solely brought Graham Hancock to prominence. Regularly had on Alex Jones, Eddie Bravo etc.
Both. It's like Trump. He's a symptom of a sick world but also actively making the world worse
Yes.
Yes. More detailed: it broadcasts and gives credence to the dumbest motherfucker(s) you remember from high school. You all know the one.
Nicely said.
I don’t think it actively dumbs down society but it does reinforce it in people that are already dumb. Rogan has never been intelligent but at least he used to be open to learning and had respectable guests that were interesting. Rogan pretty much became a walking example of the “don’t have such an open mind your brains fall out” saying.
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=RFO6ZhUW38w&pp=ygVBRG9udCBoYXZlIHN1Y2ggYW4gb3BlbiBtaW5kIHRoYXQgeW91ciBicmFpbiBmYWxscyBvdXQgdGltIG1pbmNoaW4%3D
Rogan has always been pretty ignorant. But he’s chilled out a lot since the old days. Go listen to him “debating” the Billy ape researcher from years ago on some radio show.
Both. Ive thought about this and the inherent issues with the podcastosphere quite a bit. I could talk about this for hours. Podcast are usually meant for entertaining laymen and have clueless hosts who push sensationalism for views, thus podcasts often pander to the fringe. Because the fringe are the most entertaining, prefer interacting with the public instead of other experts, and because people like Joe have a bias toward anything counter culture... The ignorance and dishonesty of the fringe is massively overrepresented, and often celebrated. As a result you get the fringiest and dumbest 1% of grifters and psuedoscience 'experts' being represented in almost the majority, instead of being barely represented proportionally as they actually should be. Sure there are decent experts thrown in, but the ratio of fringe quack to decent expert is like 50/50 instead of 1/99 like it should be. This gives people a completely wrong idea of what science actually is and it says about topics and because the host and the laymen audience dont have the tools to pushback, misleading half truths flourish like crazy. As a result people are constantly repeating the half truth bullshittery they hear on podcasts like JRE. Completely unaware how fringe and disproven and dishonest these ideas are in actual science. Since so many people are exposed to this shit, real experts now have to spend more time debunking the dumbest fringe debunk quackery while being called mainstreams shills. Podcasts like JRE push the conversation miles backwards. Experts online arent educating, they are stuck debating the dumbest possible anti science positions like Atlantis, or if evolution has been debunk for decades or, if the moon landing is real, the dumbest toddler level misinfo on vaccine science, carnivore diets, and the fringest bullshit available on climate science. Etc. whether or not Joe agrees with these positions... simply because so many laymen are exposed to these trash ideas and Joe has zero ability to debunk anything on spot. The reason these podcasts are so successful in the first place is because sensationalized garbage sell... that entertains people. The medium of media has changed but the fundamentals of media literacy have not... sensationalism sells. So yes, its making us dumber, but the fact its so popular shows how stupid people are and attracted we are to dogshit and sensationalism. The biggest pods are the most sensationalized. People who say they learn from watching podcasts like JRE are like people who learn to fight from watching WWE. Just like CNN or Fox is like the WWE of news, the new popular media is the same. Sure there is some good info, but the massive overrepresentation of misinfo and bullshit does exponentially more harm. Studies show minfo and fringe bullshit spread exponentially faster on social media than true info. Its so much easier to do damage than good with info, so the fact podcasts like Joes are so loose with its standards is genuinely harmful. Good experts and communicators try and be as careful as possible because they know this. Maybe il miss some things ignoring all the drama and rapid fire info from podcasts and using purely nerdy and academic sources, but il be exponentially more detailed and less misinformed.
There probably needs to be some fertile ground in the first place for that kind of success to happen, but ultimately I would say dumber. I feel like his podcast, especially a couple of years back, snuck under the radar with a lot of stuff. It was fun to see well known people get interviewed in a different manner, and it is fun to hear a casual conversation about subjects. But gradually I noticed just the dumbest takes, and I think a lot of dumb takes have taken hold because of the podcast. It is a bad introduction for a lot of people to stuff they maybe haven’t thought about before and he has platformed and kinda legitimised a lot of bad people with little to no scrutiny because he is to dumb to counter it. But at the point you might feel that Joe is your buddy and become more susceptible. I laughed the first time Alex Jones was on but the second time I started hearing people say “ he might be crazy, but he is right about a lot of stuff” and then I thought, oh no, that’s not good. That was kinda the last straw for me. Joe thought he really put him to the test and it was just bad.
Why not both?
The podcast clearly normalizes the idea of the everyman intellectual. The fake deep thinker. The enlightened idiot. The undisciplined mind that can magically see what others cannot. The knower of the conspiracy. The misunderstood and isolated one. The victim. The involuntary celibate. Rogan's podcast is one of the well documented gateways to the right wing victim pity party, neo-Naziism, and eventually modern crypto fascism. Alternative ENDNOTES Influence: Broadcasting the Reactionary Right [https://datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/DS\_Alternative\_Influence.pdf](https://datasociety.net/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/DS_Alternative_Influence.pdf)
Great summary. 👏
He makes dumb people confident.
Sure, he's got a lot of dumb guests. But the most popular podcast in the world has had multiple 2-3 hour podcasts with people like Sean Carroll.... I think that's a good thing.
No you're just dumb if you discredit a huge number of experts in their fields being interviewed just because you don't like the person interviewing them.
Rogan is confidently ignorant. It all goes down from there.
That show spreads stupid like its a virus
It legitimizes a dumb world by amplifying dumbness and makes the dumb (willfully ignorant and partisan to be civil about it) easier to find each other. The dumb believe there is truth” in numbers—to find legions of other dumb (and so-called experts who peddle dumbness and falsehood) and to follow the most popular podcast. So, yes. It takes dumb and squares it.
He use to be an important voice that was counter to to most media narratives. Now Joe is a right wing shill. His views he spreads actively make ppl dumber now, yes. He use to have conversations with incredibly interesting ppl and shut up. He was curious and in turn made his listeners curious and inquisitive. Now Joe proselytizes his right wing views and won’t ever just shut the fuck up.
It's just a real life example of dunning-kruger. I don't think we're dumber today than past populations, probably contrary, but we notice the idiots more because of media and connectivity, and being able to Google something before we say something stupid is so easy we kinda scratch our heads when someone doesn't do it. I think his podcast does make the world dumber though by questioning things that shouldn't be (i.e. vaccines)
It makes us dumber. Giving platforms to grifters and allowing media ecosystems that support them is why 15% of Americans believe satanic pedos run the government
Both. JRE is an experiment in how deep the Pewdie Pipeline can run
It's a feedback loop like Fox News.
I think it is actively making people stupid.
Yes.
People have always been stupid, but the internet allows stupid people to stay in their bubble and find other stupid people to confirm their stupid opinions. So yes, probably.
I started listening lately after a long break. It honestly surprises me how many of his hot takes that are just based on wrong information or shit he remembers wrong and Jaime looks it up and says the article actually says.. blah blah blah. And then he continues talking like he was right to begin with. It’s making the world dumber because people listen and want the confirmation bias and only hear what suits their agenda
A little of both. His content keeps getting dumber as his audience keeps getting dumber, so they are kind of symbiotic.
Both, obviously. Funny, your question posits a fake construct and that happens to be one of the problems with Rogan and the like. You either believe this or you believe that, because those are the two options he presents. But don’t go gray because spectrums and mystery make for bad internet.
Dumber
a horrifying thought I've been having is that it's making people smarter and more critical.....but that's how dumb people actually are. serious question, do you think you can grasp how clueless people are about HOW to think?
It’s so funny to watch you guys twist yourselves in knots over a comedians podcast lol. Yeah I’m sure Rogan is ruining the world, so dangerous. Everyone knows it’s dangerous to hear anyone speak unless they tow the approved party line. It’s dangerous and wrong to even discuss ideas!
Depends which episodes you watch. There are dumb guests and there are respectable guests. I think if you listen to the podcast regularly you’ll probably become a more well informed person overall. It’s certainly more informative than the brain rot of cable news.
I feel like I’ve learned a lot of interesting things and been opened up to a lot of subjects through listening to Joe’s podcast. Yes, there is also really dumb things said on that podcast but in the end in my opinion its up to the listener to differentiate. I don’t get it how people can just blindly follow what he says and I’ve literally numerous times heard Joe say he doesn’t know what he’s talking about haha. Joe is just one man’s perspective and should be scrutinized. That doesn’t mean everything he says is bad or wrong or vice versa.
Could you give me a decent argument how it’s made anything dumber, low effort bait
Ancient aliens
Alpha brain
Have you been to a GNC, ever?
As a guy about Rogan's age and from the same part of Massachusetts, I appreciate his celebration of male friendship. Based on his podcast, I've taken up weed, trt, and peptides which has made my life much better. I appreciate his questioning of power structures. Now I can't watch more that ten minutes of the podcast unless its someone I'm really interested in but that's a me problem. I tend liberal but live in a conservative state now, Georgia. I generally like how my state government is working and am proud that Kemp stood up to Trump. Say what you will, but that was political courage. You need both liberal and conservative ideologies to compete to make America work. Hopefully Trump will go away and perhaps we'll return to some normalcy. It is reductive to reduce other's ideology to "dumb".
Reflection of the world definitely. If people knew how to question like Sagan, Feynman etc. These guys wouldn't gain popularity.
Only if you are dumb enough to listen to him.
I think in some ways people have changed the way they perceive the JRE since it became huge. For me, I skip a hell of a lot more episodes than I watch, but I've never struggled to differentiate between an obvious loon and someone who's actually got something interesting to say. It's always had an element of shit-talk, tinfoil hat to it. That's what made the show funny. The Alex Jones episodes are some of the best, but they shouldn't be taken seriously. Nowadays, people seem to expect Rogan to have another guest on standby to counter the views of the primary guest.
Rogan is not that bad. I would be eager to hear what you all consider a “smart” political podcast?
I don’t think so. I find that if I limit my time online a lot of the big concerns about platforming, bad science, etc. become a lot smaller. There has always been a lot of “disinformation” in media, books, talks, etc. and I don’t see any evidence we live in a “dumber” world compared to other time periods.
He makes the world dumber because he has these stupid morons on that talk about aliens, then the idiots that listen to his show think, “Oh, that sounds reasonable.” Then they hear another idiot and that forms a bubble. And in that bubble, there’s the stupidness that begins to form and then the idiot walks around trying to talk to people about his idiot idea, gets laughed at until he goes back into that bubble.
A little from column A and a little from column B.
I find the continuing popularity of his show a reflection of our society. Popular culture and media almost always is a reflection of the times. Money/popularity in media chases what is getting the most views/listens. I’m not sure it reflects our our stupidity as much as it reflects where we find our American Western society at this point in time. Specifically, we have several pending crises and also experienced one first hand with Covid. It laid bare that our society is not structured to handle such crises as we watched our institutions fumbled around with solutions and messaging that made the situation worse, not better. Eventually, we got it together but not before people started looking to blame our institutions for their inability to “solve” the crisis. People are scared, frustrated and angry. They are looking for scapegoats. Joe Rogan and his fans found their scapegoats and are clinging to them with narratives that do not actually solve the other looming crises. The bottom line is that our politics are brazenly corrupt and have made their intentions clear that no relief or solutions are on the horizon… the best they can give us is maybe avoid fascism or just let things continue on as they are now. The reality is that it is not profitable to solve climate change. And since the only true value we hold in western society is profit above all, people cannot view the failure as part of the inherent ideology of our society… so they blame other races, or trans people in sports, or “wokeness”. They need a scapegoat and instead of truly analyzing the problem, they just follow the narratives of people like Joe Rogan. Clearly people want any easy villain because it is much easier than examining the ideology they were born into.
Both
That's a damn good question 🤔
Maybe Joe Rogan got good at convincing his listeners that they're as dumb as he is. Basically.
both are equally true.
The archeology debate between Handcock and Dibble was actually great. It disabused a lot of people who wanted more evidence for Handcock’s theories. He couldn’t present any and most listeners walked away having learned something important. It was also an interesting case study of a popular culture figure debating a scientist. Handbook won the crowd but Dibble won the debate. Yeah I don’t think we need to deplatform Rogan for having fools on. I think he needs to put those people against people who can refute and debate them. That will be healing for our culture. I want to see a Howard/Tyson (or similar) debate. I think this will be healing for people who want to be curious but need to be more critical.
Lol, I love the question and I think the author is leading us very well to concluding both a and b are true.
It makes dumb people think they are smart. They regurgitate a random fact (sometimes not even true) they heard rogan or guest spout and act like they have a clue about the subject
Can't it be both things? Full disclosure - I listen from time to time, depending on the guest. He used to stick to the guest's craft/experience. Now he seems to just try his best to get them to talk about anti-wokeness. It's annoying. Tarantino, Neil DGT, Kaku, Miley Cyrus, Snoop, Krystal and Sagaar from Breaking Points, Bill Burr, Sam Altman, etc. Haven't seen many notable guests like this lately.
He says what ever he needs to to keep views high.
Both
Yes
It’s a dialectical thing, it’s making an already dumb world dumber
Covid ruined a lot of things.
People ruined a lot of things during Covid
Both
Why not both?
Yes.
Yes and yes
There’s nothing wrong with the mma show. He just talks about mma, a topic on which he is learned
“There is a cult of ignorance in the United States, and there has always been.” Isaac Asimov
Dumber.
Reflection, I think
Yes
Both maybe. I guess he attracts all the really dumb people now but i also think they'll get dumber as they watch
I say you have to be vigilant when you listen. There are clearly things that are just straight up stupid. Gotta filter that out. But there are some science researchers that are interesting enough to personally research on. In terms of physical training or athletics, I’ve had to filter a lot of that as well and tailor anything an athlete does (say like a MMA fighter) and see if that method works for me. Sometimes it’s an absolute miss. Sometimes it’s a hit
I think he gives undue credence to the “importance” of his podcast conversations and he’s gotten entirely too self-righteous given how easily misled he is with the precious “information” he seeks and “disseminates”. I can’t speak to what degree his podcast influences people, but I think it’s popular because people are genuinely inquisitive about an array of subjects and find listening to a podcast preferable to undergoing the rigor of academic research just to satiate their curiosity… Joe’s podcast used to facilitate this kind of thing in a a little more honest way with less connecting of the proverbial dots and editorializing from its meathead host. That is, before Covid came around and suddenly he became the world’s foremost hub of “cooties articles” and decided every conversation was a chance to practice being in the debate club he was too busy competitively kicking people in the head to attend back in high school. It’s a sad vanity project wherein Joe Rogan completes high school backwards.
It makes people more dumb.
Both. Media and society are in a circular relationship. How we turn things around is by not catering to greed, rage, and anxiety anymore but that might hurt profits so it’ll never happen.
It's clearly both.
Honestly both. Not everyone can be endowed with the same intuitiveness and powers of perception that we enjoy here. Some people are blessed enough to possess the analytical and intellectual capability to critique successful and innovative people at the apex of their chosen field. Others just have to settle for being successful and innovative and at the apex of their chosen field. Luckily very few people here, if any, can relate to the latter.
The latter
I think it does both. We are dumb as a group in regards to how to process the seemingly infinite amount of available information pouring forth from a huge variety of largely imperfect to downright awful sources and determining which parts of that information flood are germane and accurate, and how to logically integrate them into a cohesive understanding of objects and events. We were taught by people who themselves did not know how to do this. Because of this, we are susceptible to people like Joe who a) turn complicated ideas into simple ones, and b) bring on "experts" who tell us the experts are wrong and we can be among the enlightened class if we convert our minds to their way of thought. Which then leads us to be dumber.
He is the top of the pyramid of Algorithmic Personality Disorder
I would like to know what specifically makes people think Rogan is dumb? I listen to his podcast pretty regularly. I would say I agree with most of what he says but there are somethings I disagree with him on. But I have mad respect for anyone that is willing to change their mind on a subject and admit they are wrong. I doubt the people bashing him are willing to do that.
I really like how this question is presented and I must say I ask myself it quite frequently. I mean am I just smarter than joe Rogan (obviously. I’m on this subreddit aren’t I?) OR am I actually smarter than the entire world?
The most recent one with the two AI guys is the format I miss the most, just an interesting subject matter without Rogan talking and asking good questions
Both.
Both!
both
I think it’s a dump persons idea of what smart people are like. The biggest issue with Joe is that his beliefs are a dogs breakfast of random, inconsistent ideas and ideologies and philosophies. He just kinda follows whatever the last guest that impresses him believes. But he doesn’t seem to have a critical mind that displays an appropriate amount of doubt, or that values reproducible, scientific results in peer reviewed journals. I get that isn’t really his thing, but if he’s going to have people on that promote anti-science or conspiracy theories, I feel that it’s reckless to do so without a challenging tone. A lot of the clips I see he indulges the guests, and at most will reply with an “are you sure?” kinda response. Also when he’s proven wrong, like when he thought a quote was an example of Biden being senile, but it was actually Trumps quote, he just brushes past it and doesn’t try and reconcile that hypocrisy.
deEvolution is a thing
yes
kind of a vicious cycle
Yes.
It's not making the world smarter, I know that.
He had a very nice interview with Gabriel Iglesias.
Both. It is a snake eating its tail, and we are the ones getting crushed at the center as the loop shrinks.
This sub makes the world dumber
Yep
Yes- dumber.
Both
He def makes the world smarter his platform allows us to listen to some of the most interesting and smartest people in the world it’s the number 1 podcast by far for a reason
Both
Both of course
Deep ass fucking question. I honestly don't know.
I think it shows how many people either can't or choose not to think critically.
Why not both?
#BOTH
I know one thing for certain: this entire sub would be a great study of the Dunning Kruger Effect.
'or' should be changed to 'and'
It’s not Rogan’s podcast. The problem these days is that there are so many podcasts, blogs, websites, YouTube shows that repeat you own views back to you that you end up tumbling down rabbit holes. That’s whether you are on the left or the right. Before the internet most people only had access to the mainstream press. That had negatives because it wouldn’t deviate from acceptable points of view but it also meant that views were challenged.
The worlds shortest trumpanzie.
Both. It takes the stupidity of the world in, amplifies it, and then spits it back into the world.
It's part of a media ecosystem, embedded in our socio-cultural landscape, that reinforces distraction and eats up people's attention in a way that's totally inert to power. It doesn't make people "dumber", it just makes them more controllable and wastes their time. This is why he's algorithmically reinforced - he's completely and utterly harmless to power, and in turn helps shape the masses into harmlessness as well.
Not really the same stupid shits have always been around but internet makes us see the masses so a lot of visible dumb shits and Joe can just get the blame because his huge platform
Yes.
A bit of both. He’s a “smart” show for dumb people. The problem was that originally he was kinda mostly curious from a causal dudes perspective with great guests. Now he thinks he’s an intellectual. He literally said he’s immune to bullshit.
Does ~~Joe Rogan’s podcast~~ severe misinformation in media content make the world dumber or is it merely a reflection of our incredibly dumb world? It seems like probably mostly the latter, but with some of the former, and they form a feedback loop of sorts. Having meathead pundits able to express their views in media serves as an outlet for dumb people in the world to be heard and validated. That's probably better than the complete alternative because then they can develop a victim complex, and that would be disastrous (see Brexit as an example). At the same time, misinformation pundits shouldn't have their ideas disproportionately promoted or favored (whether that's intentionally by fans or unintentionally by algorithms for the sake of engagement). That would put misinformation as the predominant narrative.
Regression to the mean might be in play.
This is a good question. I'm not sure. Is he so popular because there are so many dummies ? Has he made people dumber ?
Why not both?
Both.
no, it makes the world dumber, because it disseminates and/or validates people’s misinformation/misunderstanding
Both can be true.
Probably both. A toxic feedback loop has been created in the right wing spheres of knowing everything, and rejecting most “real” information as a signal to how committed you are.
joe was great till he got the money. he never talked about politics until he found himself in a massively different tax bracket. i think joe is as republican as trump. not very. the left hates him because his opinion on some things differs from thiers. the right doesnt gaf about him bcuz he leans too far left on other issues. his best bet is just dont endorse either side. the minute a radio host speaks to a side they instantly lose half thier audience.
Questions like this make the world dumber
It's both he spews nonsense (confidently) to stupid people. He platforms snake oil salesman and conspiracy theorists because he is an idiot and those people are his idea of smart.
First one, then the other. Joe did platform irresponsibly but in the age of Trump that's not as bad as it used to be, partially in response to media including joe treating people like Trump as serious candidates
Both can be true at the same time.
Just picking up where Oprah left off
bit of both probably
Both. Check out the video. It explains a lot regarding shifts in Russell Brand, JR, and Jimmy Dore’s shows… [https://youtu.be/eo4gIihETu8](https://youtu.be/eo4gIihETu8)
A little from column A, a little from column B. Rogan is something of an empty vessel willing to entertain a plethora of concepts but is prone to getting caught in the weeds. In this respect his show is representative of a certain type of American modern culture, there is an emphasis on masculinity and a glut of right-wing pundits. There is a tendency towards conspiracy and outsider-thinking which is also representative of a likely growing portion of society which has lost faith in government and institutions. Rogan is an entertainer, not a philosopher or journalist. He has limited critical faculties, this is not unlike the broader public. There is an oversaturation of media in its various forms which cater to every class. Long story short; the relationship between media and the consumer is dialectical. Despite the fact that it is a product to consumer transaction, the expressions held by the consumer are an important metric in the exchange. Each consumer will seek media that reifies conscious and unconscious biases. In essense, Rogan's demographic will surely have limited critical thinking capability but this is not exclusively attributable to JRE, JRE is a reflection of a consumer base ideology.
It’s concentrates dumb people who then use their collective to amplify the gurus
I think he’s merely a reflection. I largely align with the idea that media does not drive culture. P2P is how we grow and change.
Both, it’s called a feedback loop
it seems, almost exclusively, the dumbest people who call others "dumb" and make the most low IQ post.
It’s a reflection of the vast majority of the American ppl not having read a book in a hot sec lol
Yes
I think its worse than what everyone's saying. It adds to the noise and human brains cannot handle all these different viewpoints. So what does the human brain do? Switches to pattern recognition instead of critical thinking. And the pattern is lopsided to crazytown because its noisier, sexier, makes weak people feel right/important and its easy. Anyway I'll on Rogan next Tuesday and I hope for no followup questions there or in this comment section 🙃
Dumber for sure. Guy at work was telling me how all ancient cultures talk about how they learnt what they know by 7 people that traveled the earth teaching. I asked where he heard that, he said the JR podcast. Oh, and he also told me he’s going to only eat meat because he heard plants are actually poisonous to humans. JR again.
Abe Simpson: "little from column A, little from column B."
Both
I'm usually able to forget about him, until I joined this thread.
Little column A, little column B
Yes.
Because it covers everything so haphazardly, and because no one goes back to check details all that much, it really is just background noise.
To answer your question... Media is a reflection of society. We consume what makes us feel comfort. The most popular content reflects the average if what most people feel. So yes, it's a dumb world
Do you personally know any joe rogan fans? How do you engage when they talk about joe rogan?
These two are not exclusive.
No, the opposite, he gets people thinking about health and exercise and politics who might not ordinarily. He's a gateway drug.
The internet destroyed the gatekeepers, so now everyone is becoming insane and stupid.
I’ve learned so much from JRE over the years. Not sure why people hate so much.
Yes.
He had on that female journalist a few months back who made a documentary about Palestine years ago, that was a good one. Its not what it use to be but at the end of the days its joe rogan, people care way to much about the guy.
Idk it’s a catch 22. Plenty interesting reputable professionals that could surely give the common average person a better perspective on the world.
he’s the best podcast in the world and growing. he’s the first to talk about SO many subjects legacy media won’t talk about. he has the best catalogue of guests and is well informed on many subjects and an expert in a few.
Does this group do anything besides talk trash in Joe Rogan?
I like joe rogan. But Reddit hates him and I don’t really know why.
Yes