This. I just wish he'd take his enormous reach a little more seriously when he entertains quack pseudoscience as if it's an equally valid POV to real peer-reviewed science.
Being a comedian does not magically relieve a person from their responsibility to not credulously spread around dangerous pseudoscience during a pandemic. Plus, that's simply not very funny. By the way, GP did not say "be more serious", as you likely know. They said he should take his enormous reach more seriously.
That metaphor doesn't work though because Joe Rogan is a person, not a monkey. Give a person a machine gun and if they shoot someone you do blame them.
"Being a comedian does not magically relieve a person from their responsibility to not credulously spread around dangerous pseudoscience during a pandemic."
Yeah, I think it does. Has he been cancelled? Nope. Does he stop making jokes about almost anything? Nope. Do you listen to his podcast? Nope.
You know how he became so popular? From talking and being open minded. That's _all_ he does. He ain't doing it to be an influencer yet "journalists" actually waste time writing articles like this. I guess the haters need something to read too?
Sure experts can make mistakes. Which is why it makes an enormous amount of sense to avoid taking the opinions seriously from people that are not even experts because they are significantly more likely to make mistakes based on incomplete knowledge or poor understanding of it.
Imagine drowning: If we were talking about expert lifeguards vs. some random beach goer and you had to choose which would try & save you, would you choose the expert lifeguard or the random person?
And sure, Lao Tzu may be right about compassion. It's also irrelevant in this discussion.
Every influential social network already has disclaimers with links to authoritative information about C-19 for those who choose to inform themselves.
"Visit the covid 19 information center to learn more"
These are all over and post on Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, etc whenever certain keywords trigger it.
I think this is not enough. We need to replace all right of center entertainment with videos of Dr Fauci reminding us to wash our hands, wear masks, get our shots and do the right thing by staying home. Not enough people are getting this message.
Yeah that's Joe's classic defense. He's part of the "Intellectual Dark Web" (lol...) and he tries to have serious discussions and opinions on important matters. But as soon as someone points out how stupid and misleading some of his takes are, he falls back on the "I'm just a comedian" excuse.
Like someone else pointed out, Bill Burr is exactly what you describe. He's a comedian that discusses these topics but never gives the illusion that he is somehow qualified and someone that should be listened to. Joe does.
It's fair that the 'just a comedian' excuse should not work - but - it's fair to say 'he's just an podcaster with discussions of varying seriousness mostly for the purposes of entertainment'.
The overwhelming majority of his content is along those lines, to the point wherein you really have to scrape to find scare quotes. I mean, it's easy to Google because of supposed controversy, but really disagreeable stuff would be hard to find lest you to have to actually sit down and listen to him.
I wish he took a slightly different tact on vaccines (i.e, at the end of every show say 'Folks, it's 100% choice, but vaccines are safe, I've taken, everyone I know has, make the choice for you, your family and community, that's all, goodnight' kind of sign-off), but I don't think he's in condemnation territory either.
All of this said, I'm not sure how he is received in different cultures around the world where he might have influence we're not aware of.
> but - it's fair to say 'he's just an podcaster with discussions of varying seriousness mostly for the purposes of entertainment'.
I think that would be fair, if he didn't constantly insert himself into these culture battles and debates we are having as a society. If he just hosted guests to get their perspective, that would be one thing. But he actively pushes his own ideas. He's established himself as not only a source of news, but also a "voice of reason" for many of his followers.
Saying that he gets a pass because he's just there for entertainment is a cop-out. That's the same excuse Fox News uses for their "opinion" segments (most of what they air).
I also think you might be underestimating how many people base their opinions off of Joe.
I've listened to 4-5 Joe Rogan episodes and not once got the impression that he was trying to be a comedian. Now I may be an idiot, but I don't think I'm _exceptionally_ idiotic compared to most folks who might come across his content.
Comedy is a profession. Professionals should take their job seriously. Just because the product is fun and games doesn’t mean social responsibility ends.
Comedy is an occupation, not a profession. Actual professions have specialized training, a defined body of knowledge, ethical standards, and a formal certification process. For example: law, medicine, teaching, architecture, accountancy. Comedians have no more social responsibility than any other random person. There's no comedian's guild that's going to kick out a comic for being irresponsible.
Yeah he's not making a comedy podcast and often for his wilder guests like Alex Jones when confronted will say he's "fact checked" a claim. The fact check only extends to skin deep, one claim about coronavirus the fact check was that the article Jones was referencing existed nothing beyond that because it was a misinterpretation of a misinterpretation and completely wrong.
That's what Joe Rogan's show is all about. It's pretty much him talking about the same nonsense that anyone else would talk about when hanging out with their friends. He never pretended to be anything else, and it's why his show is so popular. That said, since he moved to Spotify I've hardly seen anything other than the occasional clip on AdTube.
If you want high-brow stuff there's Lex Fridman's channel.
Fridman is slowly going down the same route with more and more comedians and nutritionists and ufo people on his channel. I wish he just had sticked to interview scientists because nowadays I probably archive 2/3 of his episodes.
There's an effect to that effect called Gell-Mann amnesia. Nutshell by Michael Crichton:
> “Briefly stated, the Gell-Mann Amnesia effect is as follows. You open the newspaper to an article on some subject you know well. In Murray's case, physics. In mine, show business. You read the article and see the journalist has absolutely no understanding of either the facts or the issues. Often, the article is so wrong it actually presents the story backward—reversing cause and effect. I call these the "wet streets cause rain" stories. Paper's full of them.
In any case, you read with exasperation or amusement the multiple errors in a story, and then turn the page to national or international affairs, and read as if the rest of the newspaper was somehow more accurate about Palestine than the baloney you just read. You turn the page, and forget what you know.”
I was cringing during his discussion with Rogan because of this.
It’s a common pitfall for a certain type of nerd to think that expertise in one area allows them to make claims in completely unrelated fields.
That and he didn’t challenge Rogan’s mostly unfounded claims about the COVID vaccine among other things. I understand that it must be difficult I do so as a guest, but for someone who fancies himself “rational” it was disappointing to say the least.