So, Joe Rogan. As a prolific podcaster myself, I feel like I have to put in my 2 cents on this whole thing. Ive never listened to Joe Rogan but as a middle aged white man I feel like I can still weigh in.

First and foremost I think that freedom of speech is of the utmost importance. Without it, tyrannical governments can silence their detractors and project their agenda as fact, uncontested. But, thats not really what were talking about here. Nobody is saying that Joe Rogan should be silenced by the government. That asshat can say whatever he wants, constitutionally.

But why are all the nearly dead musicians removing their music from Spotify? As best I can tell, Joe Rogan has been spreading misinformation about the Covid and dropping the n-bomb over and over in his podcast. You know, idiot white guy stuff. Neil Young, Joni Mitchel, and the gang want Spotify to remove Rogans podcast from their service. And since Spotify hasnt, the musicians removed their music from Spotify. Since the backlash Spotify has removed a bunch of episodes of The Joe Rogan Experience. Additionally, Rogan had to apologize for thinking racism was funny. But, he still has the money and will likely continue saying stupid stuff to millions of people who want to hear it.

Like I said earlier, Ive never listened to The Joe Rogan Experience. I couldnt stand the guy on Fear Factor. Apparently he was an MMA commentator or something like that at one point. Ive never seen his stand up. Im not saying that Phil Hartman killed himself because of Rogan but they were in NewsRadio together, so draw your own conclusions on that one. Basically, Joe Rogan is a garbage person. He could probably kick my ass and has had more “success” then I ever will. But that just means there are enough flies to keep him going.

So what do we do? The baby boomers are busy taking their music off of the online. And perhaps that will help. But whats the end goal? Like, at what point do Neil and Joni say, ok Spotify, put our music back on? Its like the whole taking a knee thing, I dont know when the protest ends. Joe Rogan is going to make money saying shitty things that people want to believe are true. Hell, they might just elect him president! Im all for a good protest. Lets change things and make them better. But I dont know how. And I dont think this is going to have any lasting effect.