I mean, look- He has a point. There are something like 800+ episodes of his podcast, most over 3 hours long and most of him while stoned. Rogan is often so high he repeats himself and contradicts himself. You'll often hear him argue the opposite point in another context.
But, while I've not listened to the podcast in a long time, I can tell you, that I've never detected malice or that he is anything but critical about the Alt-Right and all that.
He dislikes labels because he feels its a cheap way to pre-judge someones complex character and dismiss them entirely. He calls himself ignorant on most things and says he made the podcast just to have a conversation with people. He didn't want to do a show where he researched, vetted or read up or interviewed or moderated the conversation. He just wants to talk about things that interest him.
Given that he is also naive, the podcast has had many guests who are straight up crazy, and the format itself just leads itself to him giving a soapbox to crazy people, but he doesn't see it as his job to moderate or tone things down. He seems himself as just a dumb comedian who enjoys crazy shit.
When I think of Rogan I think of hippie go-self-improvement shit; Kettlebells, be the best you can be, kale shakes, yoga, mindfullness, ayauascha, alan watts, terrence mckenna, being kind to others and being good to others. He is like a male meathead version of Oprah. And he has had some really interesting guests on from time to time.
I've really enjoyed his talks with Christopher Ryan and Duncan Trussel.
I don't disagree he doesn't say a lot of shit, but I don't think he is this right-wing figure that he is being portrayed as by some here.
And like Entrement says- It's not a GAF thing or a Rogan thing. This is a general tendency we see more and more. Rogan calls himself a feminist, but hates feminism as a label. His point is that everyone is a feminist if they believe in equality between the sexes. And thats where he jumps off and views the rest of the feminist movement as tumblr feminism. That is all he sees, because, like with Burr his job as a stand up is saying shit that upsets people.
Burr is the same- He has defended rapists. Is he MRA too? Sam Harris has argued for racial profiling- is he a racist? I'd argue that any fair reading of those peoples entire spectrum of views, that it is not fair to summarise them just that easy.
Sometimes people hold positions that are wrong, but because you have some positions where you are wrong, doesn't mean that they are bad people. And thats the problem with a label. It's like, if someone can cherry pick just enough clips from out of thousands and thousands of hours of material it is enough to label someone as as a certain label while ignoring or dismissing all the other stuff where he has a fairly liberal view.
I absolutely agree that Rogan is naive. I think though that the Rogan Experiences biggest asset is his curiousity. He is not highly educated or an expert on anything other than martial arts. He intentionally goes in blind, and often while stoned.
But Rogan does have a large base, so I ponder if you can perhaps make the argument that if some of Rogans base are trump supporters and toxic conservatives who cherry pick some of his endorsements (like they do with south park) to serve their agenda, does Rogan have a responsibility? Is Rogan reaching so many people that he really shouldn't hide behind his "im just a dumb comedian, don't take me seriously"- That's the discussion I would like to have.
I think we will not reach concensus on this. I see Rogan as a well intentioned dude- and I am pretty sure that you dont have to dig deep to find stuff he has said out of sheer ignorance that is a lot worse. he is often so stoned he doesn't know what he is saying, and this careless of lack of moderating himself is probably one of the things that gave him his audience. Rogan doesn't bring unique insight into anything. He is just curious.
If what you say is true that he is evolving towards the right, that would make me sad. Because it's his inspirational and motivational points he sometimes have had that are really nice. I skate through his dumb opinions and I don't take him seriously. He is a comedian and some of his guests have been entertaining or interesting like the cop who was outed for talking up against police brutality, or the one with Kevin Smith, the real rick ross, the ones with Duncan, Anthony Bourdain, abby martin (she fanatical left-wing), the CNN lady who went down on a Ayuascha trip.
You cannot defend the dumb things he says- It just is. The question is if its fair to sum him up as MRA. We see this with Harris all the time.
Sam Harris has some fucked up opinions. When he gets into justifying racial profiling and washing away the horrors of Israeli brutality with these arbitary analogies, it's not a good look either. But most people can see that Sam Harris is more than a few bad/insensitive/ignorant opinions.
.It's just more and more on GAF lately. I get the sense that these threads are not about discussing something topical but just made so we will all jump on the fuck-this-guy bandwagon. It's petty and too easy to cherry pick so little while ignoring everything else. As a community we've collectively become worse at this. I've sensed a lot worse tone since this election began. Discussions rarely move to become satisfying, and it always ends up with these labels and group oriented language that is just reductionist.
And It's just that this thread is the same argument as a few weeks ago of South Park being enjoyed by the alt right and so that is enough coupled with a few one sided examples to asser that South Park courts the alt-right.
I'm convinced Rogan means really well- he is just not setting himself to be taken seriously. And that is okay.