Joe Rogan Is The Most Political Podcast On The Planet

He endorsed Trump, obsesses over "woke ideology," simps for Putin, and hosts billionaires who lie about consumer protection agencies. It's not even up for debate.

Dec 09, 2024

In the past month I’ve frequently heard from friends and acquaintances that the reason Joe Rogan’s impact on the 2024 election was so insidious is because his show is not political. “He’s just a regular guy talking to comedians and stuff and sometimes he talks about politics.”

This just isn’t the case at all.

The Joe Rogan Experience is the most political podcast I’ve ever heard in my life.

Its consistent themes are the tyranny of COVID-19 vaccine mandates, “gender ideology,” election fraud lies, conspiracy theories, cancel culture, and “wokeism.” Praise for vaccine deniers like RFK Jr. and episodes devoted to moon landing conspiracies are thrown in for a little extra spice.

The programming and content of Rogan’s show is literally the same playbook that billionaire mouthpieces like Christopher Rufo, Charlie Kirk, Ben Shapiro, and Tucker Carlson execute on the regular.

All of these men, including Rogan, push an agenda that fires up the public about government overreach, casts doubt on the utility and function of government, and obsesses over culture war bullshit that distracts from America’s corrupt plutocracy. Racism and disinformation are the icing on the cake. Rufo, Shapiro and Carlson have all been guests on Rogan’s show.

Caping for the world’s biggest disinformer who happens to be Trump’s biggest donor is, like, totally apolitical.

It’s hard to ignore the reality that Rogan is now a right wing commentator. After all, he endorsed Trump for president and hosted both Trump and J.D. Vance in the run-up to the 2024 election. But he’s been normalizing far right figures for quite some time. For example, Rogan hosted Candace Owens in 2018 when she was the communications director for racist, right wing billionaire astroturf organization Turning Point USA. When Rogan’s podcast moved to Spotify, several episodes with racists were scrubbed from the archives. Episodes not available include those with, Milo Yiannopoulos; Charles C. Johnson, and eugenicist Stefan Molyneux.

Here’s what Rogan was talking about on his show in 2022, from an article by historian Peniel E. Joseph:

Rogan is, in fact, an agent of these social ills, which he packages and sends out to his audience clothed in the language of moderation and moral equivalence. For example, in addition to his uses of the n-word, Rogan has made waves by suggesting that because “you can never be woke enough … it’ll eventually get to [where] White men are not allowed to talk.” Rogan laughed uproariously when comedian Joey Diaz, one of his guests, described pressuring women into performing oral sex on him. Rogan has horribly and deliberately misgendered a trans MMA fighter. He’s discouraged young people from getting the Covid-19 vaccine, hosted guests who question its validity and given a platform to climate skepticism from controversial clinical psychologist Jordan Peterson.

Years before endorsing Trump, Rogan was dropping the n-word, harping about woke-ism, trafficking in misogyny, trans hate, vaccine conspiracies, and questioning climate change.

You Are What You Podcast About

Let’s review Rogan’s guests from 2024. Whether they feature comedians or quack doctors, nearly all Rogan episodes discuss political issues:

Kicked off the year interviewing Dr. Debra Soh who spreads anti-LGBTQ+ disinformation.
His next guest was Taylor Sheridan, just a TV show creator. No politics to see here..oh wait. Fox News covered Sheridan’s appearance like this:

Entertainer Dr. Phil joined Joe in February to talk about the “out of control” border and trans health care:
4-time guest James Lindsay, who spreads Cultural Marxism and LGBTQ+ grooming conspiracy theories, was the guest for a March episode that featured Rogan popping off about Biden’s press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and prosecutors Fani Willis and Letitia James—black women opposing Trump in one way or another:

On March 26th Rogan and comedian Kurt Metzger normalized Trump’s use of words and phrases like “bloodbath.”
An April episode with Brendan O’Neill covered “woke” gender “ideology” and Covid-19 dissent. They also railed against “identity politics” and cast doubt upon climate science.
April also featured an appearance by white supremacist and Russian and billionaire mouthpiece Tucker Carlson. No notes.
Tulsi Gabbard made her 6th Rogan appearance this May. Yes, she is a Russian asset and potential future member of Trump’s cabinet. Among other things, they discussed “woke” culture.
Comedian Dave Smith appeared twice in 2024. In both episodes they discussed NATO expansion as a cause of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

I’m not even to June and getting tired of going through each of these episodes, so here are the remaining right wing guests from 2024: Peter Thiel, Bret Weinstein, Matt Walsh, Michael Shellenberger, Donald Trump, JD Vance, Elon Musk, Marc Andreessen, Mike Rowe, and Mike Benz.

Roughly half of Rogan’s guests are stand-up comedians. These episodes feature a pre-occupation with cancel culture and political correctness and the idea that Joe and his comedian friends can’t say the things they want to say anymore. Which, I guess, is the n-word? Imagine complaining about cancel culture and the inability to speak one’s mind to an audience of millions on the world’s most popular podcast.

Conspiratorial Politics Potpourri

Below is a Rogan sampling that gives a feel for how he and his guests lie about elections, lie about consumer protections, lie about lying politicians, and lie about government overreach on this totally normal, non-political podcast.

Here’s Rogan, in 2023, talking about Kari Lake’s 2022 senate race being rigged:

The man he’s speaking with in the above clip is far right YouTuber Patrick Bet-David.

Here’s Rogan saying he didn’t want to get involved in the presidential election (yeah, right) and the reason he HAD to step in and endorse Donald Trump was because he just couldn’t handle all the lying…by Tim Walz?

Rogan just recently had billionaire and major Trump supporter, Marc Andreessen on the show. Andreessen doesn’t want government to regulate him when he and his buddies commit fraud upon the American people, so he made up a bunch of lies about the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Rogan ate them up. Lefty podcaster Sam Seder breaks it down:

Recent guest Mike Benz is a right wing disinformer, spreading the fake message that the Biden administration was building a massive censorship regime. Here’s what actual disinformation researchers have to say about his appearance:

Renee DiResta (link to Bluesky thread):

Kate Starbird (link to Bluesky thread):

Rogan is a right wing operative in mixed martial arts clothing.

To Russia With Love

Two weeks ago, Rogan went on an anti-Ukraine, anti-Biden tirade, criticizing the Biden administration’s decision to authorize the use of long-range missiles deep inside Russian territory. It’s normal for normal dudes who just talk about normal interesting stuff to consistently push normal, pro-Russia talking points right?

"How are you allowed to [authorize strikes inside Russia] when you are on your way out? Like, people don’t want you to be there anymore," Rogan said. “There should be some sort of pause for significant actions that could potentially start World War III…Zelensky says Putin is terrified. F**k you, man. You f**king people are about to start World War III," Rogan said, adding that negotiations with Moscow should be the path Kyiv pursues over military action.”

I think it’s worth your time to go and read the reactions of Ukrainians to Rogan. It might help to put into perspective that right wing voices like Rogan’s are aiding and abetting Putin, who is an enemy of the United States. Read the article in the Kyiv Independent here:

The Mighty and Powerful Joe Rogan

At Donald Trump’s victory party on the night of November 5th, Ultimate Fighting Championship CEO Dana White was invited to say a few words. This is because Dana White was the mastermind behind Trump’s successful normalization via spaces traditionally associated with men—like mixed martial arts and the online worlds of culture, gaming, and lifestyle podcasters and YouTubers refer to as the “manopshere.”

Surprisingly little has been written about Dana White’s role. Going back to the 2020 presidential election he was arranging for famous YouTubers like the Nelk Boys to visit Trump on Air Force One and film themselves to show their 7 million followers. White employed this strategy again in 2024:

White used his brief remarks to thank the influencers he believed had been most vital to his cause of getting Donald Trump elected the President of the United States of America. After listing off the Nelk Boys, Adin Ross, Theo Von, and Bussin’ With The Boys, White smiled and said, “…and last but not least, the mighty and powerful Joe Rogan.”

But it’s not a political podcast.

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