In the realm of disinformation vectors, few are as pernicious as Joe Rogan, the host of the number one podcast, which is particularly popular with young men (his audience is 71% male, with an average age of 24). Rogan is a former kickboxer and UFC announcer, a supposed commedian and sitcom actor, and the former host of the 'reality TV' show Fear Factor. His persona is that of a bro who specializes in JAQing off- he tends to listen to even the most cockamamie nonsense uncritically, and overly scrutinizes the declarations of actual experts.
Rogan is, as you'd suspect, an anti-vaxxer and anti-masker. Last year, he questioned why young people should be vaccinated against COVID, and when he contracted the disease, he claimed that he threw a kitchen sink of medications at it. Here's where I note that he's wealthy enough to afford premium healthcare, and was receiving monoclonal antibodies as well as ivermectin.
If you want to see a perfect example of Rogan's particular blend of credulity and skepticism, here's a clip of him questioning the fact that the incidence of young males suffering myocarditis after COVID is higher than the myocarditis risk after vaccination:
Full process of confirmation bias in 90 seconds:
— Don Moynihan (@donmoyn) January 14, 2022
*makes a claim
*contradicted by an expert
*”That’s not what I read”
*asks for evidence
*contradicted by evidence
*says the evidence can’t be trusted https://t.co/LJOJww2Lnk
Yeah, when presented with evidence that refutes his claim, he goes to his default mode of JAQing off. This is a guy who a lot of young males, the very ones at risk of suffering from myocarditis after COVID, get their news from. This meathead bro is pushing dangerous misinformation on the bros who listen to him, thereby putting vulnerable persons who interact with them at danger of infection. We're never going to see the end of this pandemic.
Hilariously, Rogan had a sold out live appearance rescheduled because of vaccine mandates.
Post title taken from a movie that I had conflated with a sitcom that Rogan was featured in. Hell, as a small, albeit big, blogger, I have more of a devotion to fact-checking that he does.
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