It\’s Time to Cancel the Cancel Culture

Unless you’ve been in a Coma for the past few weeks, you’ve likely heard the name Joe Rogan. So, who is Joe Rogan and why is everyone up in arms about his podcast? Let me explain.

From 2001 to 2006, Rogan was the host of the game show FearFactor.  In 2009, Rogan launched his wildly successful podcast The Joe Rogan Experience.  To put Rogan’s podcast success in perspective, his audience is 13.5 times larger than CNN’s average prime time audience. It’s the fourth most popular podcast in America. Roughly 11 million people listen to each episode. The New York Times only has 8.4 million subscribers. It’s one of the reasons that the sanctimonious voices in media are coming after Joe Rogan. He’s a tremendous threat to their business.

The Joe Rogan Experience

Joe interviews a wide variety of characters in a shock-jock format. His guests include celebrities, business moguls, TV personalities and sports stars. He asks “in your face” questions and doesn’t put up with any bullshit answers from guests. Each episode clocks in at around three hours.  Here’s a confrontational clip from his interview with Dr. Sanjay Gupta from CNN. 

Truth be told, I don’t care for Joe Rogan. I’ve tried. First, he’s a complete meathead. Second, his shows are just too long for my short attention span. And, third, I thought FearFactor was a dumb show to begin with.

But, Joe Rogan doesn’t need me. He has 11 million listeners already and Spotify already struck an exclusive $100.000.000 deal with Mr. Rogan.  Since Joe Rogan joined Spotify in September of 2020 his audience has grown by 75%.

So why is Joe Rogan causing such a stir? And, why is the pitch fork-cancel culture coming for his head?  In early January, a group of 270 Scientists and Doctors signed an open letter to Spotify. 

The letter accused Rogan of “promoting baseless conspiracy theories”. Further, it demanded that Spotify attempt to remove any efforts to spread mis-information about the virus. 

Neil Young and Friends

The controversy boiled over in late January as several musicians demanded their music be removed from the platform. It started with Neil Young, but now includes Joni Mitchell. Earlier today, Randy Watson from Sexual Chocolate announced they are pulling their music from Spotify.

In the days following their announcements, Spotify’s market value dropped more than $2 Billion. Of course, Spotify is worth $54 Billion so they’ll be okay.

The Elephant in the Room

But, seriously, can we talk about the elephant in the room? Is Neil Young really the best arbiter of information on healthy living? For the past 40 years Neil Young smoked weed every day like some people smoke cigarettes. And, he once performed on stage with a “good-size rock of cocaine stuck in his nostril,\” according to drummer Levon Helm.

Neil Young also performed at Woodstock. Wasn’t part of the objective of Woodstock to promote free speech?

Never fear, though, you can still find the 76 year-old Young “rockin’ in the free world” over on Apple iTunes. I guess Young doesn’t have any issues with Apple suppliers using forced Uyghur labor in Xinjiang, China.

Vulnerability and Shame

Since the Young and Mitchell dust-up, Brene’ Brown and Prince Harry & Megan Markel have joined the parade. The Duke and Duchess of Sussex signed a $25 million contract with Spotify in December 2020 but, so far, have failed to produce a single episode. But, nonetheless, the blue bloods are taking their talents elsewhere.  

Virtue Signaling

I like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell. Both are American musical treasures. But, if there’s one thing I like less than Joe Rogan’s podcast, it’s virtue signaling and the cancel culture. In full disclosure I’m a Spotify subscriber. It’s my main source of music. But I’m not gonna cancel my subscription because Joe Rogan interviewed someone I likely disagree with. And, at this point can we all agree that the vaccine debate is over? For gosh sakes, if you haven’t bothered to get jabbed by now, I think we know where you stand. And, it’s unlikely Joe Rogan can un-vaccinate anyone. 

My sense is that nobody has stronger opinions about Joe Rogan than people who’ve never actually listened to Joe Rogan.

See, that’s what’s wrong with America today. The first amendment guarantees the right to free speech. But the cancel culture has decided that we are too dumb to listen to a controversial opinion and make up our own damn minds. Even when it’s on a subscription-only platform.

Joe Rogan: “Man, I sure hope somebody else says something really stupid soon?”

Whoopi Goldberg: “Hold my beer, Joe. I got this.”

They’re now coming for Whoopi Goldberg who recently said some truly asinine things about the Holocaust. She has since apologized. I don’t watch The View, but I seriously doubt that Ms. Goldberg is a closet anti-Semite. Regardless, the masses are screaming for their pound of flesh. She’s since been suspended from The View. And, just like that, Joe and Whoopi are besties.

Now if you’re thinking this Spotify boycott is just a political stand-off, it’s not. Both Neil Young and Joe Rogan endorsed socialist Bernie Sanders for President in 2020. 

This latest cultural dust up is raw meat for the cultural elite. It’s virtue signaling, which is “the action or practice of publicly expressing opinions or sentiments intended to demonstrate one\’s good character or the moral correctness of one\’s position on a particular issue”. You can recognize virtue signaling by looking for people angrily speaking out about things they “hate” in an effort to protect “the great unwashed masses”. 

In the past, virtue signalers have used social media to express their self-righteousness. Some refer to it as Slacktivism or performative activism.  Silliness such as changing your social media profile picture for the cause of the week. And castigating those who do not follow suit.

It’s overeager outrage for the cause de jour by people who are trying really hard to matter. (See also: boycotting of plastic straws, saving the whales, Je suis Charlie, the Q-anon nonsense, etc.)

A lot of people donate money to these causes, on line. As MorningBrew recently reported, “more than 95,000 people lost a collective $770 million due to fraud on social media last year, a new FTC report found. That represents 25% of all reported losses to fraud in 2021.”

The fastest way to lose me with your cause is to have some Hollywood star or musician adopt your a cause-and ask for my money. Cause nothing says “out of touch” like a gagillionaire entertainer living in a $35M home with access to a private jet and an ex-Navy SEAL security team trying to tell middle America how to live. Just shut up already.

Look, I know people are easily offended these days. And, I know we are all super-sensitive about Covid. But this cancel culture thing has to stop. You cannot go through life and expect that anything you disagree with must be censored. Learning to listen to dissenting voices and to make up your own damn mind is part of being a grown up. Occasionally some things are gonna offend, trigger, anger, affront, insult, outrage, annoy, disgust or disturb you. That’s called life. Deal with it.

Spotify isn’t gonna cancel Joe Rogan any more than Netflix is gonna cancel Dave Chappelle. It’s time to move on.

And I bet we agree that after a few months without the royalty checks, these artists will quietly add their music back to the platform. Meanwhile Spotify has been overwhelmed with customer cancellations. So many requests that Spotify is no longer allowing people to cancel. Their customer service department is overwhelmed and it just can’t keep up with the demand.

So what kind of people are so spineless that they’d cancel a music platform because some old, washed up singers found something offensive? Honestly I could care less what any entertainers think. And, as for Neil Young and Spotify, “I hope Neil Young will remember-southern man don’t need him around anyhow.”

So, how about you? Are you sick and tired of all these people virtue signaling and trying to cancel things they disagree with?

I’d like to hear from you. Please leave a comment below. I’m not famous enough to ignore my reader’s emails yet, so you’ll hear back from me.

And, one more thing, do me a favor and share this story with a friend who prefers Lynard Skynard to Neil Young and is also tired of all this cancel crap.

Connect with me on Twitter, Facebook, my Facebook Group, Pinterest, Medium,Instagram, and Goodreads.