Joe Rogan Fans Angry Over Spotify Partnership, Rest of the Internet Laughs
Podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan has been receiving a lot of flak lately — possibly because with his new Spotify partnership, his more harmful and hateful guests have been omitted from the streaming platform. This means Rogan’s more questionable takes and guests are being spotlighted, and folks are realizing there’s plenty to feel dubious about. Rogan’s own sharing of misinformation regarding Oregon wildfires, as well as his irresponsible attitude regarding coronavirus, only served to push this point home. Now, fans of Rogan are lashing out over what they feel is unwarranted censorship, while other netizens are sitting back and enjoying the show.
Spotify cuts controversial Joe Rogan episodes
Joe Rogan has a noted history of hosting guests with harmful and hateful ideological viewpoints without challenging them in a meaningful way. Because Rogan has granted these harmful ideologies a legitimizing soapbox, Spotify has decided to pull relevant episodes.
Specifically, Spotify has chosen to remove episodes featuring alt-right or controversial guests. These include guests like Milo Yiannopoulos, Gavin McInnes, Chris D’Elia, Alex Jones, and others.
As of now, the aforementioned guests are still missing on Spotify. However, Alex Jones has made claims that during a chat with Joe Rogan, the podcaster informed him the missing episodes will be uploaded.
However, recent difficulties within the company as a result of the Joe Rogan deal are casting some doubts on Alex Jones’ assertion.
A group of Spotify employees wants editorial control
A group of Spotify employees have taken umbrage with some of Joe Rogan’s episodes that have been uploaded to the platform, including an episode starring noted transphobe Abigail Shrier.
While employees have requested that Spotify leadership take down the offending video, CEO Daniel Ek has chosen not to do so.
“In the case of Joe Rogan, a total of 10 meetings have been held with various groups and individuals to hear their respective concerns,” said Daniel Ek. “And some of them want Rogan removed because of things he’s said in the past.”
“Others have concerns specifically over a recent episode. And Joe Rogan and the episode in question have been reviewed extensively. The fact that we aren’t changing our position doesn’t mean we aren’t listening. It just means we made a different judgment call,” Ek told employees.
Joe Rogan fans are angry
Now, Joe Rogan fans are getting upset both with Spotify and Rogan himself. The reason for their anger at Spotify is apparent — they feel as if their icon is being censored. As for their anger with Rogan, this stems from the fact that the podcaster claimed Spotify would have no creative control over his show prior to the changeover.
The shift in Rogan’s audience from centrists and libertarians to right-wingers is most apparent in the comments on the Joe Rogan Experience sub-Reddit. Here, complaints about “SJW” Spotify staffers run rampant.
“Why they’re not being called ‘former staffers’ yet is beyond me. You just signed the largest [p]odcaster in the world and your low-level staffers want to sabotage it with their social justice larping. Get it under control Spotify or you’re going to blow this business deal,” opined one user on the sub.
“‘Fact checking’ today means nothing, it’s 100% subjective. Fact-checking by Politifact, Snopes, CNN, etc. is widely mocked by everyone with an IQ over 70, and for good reason,” erroneously claimed one fan of Rogan.
“Going to Texas doesn’t mean you can outrun cancel culture,” wrote another irritated fan.
Another user replied with a dig, “The only thing he outran was the taxes that he said he was willing to pay to help society.”
Other netizens enjoy the show
Other netizens are sitting back and enjoying watching the show as the Joe Rogan community implodes.
“It’s painfully obvious Joe saw all this coming, but didn’t give a sh*t because $100m. He sold out and I’m over here with stomach cramps from all the laughter because these dorks don’t see it,” wrote one Redditor on the Subreddit Drama sub.
“He totally did. His fanbase is so close to being out of control, a little like Pewdiepie when the New Zealand shooter quoted him. Rogan cashed out when he could, and now he gets to blame the downfall of his podcast on Spotify, the bagholder, if ever it comes to that,” opined another commenter.
“In reality Spotify doesn’t want to be on the hook for the sh*t he spews and liberal cultural decorum dictates certain ‘stances’ he holds to be taboo (aside from the fact that they’re stupid). He was aware this would be the case beforehand, of course, but money talks and 100 million is really loud,” wrote another user.
