A lot is written about the way the internet is used to indoctrinate and radicalize people into following extremist beliefs and behaviours. It’s been a debated topic since the dawn of the world wide web – most recently with Melon Husk ruining Twitter in the name of “free speech” and the potential ramifications resulting from allowing unmoderated discourse to flow freely online.
It’s obvious that giving hateful and deranged fringe voices the tools to spread their messaging is a problem – from the Islamic State running rampant on twitter, to Incels congregating on reddit, to QAnon’s birth on 4chan. But what about less overt forms of indoctrination? What about problematic beliefs that are platformed but presented as simply alternative ways of thinking? What if your first experience with such fringe beliefs, “alternative medicine,” conspiracy nonsense, racism, and misogyny comes by way of a comedy podcast you regularly listen to that sends you spiralling down the Youtube algorithm rabbit hole?
OBVIOUSLY, Joe Rogan is the first comedian turned self-proclaimed expert extraordinaire that springs to mind when discussing podcasts peddling quackery. We’ve had countless posts about this fool – from racism, to anti-vaxx conspiracy theories, to bizarre lifestyle trends like carnivore diets – you name it, he’s said it. But every comedian seems to have a podcast now and the problem goes further than just Joe Rogan.
I decided to make this post because I’ve noticed presidential candidate and noted anti-vaxxer RFK Jr. popping up on comedy podcasts left and right latey. To his credit – it’s an incredibly smart strategy and he will likely be reaching out to an audience directly that may not be following the news or the other presidential candidates at all.
He was just on comedian Theo Von’s podast. If you don’t recognize his name, earlier this year he had Roseanne Barr on his podcast – the video for same was taken down for violating YouTube’s hate speech policies after she made a very clumsy attempt at sarcasm by saying the Holocaust didn’t happen (to prop up her theory that Biden didn’t legitimately win the presidential election).
Here is the full clip of Roseanne Barr obviously using sarcasm and satire. She is a mensch and one of the funniest people i’ve ever met. pic.twitter.com/p0K6pWEqr8
— Theo Von (@TheoVon) June 27, 2023
Careful – this one will give you brain-rot.
He was also on Bill Maher’s podcast (which makes more sense given Maher’s annoying political television show) – where they discuss “the legacy media’s opposition to his candidacy”. And he was also recently on Bobby Lee’s TigerBelly podcast with his wife Cheryl Hines where he discusses why he decided to run for president.
This CBS piece covers the issue with legacy media relatively ignoring RFK Jr. and his turn towards podcasts and alternative forms of new media and the damage that it’s doing and how it’s furthering the spread of misinformation. None of the comedians hosting him and propping him up are competent enough to really challenge his ideas. There’s no equal time rule for podcasts about hosting presidential candidates. And there’s no fact-checking. These comedians having him on are looking for views and are excited about having a weirdo possible presidential candidate on their podcast. It’s an SNL-Trump situation repeated over and over again online.
Worst of all, comedy podcasts can be rather incestuous when it comes to guests. Guests don’t usually pop up on one podcast only – they do the rounds – ultimately appealing to larger swathes of people ( a Bill Maher viewer may not necessarily be a Bobby Lee fan and vice versa – but a guest on one podcast is likely to pop up as a guest on the other). Von, Maher, and Rogan have all also had Jordan Peterson on their podcasts. The neuroscientist and snake oil dietary supplement peddler Dr. Huberman has appeared on numerous comedians’ podcasts, Russell Brand has used his own podcast to disregard his alleged crimes as being some sort of media conspiracy against him, and Rogan is propping up straight up homophobes and transphobes and perpetuating “gay agenda” nonsense.
And there’s just…no rules. So when you mix comedy fans who may be a big fan of a particular comedian with quack conspiracy nuts saying shit like vegetables aren’t healthy for you, you end up with a whole lot of dummies running around spreading absolute bullshit. And that’s a big problem for the real world – especially when one of the conspiracy nuts appealing to these people is an anti-vaxxer presidential candidate in a world still grappling with the ramifications of a global pandemic.
So while there’s all this talk online about young people (young men in particular and the pick-mes and trad wife types who idolize them) falling down these online rabbit holes towards racism, homophobia, and misogyny – maybe we should start figuring out where people are getting exposed to these lunatics in the first place?
Don’t even get me started on the ads they’re allowed to run on their shows without any real oversight. From mail-order boner pills to sports gambling sites. It’s a mess through and through.
If anyone has any good articles/write-ups about this topic – kindly share the love in the comments!
Source 1 – CNN | Source 2 | Source 3 Twitter | Source 4 | Source 5 | Source 6 – CBS | Source 7
