You can't have a "liberal Joe Rogan" (lol) because today's left is so terrified of honest conversations, so constantly worried about saying Something Problematic, that they stifle the sort of open, freewheeling discussions that Rogan and his listeners enjoy. So many topics are off-limits for liberals today, and there's such a narrow range of acceptable opinions on key issues, that it makes it tough to have relaxed 3-hour conversations.
I think this was part of Kamala's problem. She seemed so tentative and hesitant on so many questions, and it looked in those moments like she was desperately trying to not say anything that might bother someone. And in the end, she ended up not saying much of anything at all.
What’s also funny about it, is the right had the exact same reaction when Obama won re-election in 2012. They were like “we need our own version of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report! That’s all these young voters watch!”, and their attempt failed miserably.
If the left tries to roll out their own version of Rogan, it too will fail miserably. Rogan is not an ideologue. In fact the most recurring criticism I see of him from his own fans is that his opinion sways based on who his guest is. He endorsed Bernie for crying out loud. The left just needs to punt the sanctimonious act to the moon and be willing to interact with people who think differently.
For the most part, they are also clueless about what Joe Rogan is. I'm pretty close to "the media" and if it ever comes up, it's almost like a black hole of knowledge. I'm not a huge Rogan guy, but I listen occasionally and try to explain it, but they shut it down pretty quick - even if I just tell them to scroll through the episodes to see what kind of guests he has, it's like "oh I'd never."
They know he's not 100% political, but it's almost like they think he's a Tucker Carlson who wears t shirts and is into fights.
I don’t expect Bluesky or Threads to become the next Twitter; people are too scattered. I think Ross Barkan was right that Twitter’s heyday as THE place where everything happens is finished. The Internet is becoming fragmented again like it was in the pre-social media era. Some will hang out on Twitter, some on Facebook, some on Bluesky, some on Threads, some on Substack Notes, and some on private Discords. I welcome that over what we had in the 2010s and 2020.
Re: a Democrat Joe Rogan. The Democrats really are the just smart enough to shoot yourself in the face party. The way you get more of Joe Rogan’s audience to be receptive to you is by embracing the things they like, and to stop doing the things they don’t like.
You are not gonna have anymore success convincing them to align with you ideologically through a “progressive” Joe Rogan than the evangelicals had in winning young men through tatted up youth pastors and shitty Christian rock bands (“waiting for marriage to have sex is bad ass, bro!”).
I liked the thought that X becoming more open to right-coded stuff pushed YouTube to not stomp on right-coded stuff so much also. Gotta keep those eyeballs from wandering.
I think you guys are overstating Covid’s role in the election and it’s actually way down the list of reasons Trump won. The economy, immigration, the overwhelming unpopularity of Joe Biden and Harris’ stunning refusal to distance herself from him, Harris’ feckless “play not to lose”campaign, Musk’s involvement in the race (I don’t know if Trump wins without his purchase of Twitter and the historically massive infusion of money he dumped in his campaign, the identity politics stench that may take multiple election cycles for the Dems to wash off, and the infamous “trans” ad all played bigger roles than Covid. I hesitate to even call it the trans ad because the reason it was so effective is that it was 3 issues in one ad. The trans issue, the issue of wasteful government spending, and the issue of overly woke language (they/them). I think Trumps own numbers show that ad boosted them over 3% in battleground states.
And even in those regions you mentioned, like South Florida and Texas that had better Covid policy, those are just continued trends that started in 2016. Everything that happened in this election is just a continued trend of what happened in 2016 and 2020.
Yeah if you had several years cut out of your HS/college/early 20s experience, you'd be really annoyed. Enough to maybe explore some other ideas and potentially align yourselves with people who said it's OK to talk to other people in person. Bro vote. Horny dudes scrolling their phones by theselves for 2+ years. They might dabble with ssomething other than the standrd MSM fare. Parents of elementary school kids too.
Late here, I get that Ryan says that Rogan endorsed Bernie and the critiques of the Dems against Rogan and Musk and how that drove them to Trump. I think those critiques are legit reasons why Rogan and Musk would vote for Trump.
I do also see how voters would switch from supporting Bernie to Trump, because they represent the anti-establishment. But I also don’t understand it from a policy perspective. While some voters are voting on the vibes of anti-establishment, Rogan who does interviews and ask questions on policies, the policies of Bernie and Trump are quite opposite, so I almost find the support of Bernie and then to Trump quite odd given the stark contrast, and I attribute his support for Trump more as a retribution of Dem critiques against Rogan than policy choice
Ethan, would be interesting to see you take up the Babylon Bee angle. There is a direct link from BB getting banned from Twitter, resulting in Musk's purchase, to Trump winning - Trump doesn't win without Twitter becoming X. It's also fascinating that what started as an extremely niche evangelical Christian website that made fun of Pentecostals and had cartoons about predestination, became such a cultural touchstone.
Always love the pods with Ryan 🫡
You can't have a "liberal Joe Rogan" (lol) because today's left is so terrified of honest conversations, so constantly worried about saying Something Problematic, that they stifle the sort of open, freewheeling discussions that Rogan and his listeners enjoy. So many topics are off-limits for liberals today, and there's such a narrow range of acceptable opinions on key issues, that it makes it tough to have relaxed 3-hour conversations.
I think this was part of Kamala's problem. She seemed so tentative and hesitant on so many questions, and it looked in those moments like she was desperately trying to not say anything that might bother someone. And in the end, she ended up not saying much of anything at all.
What’s also funny about it, is the right had the exact same reaction when Obama won re-election in 2012. They were like “we need our own version of the Daily Show and the Colbert Report! That’s all these young voters watch!”, and their attempt failed miserably.
If the left tries to roll out their own version of Rogan, it too will fail miserably. Rogan is not an ideologue. In fact the most recurring criticism I see of him from his own fans is that his opinion sways based on who his guest is. He endorsed Bernie for crying out loud. The left just needs to punt the sanctimonious act to the moon and be willing to interact with people who think differently.
For the most part, they are also clueless about what Joe Rogan is. I'm pretty close to "the media" and if it ever comes up, it's almost like a black hole of knowledge. I'm not a huge Rogan guy, but I listen occasionally and try to explain it, but they shut it down pretty quick - even if I just tell them to scroll through the episodes to see what kind of guests he has, it's like "oh I'd never."
They know he's not 100% political, but it's almost like they think he's a Tucker Carlson who wears t shirts and is into fights.
I was going to comment here but it's more important to me that Nick Wright thinks I'm a good person
I don’t expect Bluesky or Threads to become the next Twitter; people are too scattered. I think Ross Barkan was right that Twitter’s heyday as THE place where everything happens is finished. The Internet is becoming fragmented again like it was in the pre-social media era. Some will hang out on Twitter, some on Facebook, some on Bluesky, some on Threads, some on Substack Notes, and some on private Discords. I welcome that over what we had in the 2010s and 2020.
simpler take on Dems/rogan:
A candidate needs to be able to communicate directly with an audience without mainstream media interface
It’s impossible to be percieved as authentic if you are filtered through msm
Dems still running 2016 campaigns/candidates when ol boy gamed that system 8 years ago
Re: a Democrat Joe Rogan. The Democrats really are the just smart enough to shoot yourself in the face party. The way you get more of Joe Rogan’s audience to be receptive to you is by embracing the things they like, and to stop doing the things they don’t like.
You are not gonna have anymore success convincing them to align with you ideologically through a “progressive” Joe Rogan than the evangelicals had in winning young men through tatted up youth pastors and shitty Christian rock bands (“waiting for marriage to have sex is bad ass, bro!”).
I liked the thought that X becoming more open to right-coded stuff pushed YouTube to not stomp on right-coded stuff so much also. Gotta keep those eyeballs from wandering.
I think you guys are overstating Covid’s role in the election and it’s actually way down the list of reasons Trump won. The economy, immigration, the overwhelming unpopularity of Joe Biden and Harris’ stunning refusal to distance herself from him, Harris’ feckless “play not to lose”campaign, Musk’s involvement in the race (I don’t know if Trump wins without his purchase of Twitter and the historically massive infusion of money he dumped in his campaign, the identity politics stench that may take multiple election cycles for the Dems to wash off, and the infamous “trans” ad all played bigger roles than Covid. I hesitate to even call it the trans ad because the reason it was so effective is that it was 3 issues in one ad. The trans issue, the issue of wasteful government spending, and the issue of overly woke language (they/them). I think Trumps own numbers show that ad boosted them over 3% in battleground states.
And even in those regions you mentioned, like South Florida and Texas that had better Covid policy, those are just continued trends that started in 2016. Everything that happened in this election is just a continued trend of what happened in 2016 and 2020.
I think a lot of people moved to the right due to covid
Yeah if you had several years cut out of your HS/college/early 20s experience, you'd be really annoyed. Enough to maybe explore some other ideas and potentially align yourselves with people who said it's OK to talk to other people in person. Bro vote. Horny dudes scrolling their phones by theselves for 2+ years. They might dabble with ssomething other than the standrd MSM fare. Parents of elementary school kids too.
Late here, I get that Ryan says that Rogan endorsed Bernie and the critiques of the Dems against Rogan and Musk and how that drove them to Trump. I think those critiques are legit reasons why Rogan and Musk would vote for Trump.
I do also see how voters would switch from supporting Bernie to Trump, because they represent the anti-establishment. But I also don’t understand it from a policy perspective. While some voters are voting on the vibes of anti-establishment, Rogan who does interviews and ask questions on policies, the policies of Bernie and Trump are quite opposite, so I almost find the support of Bernie and then to Trump quite odd given the stark contrast, and I attribute his support for Trump more as a retribution of Dem critiques against Rogan than policy choice
"Joe Rogan was the Democrats Joe Rogan" - EXACTLY! I literally said it in my head right before Ryan said it on the pod. Keep up the good work guys.
Unfortunate this pod happened before Adam Silver said "our league has never been more popular"
Political thoughts and observations post election: Ryan > _____ > Ross > Nick Wright
Ethan, would be interesting to see you take up the Babylon Bee angle. There is a direct link from BB getting banned from Twitter, resulting in Musk's purchase, to Trump winning - Trump doesn't win without Twitter becoming X. It's also fascinating that what started as an extremely niche evangelical Christian website that made fun of Pentecostals and had cartoons about predestination, became such a cultural touchstone.
Enjoyed the pod. "Joe Rogan was the democratic's Joe Rogan" was killer.
Ethan you deserve to dunk on everyone for Stick to Sports being the correct take.
Insansity getting memory holed still better than it enduring.
Yes, but at the same time it’s an existential threat to Ethan’s business model