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Joe Rogan had an interesting weekend on social media. On Saturday, old clips of Rogan’s podcast, including one of him laughing at Joey Diaz bragging about coercing female comedians into giving him oral sex in exchange for stage time, resurfaced on Twitter and received plenty of criticism.
In one clip of the JRE podcast that made the rounds on the Internet, Rogan was critical of the Black Lives Matter protests for not having what he describes as an “endgame” and just rallying against an “invisible enemy.”
I’ve been disappointed in Joe Rogan lately, it’s like he has no idea what Black Lives Matter is… pic.twitter.com/WMwdVZN44C
— SOUND (@itsavibe) June 19, 2020
To see this leaderless movement, it seems so attractive to young people that do feel disenfranchised by the system. I’ve watched so many videos of these people screaming and chanting and they feel like they’re part of something right? They are, right? But what’s the end goal? That doesn’t seem to be very clear.
There are kids out in Woodland Hills out there chanting no justice, no peace…and I’m like what justice are you talking about? Are you talking about George Floyd? In that case, it seems like that guy is going to go to jail for the rest of his life. I don’t know if that’s justice or not. That police department has been disbanded. I don’t know if that’s justice or not, but what is justice and what is peace? It’s just a slogan and they feel good saying it.
I don’t know what you’re saying but you feel very passionate about what you’re saying and if you pull one of those kids aside and ask them what’s your message and what are you trying to do I think a lot of them would have nothing to say. That is very concerning to me, I’m very concerned because they seem enthusiastic and passionate about an invisible enemy, an enemy they can’t put on a scale, they can’t tangibly describe it in a way that I can understand it completely. It just feels like the structure of things is unjust.
Rogan’s comments ruffled some feathers online and he was called out by several prominent Twitter users including NBA star Bradley Beal.
Instead of assuming Joe! Get out there and ask those young men! And the fact you said invisible enemy is fucking disgusting! This type of ignorance won’t be tolerated!! https://t.co/YWS5wW2WIc
— Bradley Beal (@RealDealBeal23) June 21, 2020
https://twitter.com/jasondashbailey/status/1275078917791993862
https://twitter.com/speakz/status/1274471571156021249
This is blatantly untrue. I’ve been following these protests & pulling lots of people aside to ask them why they’re there & no one has had any trouble articulating their reasons for participating. This is the kind of perspective you get when you exile yourself to a studio. https://t.co/aJrZsklvfo
— Simon Ostrovsky (@SimonOstrovsky) June 22, 2020
This is fascinating because he's utterly confounded but he literally answers his own easy question at the end. https://t.co/2JW3p3zMfw
— Cody Johnston (@drmistercody) June 21, 2020
Joe Rogan’s so dumb and so uninformed it’s painful to listen to. He says the protesters don’t know what “justice” means? Really? They know. (1) Convicting killer cops and (2) fundamentally changing American policing. It’s not complicated. It’s hard to do but not to comprehend. https://t.co/uwsqZ1iesN
— Touré (@Toure) June 22, 2020
people like Rogan criticizing an entire movement cause he has no imagination and can’t picture a society that’s not the same as it’s always been crazy how popular he is https://t.co/UWsF4TCpMV
— Alphonse (@Al_Peeair) June 20, 2020
Despite calls for Rogan to be “cancelled”, as of now it doesn’t seem like his $100 million Spotify deal is in jeopardy.