Joe Rogan responded to criticism from Prince Harry during a recent conversation with Whitney Cummings on the JRE podcast. During an appearance on the Armchair Expert podcast with Dax Shepard and Monica Padman, Harry called Rogan out for spreading misinformation
Rogan, talking about what he sees as “cancel culture,” said, “It’s all based on fear of shame. It’s based on this premise that nobody ever makes mistakes. And that’s a preposterous premise. So like if someone says to me, ‘Hey you probably shouldn’t have said that.’ I’ll be like, ‘Yeah, probably. Yeah, you’re right.’ I don’t know. I don’t know what I’m saying while I’m saying it.”
Cummings added, “You’ve gotten so into the zeitgeist. And you’ve become clickbait. News sites that are going out of business use your name to get clicks.”
Rogan then showed a tweet about a story on Prince Harry’s comments on Rogan’s controversial statements about COVID-19 vaccines. Rogan said, “Harry would be fine if I met him. Harry’s just talking from afar. He doesn’t know me and he’s lived as a royal. If Harry and I hung together, I could get him to relax. Just relax. It might take a while. It might take a little time. But he’s not a bad guy. He’s just a guy.
Rogan, Shepard and Harry all have exclusive deals with Spotify to distribute their podcasts. Harry told Shepard and Padman in an episode released May 13, “I think the issue is in today’s world with misinformation just like endemic. You’ve got to be careful about what comes out of your mouth when it comes to that. Because news doesn’t just exist in just news anymore.”
Harry continued, “It’s splattered all over the place so people who listen to Joe Rogan say, ‘Oh, if he says that.'” Harry said if Rogan doesn’t think people should listen to him or look to him for medical and scientific advice, “then just don’t say that.” He added, “Just stay out of it.” During the conversation about Rogan, Padman said he should, “Just acknowledge that you are a person who people listen to. You are.” Harry said, “If you have a platform, with a platform comes responsibility.”
Harry had brought up Rogan’s comments from April about young people and vaccines. Rogan said he thinks vaccines are safe and those who need them should get them, but if you’re young and healthy, you shouldn’t worry about it. That led to backlash on social media, from doctors and scientists and from the Biden administration, including from Dr. Anthony Fauci. Rogan later clarified his comments and said he doesn’t think people should take medical advice from him.
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Rogan Siad ‘Everybody Wants to Exaggerate About Their Own Ability to Navigate This Weird Life We Live In’
Cummings said, “Isn’t it all of our instincts from a biological basis to come off moral. And to virtue signal?”
Rogan said, “You know why? It’s because we’re in a process of improvement. We want to pretend that we’re at level 10. When we’re really at level 7. Everybody wants to exaggerate about their own ability to navigate this weird life we live in. So you want to pretend that you get it more.”
Rogan, putting on a British accent, imitated Harry’s criticism saying, “Oh you’re spreading vaccine misinformation. Ho ho.”
Cummings said, “When all of that s*** happened to you, it was killing me. Because I was like, why don’t you guys focus not on whatever Joe said, focus on the fact that people don’t trust news organizations to the point to where they are going to Joe. Because who is having on more scientists than you? Who is having on more doctors than you? Who is spending three hours to really spend time dimensionalizing the issue than you? Instead of making money off of intentionally scaring people, intentionally morphing the statistics to make you scared, because they know that’s going to make you click more and get you adrenalized about the news.”
Rogan said he thinks people should judge information for themselves.
Rogan told Cummings, “But also they’re worried that you’re going to make people relax. And do something stupid. And they’re going to put other people in danger. That to me is akin to people saying that you shouldn’t have like flat earth conspiracy. Because you’re going to trick people into thinking the Earth is flat and they’re going to be miseducated and it’s going to be a problem. And they’re going to be stupid and they’re going to ruin everyone else. I get that thought process. But I am a survival of the fittest person. I am of a belief that you need to figure out what ideas are right and what ideas are wrong and work your way through it.”
Rogan Said He Understands the Criticism of Him & Is OK With It
Rogan told Cummings that they and other comedians, “Encounter more resistance than most because we’re doing something that’s controversial in that it’s opinions based on what is happening in culture.”
Rogan added, “And when you’re a person like myself and you’ve had a disproportionate amount of success and you do that very thing where you mock things and make fun of things and give your opinions, I understand what’s happening. I’m 100% OK with it. It’s 100% natural for people to even have disproportionate takes on me. That doesn’t bother me. You know why? Because everyone I meet is nice. Everyone. I meet people all over the place. When they meet me, they’re always nice. I understand that some people maybe don’t like me or if they met me they’d be hesitant. But I guarantee if you meet me and you’re nice, I’ll be nice too.
Rogan continued, “I’m a nice person. … It’s numbers, Whitney. It’s numbers. You’re dealing with 350 million people. That’s an impossible number of people. Plus the rest of the world. Who the f*** knows how much that is.”
Cummings told Rogan, “You’ve become a Rohrsarch test to people. And I think that in this pandemic your voice, because you’ve earned the trust of people, you’ve earned people listening to you for 9 hours a week. That’s almost a day. Some people listen o you a day a week. So when people come up to me and say, ‘I love you from the Joe Rogan show.’ They want to hug me, it’s their religion in a way. … It gives people meaning and a purpose and routine. You’re a family member to people.”
She added, “News networks and other comedians that get 5 likes by putting your name in their mouth. It’s like, ‘This is just attacks that comes with being so integral with so many people.'”
Rogan said, “It doesn’t bother me. It’s OK. It really is OK. I get it. And I don’t know why I get it, but I get it. I understand where I’m at. … It also makes you recognize what is making people upset. Like why they are upset about you do. Maybe you’re expressing yourself in an inefficient way. Maybe you’re doing it wrong. But I get just positionally, I really do. … I get the criticism of me. It doesn’t bother me.”
Rogan said, “I say what I’m thinking at the moment. … But one thing I don’t ever do is think, ‘I want people to like me more, so I’m going to say something I don’t believe so they’ll like me more.’ I don’t do that. I tell you what I’m thinking at the moment. … And if I f*** something up I go, ‘Oh, I f***** that up. That’s not what I meant.'”
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Joe Rogan Responds to Prince Harry: ‘I Could Get Him to Relax’