Comments on: Alex Berenson Gets A Fail For Blackening Joe Rogan For His Impolitic, Impolite Speech https://barelyablog.com/alex-berenson-gets-a-fail-for-blackening-joe-rogan-for-his-impolitic-impolite-speech/ by ilana mercer Wed, 02 Apr 2025 19:29:09 +0000 hourly 1 By: Nicholas https://barelyablog.com/alex-berenson-gets-a-fail-for-blackening-joe-rogan-for-his-impolitic-impolite-speech/comment-page-1/#comment-29612 Tue, 08 Feb 2022 01:52:19 +0000 https://barelyablog.com/?p=157575#comment-29612 The latest episode in a recurring series of political theatre that seems to never end. It’s frankly mystifying that so much coordinated outrage can be directed against a figure as inoffensive as Rogan—if anything he’s been unnecessarily deferential to establishment wisdom on a range of issues. He actually plays it relatively safe (especially since his ‘acquisition’ by Spotify), and it’s only due to his native curiosity and personal openness that he’s ever exposed to anything outside the milquetoast consensus on demographics, religion, foreign policy, etc. His science interviews are usually the most potentially interesting.

It’s telling that he never provoked such intense opposition as when he started to question the COVID narrative…

I share your exasperation at the disproportionate role he plays in (pseudo-)political discourse, when he figures as neither a deep nor an original thinker. Nevertheless, he represents by his example an important test for free speech in media, since no online commentator (to my knowledge) commands a comparable fund of wealth and celebrity connections. He should not have started apologizing—any admission of weakness before the mob is an invitation to further aggression.

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