Joe Rogan and the Predictable Pattern of Cancel Culture
Are you tired of hearing about Joe Rogan yet? Me too. And I’m tired of writing about him, but there’s so much from this story that highlights current issues with modern discourse. I wanted to write this because my last piece came out right before the “Joe Rogan said the N word” stories started coming out. Cancel culture has such a predictable pattern, and if you pay attention, you’ll see it play over and over again. It happened to me, and I even wrote a book about it, and now I see it everywhere, so let’s discuss.
And if you’re a cancel culture denialist, you may want to leave now, and we can talk later.
One of the reasons I wanted to write this was because of all of the silly conspiracies about who is pulling the strings. Much like everything in life, there’s no single cause. When I was canceled, I got really into group psychology. Things build up over time, and for some reason, we like to remove the complexities and just point to one single cause, which is never the case.
Here’s what I mean by some of the strange theories and conspiracies:
Have politicians had opinions on this? Sure, but the question Wokal Distance is answering is awful in the first place. “Who do you think is behind this?” Like a shadow organization was formed to take down Joe Rogan. That’s as likely as the cabal drinking baby blood.
And there are many other theories just like this one.
In this piece, I’m going to go through some of the patterns I’ve noticed using Joe Rogan as an example and discussing my story as well. I’m familiar with my story, so that’s why I’m using it, but I’ve seen it with many others throughout recent years. I’m sure if you take a minute, you’ll recall the pattern happening to others as well.
Phase 1: The OGs
Everyone has original haters. There are people who dislike someone from the jump. Joe Rogan has had people hating him for ages, but most people either don’t know or forgot about them.
Ask one simple question: Why did Joe Rogan blow up?
The answer is that he made a name for himself platforming people that nobody would platform. This happened years ago. Whether it was Milo Yilannopoulos, Gavin McInnes, Alex Jones, Ben Shapiro, Dave Rubin, people from the “intellectual dark web” or others, he was having them on.
People flocked to Rogan because he was doing something everyone else refused to do. Whether you agree with giving certain people a platform or not, this is what made him famous. People wanted to believe we could have conversations about anything, and this was during the rise of cancel culture and riots on college campuses.
So, years ago, people were trying to cancel Joe Rogan, and he just got bigger and bigger because of it.
(By the way, this is why I personally believe deplatforming him is a bad idea because he’d just get even bigger like he did originally)
Back then, the people trying to cancel him were a small group and it didn’t work. During that time, they were gathering clips and “evidence” to make their argument. Nobody was listening. But remember this for phase 3.
My experience with Phase 1
As my YouTube channel grew, people started to hate me. There were three tiny YouTube channels who kept making videos about me, but I just ignored them and didn’t address it because they’d only get a few hundred views. That’s the best thing you can do in this situation. But, they were gathering clips as “evidence” throughout the entire ordeal.
Phase 2: The Big Names
At a certain point, big names get involved. Something massive comes out and everyone turns and looks at the story. In Joe Rogan’s case, it was the Neil Young story. Neil Young removed his music from Spotify for the COVID information, and every big news outlet covered it. From there, we all started talking about it.
This was years after phase one, but now the story has attention, and this weakened Joe Rogan’s armor as it does with everyone. This is when the person needs to address it.
Also, if you’re not aware of the very real stories about the money behind this, you need to look because it’s shady as hell. I know that I now sound like a conspiracy theorist, but this theory has a lot of evidence. He sold his catalog last year and is now moving his music to Amazon. If we’re going to talk using ethical platforms, Amazon isn’t really a step in the right direction.
My experience with Phase 2
Eventually, I pissed the wrong kid off. A big YouTuber finally made a video about me and got 100s of thousands of views. Now, his videos have millions of views. This was the breaking story that had everyone looking at me. It weakened my armor, and I couldn’t ignore it anymore.
Phase 3: The Return of the OGs
I keep seeing people saying, “OMG. People really spent all this time going through all of Joe Rogan’s episodes to find dirt on him?!” No. The OGs already had it. They were locked and ready to go.
The people who originally hated Rogan already had all the ammo, and now that the armor is weak, they can bring it back out. Joe Rogan just released episode #1772. His episodes weren’t always three hours, so let’s say they’re an average of two hours.
Let’s do some math
Do you really think anyone spent 3, 544 hours going through all his episodes? That’s 147 days worth of content. That’s 21 weeks. I’m sure a conspiracy theorist would argue that the shadow organization has a team of people going through the content for dirt, but that’s silly.
My experience with Phase 3
The OGs came back. Those tiny YouTubers I ignored became instant celebrities. All of the big channels that started attacking me started pointing to their content, and their channels blew up. They were being interviewed and everything about me. It was really ridiculous because their original accusations were more outlandish than the new ones.
And to give you an idea about what happened with these three people, in case you’re curious, here’s a brief summary:
Person one: It eventually came out that he was using his mental health platform to groom teenage girls. He’s in his 40s. He would give out his cell # and tell people to reach out if he was depressed or suicidal. He was married with kids but was texting with teen girls sexually and trying to meet up with them.
Person two: She eventually got canceled as well because she was extremely unstable. Finally, after a break, she came back and made a video apologizing to me. She had Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD) and stopped taking her medications. I accepted her apology and am glad she’s doing better.
Person three: He’s always been a hot mess, and since he was best friends with person one, he lost his audience as well.
Oh, and the original guy that kicked off phase 2? He hasn’t been on YouTube in about two years. So, he basically farted in the elevator before leaving, and I’m stuck with the stench almost three years later.
Phase 4: People You Helped Turn on You for Tribalism and Clout
I had to write this piece because I thought we were done at phase three. Then, I saw this ridiculous article pop up:
People from phase three have been sending around clips of this guy, Charles C. Johnson for his dumb comments saying Black people are more prone to violence because of the MAOA gene. They’re using Charles’ clip as justification to deplatform Joe Rogan for having racists on (even though Joe pushed back on this claim from Charles).
Now, this guy Charles has the audacity to write a long Substack piece calling for Rogan to be canceled.
Are you kidding me right now?
The nuances of this conversation are something I don’t want to get into right now, but it’s a scumbag move to cover your ass by joining the mob. And this is what made me more depressed than anything during my cancelation.
My experience with phase 4
At first, people came to my defense. They said, “I know Chris. He’s a good guy.” And some even said, “I know Chris and he helped save my life. He made me realize I needed to go to rehab/therapy.” I’m not saying this to build myself up. I’m just stating the facts. I help others because it’s what I was taught in AA.
Well, as soon as friends defended me they were attacked. As soon as others who I helped defended me, they were attacked as well.
They all turned on me except my close friends that I’ve known for years. But even they couldn’t talk to me or about me publicly without having the mob come after them.
While I get why the people turned on me and started making public videos about how they realized how terrible I am just to get the mob off their back, this is what broke me. There’s no way to properly explain what it does to you when someone thanks you profusely for helping them, and then, one day, they call you a piece of shit and a terrible person.
It took a lot of therapy and over a year to get over this, but it’s one of the reason I no longer make mental health content. It’s a shitty thing to say, and I don’t think I’ve ever said it out loud, but for my sanity and sobriety, I have to tell myself, “There are enough people out there helping others, and I don’t need to save the world.” I just don’t think I can go through that again.
But anyways, those are the phases. Keep an eye out because it’s a pattern. There’s no shadow organization, it’s just what cancel culture does.
And if you’re interested in hearing more about my story, I don’t talk about it much anymore, but I wrote a book about it. It’s $5 for the eBook and helps me recoup some of the money I lost from losing my primary source of income when it happened. If you get a copy, I appreciate you.
If you want a free copy, email me at TheRewiredSoul@gmail.com or shoot me a DM on Instagram or Twitter.
I’m currently writing a book about how we’re manipulated by the news, social media, technology, advertisers, and each other. It dives into the psychological history of manipulation, our biases, tribalism, and more.
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