Joe Rogan won Donald Trump the election, or so they say. And then? Reports were that there was a vibe-shift, and suddenly it seemed we were living in a Joe Rogan world. It certainly seems like he now runs the US comedy scene. Many inhabitants of that scene were never very happy with that arrangement, and the willingness to tolerate Rogan as kingpin has soured. This journey has been chronicled by a YouTube creator called The Elephant Graveyard (henceforth TEG); these videos about the awfulness of Joe, his circle of hangers-on, and his terrible impact on the culture and how we came to this impasse have become a kind of holy writ in left of centre spaces, the official summary of the charge sheet against Joe and his ilk. The videos are very popular too - the most recent one has five million views after only two weeks; link below.
The videos are good. TEG He makes lots of points that I agree with about the peculiar awfulness of Joe current content and the world he made, a lot of which overlaps with the general criticism of podcasts I made recently. But something I don’t like about TEGs approach is he does the standard thing of assuming there is something inherently pathological and wrong about a person who opposes some parts of progressive policy having power, influence and position in popular culture. Despite the vibeshift comprising only a brief and minor interruption into business as usual, it seems no one is chastened, and we haven’t learned very much. Even someone who hates Trump and is happy to put his influence in the rearview will admit that the unrestrained and overbearing exercise of cultural power by progressives is what got us into this situation. But that truth is being reframed even as we speak, and TEGs videos are being used in that effort. We need to keep the truth in front of our face.
