Joe Rogan, host of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” and comedian Dave Smith discussed this week how wokeness serves as a tool that corporations use to distract people from a society that is crumbling all around them.
The conversation began when Rogan highlighted how singer Adele was attacked online for saying at a gender neutral awards show that she loved being a woman.
“She should be tolerant and just be like them only,” Rogan sarcastically said. “And only think like them, all the ‘they/them’ people, she should only be like them.”
“It’s a very insane request,” Smith said. “I think it’s a reasonable request to say, ‘Hey, listen, I don’t fit into these norms. And I would like to not be treated, you know, like, mistreated for that.’ That is a reasonable request. To say that I demand that everybody else also does not fit into the norms, which the vast majority of human beings, like the vast, vast, vast majority consider themselves to be one of these two genders.”
“So to demand that they stopped doing that so that you’re more comfortable is like if someone is in a wheelchair, and they’re like, ‘Hey, I’d really appreciate it if you built a ramp, or I’d appreciate it if you don’t like, you know, I don’t know, something,’” he continued. “But if they go, ‘I’d like everybody else to sit in a wheelchair and wheel around also.’ That seems a bit unrealistic.”
A few moments later, Smith said that the “woke insanity” that is being “pushed by all of the big corporations and by the media” serves as “the perfect distraction” for the public.
“Like, well, everything’s crumbling. And there’s so many real things, like the [21st] century for the United States of America has been a disaster thus far, like coming from being the most powerful country in the world, coming out of say, like, the 90s to what is it, 2001 starts with 9/11, then like seven disastrous wars, the worst recession in 100 years, or something like that, Donald Trump gets elected, there’s COVID, there’s the shutdowns, this whole thing, it’s like a disaster,” he said. “And then, like, what we really need to talk about, what we need to focus on, is that this woman said she loves being a woman the other day, and I find that very problematic. If you were like, one of these corporate, you know, big corporations or some hedge fund manager or something, that’s just — I’m just saying it’s awfully convenient.”
Rogan agreed, “It’s a very good distraction, it does keep you from concentrating on it.”
JOE ROGAN: This literally makes no sense. So Adele did this, I mean, I don’t even know what you would call it. They were calling it gender neutral, some gender neutral thing. And she talked about how much she loved being a woman. And they were mad at her.
DAVE SMITH: That’s very offensive.
ROGAN: They slammed her. She was slammed for telling a gender neutral award show that she loves being a woman — like, you can’t love being a woman?
SMITH: It’s horrible.
ROGAN: You have to be gender neutral, like us. Be like us. We’re so tolerant.
SMITH: I’m appalled. She loves being a woman. That’s outrageous.
ROGAN: That’s so intolerant. She should be tolerant and just be like them only. And only think like them, all the ‘they/them’ people, she should only be like them.
SMITH: Yeah. It’s a very insane request. You know what I mean? Like, I think it’s a reasonable request to say, ‘Hey, listen, I don’t fit into these norms. And I would like to not be treated, you know, like, mistreated for that.’ That is a reasonable request. To say that I demand that everybody else also does not fit into the norms, which the vast majority of human beings, like the vast, vast, vast majority consider themselves to be one of these two genders. So to demand that they stop doing that so that you’re more comfortable is like if someone is in a wheelchair, and they’re like, ‘Hey, I’d really appreciate it if you built a ramp, or I’d appreciate it if you don’t like, you know, I don’t know — something.’ But if they go, ‘I’d like everybody else to sit in a wheelchair and wheel around also.’ That seems a bit unrealistic.
ROGAN: Well, it’s — this is apparently a gender neutral award show, which I don’t understand and understand why she said yes going to it.
[…]
SMITH: The audience at the time didn’t realize that they had just heard such a horrific thing said to them.
ROGAN: Yeah, they weren’t aware. They had to get online and find out how they should think.
SMITH: Yeah, man, all this stuff, though. It’s, you know, it’s like the reason though, why all of this, like woke insanity is so pushed by all of the big corporations and by the media, and like, all this stuff is because — doesn’t it just serve as the perfect distraction? Like, while everything’s crumbling, and there’s so many real things — like the the 20th century for the United States of America has been a disaster thus far, like coming from being the most powerful country in the world, coming out of say, like, the 90s to what is it, 2001 starts with 9/11, then like seven disastrous wars, the worst recession in 100 years, or something like that, Donald Trump gets elected, there’s COVID, there’s the shutdowns, this whole thing, it’s like a disaster. And they’re like, what we really need to talk about, what we need to focus on, is that this woman said she loves being a woman the other day, and I find that very problematic. If you were like, one of these corporate, you know, big corporations or some hedge fund manager or something, that’s just, I’m just saying it’s awfully convenient.
ROGAN: It’s a very good distraction; it does keep you from concentrating on it and one of the things that I was talking about last night —
SMITH: And the thing is that, like, to actually think about that, number one, it requires you actually think, it requires you actually, you know, watch something or read something and know what’s going on, then it also might require that you reflect on yourself, and what role you play in all of this. Like, I’m quite happy to ignore that and just have my new cool phone. Whereas just being outraged about someone saying a word you don’t think they’re supposed to say, that’s easy. It takes no sacrifice, no introspection, nothing. So, people just focus on that. But we have an unbelievable problem in this culture with our hierarchy of outrage. It’s not that even some things maybe aren’t wrong, or you shouldn’t be upset about them. But like, where does this rank in terms of other outrages? I mean, like, there could just be like, oh, there was a — the Biden administration had a drone bomb kill like six innocent people. And that’s, like, the 1037th thing that people are outraged about today. And the number one thing is just always something that’s like, this should not even be in competition with that. Like, what are we talking about?
ROGAN: Like the Rock pretended to be a Chinese guy 13 years ago; we need to go after him now.
SMITH: But man that video of you commentating while he does it is hilarious. God bless the internet. God bless the geniuses on the internet.
ROGAN: Well they, when you step out, and you say something silly and he said something silly.
SMITH: Well, that’s the thing though, is that it’s like, it’s almost like it’s an interesting thing also because you have so many, like, so much support, so many people love you that now you have all these people out there, and it’s like, so what do you guys want to do here? You really want to go to war? You want to bring up everything everyone’s ever said that was like not the right thing to say?
ROGAN: Well they got The Young Turks. I wonder if they had started talking about it first, and then they got them with that video or if they just went right for them?
SMITH: I don’t know.
ROGAN: I don’t know because I don’t watch them.
SMITH: I haven’t watched them in a long, long time.
ROGAN: I used to.
SMITH: I did, too, I got unbearable.
ROGAN: What happened? Something happened. And I don’t know if it’s attention. There’s something that happens to people, it’s very difficult to stay the course and be who you are. And I say this as a person who gets about as much attention as anybody gets, like, alive. It’s hard, because so many people are looking at you. And also, I have, like, managers and shit. And like, should you really do this? And should you really do that? And they talk to me on the phone, I go, ‘Hey, gotta go. I’m high.’ I’m not changing. Like, I’m not changing anything about what I do. I’m a good person, I’m a nice guy. But if you’re asking me to, like, become something different because people are paying attention, like, well, I’m out. Because that’s not what I signed up for. I signed up to just be myself. But something happens to a lot of people, when they get a lot of attention, where they start to lean towards the things that get them the most attention, or lean towards the things they feel like get them the most support, or they start to react to the reactions of other people. And then they become reactionaries, they become different than who they really are. And one of the things is they lose their ability to have a charitable take on things. They lose their ability to be compassionate for other people. And they start looking at things very ideologically, very dogmatically, and they start falling into these traps, and you’ll see it with right-wing people. You see it with left-wing people. And they get, somehow or another, they feel like their emotions and outrage and yelling and being insulting, it enhances what they’re saying, it enhances their take on things, and doesn’t. It doesn’t. It doesn’t work. Like, you should be maturing. It’s okay to be outraged. It’s okay to insult people. But it’s like, it should have, like, weight to it, it should make sense. And when you’re doing it, and it doesn’t make sense, come on. Like, do you do not have a filter? Are you having too many other people influence you? Do you not have any meditation time? Like, why are you changing? Like, what are you becoming?
SMITH: Or is it something more sinister than that? Which I think it is for some people where it’s like, you know exactly what you’re doing. You don’t even really believe in this, this outrage. But this is a convenient way for you to kind of pile on and kind of take out your enemies.
ROGAN: There’s a lot of people like that. There’s a lot of people like that. The insincere, that’s dark. It’s so sad, like, because like people are looking, but that’s also why it doesn’t — it’s not very effective, and it’s not very popular. Like, it’s kind of popular with some casuals, but it loses support because if people don’t feel you’re sincere, if they don’t, you can be wrong, but you have to be honest.
