Ever since the airing of his interview with Dr Robert Malone, a critic of the mass rollout of Covid vaccines, Joe Rogan has been under more or less constant attack from those who would have him cancelled.
First, celebrities like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell threatened to pull their music from Spotify unless the company dropped him. Spotify owns the rights to broadcast Rogan’s hugely successful podcast, ‘The Joe Rogan Experience’, after signing a $100 million deal with him in 2020.
Next, a group of 270 ‘experts’ (only 87 of whom were actually doctors) penned an open letter denouncing Rogan, and demanding that Spotify “immediately establish” a policy to “moderate misinformation on its platform”.
Then the singer-songwriter India Arie posted a video compilation of Rogan saying the N-word, leading to accusations of ‘racism’ and further calls for censorship. Though Rogan apologised, as far as I’m aware, he never actually called anyone the N-word. Rather, he uttered it while commenting on the term itself.
And, remember, it’s only in the last few years that you’re not even allowed to mention the N-word (in the sense of what philosophers call the use-mention distinction). Even President Biden said it out loud when quoting someone else in Congress in 1985. Should he now be cancelled?
In the most absurd twist yet, CNN ran a piece titled ‘Joe Rogan’s use of the n-word is another January 6 moment’, though the title was later changed.
One could be forgiven for assuming that the campaign to cancel Rogan has less to do with his supposed role in spreading ‘misinformation’ than the fact he doesn’t blindly parrot whatever narrative the media is pushing at any particular time. After all, he’s interviewed pro-vaccine scientists as well as those who’re more sceptical.
Rogan’s own position on the Covid vaccines is perfectly reasonable, and barely differs from what scientists like Martin Kulldorff and Jay Bhattacharya have been saying. In April of last year, Rogan stated:
I’m not an anti-vaxx person. I said I believe they’re safe and I encourage many people to take them … My parents were vaccinated. I just said that if you’re a young, healthy person that you don’t need it.
Here’s the strongest way of framing the case against Rogan. By exaggerating the risks and downplaying the benefits of vaccines, or interviewing scientists who’ve done so, Rogan has discouraged people from getting vaccinated, which has cost those people their lives.
Even if this is true, I would say that mainstream media ‘misinformation’ has caused far more harm. So if you’re going to censor Rogan, you ought to censor all the big newspapers and TV channels as well. (Or better yet, don’t censor anyone.)
What do I mean? The media repeatedly told us that everyone needs to get vaccinated – regardless of age, health or prior Covid status. But if we’d refrained from vaccinating healthy young people, and those with a prior infection, we could have donated millions of vaccines to people in poor countries who actually needed them.
Insofar as it prevented us from donating vaccines at a time when doing so could have made a difference, the injunction to vaccine everyone has cost many more lives than anything Joe Rogan or his guests have said. And note: this injunction was partly based on yet another piece of ‘misinformation’ – that the vaccines stop transmission.
Even if we just consider ‘misinformation’ surrounding the vaccines, the mainstream media comes out looking far worse than Rogan (who, I’d remind you, has interviewed people on both sides of the debate). Add in the ‘lab leak conspiracy theory’ narrative, and there’s really no comparison.
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a move described by a trade union as “Victorian”
This is an interesting use of the word “Victorian”. Presumably it means ridiculously old-fashioned. Now, if I remember my history correctly, the Victorians also used to pay people if they turned up for work. Therefore, being paid for turning up for work must also be “Victorian” – i.e. ridiculously old-fashioned. Therefore, those who don’t turn up for work shouldn’t expect to get paid. Otherwise they’re being ridiculously old-fashioned (and we can’t have that).
My grandfather, who admittedly was an Edwardian rather than a Victorian, but I doubt things had changed much, used to work five days plus Saturday mornings.
Let’s see the shrivelled serpents do that.
Time to hand out the P45s!
Who is going to be in the office to do the handing out?
Presumably because they currently do next to f***-all.
Where’s Ronnie’s heir when we most need them? Just call their bluff and get shot of the shirkers:
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2021/aug/5/reagans-firing-of-striking-air-traffic-controllers/
Lazy offspring of unmarried mothers.
that’s a little harsh, lazy would do.
First it was Land Registry. I wonder which mob will be next?
Their work must be largely straightforward. Sack the lot and recruit a new bunch from the private sector. Just like Reagan with air traffic controllers.
If ALL Civil Servants went on strike at once, would anyone notice?
A few inconveniences maybe, but no tax collection!
Sounds like the Land Registry is overstaffed by at least 4000 people.
The Land Registry is already closed for the public to call on Fridays.
My GP also finishes for the week at 1.00pm on Fridays.
Let them strike and let their Unions pay them instead.
“We believe this action will cause minimal impact to our services…”
…Minimal impact on a service that, for the last Land Registry transaction I was involved in, took two years to turn round.
Cited reason, backlog due to The Pandemic (That Never Was, that kicked off Skiving from Home).
They took just over a year to register the change of ownership when we moved in March 2023. My solicitor said it was normal for transactions to take about a year.
And yet the Registry claim that 70% are processed within 3 months.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/hm-land-registry-processing-times
Frankly I believe the solicitor.
Drain the swamp, to coin a phrase.
Please, please, please let all civil servants go on strike indefinitely – they produce no wealth and consume much.
On strike, no pay, save money… fill that £22 billion black hole.
Time for a massive fight with the work shy, lazy, w**k from home, over paid, over pensioned, low achieving, always moaning public sector that rips off Britain daily. The Public Sector needs a 50% cull. The rest can join the real workforce in the private sector.
With unemployment about to rise thanks to Rachel there should be a good supply of replacements hired on contracts that stipulate working in the office everyday and no joining the union.
I think we should let them all work from home. If you can do your job from home then we can replace you with someone in India. Saves us a fortune and we don’t ave to put up with these winging lazy people. At least Indians appear to have a stronger work ethic.
Time for a game of musical chairs. Any one who isn’t at their desk at least three days a week loses their chair ….and their job.
“A HM Land Registry spokesman said: “We believe this action will cause minimal impact to our services. We will continue to closely monitor any effects the action may have and respond as needed to maintain essential services that support the property market, such as searches, registrations – including expedites – and customer contact, as we did during previous periods of full industrial action.”
If they can strike with “minimal impact” why strike?
If they can strike with “minimal impact” they must be overstaffed and unproductive when not on strike.
I just transferred a property to my wife and having completed the paperwork the solicitor told me the deed would be completed in January 2026
That’s right, about a year. Despite the Land Registry claiming otherwise.
The Land Registry backlog is huge. I wonder why?