It is a very hectic day on the censorship front. The Joe Rogan Experience podcast, which is itself the largest podcast in the world, has seen over 100 additional episodes deleted beyond what was discussed in our article covering the subject yesterday. Furthermore, Joe Rogan himself has apologized for using a racial slur that is used offensively against people of African descent, and sometimes used casually among people of African descent. There are strong opinions regarding this word, to the point that we will never feature the word in one of our articles. There are many words which are potentially offensive to the highest order, but the word in question is of particular controversy. You can probably guess which word that is.
The attack against Rogan and his usage of the word appears to be a video montage of the comedian / podcaster using the term. This author has not reviewed the montage, but articles covering the subject seem to indicate that Mr. Rogan did not use the term in a purposefully offensive way, but rather used the term in reading things that had been written or quoting others without self-censoring. Regardless, a montage of Mr. Rogan using the term over and over has quite the negative impact.
https://www.instagram.com/p/CZlnH8MAb8L/
In response to this situation, people defending Joe Rogan have created similar montages of celebrities, commentators, podcasters, etc, using the same word/slur. We will not show the montage of Joe Rogan and we will not show the montage of the other celebrities, podcasters, etc. We typically like to show source material for these kinds of reports, but both montages could damage the reach of That Park Place. It’s also not limited to just that. Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson backed Joe Rogan earlier this week, and today pulled that support over the montage. So, people began digging up “The Rock” quotes which can be assumed are offensive to some people.
https://twitter.com/TheRock/status/97166817126125569
https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/1490038037866336262
This is a huge, huge mess. It is an escalation of the culture war, and a furthering of cancellation/deplatforming strategies to obtain power. Where one side of the political spectrum has been successful at wielding that power, the other side is now appearing to be dead set on applying the same standard and tactics. This is a food fight, mud-slinging, reputation destruction pattern that will do far more harm than good, so long as any side engages in it. It seems clear that Joe Rogan is not a bad person or a person who espouses hate or negative feelings for other based on their race or ethnicity. The celebrities being compiled into similar montages in defense of Rogan are likely also not people who espouse hate or negative feelings for others based on race or ethnicity.
This has to stop. The push to destroy free speech and succeed in an ideological war at any cost is one that has historical precedent; the pattern is that it will end in suffering.
As Dr. Jordan Peterson has weighed in:
All those who weaponize guilt will live to regret it @joerogan
— Dr Jordan B Peterson (@jordanbpeterson) February 5, 2022
That seems wise. Let us not weaponize guilt against our brothers and sisters. And let us understand that deescalating the situation will require both sides to simultaneously begin building trust through fair and free discourse. Nobody is every going to agree on everything, but monolithic speech and thought is dangerous. It is the root of dogma. If we do not allow and defend speech which we find wrong, then we will never hear a message that reveals we, ourselves, are wrong… and we will not be able to avoid the pain of being wrong in time.
Life involves suffering and it can seem very short. Give grace where you can, and help others to be kind.
For all the latest on things that should be fun, but increasingly are difficult, keep checking out That Park Place. Please be respectful and use appropriate language in the comment section. We do want to hear from you.
