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Why do all of these attempts to cancel Joe Rogan matter?

Because if is happening to him, it could happen to you.

Do not be silent in the face of evil.

Background – My involvement

I began sounding the alarm in earnest on “Cancel Culture” and Critical Race Theory (CRT) during the early summer of 2020. The George Floyd incident was the bomb that set cities around the country aflame for months. Many thought this came out of nowhere. Others believed that centuries of racism and oppression had come to a head. Still others knew exactly what was going on. The fuse that set off the explosion of BLM and Antifa riots, beatings and chaos had been lit decades prior to the summer of 2020.

It was a cultural “sucker punch” that most did not possess the moral courage, nor cultural awareness of the times to understand much less respond appropriately to what was happening.

Mid-Summer of 2020

In June and July of 2020, I began to see books like Robin DiAngelo’s “White Fragility” and Ibram X. Kendi’s “How to Be An AntiRacist” circulating in the Christian community. I had heard their names and others but I had not read much of their stuff, other than a few quotes here and there. It all reminded me of some of the stuff I read in Anthropology and Sociology classes in college in the late 1990’s. I considered it all to be fringe pseudo-academic mumbo-jumbo that was regulated to life, death and burial in university classrooms – never to escape.

Fall of 2020

Fast-forward to the fall of 2020. All this fringe pseudo-academic critical theory stuff was front and center. To my astonishment, these Neo-Marxist ideas had escaped what I believed their academic tombs and were resurrected and injected into society. People began to point to these bad ideas as the solution and deliverance from an invisible and yet unknown ills of systemic racism, white supremacy and oppression not realizing it is all Marxism clothed in racial terminology. Parents were seeing it in schools, and employees were seeing corporations attempting to “re-educate” them with “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI)” struggle sessions (I mean “training”).

As growing numbers of Christians recommended DiAngelo’s book “White Fragility” to each other, I decided to order a copy and read it. The print edition was completely sold out (that’s how popular it was). So, I bought both digital and audio versions (and backordered the printed version). [You’re welcome Robin DiAngelo – I contributed to your bourgeois lifestyle]. After reading the book, I went to church leadership and said, “We have a problem.” Then, I was tasked with writing a summary of the book to help leadership understand this foreign doctrine being circulated among the flock.

What I thought would be a weeklong project turned into a much larger enterprise that spanned more than a month. Not only did I read DiAngelo’s book but I was dusting off old books from college, reading other books on the topic, source materials, and (peer-reviewed) academic papers spanning from – critical theory, gender theory, queer theory, intersectionality, Hegelian philosophy, and much more. I emerged from my “Alice in Wonderland” rabbit-hole experience with an extensive two part piece I titled, “A Critical Response and Worldview Analysis of the book “White Fragility” by Robin DiAngelo.” I handed this off to church leadership, checked the box and tried to go on with my life. But, not so fast!

Understanding the Cultural Moment

Simultaneously, friends and people from our church began approaching me asking questions. They were reading these woke books and seeing vitriolic posts by other Christians on social media attacking each other based on race, “privilege”, etc. Not to mention, all of the virtue signaling going on. They were trying to understand what in the hell was happening. Lifelong friendships were being fractured and destroyed by this stuff. So, I decided to published my two part series on “White Fragility”(here) in order to help people understand what they were seeing in the world around them. If you read it, you’ll see that I go far beyond the book’s title to pinpoint the underlying worldview and philosophy driving this new toxic cultish orthodoxy. Make no mistake CRT, Cancel Culture and Wokeism make up a CULT. Yes, I’ve studied cults as well.

I was stunned when my piece on “White Fragility” began to get shared and circulated widely. What I intended to be a resource to help people turned into a season of life that I occupy nearly two years later. Since the summer of 2020, I have presented on Critical Race Theory and related topics over 15 times to various groups in different formats (here are a few).

What does all this have to do with “Cancel Culture” and the unfolding situation with Joe Rogan?

It has everything to do with it because this is ALL related. We must understand an issue in order to respond appropriately to an issue.

[Disclaimer: I understand that Joe Rogan is a public figure. I do not support all his views on every topic nor do I agree with everything he says or does. I do believe that Joe Rogan has a right to speak his mind on the platforms that he’s on. Thinking Christians ought to pay attention.]

As I have pointed out in my presentations, Critical Race Theory is the present iteration of Marxism, and “Cancel Culture” is the enforcement of this ideology. Cancel Culture is a politically motivated collective attempt to harm, silence, or destroy a person’s reputation, livelihood, social standing, for “for violating a particular ideological standard” of the political left. 

Cancel Culture can be linked back to Herbert Marcuse‘s essay entitled “Repressive Tolerance” (1965). He basically states that in order to achieve a Marxist cultural revolution leading to a utopian dream, effective Marxists must tolerate and promote leftist/Marxist ideas while being intolerant, suppressing and silencing ideas from the political right. This intolerance, suppression and silencing of all things considered emanating from the political right is where we get the modern militant form of “Cancel Culture.” It’s just Repressive Tolerance theory put into practice (praxis). CRT and Cancel Culture are inextricably linked and rooted in Marxism. CRT is the worldview, Cancel Culture enforces it and prosecutes dissenters on it’s behalf.

Ideas have consequences and bad ideas have victims.

Cancel Culture is a really bad idea.

Many agree, we are living in Marcuse’s “Repressive Tolerance.” It is a modern reality in America and much of the West. Cancelling voices that dissent or question the new Marxian Critical Race Theory orthodoxy is spreading like invasive cancer across the institutions of the west. Yes, it is a religion.

Woke corporations, media companies, sports teams, politicians, the military, big tech, religious organizations, celebrities, musicians, influencers (don’t get me started), nonprofits, universities, and countless others are stumbling all over themselves like drunken frat boys looking to ‘hook-up’ with a girl after an all-night bender in order to show their allegiance to the new woke orthodoxy. And if anyone disagrees, or even questions the orthodoxy, they are dragged off to the “digital guillotine” to be be-headed (aka. “Cancelled”). It can be described as a modern version of the French Revolution. Once ‘cancelled’, the guilty party is digitally dead. And this is not limited to social media. Financial institutions, corporations, even law enforcement agencies join their Big Tech overlords to punish dissidents.

 …

Enter Joe Rogan into the ring.

Joe Rogan is an enigma. He is a comedian, black belt in Brazilian Jujitsu, MMA enthusiast, and former reality TV host among many other things. Rogan is best known for his podcast (The Joe Rogan Experience) which is the most downloaded podcast on the planet (13 million and counting). He has 14.5 million followers on Instagram, 8.2 million Twitter followers and 9.1 million on GETTR (after Twitter censored one of his posts linked to a podcast interview with Dr. Robert Malone).

Rogan recently signed a reportedly $100 million deal with streaming service Spotify to host his massively popular podcast. Spotify has been his home for several months.

Rogan is no stranger to hot-button issues or controversial guests or even stranger topics. He interviews a wide range of guests and those conversations last up to 3 hours. His fans eat it up.

Something interesting occurred following two specific podcast interviews in the last 3 months. Out of nowhere, Twitter began censoring his posts. And there were calls from across the Big Tech, government and media landscape for the de-platforming, silencing, and cancelling of Joe Rogan. What did Joe Rogan do wrong? Why were the Woketopians calling for his head?

Joe Rogan dared to interview Dr. Peter McCullough and Dr. Robert Malone. Both men are medical experts in their fields. Dr. McCullough is one of the most published physicians on the planet, he’s a cardiologist and expert / advocate for early treatment of COVID. Dr. Malone is the “original inventor of mRNA vaccination as a technology, DNA vaccination, and multiple non-viral DNA and RNA/mRNA platform delivery technologies” and one of the top researchers in the space.

Whats wrong with interviewing two of the best medical experts on the planet?

Well, both doctors are following the science that is completely discrediting the new COVID medical political ideological cult orthodoxy. Drs. McCullough and Malone dared to question the safety and efficacy of COVID response and mRNA vaccines. Joe Rogan interviewed them both and asked them great questions. He gave them opportunity to share their expertise. Both interviews went viral. In fact, to date, the Dr. Malone podcast is the most downloaded podcast in the history of podcasts.

Then, what appeared to be a coordinated effort to attack, smear and cancel Rogan came out of nowhere. The Woketopians took a page right out of Saul Alinsky’s “Rules for Radicals – A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals.” (1971)

Twitter banned Rogan for posting links to his podcast interviews and Youtube censored his videos. Ironically, washed-up bourgeois revolutionary hippie rockers from the 1960s like Neil Young and Joni Mitchell (and others) accused Rogan of spreading ‘misinformation’. So, they shifted from fighting back against ‘the man’ to aligning with authoritarians attempting to silence Rogan (chilling free speech in the process). Not known for their wisdom, Young and Mitchell (and others) pulled their music catalogs off Spotify in protest and retreated to their mansions to sip lattés. I guess, Neil Young wants to limit who he will allow to “Keep Rockin’ in the Free World“(like what I did there?)

Code Word – “Misinformation”

The accusation against Rogan was that he was spreading “misinformation” about COVID. In the new woke cult orthodoxy, “misinformation” is code for “information that does not align with political ideological orthodoxy.” The response is to coerce, smear, silence and cancel the individual who dares to get out of line. It’s almost like Herbert Marcuse spoke from his grave, “Cancel Him!!!” (in Darth Vader’s voice). There was a tremendous amount of pressure on Rogan and Spotify.

When one attack fails (or backfires), switch tactics!

When the “misinformation” tactic did not have the desired effect, the Woketopian legions turned to their tried-and-true method of silencing and cancelling – name calling. Prior to February 1, 2022, Joe Rogan was a podcaster loved and respected by people from all kinds of backgrounds, political persuasions, ages, religions, and ethnicities. Now, the cult claims Rogan is a racist!

The woke mob always resorts to calling people racists because woke arguments always fail. Name-calling has been effective since they were toddlers – immaturity is a hallmark of wokeness.

The timing was uncanny. As soon as the Marcuse Marxists learned that the “misinformation” weapon wouldn’t work against Rogan, they resorted to the racism grenade to destroy him. Out of nowhere, an out of context video collage from a decade ago showing Rogan using an unacceptable racial pejorative on his podcasts emerged and went viral. Again, amazing timing… as if this was planned. Kudos to the midwit who dug through thousands of hours of audio, compiled and edited the hit piece (I hope you were paid well to waste your life on such an asinine endeavor). The interesting thing is that Rogan wasn’t using the pejorative against a guest or anyone else. Many of his guests have pointed this out. He simply said the word (pejorative) instead of the more “politically correct” and acceptable description of the word.

No matter! The mob doesn’t care about anything but political power. As they see it, when attaining power is the ultimate goal, context and truth don’t matter. Joe Rogan was out of line and posed a threat to their ideology . The cult revolutionaries had their target (Rogan) and they were hell-bent on destroying him to teach the rest of us a lesson (including Christians).

Redefining and distorting definitions (definition inflation)

Important Note: The modern definition of “racist” is not the same as the definition we’ve come to understand over the last 200 years. A Racist is no longer someone who harbors ethnic hatred or ethnic prejudice based on skin color. The CRT cult has given us a new definition of racism. Basically, you are labeled a “racist” if you do not bow to the new cult orthodoxy and tow the Marxist party line. That’s why the woke mob can call ethnic minorities ‘racists’ today for not embracing the ideology. That charge would have made no sense 20 years ago.  The new definition is stupid, illogical and ethnically biased. In their warped view of reality, you are a good little Marxist or you are a racist!

A few days ago, Rogan shared his side of the story and apologized. Millions are coming to his defense. The media platform Rumble offered Rogan $100 million to move to their platform when it appeared that Spotify would cave under pressure. So far, Spotify hasn’t budged except for removing some past podcasts they deem “inappropriate.” This is just “soft -censoring” or Spotify’s attempt to appease the Woke piranhas.

A decade ago, no one had any problem with what Joe said. There were no protests or calls for cancelling him. Why? What changed?

Well, a lot has changed.

The culture has shifted and we’re living in Marcuse’s “Repressive Tolerance.”

On this new CRT-driven Marcuse Marxian road to utopia, there is no forgiveness, no mercy- only judgment for questioning the woke orthodoxy of identity politics of attaining power. You either “get with the program” (cult) or else! If you do not bow to the woke idols, you will be cancelled or worse. And they are calling THAT justice, equity, and liberation. It’s anti-freedom, anti-family, anti-American, anti-truth, anti-church, and anti-God.

The bait is the utopian dream of equity and justice for all (meaning socialism and communism for all). The hook is a totalitarian dystopian nightmare. If people like Joe Rogan get cancelled, it matters for the rest of us (including Christians).

Joe, no one expects you or anyone else to be perfect. Don’t fall for their stupid games. You can sincerely apologize until the cows come home, it will never appease them. It will never ever be enough. They smell blood in the water. They are not interested in your apologies, all they are interested in is power. Read Marcuse’s “Repressive Tolerance” and you’ll see why…. Or just ask James Lindsey or Voddie Baucham 😉

The poetry of Martin Niemöller is both haunting and a warning…

“First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.

Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.

Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.”
-Martin Niemöller

Why do all of these attempts to cancel Joe Rogan matter? Because if is happening to him, it could happen to you. Do not be silent in the face of evil.

The response to CRT and “Cancel Culture” is to tell the truth. Personally, I see through the manipulation and know their cult political orthodoxy better than they do. So, their stupid tactics won’t work on me. Now, (hopefully) their tactics won’t work on you either. You can accomplish this gently and respectfully but courageously.

“Know thy enemy.” Stand your post and don’t abandon the battlefield. Pray for and yes, love your enemies. Stand against dark ideologies that cripple the mind and enslave the heart.

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