Top 10 Joe Rogan Conspiracy Theories
Joe Rogan is a wildly popular podcaster, and his podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience, is routinely one of, if not the most-listened-to podcast in the world. It’s easy to see why; Rogan speaks with a level of candor and Han Solo-esque nonchalance that can be touching at times. Being open and honest about every subject under the sun is his greatest strength. However, it comes with an equally great weakness. Rogan’s career—as a comedian, reality TV host, and UFC commentator—has often left him inexperienced and uneducated on the subject in question. This has led to Rogan having some eccentric ideas about the world, some of which go as far as tinfoil hat conspiracies. Thankfully, to Rogan’s credit, he has recanted most of his wildest statements and/or apologized when confronted by experts. Anyway, here are the ten best Joe Rogan conspiracies.
10. Joe Rogan Is Spreading Lies About Wildfires
Dangerous, widespread wildfires have plagued the West Coast for years due to a combination of factors, particularly drought, climate change, and irresponsible human behavior. One factor that didn’t start the fires was “leftists” suffering from “madness,” who “want your head and they want your blood, and they don’t seem willing to settle for less.” Rogan said that and more on a September 2020 episode of his podcast, based on an article he read from an unverified source. The FBI quickly debunked the claim, saying, “Conspiracy theories and misinformation are taking valuable resources away from our local fire departments and law enforcement agencies who are working 24/7 to contain these fires. Please help our entire community by only sharing verified information from official sources.” Rogan issued a full apology, saying he was “an idiot” and “I apologize if I misled you (my listeners).”
9. Crazy “B words” turn you into a woman
Rogan has a long history of not understanding transgender people, and has been criticized for making tactless comments on the subject before, but one stands out. In September 2020, Rogan (again) questioned Caitlyn Jenner’s gender dysphoria, and instead suggested that living with the Kardashians caused Caitlyn’s transformation. He said: “Maybe if you live with enough crazy women, they’ll turn you into one of them. You can go crazy.” There are a thousand things to criticize the Kardashians and Caitlyn Jenner for, but this isn’t one of them.
8. A classic: The moon landing was fake
Ah, one of the old ones. Just a crude, unadulterated conspiracy. Good stuff. For a long time, Rogan insisted that the moon landing was a hoax. He often talked about the documentaries he saw that convinced him. It’s a very entertaining conspiracy because it’s relatively harmless and somehow plausible. The United States would kill to win the space race, and while it would have been won without cheating in real life, it’s entirely believable that we would have staged a landing if it meant winning. Rogan has since changed his mind, and has said — quite wisely — that he had previously looked at the evidence objectively and tried to be as objective as possible, and realized he had made a mistake, and so he changed his mind. If every freak could be that humble and wise, the world would look better overnight.
7. Worm prevention medicine is a treatment for your dog
The title pretty much says it all. In April 2021, Rogan spoke with comedian Dave Smith and said he listened to podcasters Bret Weinstein and Heather Heying. The duo promoted the drug ivermectin on their show as a potential preventative and cure for COVID. Ivermectin is only approved to treat parasitic intestinal worms, which are mostly found in pets, and there’s no definitive evidence yet that it has any effect on COVID. Despite that, Rogan had Weinstein and Heying on his show and expressed support for their unproven treatment. Every major health organization agrees that unproven treatments like ivermectin should be properly tested before being used, and frankly, their opinions carry a bit more weight than Rogan’s.
6. Blood Therapy for Babies
Let’s give Rogan some privacy. This conspiracy isn’t about Rogan, it’s about him. The discredited conspiracy group QAnon, which has its home on 8chan (which should be enough), came across an old clip from Rogan’s podcast in which he and comedian Whitney Cummings joke about using baby blood as a facial to stay young. The argument between the two was clearly a joke, but QAnon, which isn’t known for its sense of humor or nuance, took the conversation literally. The video went viral, and Q followers began spreading false claims that Rogan is a baby killer and uses his skin to keep his own skin young. No matter how much we fight Rogan, he’s nowhere near Q’s level.
5. Angelina Jolie Caused Her Own Facial Paralysis from Bell’s
Rogan has said several times on his show that he thinks Angelina Jolie is crazy. He never seems to say exactly why, other than that she has a bunch of adopted children (what?), but he once went too far in his jokes about it. Jolie has been diagnosed with Bell's palsy, a neurological disorder that causes muscle weakness or paralysis on one side of the face. It can cause sudden, horrific attacks that permanently disfigure the face. Fans of professional wrestling will know that Jim Ross has struggled to speak out for decades. Rogan has said of Jolie, “Is she paralyzed? … That's the problem with insanity: It comes with all kinds of neurotic shit.” It's a little weird that he would suggest that neurological disorders can be fixed by acting normal.
4. There is no mental illness
This isn’t the only time Rogan has spoken out about mental disorders and spread dubious opinions about their mechanisms. He’s argued several times that ADHD isn’t a real disorder, once saying, “Didn’t someone say you invented that? And it’s not real?” This is, of course, misinformation on Rogan’s part. Rogan also doesn’t really believe in the autism spectrum. He once said of autism, “I don’t like all these crazy labels when it comes to mental illness because I don’t know if I trust all of them. ‘He’s on the spectrum.’ Is he really? Can you weigh that? Can you put that spectrum on a scale? Can you throw that guy in a pool and it reads out how autistic he is?” Okay, Joe.
3. South African white genocide
One of the most extremist conspiracies Rogan has propagated is the (very) thoroughly debunked far-right claim of white genocide in South Africa. The plot alleged that white South Africans were targeted by black South Africans and killed in revenge for apartheid. The problem is, the plot was initially spread by the problematic white nationalist group AfriForum and was based on a deliberate misinterpretation of the country’s murder statistics. In short: South Africa has a terrifying problem with violent attacks everywhere, and isolating statistics on white citizens while ignoring the rest will certainly make it look like white genocide is going on. When experts helped explain the data, Rogan was quick to change his mind again. He tweeted: “As objectively as I look at it, I think violence is a HUGE problem in South Africa in general, and I think a lot of people are isolating statistics on farmers, making it seem like farmers are being targeted.” Another conspiracy for Rogan, but another low-down twist and an honest mea culpa.
2. No Vaccination Required
Arguably the second biggest controversy for Rogan was his claim in April 2021 that healthy people shouldn’t get vaccinated against the disease. At one point, Rogan actively advised his young listeners not to get vaccinated, saying, “If you’re 21 and you tell me, should I get vaccinated? Then I say no.” His reasoning: “If you’re a healthy person and you exercise consistently, if you’re young and you eat well: it’s not like you need to worry about that.” The implication that only sick people need vaccines shows a completely opposite understanding of how vaccines work and what they serve, not to mention ignorance about asymptomatic carriers and the critical need for herd immunity. Rogan was quick to (partially) walk back his statements after facing criticism from health officials, saying, “I’m not a doctor, I’m an idiot and I’m a cage-fighting commentator… I’m not a reputable source of information.”
1. Alex Jones “did a lot of things right”
This is Rogan’s biggest controversy to date, and it’s brought him and Spotify a huge amount of backlash from a number of outlets. In October 2020, Rogan hosted conspiracy theorist and notorious lunatic Alex Jones on his podcast. Jones is best known for his claim that the government “put chemicals in the water that turned frogs gay.” Jones also terrorized the families of the Sandy Hook victims and repeated a traditional extremist’s claim that they were being paid “crisis actors.” This cost Jones $126,000 in a defamation lawsuit and partially led to him being banned from all major social media platforms. When Rogan had Jones on his show, he gave a voice to someone who had been deemed necessarily mute by the courts, the business community, and the public. Rogan, however, always kept up with Jones, fact-checking his many false claims. Rogan occasionally nodded to Jones’ rhetorical fever dream, but was generally careful not to follow Jones too far down the chemically gay rabbit hole.
