Joe Rogan during his recent interview with guest Jim Breuer, March 19, 2021 (Photo: Digital Music News)
Despite heavy pressure from activist Spotify employees, Joe Rogan reiterated his criticism of the transgender community while questioning the adulation given to those making the transition.
Joe Rogan is now generating more accusations of transphobia following comments during his most recent podcast episode. In an interview with her friend and comedian Jim Breuer, which she posted exclusively to Spotify on Friday, Rogan reiterated previous complaints about the transgender community while questioning the motivations of people seeking transition.
“It’s not false,” Rogan said, while noting that a certain subset of the population has long wanted to transition to a different sex. “There are people who really have these thoughts. The problem is that it becomes a protected subject and you get praised for transferring your gender, for changing your gender. And then it becomes exciting for people to talk, and then they scold you for even discussing it in a weird way.
“And then people who were marginalized for being, like generally dumb people, if they transfer over and become another gender, then they are praised. There are a lot of people who are idiots, but then they turn trans, and now all of a sudden we think they are amazing.
Jim Breuer immediately agreed with the comment, although he noted that it is impossible to have a back-and-forth discussion on the subject with someone pro-trans. “They don’t even know how to speak,” Breuer pointed out.
“It is because they are indoctrinated in an ideology that demands that you comply,” Rogan replied.
“Right, let’s just have a conversation. Like, there is a transvestite who walks into our cafeteria, he is – «
“I don’t think you are allowed to say more ‘transvestite’,” Rogan quickly interrupted.
“I just did,” Breuer replied jokingly. “For my generation, I’m from the 80s, we called it ‘transvestite’, you can’t de-program me”.
“Can you say ‘drag queen’?” Rogan laughed between teeth.
“Drag queen. You can say it? I just said it «.
“I just want to say, can you say it?”
“Too!”
In the hours after the podcast episode was released, DMN received multiple emails, though it’s unclear if any came from Spotify itself.
The discussion follows an extremely contentious battle between Rogan and various Spotify staff members, particularly during an interview Rogan conducted with Abigail Shrier prior to her arrival on the music streaming platform.
Shrier, author of the book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters, was interviewed by Rogan in July 2020. Shrier harshly questioned whether extremely young women should undergo gender transition operations, treatments and therapies, while questioning whether many of these women are genuinely trans or simply seeking acceptance and validation. That sparked accusations of transphobia by a contingent of LGTBQ + Spotify employees, who allegedly demanded changes in more than ten separate meetings with Spotify’s top management.
Ultimately, that group demanded the removal of the Shrier episode and other previous shows, while also demanding editorial oversight and the ability to introduce Joe Rogan’s podcast episodes with clarifications, activation warnings, or other statements. None of those demands were granted, although the activist group never went on strike in response.
Rogan himself finally responded to the demands, but refused to modify his opinions or eliminate previous episodes.
“What Abigail is talking about in her book, Irreversible Damage, is large groups of children who are mostly socially awkward children, many of them are autistic, many of them have never received any praise in their life, and they do the transition and get all these compliments from people. Because it is, right now it is fashionable ”, affirmed Rogan.
“I’m talking from the top of my head. And a lot of times I say shit that I don’t even want to say. Because I say it because it’s a fucking podcast. And if you have a problem with people saying terrible things and you work for Spotify, maybe you should listen to some of the lyrics. Good, because some of the lyrics and some of the fucking music that they play over and over again makes my shit pale in comparison.
“But I understand, you are a 23-year-old boy who woke up and you are working for this company and you think you are going to put your foot down, I understand.”
–
