Over the past couple weeks Joe Rogan has been caught in that proverbial shit storm. Whether it’s comments about the Covid-19 pandemic or racial slurs he made in the past, it seems like you can’t go 15 seconds without someone commenting about the situation. Now full disclosure, I am a Joe Rogan fan. I started listening to his podcast back when he recorded it in his basement and put it out on ustream and have listened whenever he had a guest that interested me on ever since. But you can still be a fan of someone and still disagree with them. You can also respect his opinions no matter how much you disagree with them.

I am going to start with the most recent controversy first. The racial slurs that Joe Rogan freely wielded around is abhorrent and frankly disgusting. There really is no room for that in any space especially not right now. I have heard comedians use the phrase that you can joke about anything as long as it’s funny. I think that’s total bull shit. Not only did the joke he made comparing the planet of the apes to a black person is not very funny, it was cruel. In my opinion, I do not think Joe Rogan is a racist. To his credit, Joe Rogan recently apologized in an Instagram post and said he hasn’t used the words in years and that he is not a racist. I guess we have no choice but to believe him.

Many musicians from Neil Young to Joni Mitchell have pulled their music catalog off of Spotify because of Joe Rogan’s comments on coronavirus. Rogan has been very vocal about his stance on the vaccine and his own treatment from his bout with covid. Some famous people from Aaron Rodgers to UFC President Dana White have been public about being in contact with Rogan asking him for advice when both of them battled their own bouts with covid. Again, full disclosure, I am vaccinated with the booster. That is my own personal belief and what I feel is best for me in the current pandemic world. But I totally respect people’s opinions with what they do with their own bodies. If you don’t feel comfortable getting the vaccine that is your right. I am totally fine with that. To me, it is a very dangerous thing if we start filtering what people say and what other people believe in no matter how much it may differ to your own opinions. It is the musician’s rights to pull their music off any platform they don’t want it being streamed on, but it’s also Rogan’s rights to voice his own beliefs on Spotify. People need to start respecting other people’s opinions no matter how much it may counteract your own.

I think we are just at the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Rogan and his podcast. People are going to keep on attacking him until he is off Spotify. He deserves the heat he is currently getting with the racial slurs. They were dumb, not funny, and downright meant. There is no place for that ever and especially not in the current political climate. He apologized and we should accept it and take him at his word for it. The hot button topic of covid, which turned so political since the start of it, in my opinion is his right to voice whatever he feels about it. If you take a comedian who hosts a podcast as the arbiter of the pandemic as the end all be all of what we should do with covid, then I think that says more about you then it does about him.