Morgan Wallen is caught drunk, surreptitiously, uttering the n-word and he becomes a cultural pariah. To the point where a year later, many people still believe he should continue to pay a price and be banned. Furthermore, Spotify removed his music from its playlists, they DE-EMPHASIZED IT! But Joe Rogan utters the n-word on camera, refers to black neighborhoods as PLANET OF THE APES, yet he's defended and gets a pass?
Well, 1/6 was legitimate political discourse.
HUH?
If India.Arie was Doja Cat, Joe Rogan would be paying a price. But since Arie is not at the top of the commercial game right now, her story gets no traction and is paid no attention.
But let's go back to Neil Young, et al. The Rogan supporters are laughing, seeing Neil as out on a limb, out of touch, they believe the joke is on him. But if they'd lived through the sixties, when Mr. Young's thoughts were formed, they'd see a quite different picture.
Most people were FOR the Vietnam War. We were the United States, we never lost. (Although now we've lost in both Vietnam and Afghanistan. Why were we in those wars again?) But there was a coterie of antiwar protesters in the EARLY sixties who spoke up. They too were derided and marginalized, but as time wore on and the war escalated, more and more Americans started to reevaluate their position. And the antiwar protests got traction. Nixon went to speak with protesters at the Jefferson Memorial. The national viewpoint on the war changed, it needed to end, which it ultimately did, however slowly. Hell, Nixon won in '72 by falsely claiming that PEACE IS AT HAND. Yeah, right.
Leaders. Pushing the envelope. That's what it's about.
But by the end of the sixties, all young people were questioning authority and beliefs. Not questioning science, (everybody believed in science, it put men on the moon and brought us LSD, never mind Tang), but mores.
I learned that term as a freshman in college, in anthropology. According to the Oxford dictionary, "mores" means:
"the essential or characteristic customs and conventions of a community"
But then we were all in it together. Hell, one of the biggest, most sustained hits of the era was the Youngbloods' "Get Together." Now we're all torn apart, and it's all about what's good for me, screw you. And we play to the dumb, not the educated, the educated are scorned. Meanwhile, most of the so-called educated are not, they take business courses, STEM, English and art majors are laughed at, but without a well-rounded background you're myopic, you can't see the forest for the trees, you can't make educated decisions, you question as opposed to running on instinct, or following the herd.
And now we've got a cultural division. And I feel for those on the wrong end of the stick, the uneducated poor. The truth is they were not looked out for in NAFTA and the computerization of America. But that does not make the educated elite dumb, that does not mean you should take all their opinions off the table.
And, unfortunately, the elite have had enough. When people tell you not to believe your eyes, there's always gonna be trouble. 1/6 was "legitimate political discourse." Yeah, right.
So the truth is Neil Young is on the bleeding edge, he's a beacon, it's just that the ignorant and uninformed don't know it. One person takes a stand, and then others learn the lesson and they do so in the future. One guy, Neil Young, brought this whole question into focus, which is multifarious to begin with. How do we fight misinformation? Is Spotify just a distributor or a publisher? What exactly are censorship and free speech in the online world? What responsibility do all these platforms have?
Yes, it's all up for grabs. And what do Spotify and the rest of the platforms have to say? TRUST US! We've got it HANDLED!
I ain't trusting Mark Zuckerberg, a myopic techie who can't get along with people. Just because you're powerful and rich that does not mean you are smart.
And Morgan Wallen is different from Joe Rogan. Morgan Wallen's "Dangerous" was just another record, no different from the rest of the millions of titles. But Joe Rogan has a direct relationship with Spotify, they paid him $100 million. And Spotify is MORE LENIENT with Rogan??
Every day people e-mail me that boomers are out of touch because they're too old. But the truth is, when you get older, you'll realize older people are wiser, because they've had more EXPERIENCE! Do we really want all our social issues decided by thirtysomething techies?
Once again, Morgan Wallen has the right to say whatever he wants, but we don't have to AMPLIFY IT! Why wasn't his excision from radio playlists seen as censorship of free speech? Oh, that's right, radio stations can do whatever they want, and they're regulated by the FCC!
False equivalencies, jammed down our throats. Everybody's opinion is equal. There are two sides to every story. No, most times that's not true, and certainly not with science.
Do I think Joe Rogan should be shut up permanently? No. Just like I think Morgan Wallen is entitled to get out of persecutory jail. But why does Wallen pay such a significant price while Rogan pays NONE, not even from the same company!
But Rogan says he's just an overworked comedian, he didn't mean it, he'll try harder. But Wallen is caught drunk and says one bad thing and he's blasted away?
Come on.
Bottom line, if you get Covid and you're not vaxxed the odds of hospitalization are double digit times higher. And in many places, Covid deaths now exceed what they were two years ago. And there's math involved, Omicron might not be as deadly as previous variants, but it's plenty dangerous. And if you get it... Hell, Karl Rove's sister died of Covid! You see Covid doesn't care if you're a Democrat or a Republican. Go unvaxxed at your peril.
But we've got Joe Rogan proffering falsehoods again and again, just saying he's trying to illuminate the other side. But sometimes, the other side should not be illuminated, it's bogus. One lying doctor says vaccines cause autism and the entire world changes. Do you see the power of misinformation? Hell, that's what the right is BUILT UPON!
Spotify has a responsibility. Joe Rogan needs to pay a penalty. Because they're letting him skate, and then everybody else is encouraged to do the same damn thing. Which is how we got into this mess. Politicians and business people lied on the stand and now the hoi polloi have no problem telling lies in court, none whatsoever, they BOAST ABOUT IT! Civic responsibility? WHAT'S THAT?
The truth always outs. Like with Zucker at CNN. It may take a while, but you can't hide it. The truth is Joe Rogan has a history of false and racist statements. Unlike too many in society, I think he can be rehabilitated, but just pledging to do better is NOT ENOUGH!
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