White supremacist safe spaces

Tucker Carlson supports Vladimir Putin because Putin won’t criticize somebody (this is what the word “cancel” means — it means criticizing somebody) for being a white supremacist:

Carlson’s fixation with the notion that the worst thing that can happen to an upper class white person like, oh I don’t know, Tucker Carlson, is to be called a racist (again, that’s what being canceled means: it means a white person is being criticized for saying bad things) dovetails with this interesting critique of Joe Rogan’s bizarrely immense popularity:

Instead of being canceled (he’s “too big to cancel”), Rogan has dragged us all in the opposite direction: He’s just respectable enough, and more than powerful enough, to have helped shift the Overton window of acceptable, respectable social views toward a messier, uglier roundtable that, sure, includes Bernie Sanders and Neil deGrasse Tyson, but also includes Alex Jones and a bunch of alt-light right-wingers. Spotify might have been the driving force that could have attempted to hold Rogan accountable for his decision to consistently platform extremists, but Spotify, battling its own set of problems in the podcast space, kowtowed to Rogan and graciously gave way.

In other words, Rogan, one of the most powerful voices in the world, now may have more freedom than ever to dictate the terms of public conversation — to decide who and what gets to be listened to, and why. As Deggans notes, that sort of influence is much harder to fight than out-and-out extremism.

It’s in that gray space that Rogan flourishes. It’s in that gray space that his listeners, exhausted by the endless polarization of sociocultural discourse, find comfort in Rogan’s ambiguities and contradictions and uncertainties. But it’s also that gray space that harbors bad actors, bad science, misinformation, and disinformation. By playing host to them all but claiming it all as fair game in the name of free speech, Rogan has taught his followers a simple but effective playbook for how to appear balanced without actually being balanced.

Whether Rogan himself believes his dedication to cultivating a moderate and open viewpoint is almost beside the point: It only takes one bad seed to yield a lot of bad apples. And for every Roganite who gravitates to his show because of his more moderate guests, there are the Roganites who come for the Elon Musks [eta: using Musk as an example of moderation on these issues is an odd choice] but get drawn to the Jordan Petersons and Ben Shapiros. That’s all part of Rogan’s appeal, no matter how much his fans might insist that it isn’t. And the more he teaches his followers how to weaponize that denialism, the harder it gets to pass off Rogan’s brand as that of a relatable guy who’s just royally fucking up once in a while.

Joe Rogan is just asking questions after all. I mean shouldn’t people be able to ask questions? Why should you run the risk of being canceled — again, this means being criticized — just because some of those questions end up sounding kinda racist sometimes?

This is the same question Tucker Carlson is asking, night after night, as he launders the idea that being a white supremacist is really just another political viewpoint, that needs to be respected because of Freedom of Speech, and how dare you call ideas that you disagree with white supremacist, when they’re just alternative viewpoints supported by data collected by these scienticians over here?

This is what all the screeching about cancel culture and critical race theory and, going back to the Stairway to Freebird of this trope, political correctness, has always been all about. Vladimir Putin is a bloodthirsty tyrant who enthusiastically murders his critics as he pursues the expansion of the Russian empire? At least he doesn’t call people like you a racist for no better reason than you sometimes express the opinion that black people are inherently less intelligent and more violent than white people.

It’s white resentment, white rage, and white backlash all the way down all the time.

That’s why Joe Rogan has a $200 million podcast deal with Spotify and why Tucker Carlson is a kingmaker in the Republican party, which is controlled by Donald Trump, a white supremacist who controls it precisely because he’s an open white supremacist, unlike his mealy mouthed predecessors.