Joe Rogan and Bret Weinstein Promote AIDS Denialism to an Audience of Millions - eviltoast

Weinstein repeated discredited theories to Rogan about HIV not being the cause of AIDS, alarming and infuriating public health experts.  

Bret Weinstein, the evolutionary biology professor turned podcaster and ivermectin guy, repeated a series of discredited pseudo-theories about AIDS in a recent appearance on Joe Rogan’s podcast. Weinstein, a frequent guest, told Rogan that he found the theory that party drugs like poppers cause AIDS to be “surprisingly compelling.” (It is not.) Weinstein also told Rogan he came to these ideas by reading a recent book by anti-vaccine activist and presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy, creating a sort of unholy turducken of misinformation passed onto an audience of millions. 

  • lennybird@lemmy.world
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    9 months ago

    Joe Rogan realized he could cast a dragnet across the nation for the most ignorant, gullible viewers and, like Alex Jones, sell them bullshit. This bullshit being pushed to the audience is paid for by the highest bidder that Rogan then injects into his dialogue.

    Then again, I wonder if he’s just a stoner wholeheartedly embracing the Dunning-Kruger Effect, thinking he’s got it allllll figured out.

    Do you think he’s aware of the false equivalence fallacy he props up when he would bring on, say, an anti-vaxxer person and then 1 pro-vaxx person but not recognize that there’s probably 999 pro-vaxx infectious disease experts, doctors, scientists for every one anti-vaxxer? What if he interviewed with proportionality?

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Rogan flips like a pancake. One day he’ll have Tyson on then the next this baked potato who got his info from a guy who wrote a book using the baked potatoes info… it’s a feedback loop of idiots. Rogan just likes money.

    • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      The Joe Rogan sort of show used to be relegated to midnight on AM radio. Coast-to-Coast Art Bell/George Noory stuff. Except at least Bell and Noory weren’t meathead assholes.

    • UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      Then again, I wonder if he’s just a stoner wholeheartedly embracing the Dunning-Kruger Effect, thinking he’s got it allllll figured out.

      I mean, he’s rich well into the hundreds of millions of dollars. The guy has never been dumb, per say. He’s just made a career of playing a dummy on TV.

      Dude knows what he’s doing (or, he did at one point, perhaps before he fried his brain with DMT).

      Do you think he’s aware of the false equivalence fallacy

      I don’t think he particularly cares. He’s had pro-vax guys on his show. He’s had anti-vax guys. The dude is a Carney and his show is a three-ring circus. You can always find something to scratch your libidinal itch in there somewhere.

      but not recognize that there’s probably 999 pro-vaxx infectious disease experts, doctors, scientists for every one anti-vaxxer?

      Idk about that statistic. There’s certainly a healthy amount of denialism and conspiracy theory in mass media. Probably give you 10:1 on a good day.

      But even if it was 1 pro-vax doctor in 100 antis, the numbers don’t really matter. What matters is the spectacle of two people arguing a point the audience will never have the education to verify one way or another.

      This is, at its heart, infotainment. It isn’t about who is right and who is wrong. Its about putting people in a ring together and have them duke it out with words. Then cutting to another ring where MMA guys duke it out with fists.

      His show is about fighting. That’s all he wants.

      • voluble@lemmy.world
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        9 months ago

        The guy has never been dumb, per say

        Just to let you know, the expression is written ‘per se’:

        Borrowed from Latin per sē (“by itself”), from per (“by, through”) and sē (“itself, himself, herself, themselves”). Wiktionary source