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.
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).
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.
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.
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