Odinian Beta

“Ageing rocker” Neil Young has had his music removed from Spotify at his request after he tried and failed to force Spotify to censor podcast host Joe Rogan.

Young’s problem with Rogan seems to be that the latter has questioned whether young and healthy people should bother getting vaccinated while also interviewing people who are sceptical of the vaccines on his podcast.

Recommend the vaccines

Now, lest the censorious herds descend upon my head, I should mention that I have taken both doses of the vaccine and intend to get my booster in due course. I also encourage readers to take the vaccine, particularly if you are elderly and/or otherwise unhealthy such as being obese or you suffer from various pre-existing conditions like a compromised immune system or other illnesses.

However, like Rogan, I oppose vaccine mandates and believe it should be up to the individual to decide whether he or she should get vaccinated.

I also share his belief in free speech and that nothing should be beyond discussion and criticism.

Given the success of his Joe Rogan Experience podcast – it is the top-rating podcast on Spotify with average listeners of 11 million per episode after the company paid him $100 million in 2020 for exclusive rights to his podcast – it seems a good number of ordinary people agree with him too.

Unfortunately, in our modern world the elites on both sides of politics, especially on the left, no longer believe in free speech. Instead, they believe in controlling the narrative and naming anything they disagree with as “misinformation” or “disinformation”.

This is why 270 supposed “medical experts” wrote an open letter criticising Rogan recently, and why he has suddenly become the target of an extraordinary sequence of hit jobs trying to get Spotify to censor him.

Thinking for himself

Of course, Rogan’s actual “crime” is that he thinks for himself, something that is frowned upon by the elites nowadays as it makes it harder for them to control the narrative.

Some of his supposed misdeeds involve interviewing Dr Robert Malone, one of the co-inventors of the mRNA technology that underpins many of the COVID vaccines.

Like Rogan, Malone is sceptical of the vaccines, arguing that people have become so scared of the virus due to government and media propaganda that many are blindly going along with vaccine mandates imposed by politicians and business leaders.

While I recommend you get the vaccine for the reasons mentioned above, who can argue with the proposition that governments worldwide have spent most of the last two years scaring everyone silly about the virus?

Furthermore, aren’t adults supposed to think for themselves and make decisions that are best for them rather than having vaccine mandates and the like imposed on them by the authorities?

Slippery slope

And if you think it is proper for the government to mandate vaccinations, where do you draw the line on other matters? Should governments ban us from drinking, or eating unhealthy foods, or smoking too?

Unfortunately, the anti-Joe Rogan crusade is symptomatic of so much that passes for “discussion” amongst the elites in politics and business today.

Ultimately, the arguments over vaccine mandates and whether we are even able to criticise them come down to the age-old battle between the governors and the governed, with our leaders wanting to obtain – and keep – power while controlling the people for their “own good”.

At least Joe Rogan and his guests provide his listeners with alternative views on these and other issues.

As such, he should be commended rather than criticised.