UFC’s Joe Rogan is under the gun of the media once again, this time for a comment that he made about homeless people in the city of Los Angeles.
Joe Rogan via Lex Fridman Podcast on Spotify
While speaking with comedian and actor Tom Segura on his popular Spotify podcast “The Joe Rogan Experience,” Rogan made an offhand remark that “maybe you should just go shoot the homeless people” in Los Angeles.
Leftists are faking outrage over Joe Rogan’s remarks about homelessness and Los Angeles’ attitude towards violent crime. pic.twitter.com/LFxXQcAUgK
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) July 20, 2022
The topic came up when they were discussing the severity of the homeless problem in the city, and it led into Rogan’s pointed commentary on Los Angeles’ lack of enforcement when it comes to violent crime.
Rogan began by discussing his own experience with the homelessness problem in saying, “And then we’re on the underpass and there’s port-a-potties, not one either, like four, like a deck of port-a-potties. And then someone has a car parked on the sidewalk, like partly on the sidewalk, so they are like half blocking a lane and then they have like a canopy draped over their car and they have stacks of s*** and then next to it was a dresser. They had a dresser. So they had their shoes and a shoe rack. There was a shoe rack. This is where they live.”
Segura replied, “I didn’t know also that when you see stuff like that on the streets, at least in Los Angeles or maybe in California, that’s protected property. Like by law. You know that? But like that’s that person’s property by law.”
Joe Rogan via PowerfulJRE YouTube
Rogan then questioned, “Oh, a homeless person’s property is protected?” To which Segura answered, “Yes. Yes. Absolutely. If you were to go and try to move that or take that—”
Rogan interjected, “You’d get arrested. Hilarious. But they wouldn’t arrest you if you shot somebody. Maybe you should just go and shoot the homeless people.” Segura sarcastically responded, “I like your ideas.”
Rogan then made it abundantly clear he was making a commentary on Los Angeles’ lack of enforcement when it comes to violent crime, “And if nobody claims it. I mean nobody does anything about violent crime in LA anymore. It’s a f****** joke. They’re just letting people out.”
Israel Adesanya and Joe Rogan via UFC YouTube
Most people who saw the clip took it as Rogan making an off-hand remark that was actually critical of Los Angeles’ soft-on-crime demeanor but the media tried to paint a different picture.
Outlets like Variety tried to frame Rogan’s comments as if he was actually advocating people to shoot homeless people in Los Angeles. Variety reached out to “unhoused advocates” to condemn Joe Rogan for “calling on violence against the homeless”
“It’s repulsive,” Theo Henderson said. “It’s infuriating because it’s not only out of touch, but the reality is that unhoused people are targeted by housed people. To advocate trying to shoot at unhoused people or just giving these dog whistles to people that do not see unhoused people as human beings — I can’t believe you’d advocate for it.”
Tom Segura via PowerfulJRE YouTube
Andy Bales, president and CEO of the downtown L.A. homeless shelter Union Rescue Mission also conflated Rogan’s comments as a call to action against homeless people.
“I’m surprised and saddened. The comments about beginning to kill homeless people hits too close to reality for any comfort, because murders of homeless people in Los Angeles went up 47% last year over the previous year…. There is a bit of an unfortunate vigilantism already in Los Angeles towards people devastated by homelessness and they don’t need any encouragement.”
Downtown Los Angeles, via The Laughing Lion
Joe Rogan has been an enemy of the media for the last couple of years after receiving a massive, $200 million exclusive licensing deal with Spotify two years ago.
Last year, many in the media wanted Joe Rogan to be thrown off the platform because they claimed Rogan was against the Covid-19 vaccines, and he was going to encourage others not to get the shot, thus getting people killed.
The media has also targeted Rogan for allowing people on his show who are banned from social media platforms to openly discuss topics that they deem to be “conspiracy theories”.
Anderson Cooper via CNN
Earlier this year, there was an organized protest by music artists that demanded to be removed from the platform if Rogan was not banned. That effort ultimately failed as Spotify has stuck with Rogan despite the efforts of progressives.
What are your thoughts on the media trying to cancel Joe Rogan once again?