We Can Learn to Live with COVID-19, and With Joe Rogan Too

Clarence Page, Tribune Content Agency on Feb 15, 2022

He also could have cited the title of Dick Gregory’s bestselling 1964 autobiography, “N-----.”

But the old social rule that only Black people can use the word out loud or in print still stands, which leads some, like CNN writer John Blake in an online essay, to fear that Rogan’s use of the epithet can lead to “a world where hate speech and violence are rebranded as ‘legitimate political discourse,’ and ‘public racism’ returns to ordinary life.”

I feel his pain, although I don’t want to invest a word, even the N-word, with that much power. We need more conversations about race, not fewer. The misuse of some words should lead us to better words, but it can’t if we don’t talk.

More than the N-word, I’m concerned about dangerous misinformation, some of which has infamously been uttered in Rogan’s remarks about COVID-19 vaccines.

In an April episode, for example, he said he was not “anti-vaxx” and said he thinks “for the most part” it’s safe to get vaccinated, “but if you’re like 21 years old, I’ll say no. … If you’re a healthy person and you’re exercising all the time and you’re young and you’re eating well, I don’t think you need to worry about this.”

That’s a typical podcaster’s cop-out. Say you’re “not a respected source of information,” then give out off-the cuff “information” without bothering to verify it. With too many people already confused and reluctant to get vaccinated, it would help to have somebody on the same show to debate the matter.

Yet, a big part of Rogan’s appeal, his fans tell me, is that he looks and sounds like “a regular guy” who, unlike a lot of other show hosts, avoids party labels and tries to “give both sides” of issues. That’s true. He’s had guests as varied as Cornel West and Bernie Sanders on the left and Ben Shapiro and Alex Jones on the right.

But he seldom has both sides on the same show, which in the case of something as widely misunderstood as COVID-19 vaccines would be a big help.

I’m pro-vax, but not anti-Rogan. A lot of people turn to his show precisely because they’re looking for straight talk that they don’t get from the old media. That’s fine. Freedom to listen is as important as the freedom of speech. But, listeners, beware. Shopping around for what makes you feel good doesn’t always lead you to what you really need to know.

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(E-mail Clarence Page at cpage@chicagotribune.com.)