By Philip Klein
Thursday, February 10, 2022
Joe Rogan, the most popular podcast host in America, is
facing the prospect of being deplatformed from Spotify — initially over giving
voice to vaccine skepticism, and then over past use of racial slurs.
Should Spotify and Rogan sever ties, it would be a
seminal moment in the debate over cancel culture. It would amplify concerns
about the principle of open speech. But ultimately, it’s obvious that the radio
personality will wind up okay no matter what.
To be sure, there is no doubt that the campaign to remove
Rogan from the massive streaming platform is an effort by his critics to try to
marginalize him by denying him access to Spotify’s customers. It is also an
effort to make him persona non grata for many guests that he
relies on to conduct his program.
But at the end of the day, Rogan’s ability to earn a
handsome living will not be compromised by whatever happens in the coming days
and weeks. Anybody who has 11 million people willing to listen to his podcast
could easily find another platform to host him. He also has the resources to
launch his own platform.
The fact that he will land on his feet, no matter how
this shakes out, will no doubt be used by the Left to perpetuate the fiction
that cancel culture is a myth. But this discussion is missing an important
point: There is only one Rogan, and most people facing the threat of losing
their jobs don’t have the ability to simply take their 11 million listeners
elsewhere.
The cancel-culture debate has primarily played out in the
public view with famous celebrities or those attached to large institutions.
J. K. Rowling and Dave Chappelle are examples of
prominent figures who were once broadly admired but have come under fire for
standing up to transgender activists and acknowledging that biological sex is
actually a real thing.
Despite the vicious campaigns against them, however, both
are fine. Chappelle is still a wildly successful comedian, and Rowling is still
one of the best-selling authors who have ever lived and the beneficiary of
proceeds from one of the most successful film franchises ever.
The fact that the likes of Rogan, Chappelle, and Rowling
are able to withstand the wrath of online mobs, however, should not be
particularly comforting. All it conveys is that if you are highly successful
and have a massive fan base, you can essentially become cancel-proof.
The bigger threat from cancel culture is not to famous
people with massive audiences. It is to those whose lives can be turned upside
down thanks to online mobs, who don’t have the resources or supporters to
survive such an assault.
There was the example, for instance, of the high schooler
who had her offer to join a cheer team revoked and was forced to withdraw from her
chosen university after a three-second video clip surfaced of her using the
“N-word” in a private Snapchat to a friend when she was 15 years old. Or the
woman who was fired after the Washington Post reported on her Halloween costume.
The way the new rules work, apologies are never accepted,
no matter how genuine. A social-media posting somebody made as a teenager can
stick with them for the rest of their life, allowing no room for them to have
grown.
So while it is understandable for people to focus on the
Rogan controversy for all of its symbolic importance, in reality, what’s more
worrisome is that for every Rogan, there are many others living in obscurity,
who face the risk of losing their livelihoods. And others who are afraid to
speak freely on issues they care about for fear that they will be torn down
without the resources to fall back on.
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