A large part of the fame and popularity that Joe Rogan enjoys comes from his social commentary. The longtime UFC commentator discusses a wide range of topics through his work on The Joe Rogan Experience. The 55-year-old also makes occasional appearances on other leading shows to have similar discussions.
He made one such visit to Ben Shapiro‘s show eight months ago. During this visit, Rogan and Shapiro discussed the reason why people worship celebrities. Shapiro mentioned how celebrities like Kid Rock and Kanye West made the news that they were running for senatorial and presidential elections.
Rogan had an intriguing explanation for this phenomenon. The BJJ black belt explained this as a combined result of both evolution and modern-day media that elevated celebrity status in the eyes of normal people. In doing so, he name-dropped several celebrities-including the likes of Taylor Swift and Brad Pitt to price his point.
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Joe Rogan discusses celebrity worship culture with Ben Shapiro
Giving his explanation to Shapiro, Joe Rogan said, “It’s a biological trick and what it is is, when you evolved when all of us lived thousands of years ago, we looked to the most successful member of the tribe. The one who’s older, the one that everybody revered… he could relay to you the lessons of a life well-lived…”
He continued, “All this stuff now gets relayed to someone who’s on a giant screen… We do that for anybody that gets attention whether it’s Kim Kardashian or Taylor Swift. We see these people and millions of people are paying attention to them. So we assume that there’s some quality behind everything that they’re saying, there’s something special about them, but there’s not. It’s a biological trick.”
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Rogan said that this biological trick gets perpetrated by the media that put these celebrities on screens where people see them over and over again. Rogan also believes this was how Donald Trump became the US President. He said Trump essentially won a popularity contest to win the office of the US president. The former Fear Factor host also warned against taking the words of celebrities over those of professors and public intellectuals.
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What are your thoughts on Rogan’s argument? Do you agree with him? What is your stance on the subject? Let us know in the comments.
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