Toxicity is established on the Internet, on social networks, in online games, in blog comments, and even in product reviews in online stores. It is increasingly common to find offensive comments, loaded with bad intentions and worse vibes, insults, threats, and death wishes that, far from contributing, commenting, or helping, seek destruction, hurt, or simply get rid of a moment of emotions that many people do not know how to manage.
Whether we are aware of it or not, these comments affect and impact us in different ways. But while we usually stay sheltered from trolling online because of our status as common citizens, the situation is much worse when one is a celebrity. Often treated as public commodities, trolls are relentless when it comes to spreading hate about a celebrity. Something that Joe Rogan and his guest Chris Harris talked about in an episode of the Joe Rogan Experience. But does that mean the anonymity from the internet should be removed? Well, not according to Rogan.
During the podcast, Harris revealed that he had come under heavy fire from trolls back when he was a part of the show Top Gear. Things got so bad that he decided to quit X altogether. He said, “You’d get drawn into conversations, and actually leaving it was the best thing I ever did. At that time. And I haven’t gone back. Cause I didn’t really need it to promote anything, and it was the toxicity was long before he brought it for me.” However, Rogan had some words of wisdom to share with his guest. He revealed that there is no set way for one to shut down these trolls, so it is better to deprive them of the attention they so desperately need.
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Rogan shared, “The toxicity is just an inherent quality of people being able to post anonymously. You’re never going to get away from that. You just don’t read it; that’s the most important thing. Like people are always going to, if you’re a public figure, people are always going to have opinions of you, and there’s a lot of sh**ty people out there, and they’re the most vocal and they’re the most persistent. Let them talk.” Despite the misuse of the anonymity provided by the internet, the UFC commentator revealed that he still wants the internet to provide the opportunity for people to remain anonymous in the future. The UFC commentator stressed on the fact that whistleblowers are required to keep things in check.
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Rogan said, “I hope that’s not the case, but probably yeah. I think they would like to do that. In America, yeah, you know, but I think it’s important for whistleblowers; it’s important for, you know, people that work in an organization they want to expose corruption. They want to expose something. They want to expose some illegal thing they’re doing in regards to the environment. It’s very important you have to have…they want to expose the government; it’s very important to allow people to be anonymous.” However, trolling isn’t the only thing the internet is infamous for. Another major issue is the spread of fake news, something that Rogan knows very well about.
Back when Joe Rogan got mocked for falling for fake news
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Back in May 2022, Joe Rogan came under public scrutiny for an episode of his Joe Rogan Experience podcast. In the episode, the former Fear Factor host talked about a piece of news that he read on the internet that revealed that Australia was trying to pass a bill that would prohibit one from growing their own food. Falling for the trap, the UFC commentator went on to mock the Australians for the supposed law.
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However, when he and his guest tried to read more about the latest info, all Rogan’s guest could tell him was that no search results came out about the supposed news. This is something that truly sent the popular podcaster into panic mode, as even he picked up his phone to find the piece he read. However, as fate would have it, the UFC commentator realized that it was all fake information. This led several users on the internet to call out the UFC commentator for falling for the fake news, while the podcast host surely learned a hard lesson that day. What do you think? Do you agree with Rogan’s opinion on internet trolls? Let us know in the comments.
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Joe Rogan's way of handling trolls—Genius or just adding fuel to the fire?