When͏͏ ͏i͏͏t c͏omes to co͏͏ntrovers͏y in p͏odca͏͏s͏t͏͏͏in͏g, ͏͏no on͏e͏͏ comes close͏ to͏ ͏Joe͏ ͏Ro͏gan. ͏And his most recent escapade was no different. On the Joe Rogan Experience (#2190), the UFC color commentator invited controversial billionaire Peter Thiel – well-known in the political world. Their conversation included topics ranging from social security and Bitcoin to California being similar to Saudi Arabia. As striking as the discussion may have been, it didn’t stop the JRE community from expressing their wrath.

Joe Rogan’s three-hour-long conversation with the tech billionaire started with controversies and ended with controversies. Peter Thiel started talking about how the US government has a “crazy budget deficit.” When Joe Rogan asked, “If you had supreme power, if Peter Thiel were ruler of the world, what would you do to fix this?”

One of the answers that the PayPal co-founder gave was to “increase the age of social security.” The Social Security system is meant to provide Americans with financial protection throughout their life, and they can start receiving benefits as early as age 62. Peter Thiel explained how this was rationalized as more of a pension scheme, saying he believes it should be a welfare scheme instead. “Figure out ways to dial back a lot of these government benefits,” he said. That was one of the first things JRE listeners didn’t like after the podcast was posted on Reddit.

Thiel subsequently dove into Bitcoin and how society isn’t ready to process it, mentioning how its global impact is just as big as the internet. This comparison was a take that many agreed with, but another one he made was quite striking.

California and Saudi Arabia. How are they similar? Peter Thiel started by saying, “You know, there’s always sort of a right-wing or libertarian critique of California that, you know, it’s such a ridiculous place.” Discussing the state’s macroeconomics, he stated how California has a GDP of $4 trillion for a population of 40 million. “There’s some level on which, you know, California as a whole is working, even though it doesn’t work from a governance point of view,” the billionaire said. Then came the comparison.

“The rough model I have for how to think of California is that it’s kind of like Saudi Arabia – Wokeism in California, Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia… oil fields in Saudi Arabia, and you have the big tech companies in California… oil pays for everything [in Saudi] and the big tech money [pays for everything] in California.” Peter Thiel added, “It’s not the way you might want to design a system from scratch, but it’s pretty stable.”

Speaking of Wokeism, the PayPal co-founder has been surrounded by controversies relating to his ‘Anti-Woke’ crusades and funding people who do research on ‘Race Theory’ and ‘White Nationalism.’ Considering Thiel’s controversial takes on various subjects, as well as some of the things he talked about in the podcast, Joe Rogan was on the receiving end of criticism for inviting the billionaire to JRE.

Joe Rogan shouldn’t have invited someone who “doesn’t deserve any positive attention”

Starting off, a Redditor made a sarcastic comment on the podcast, “Yes, let’s hear from the Oligarchs.” This was presumably in reference to Rogan and Thiel’s discussion about social security. When the former PayPal CEO suggested that social security should be a welfare system, he meant that only people who require financial benefits should get them. Coming from a billionaire and a podcaster whose net worth is around $200 million, listeners didn’t take this too well.

A user wrote, “It’s nice to hear a couple filthy rich guys complain about how unfair things are.” Echoing that sentiment, another added, “I’m at the point where two billionaires are complaining about high taxes and saying people don’t deserve social security in the same sentence. I just don’t understand these people.” Peter Thiel has an estimated net worth of $11.2 billion. Considering this, there were others who claimed that Thiel only suggested this because he’s someone whose “entire lineage will never have to work for the rest of human history.”

Another enraged Redditor asserted, “Peter Thiel doesn’t deserve any positive attention. This guy is a massive piece of sh*t.” But what has he done that enraged people so much? Well, one incident from 2016 saw him get backlash as well as support from a few followers. He funded an invasion of privacy lawsuit filed by WWE Hall of Famer Hulk Hogan against Gawker, a news website. This was the same website that outed Thiel in 2007, and many believed he drove the company out of business just for revenge. However, he begged to differ.

“It’s less about revenge and more about specific deterrence,” Thiel said. “I saw Gawker pioneer a unique and incredibly damaging way of getting attention by bullying people even when there was no connection with the public interest.” While some supported him, others couldn’t get past everything else he had done. A user brought up multi-billionaire George Soros for comparison (and Joe Rogan’s dislike for him).

“Peter Thiel does all the stuff Rogan thinks George Soros does,” they wrote. Soros has been accused by many nations of tampering with their elections. He made most of his fortune when the British pound collapsed during the financial crisis. In fact, Joe Rogan believes “it’s like Soros wants cities to fall apart… it’s almost like he’s an evil person in a Batman movie.”

Another fan took a direct jab at the UFC commentator, writing, “Good Job, Joe, one of the worst people on the planet.” That said, what’s your take on the episode? Share your thoughts in the comments!