For those of you who don’t know about the most recent controversy on the internet, let me sum it up.

Joe Rogan is a comedian.

Rather experienced in creating controversy. Controversy is good for the ratings, isn’t it?
For example, in September 18, 2020, “Joe Rogan apologized for spreading misinformation about Oregon fires“.

Well, at that time Rogan had just moved his podcast – from September 1, 2020, on Spotify. After receiving $100 million for a “multi-year licensing” deal.

If you don’t know, we’re still in the middle of a pandemic.
Caused by SARS Cov2, an airborne virus which kills people. 5,682,971 worldwide when I last checked.

Joe Rogan, the comedian, thought he had to cover the subject. So he had invited a controversial figure, Dr. Robert Malone, for an interview.
The interview had become viral. But the ‘information’ being peddled by Dr.Malone had provoked the indignation of his fellow physicians.


A few days later, Neil Young – then followed by Joni Mithchell, asked Spotify to choose between him and Rogan.
Understandably, Spotify had chosen to keep Rogan.
But the row didn’t end there.
Even sites like the financially minded Sport Bible have noticed that “Joe Rogan Has Lost Spotify A Staggering $2 Billion In Market Value In Less Than A Week“
So Spotify announced a change in policy and Rogan issued another apology.

As usual in this kind of circumstances, the netizens have taken sides.
Some manifest their indignation against the capitalists who make money by spreading false information.
Others manifest their indignation against the ‘cancel culture’ which limits the freedom of expression of those who contradict the opinions held by the intransigent majority.

As usual in this kind of circumstances, I try to explore alternative venues of looking at what’s going on.
Let me remind those of you who are not familiar with the Romanian language that ‘Nici-chiar-asa’ means ‘not so fast’ (or ‘don’t over do it’) in my native language.

So.
Why would a huge number of people – the Malone interview went “viral”, attempt to get information about a raging pandemic by watching a stand-up comedy show? Hosted by a “comedian” who recently had to issue an apology for things which he had said in one of his shows…
Those people had been mesmerized by the ‘past experience’ of Dr. Malone? “Who touts himself as one of the architects of mRNA technology”….
Maybe… but those people shouldn’t have googled Dr. Malone’s name before sharing the interview? To their like minded brethren?
Before making it viral? They would have learned that Dr. Malone had already been banned from Twitter for spreading misinformation…

‘Those people do not believe that media venues should restrict the freedom of people speaking up their minds’…

Then whatever preventive measure are put in place by the likes of Spotify will amount to exactly nothing!

We need a different approach.

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