What a long strange trip it's been, Joe Rogan

1960s rockers mimic Peter Daszak in their attempt to destroy free speech

I finally found a free version of the famous Joe Rogan 3 hr podcast with Robert Malone, which caused many misguided and venal musicians to leave Spotify and try to destroy Rogan's show.

It got something like 50 million views.  Then the blowback came really fast, really strong.  Rogan promised he would interview someone from the other side.  But that wasn't the point.  The point was the need to censor the reasonable views of Drs. Malone and Peter McCullough (an earlier Rogan guest)—and if they couldn't be censored, Rogan's show had to be tarred as so objectionable that even the counterculture would be grievously offended.  Who came up with that idea?

Neil Young was the first to leave Spotify in a huff. He said he was in favor of free speech, but not this kind of speech. Duh?

He was followed by Joni Mitchell.

They were followed by Young's old bandmates, Crosby, Stills and Nash.  And some others.

Funnily enough, the comments of Joni Mitchell, Neil Young and Nils Lofgren regarding why they were pulling their catalogs sounded eerily similar to a Lancet correspondence written by, of all people, Peter Daszak.  I honestly think the Spotify naysyers shared Peter Daszak’s publicist. [It only came out later that Daszak had ghostwritten the Lancet piece.]

Here are 2 examples of the genre:

https://consequence.net/2022/02/neil-young-joe-rogan-spotify-what-everyone-is-saying/

Joni Mitchell

Nils Lofgren

Here are some of the phrases used by Peter Daszak. I hope you see the similarities. The messages are identical: We “stand with” the global public health professionals who are saving lives. In solidarity. The “others” spread misinformation or conspiracy theories that kill people. We represent science, while “they” are irresponsible or worse. We represent truth, they represent lies. Daszak:

We are public health scientists…

We sign this statement in solidarity with all scientists and health professionals in China who continue to save lives and protect global health…

We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories…

Stand with our colleagues on the frontline

But then several musicians admitted that they had other motives for leaving the Spotify platform.  David Crosby said,

With me, you have to understand — I don’t like Spotify. I don’t like any of the streamers, because they don’t pay us properly. Their proportion is wrong. They’re making billions with a b and they’re paying out pennies with a p. That’s not OK. It’s not OK in that it took away half my income, and it’s not OK in that, especially, it makes it impossibly difficult for young people to make it in the business. It doesn’t pay them anything. It’s wrong. I don’t like Spotify on purpose because of that. I don’t like their quality level either. They bum up the signal pretty badly. But they and all the other streaming services are ripping us off. They’re quite happy with it. They have no intention of changing it.

But the Crosby Stills and Nash protest didn't last long.  I guess the pennies from Spotify were too good to pass up.  On July 3, 2022 the LA Times wrote,

Crosby, Stills & Nash songs are back on Spotify five months after the band mates took a stand against the streaming platform and one of its biggest moneymakers, Joe Rogan.

As of Saturday, music by David Crosby, Stephen Stills and Graham Nash is available to stream again on Spotify, according to Billboard. The musicians will reportedly donate streaming profits to COVID-19 charities for a month or more.

The folk rockers’ Spotify return comes nearly half a year after they ditched the app in solidarity with their former band mate, Neil Young. In January, Young threatened to pull his work from Spotify unless the company cut ties with Rogan, a comedian and divisive podcast host who has criticized pandemic lockdown protocols, expressed skepticism about COVID-19 vaccines, complained about vaccine mandates and recommended treatments for the coronavirus that have not been approved by medical professionals.