#1242 - Tim Pool

Joe Rogan (0:03)

Three, two, one. Hello, Tim.

Tim Pool (0:07)

How's it going?

Joe Rogan (0:08)

Thanks for finally being here.

Long story, right? I definitely drank too much coffee before we get here, so if I appear like cracked out, I swear to God, I'm not in pills.

Tim Pool (0:18)

Glad to hear it.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

But so we had a nice conversation on the phone about deplatforming and social media.

And what was very obvious to me in talking to you was that you're way more schooled on this than I am. So that's why I wanted to have this conversation with you. Because part of what was... Like, I re-listened to my podcast with Jack, and you had a good criticism of it. I agree with a lot of what you said. First of all, I agree that it was kind of boring. And it was, I think, in many... For many reasons, it was my fault.

I don't think I prepared enough for it, and I also don't think I understood the magnitude of how other people felt about deplatforming on Twitter and in all social media, YouTube, and all these different things, and what the ramifications are, and how much this means to people to have very clear and obvious free speech outside of very egregious examples of, like, threats and doxing and things like that, which I think we can all agree, right?

Tim Pool (1:23)

I think this problem might be one of the, like, one of the worst problems we're facing right now politically.

Joe Rogan (1:29)

Yes.

Tim Pool (1:30)

You know, Twitter is where public discourse is happening. It's where journalists are, and this is a problem, sourcing a lot of their stories.

Joe Rogan (1:36)

Yes.

Tim Pool (1:37)

So if you have somebody who's completely removed from public discourse, that's exile, you know? I can imagine why some people kind of lose their minds when that happens.

Joe Rogan (1:45)

And I think going into that conversation with him, well, that's what I wanted it to be. That's why I don't really interview people. I mean, I kind of have conversations with them. Occasionally, we have disagreements and we talk about things.

But I don't have a mandate. The only thing I wanted to get out of the conversation is I wanted to find out what it was like to start that organization and to have no idea when you were doing it that it was going to be essentially one of the most important distribution avenues for information.

Tim Pool (2:23)

An activist buddy of mine asked me if I knew why people smash windows, smash Starbucks. It's not because they think they're going to cause damage. It's because they want to strike a symbol down of something they view oppresses them.

Jack Dorsey is that symbol to a lot of people.

And to see... You know what I was saying earlier is I think a lot of people look at you as you're like a real dude. Your conversations are real. You're not one of these fake news journalists that people are very critical of that feel they're biased or have an agenda. So when you sit down with Jack Dorsey and doesn't go anywhere, people then feel like the last person who's not supposed to let us down, let us down. You know what I mean?

Joe Rogan (2:56)

Yeah. No, look, I felt it.

Tim Pool (2:57)

They hate you twice as much.

Joe Rogan (2:58)

I felt it and I noticed that I got more hate for that one than probably anything that I've ever done.

And I'm not a guy who shies away from criticism. I try to figure out what I did wrong and try to regroup and figure out how to approach it again. And in Jack's defense, you know, I think he's very open to talking about anything. And also he's also very open for self-criticism. I mean, he was openly discussing what they're doing wrong, where they need to be clear, where they need to get better.

Tim Pool (3:31)

I don't believe any of it.

Joe Rogan (3:32)

You don't?

Tim Pool (3:32)

I don't trust that guy. Not at all.

Joe Rogan (3:34)

You know, why don't you trust him?

Tim Pool (3:37)

I mean, first of all, there's the obvious thing that he's running these a bunch of companies.

I could be wrong, but I believe he actually left Twitter. He wasn't the CEO for a while. They brought him back in or something. But it either sounds like...

Joe Rogan (3:47)

We should probably check on that.

Tim Pool (3:48)

Yeah, yeah. You know, I try to avoid asserting things that I'm not 100% sure on, but...