#1415 - Bari Weiss

Joe Rogan (0:00)

Three, two, one. Hello, Bari.

Double guns, good to see you.

Bari Weiss (0:08)

Great to see you too. So, I'm enjoying my turmeric.

Joe Rogan (0:10)

You are, right? Super food. Laird Hamilton's onto something, right?

Bari Weiss (0:15)

Laird Hamilton and Gwyneth Paltrow, I guess. I've never done the turmeric thing.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

No, no, no, one is a world champion athlete, one of the greatest surfers the world has ever known. The other one is a wonderful actress who is Iron Man's girlfriend. There's a difference. There's a big difference.

Bari Weiss (0:30)

And a major mogul who determines what people like me want to purchase, buy and look like.

Joe Rogan (0:36)

She wants you to put vagina rocks in there, right? Jade stones, something like that. I don't know, maybe there's a placebo effect to that.

So we were talking so well before the podcast rolled out, I just wanted to start it.

We don't have to talk about presidential candidates, we don't have to talk about all that. But we're in a weird time. And to speak to what we were talking about before, we're just talking about how people are so strange, there's so many people, there's just a big disconnect between what people actually think and what they actually say. And I think this is, in my life, this is the first time that I've ever really experienced at this level. There's a hysteria because people are being punished for their real beliefs instead of having the ability to express themselves and have other people disagree and have some sort of rational discussion. This is a strange time where you have to toe the status quo, you have to toe the line. And I've been trying to figure out what it is, but I think a big part of it is the opposition to Trump. I think people's opposition to Trump is so strong that-

Bari Weiss (1:43)

People have lost their minds.

Joe Rogan (1:44)

Yeah, it seems like the people that oppose him, they just want complete and total compliance with opposition, with this different way of thinking.

Bari Weiss (1:56)

Yeah, it's like the stakes are so high that everyone needs to be on side and an active part of the resistance. And if you deviate in any way, it shows that you're a squish or that you're actually loyal to the other side. And in fact, what that side of things is doing is that they're limiting the spectrum of what's allowed to say so, so, so narrowly that people I think are becoming kind of secretly radicalized because-

Joe Rogan (2:20)

In the other way. Yes.

Bari Weiss (2:23)

And honestly, like, you're great, but I think one of the reasons you're so unbelievably popular is because you just say what you think and you bring other people on here to say what they think. And the number of places where that actually happens is unbelievably small and getting smaller.

Joe Rogan (2:38)

It's so stra- and you get shit for it. That's what's really crazy. Like, you-

I'm a nice person. Like, my thoughts on these things that I discuss in the show are well-thought out and I only hope to do good, like, legitimately. I mean, I mock things and I, you know, I'm a comedian. But at the end of the day, I want everybody to be happy. I really genuinely do. I think that's possible. I think it's possible in small groups, right? I mean, this is what the analogy I always use. If it was just the three of us on Earth, I think we'd get along great.

We'd have our disagreements, but there would be no war. There certainly would- none- the three of us wouldn't kill each other, right?

You, me, and Jamie?

Bari Weiss (3:18)

I don't think we'd kill each other.

Joe Rogan (3:20)

Jamie's a good guy.

But my point is like, why can't we scale that out? Why can't we all just get along in larger groups? Well, a lot of it is a lack of communication. A lot of it is greed. And there's so many different reasons why you can't scale that to millions and millions of people. But it just seems like there's no weirder time where things don't make sense and progress seems to be stalled socially than today.

Bari Weiss (3:50)

And like the way that I think about it lately is, I feel like normalcy is closeted. Like normal people I know that have just like very sensible beliefs are scared to even say those things out loud.

Joe Rogan (4:04)

Right.

Bari Weiss (4:05)

And I think that that is just a sign of deeply unhealthy culture. And it only contributes to this sort of polarization and extremes that we're seeing.