#1693 - Evan Hafer

Joe Rogan (0:06)

Train by day, Joe Rogan podcast by night, all day.

Evan Hafer (0:14)

Great to see you, buddy.

Joe Rogan (0:15)

Is that coffee?

Evan Hafer (0:16)

It is coffee, but I just grabbed it cause it was here. There we go.

Joe Rogan (0:19)

Cheers to booze. Booze to coffee seems odd.

So it's good to see you, man.

Evan Hafer (0:26)

God, it's great to see you, man.

Joe Rogan (0:27)

Good to see you, Still Austin. Shout out to Still Austin.

Evan Hafer (0:29)

God, that is good.

Joe Rogan (0:30)

It is, good stuff. Made here, I think, I don't know. Maybe just the name. I really have no idea.

Evan Hafer (0:35)

So I feel like you're-

Joe Rogan (0:37)

It's good shit, though.

Evan Hafer (0:38)

Like wine and a dine with me. I got cigars and whiskey.

This is gonna be a great episode. I can't wait to see what happens after.

Joe Rogan (0:45)

Well, when people were attacking you, I got butt hurt. I was like, come on, Evan. Get the fuck outta here. I was like, I gotta have you in.

It was so weird to see cancel culture come from the right.

I was like, I didn't know it worked that way. I didn't know you fucking idiots would do the same shit. Like, what is going on? It didn't even make sense. It made no sense. It was the weirdest dog pile I've ever watched.

Evan Hafer (1:10)

I, you know, I've tried to figure it out, and I haven't really spent a ton of time on it.

Because honestly, I got better shit to do in my life than figure out like what anonymous accounts and Twitter is saying, what about me? But I think there's just such a mistrust with mainstream media, and that's bred this hyper divisive gaslighting on both sides. And I think conservatives at times are also looking for the conspiracy inside the party. So they kind of spin themselves up a little bit.

But it was such a strange scenario for me to be in, because I think I've been so open for seven years, is like who we are, what we do. I haven't really held anything back. So I think it's a combination of things going on. Like people are super pissed off, like the pandemic has been a complete shit show. You got a mistrust in the government, you got a mistrust in mainstream media, and you're looking for the boogeyman. And I mean, it's crazy to see misinformation being put out about yourself.

Joe Rogan (2:19)

Did it start with the New York Times article?

Evan Hafer (2:21)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (2:22)

So what was the New York Times article? It was like, Black Rifle Coffee is the Starbucks of the right. Is that how they described it?

Evan Hafer (2:29)

Can they be?

Joe Rogan (2:30)

Oh, can they be the Starbucks of the right? And what was the negative part of that? Did you read the article?

Evan Hafer (2:36)

I did only because I was really interested to see how they were going to represent the company.

And we didn't, so to rewind, we knew this story was going down months before. So I was down in Florida. I was bass fishing with Johnny Morris, who owns Bass Pro Shops and Cabela's.

Joe Rogan (2:56)

Must be nice.

Evan Hafer (2:57)

Yeah, he's a great guy. He's awesome.

Yeah, he knows exactly where the great bass are, believe it or not. So we were bass fishing. It was me, my business partner, Matt, and we get a call. Hey, The Times is doing an article on you guys. You guys want to sit for the interview. And we're like, fuck you, no, right?

But then we started thinking about it. And I kind of debated it internally for a while. And I looked at other articles they had done on guys like Dave Portnoy. I think you had had one, or at least in the past. And, you know, Don Jr. who is also a friend of mine. I'm like, hey man, I think if they're gonna do this story, I'll at least give them the opportunity to be objective and then really take a look at the company from the inside. I had no illusions as to what type of position they might take or how they might misrepresent the company. It was, at least I'll give them the opportunity. So it's kind of a fool me once type scenario where it's like, hey man, fool me once, sure, not gonna get the second time.

So we debated it. I was like, I'll come on out and I'll take you to a veteran adaptive athlete shoot that we do. And you can talk to 30 plus wounded veterans and Black Rifle Coffee employees, and maybe you'll get a true feeling as to what this company does and what it means. And that never pulled through the article, which I thought was a little bit disappointing.