#1745 - Matt Taibbi

Matt Taibbi (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience. So you like it down here better?

Joe Rogan (0:13)

I love it, I love it, yeah. People are so nice.

There's less of them, so they're not a burden. Are we up?

Yeah, you know, I think big cities, you just, people just become in your, they get in your way, and no one's in your way here. Everyone's friendly, it's like normal. They're normal people. Plus, it's not tainted by show business. As much as people try to pretend that Hollywood, you know, doesn't have an effect on their lives, I'm in real estate, get the fuck out of here. Like, everyone is tainted by the weirdness of that city. Because it's a city that's predicated on being full of shit. Like you have to pretend to be something.

Matt Taibbi (0:48)

Yeah, like everybody, as soon as they're talking, they start lying, basically, right?

Joe Rogan (0:56)

Well, for sure, they're selling themselves and promoting an angle. And out here, no one's doing that. It's so refreshing. It's like, this is Mike. He makes barbecue. Oh, hi, Mike.

Like, Mike's a normal guy, you know?

Matt Taibbi (1:08)

Must take some time to sort of decompensate and decompress, get back to talking.

Joe Rogan (1:13)

It took a few weeks, that's it. And then I was like, yeah, I embraced it right away. Because, you know, when we moved here, I started looking in May of 2020 I was like, I'm getting the fuck out of here. I see the writing on the wall.

Because there was two weeks to stop the spread and flatten the curve, like, okay, makes sense. That makes sense. I was all on board. And then as time went on, I'm like, this is not two weeks.

And then they were talking about more restrictions, and then they were shutting down outdoor dining and this and that. And I was like, what are they doing? Oh, they're enjoying this. They're enjoying telling people what to do. Which is just basic human nature. To pretend that government agencies, that people who wanted to be mayor, people that wanted to be governor, would somehow or another avoid all the pitfalls that are just naturally a part of being a person, when a person has power, especially power over a bunch of people that are scared.

And you're offering solutions and you're standing there. We have to keep the safety of our communities in mind. Right. You know, that kind of shit.

Matt Taibbi (2:18)

Yeah.

I think that's a big story of modern America, is people just not being able to deal with the idea that there just aren't solutions for some things. That you just, for some things, you just can't fix it by fiat.

Joe Rogan (2:31)

What's fascinating to me, though, is that people will blame everyone except the people that were actually responsible for the virus.

Matt Taibbi (2:40)

Right.

Joe Rogan (2:41)

Like this is a virus that most likely, I mean, I'm not 100% sure, but I'm about 90% sure that this thing came from a fucking laboratory. And all the stuff that I've read and all the emails from Peter Daszak and Fauci and the NIH, when you look at the way they were looking at it and how they were kinda panicked, and then you look at their absolute, their belief that supposedly they're broadcasting that there's no way it could have come from a lab. And then you see their actual emails and you go, oh, you fuckers, like you know, you know this probably came from a lab and you're doing your best job to try to obfuscate, to try to confuse people, to try to muddy the water and make it, just get it as far away from you as you can. But the reality is this probably came from a fucking lab. But that's not what people are mad at.

People are mad at people who take alternative medications. People are mad at people who downplay the severity of it. People are mad at, they're mad at all kinds of things, but they're not mad at the fucking source.

The actual source, which is most likely that level four bio lab in Wuhan, China, most likely.

Matt Taibbi (3:55)

Yeah, at minimum, those emails show that they thought they had a serious PR problem on their hands. Yeah. I mean, I think you can look at them in a number of different ways, but at minimum, it shows that.

Joe Rogan (4:05)

To be charitable.

Matt Taibbi (4:06)

To be totally charitable.

And that should have been a big story all by itself, and it wasn't. Yeah.

Joe Rogan (4:13)

It wasn't. It was a strange time. But this is normal. This is a normal time when people are under heavy anxiety.