#1998 - Ali Siddiq

Joe Rogan (0:04)

The Joe Rogan Experience.

You are a perfect example of how sometimes the universe throws you a little curveball, and it turns out to work out better for you. We were talking about it before, right before the show. And I wanted to congratulate you on the success of your special.

Because you were in this position where HBO had decided not to air it because you had opinions. And they said, well, we don't agree with your opinions, so you can't have opinions that are different than ours. You didn't even say anything?

I didn't think it was your feelings on things, which I feel like you're allowed to have. And boom, you put it on YouTube, and boom. How many views does it have now?

Ali Siddiq (0:52)

First one, 8.8 million.

Joe Rogan (0:55)

Million, 8.8 million. You know what the odds of you getting 8.8 million on HBO are? Zero.

It's zero. It's zero. You don't have anything to get. Unless you're on the fucking Game of Thrones premiere.

Ali Siddiq (1:07)

I was ready to do math in my head and everything. I was thinking it was like zero. Don't even think about it.

Joe Rogan (1:15)

Zero. It's never...

I mean, maybe you got to go back to like Sam Kenison. Maybe his got 8 million.

Ali Siddiq (1:22)

Maybe.

Joe Rogan (1:24)

Yeah, I mean, not that many people watch those shows, but YouTube is beautiful. I mean, they fuck you on a lot of different things. They'll pull you for discussing legitimate medical studies. Like this guy got pulled. Did you see that thing? I tweeted it.

He got pulled off of YouTube. They killed his whole channel for reading Lancet studies on psychiatric drugs.

Bro, it's crazy.

SPEAKER_3 (1:50)

It's crazy.

Ali Siddiq (1:52)

What did they do the study on?

Joe Rogan (1:53)

Well, it was on children and psych medications. It was on children and I believe it was SSRIs, which was anti-depressants.

Ali Siddiq (2:02)

Are they prescribing those to children now?

Joe Rogan (2:05)

They've been prescribing them for children. They've been doing it for a long time, but they do not like when people discuss the negative side effects on YouTube.

If YouTube, I would assume advertising pressure. That's the only thing that makes sense to me.

Ali Siddiq (2:19)

You can discuss getting the belt or getting whipped, but you can't discuss the negative side effects of a drug.

Joe Rogan (2:29)

Isn't that wild?

Yeah, you could openly discuss being abused as a child. Being beaten. Yeah, so this gentleman, what's his name? Roger McPhillan, Doctor Roger McPhillan. He was, so this is what he said. Our YouTube channel was terminated in less than 24 hours. No warnings, explanations, or strikes after we posted a video highlighting published science, black box warnings, and known adverse reactions of anti-depressants for youth.

Why do you think this was censored?

And then, it's weird is that YouTube responded underneath it.

They responded, hey, here to help. Let me know your YouTube channel URL. We'll see what we can find. Here's how to find it. Like, no, they killed his whole channel. He said, you terminated my, I don't know, like saying you, it's probably a person, right? So it's probably not that person. It says, you terminated my YouTube channel for posting published scientific literature. It's for reasons like this that YouTube is losing the public trust.

Man, it's that dance of advertising, you know? That's the dance, the dance of advertising and government control. It's kind of spooky. It's kind of spooky shit.

Ali Siddiq (3:44)

Well, I've been living in a neighborhood that's been government controlled for a long time.

Not really spooky to us. We like, oh, regular government nonsense. Yeah, like, this is the reason why we don't trust anything. Like, brown people, black people, we just don't, ah. Like, as soon as you say it, like, as soon as you're not trusting it.

Joe Rogan (4:10)

Well, it's for good reason. It's not like everything's going great and nobody trusts the government.

Ali Siddiq (4:17)

Yeah, like, but a lot of people are pro-government. Like, government everything.

Joe Rogan (4:21)

Wow, I think they just sold a narrative, you know? I think they sold a narrative and they think anti-government is bad so that they're pro-government.

I've had some maddening discussions with intelligent people that I respect where they're saying the government should regulate the internet. I'm like, what the fuck are you talking about? The same people that are engaging in insider trading? They should regulate the internet? Are you out of your fucking mind? You crazy, that is?

It's like the-

Ali Siddiq (4:50)

Who said that? Who said that?