#2133 - Brendan O'Neill

Joe Rogan (0:13)

What's up?

Brendan O'Neill (0:13)

Joe, how are you today?

Joe Rogan (0:14)

It is my goal before the end of the world to talk to as many interesting people as possible. And it feels like that's kind of ramped up lately.

So I saw you on Trigonometry, and I was introduced to your stuff through that, and then I watched a bunch of your conversations online. So I'm excited to talk to you, man. Thanks for being here.

Brendan O'Neill (0:31)

I'm so happy to be here. You wouldn't believe it. So thank you for having me, Joe.

Joe Rogan (0:35)

My pleasure, yeah. Because it does seem like I really do want to talk to as many people as I can before you can't talk to anybody anymore.

Brendan O'Neill (0:40)

Yeah, well, exactly. Who knows how long before talking to people is outlawed, or suddenly talking to people like me and people like you.

Joe Rogan (0:48)

Well, I don't think that's going to happen likely anytime in the future. I think too many people push back against it. But I think it certainly could make it increasingly more difficult. And my real fear is that we do something so stupid that we lose all communication, period.

I have a real fear of World War III. I haven't had since I was a kid. When I was a kid, growing up in the 80s, we were legitimately worried that we're going to get into a nuclear war with Russia.

It was a real fear. And I remember when the fall, the fall of the Soviet Union, it was like a weight had been lifted off the shoulders of the Earth.

Brendan O'Neill (1:23)

Yeah.

Joe Rogan (1:24)

Like we're like, oh my God, thank God it's over.

Brendan O'Neill (1:26)

I remember those days in the 80s. We watched a film at school called The Day After.

Did you see that? Which is a film about?

Joe Rogan (1:33)

I think we've talked about that. Did we talk about that before? A film about after nuclear war?

Brendan O'Neill (1:38)

Yeah, it's a film about Russia bombing America. It's very depressing. But we watched it at school, and we had numerous discussions about what would we do in the event of a nuclear holocaust? How would we try to survive it? But it was on our minds all the time. And there was also other apocalyptic scenarios, if you recall, like acid rain was a big one. The ozone layer was another one.

My childhood was full of fears that the end of the world was nigh.

And I think people feel that again today for different reasons. And my approach to it is always to think, well, where are the real problems in terms of civilization really grinding to a halt? And what are the unreal problems that are just designed to whip up fear and make us panic and make us fret about the future? So I think distinguishing between those two things is probably quite important.

Joe Rogan (2:25)

It is very important. It's also very important to recognize that when there's a thing that is getting people whipped up and is in the news constantly, for sure someone's making money. That's why it's doing it. I used to think they were warning us about the real dangers of this or that.

I don't think that anymore. Now I think they can justify the fear mongering by saying it's a legitimate concern because it has the opinions of a few people attached to it. But ultimately what they're doing is they're somehow or another using it to make money.

Brendan O'Neill (2:57)

Yeah, well they're either making money or they're making moral mileage, or both. So if you look at global warming is a perfect example, right? The climate change, or the climate catastrophe as we now have to call it.

There are a lot of people invested in this end of the world scenario who are making a lot of money from alternative sources of energy.

But just as important as that, I think, they're making moral mileage. It's the issue through which they can pose as the saviors of humanity. And it gives them a real sense of purpose. I mean, Al Gore is a classic example. He both makes money from climate change fear-mongering. And he also positions himself as a global authority on how to save humankind from the next apocalypse. So I think it's a combination of financial reward and moral reward that draws people to these apocalyptic scenarios.

Joe Rogan (3:45)

Absolutely, and also audience capture. In the case of like Greta Thurnberg, here's this young lady who's become a celebrity by saying, how dare you?