Joe Rogan on the South Africa Farm Controversy

mainstream outlets. Well, I know Lauren was referenced in a lot of the discussions that I was having with people on Twitter about people in South Africa who are farmers getting murdered. Right. She had a documentary called Farmlands that she made. Yes. Yeah. Yeah, that was a weird one where people were getting angry at me and saying that I was reciting a racist conspiracy theory. I'm like, okay, but this is a racist conspiracy theory that a black person was talking about in front of Congress. Right. I mean, this is a black African guy talking about it on television in Africa, the problems with farm murders. You know, and then there was that guy who is the one who wants reparations who's in South Africa, who's a very controversial character, who was kicked out of one of their organizations for doing a song singing about Kill the Boer. Yes. He's doing it and making gun sounds, and the audience is cheering along with this song with gun sounds, and it's about killing farmers. The term conspiracy theory is a tactic that the press and people use to shut down conversation. If you think about it, Harvey Weinstein was a conspiracy theory. Bill Cosby was a conspiracy theory. Kevin Spacey was a conspiracy theory. Everyone knew. Everyone. Yeah, it's a lot of conspiracy theories. And everyone kept their mouth shut. So the idea that a conspiracy theory is inherently false is itself inherently false, and it's just a way to stigmatize a school of thought or an idea that you don't want to talk about. Well, it's also labeling it as a racist ideology. Yeah, that's true, too. Yeah, you're immediately racist. And they also—it was because of Trump reciting it. Trump had repeated it on television, talking about something in terms of the issue with South African farmers. But it's one of those things that we were talking about before, where even if they know that the narrative is not true, it supports what they're trying to push, and so they run with it. And so I just— And say the other way. I kept doubling down. I kept posting all these different things about it. I was like, well, what about this guy talking about it? What about this? What about here's some instances of these murders. And then there's also the reality of South Africa in general, which is extremely violent. There's a lot of violence, and there's a lot of crime. And some of it has to do with the fact that these people that are in these farms are targets because they're out in the middle of nowhere. And whether or not it's racist that they're going after them because they're white, that's debatable. But black farmers are also getting attacked. It's not simply just white farmers. There is some of that, though. And— There's some of that. There's some of them are going after these farmers because they're white. And the thing that's really disturbing is, are people happier if this is black people killing other black people, like the Hutu and the Tutsis? That was a big genocide. And so, yeah, it's a problem when people are being killed regardless of their race. And tribalism cuts across racial lines. But on the other side, there was also some legitimate claims to land that was stolen during apartheid, and that the people who are alive today who might not have been around during the stealing of that land are benefiting from the fact that they're living on stolen land. Like, that's all legitimate as well. So there's legitimate arguments in terms of how the land was procured in the first place and how the person who's owning it today, how they came to own it. So it's complex. It's very complex. But it also has to do with this culture of violence in Africa in general, especially particularly in South Africa, where there's a lot of poverty. And these people who are out in these farms in the middle of nowhere, they're targets. People don't – what politics from both sides wants to teach us is that things are never complex. So if you have your little package and some things doesn't fit in that package, you don't know what to make of it, so you want to dismiss it, because then you're going to have to do the work of reconsidering your assumptions. And certainly don't discuss it publicly where you could be misconstrued or labeled as a racist. And I was looking at all these people labeling me as a racist. I was like, okay, I see what you're doing, but I'm just going to keep posting these things, because this is all – what I'm saying is all being substantiated by a bunch of different people who are also black in South Africa. This is a lot of what this discussion revolves around. And what Trump's done is have that word lose a lot of its meaning, because if you just throw that term around willy-nilly, then at a certain point it's like, okay, it's the boy who cried wolf. And the term is a very broad term. Someone's grandma is prejudiced and says, I don't want my grandkids dating a black person. That's not the same as advocating genocide, and they're both racist, but you can't regard them as synonymous, and one doesn't necessarily lead to the other. Yeah. Yeah, it's – the fact that racism – I mean, I think that racism has probably diminished somewhat. Would you agree with that in terms of like between now and say like when we were – what year were you born? Do you think from 1976 to 2018 racism in this country has diminished? Enormously, don't you? Enormously. Yes, I think so. I don't think it's – I'm from Brooklyn, right? So I don't really have friends who are like waspy white people. I can't imagine a situation when people are hanging out and saying like racist things and everyone – You need to go to Connecticut. No, but I mean I can't imagine them saying racist things and everyone looking at them like they're not crazy. Like it would just be so shocking. And I think 40 years ago that wouldn't be that uncommon. It would happen. I think there's also the reality of social media is that there are absolutely real repercussions for any sort of racist out – Oh, yes. Anything you say, anything that's – any outburst, anything that you say that – in terms of like – you could – if you're somewhere and you say something publicly that's racist, someone could tweet that and it would ruin your life. Someone could post that on Facebook and it would ruin your life. And I think that keeps legitimate racists from being as out with it, which reduces racism overall because I think when less people are doing it, it seems less culturally acceptable and then people change the way they think. But it's also – it's easier to be racist when you're only talking to people who are like you. But if you're interacting with people from all over the world and you're like, okay, this putz – guys are putz, but he's also putz like the people I know. It's very hard to maintain that prejudice when you're seeing people who are acting similar to you because it's anonymous behind the screen. If they turn out to be black, it's like, okay, the sky's not different for me. We're both assholes.