Joe Rogan Or Joe Duffy: Who Is Doing More Harm?

ONE is a highly paid, highly influential broadcaster with a slavish, almost maniacally devoted listenership who won’t question anything their hero spouts. The other is Joe Rogan. But which of these men is doing the most harm to our society? Let’s investigate.

Just as Spotify consider The Joe Rogan Experience a cornerstone of their platform, more than justifying Rogan’s $100m dollar deal with the streaming service, so too does RTÉ look at Liveline With Joe Duffy as ‘great value’ for the €400k per year that the veteran broadcaster receives. And to justify those price tags, both platforms demand the same thing; a constant flow of rabble-baiting rhetoric that keeps listeners angry, divided, and above all else, tuned-in.

“Joe Rogan casually throws out information about Ivermectin, enraging liberals and emboldening conspiracy nuts. Joe Duffy does the same, except instead he gets people to ring in about the sex scenes in Normal People,” an industry insider explained to us today.

“While Rogan’s output is certainly colouring people’s opinions when it comes to more outlandish, fantastical things like New World Orders and the like, Duffy is doing it on a much more parochial, curtain-twitching level.

“It’s hard to say what harms society more; the guy telling you that vaccinations are part of a plan to control our minds with 5G, or the guy telling you in a matter-of-fact manner that you’re going to get fined from now on if they find old batteries in your recycling bin”.

Regardless of the damage either Joe may be doing to society, it seems both will remain a key part of our cultural landscape for as long as there’s an audience for straight-talking no-nonsense white men who ‘tell it like it is’.