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Culture War Roundup for the week of July 13, 2026

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Joe Rogan continues to provide some of the most interesting conversations in the world. Yes he seems to have gone down some conspiracy rabbit holes, but he gets interesting people in a seat and has a long ass conversation with them.

Recently he had Vance. A few things popped to me.

-You'll never convince me Vance isn't part of the SSC/Rationalist diaspora, when he goes off of politics he just oozes it.

-For the UFO fans he says he'll keep looking into it but he doesn't have a lot of hope.

-He did a good job defending some of his more questionable personal and political actions (the demon comment, election issues, the current Iran tactics). Less good with some other things like quashing the filibuster.

-Vance states he is an Epstein conspiracy theorist (but not in the popular way), in the interview he focuses more on the financial aspects of whatever Epstein got up to and focuses away from the pedophile stuff, hard to tell if he really believes nothing is there on that end.

-Joe Rogan's haters continue to be annoying and non-credible, he pushes Vance more than I remember seeing him come at most of the political guests I've watched (but is accused of being glazing).

I've been fortunate to be around for or involved in private conversations with "notable" people, it's fascinating. At the same time I'm not a notable person, so even when that's happened I have to just accept the circumstances and hang back. We live in a time where JRE and other things like "In Good Company" (and even smaller things like the brief podcast Enes Y did) give unprecedented access to the thoughts and plans of the profoundly powerful. Previously you had to sit for a public speech or pay for a dinner, now we can really get a bit of a slice of what Vance is about.

What a wonder.

Yes he seems to have gone down some conspiracy rabbit holes

This isn't anything recent by the way. He has believed, among other things, the flat earth, the US faked the moon landing, and 9/11 (or at least tower seven) as an inside job. One of his oldest friends is Alex Jones. He doesn't go down some conspiracy rabbit holes. He's been a conspiracy theorist since almost the beginning

You got a citation for any of this?

Flat Earth and Moon landing conspiracies are MANY orders of magnitude more questionable.

Here's Joe debating against Phil Plait on the moon landing. Two guesses on which side he's on.

Flat earth was actually a false memory. Joe Rogan himself is not a flat earther. He discussed it with Eddie Bravo, who actually is a flat earther, and Alex Jones, who he's been friends with for over 20 years.

Here's Joe Rogan talking with Rosie O'Donnel about 9/11.

Joe Rogan talking with Alex Jones in 2003. You can literally hear how young Joe Rogan is in his voice.

Joe Rogan with Bob Lazar, one of the most famous UFO/Alien conspiracy theorists, and Jeremy Corbell, who made a documentary on Bob. Joe notes within the first minute about how much he's followed Lazar over the years. Worth noting that Lazar has been in the UFO/Aliens conspiracy circles since the 90s.

There are literally thousands of clips of Joe discussing his fascination with, love of, and belief in some conspiracy theories. His earliest podcast episodes had many instances of him bringing people on to have conversations, and when conspiracy theories came up, he'd waterboard the guest with knowledge of them. In fact, that was a part of his early appeal. He is deep, deep, in the conspiracy theory rabbit hole.

I believe one is asking about Vance and the other is answering about Rogan.

Rogan and Jones are definitely friends, Rogan has been a conspiracy theorist since almost the beginning. Rogan is the He, not Vance.

Yes, but 9/11 involved some weird stuff is relatively mainstream, flat earth is not (and to my recollection Joe argued against flat earth stuff).