“Douglas Murray went full Sam Harris” - Internet reacts as Douglas Murray calls out Joe Rogan over inviting conspiracy theorists as podcast guests

Douglas Murray has a bone to pick with Joe Rogan for calling conspiracy theorists as podcast guests.

During the latest segment of The Joe Rogan Experience, British journalist Douglas Murray criticized the host for granting conspiracy theorists a platform and allowing their 'fringe' views to become mainstream. He also name-dropped one of Joe Rogan's former guests, Ian Carroll, a YouTuber known for his antisemitic sentiments, as well as Darryl Cooper, who previously expressed sympathetic sentiments for Adolf Hitler.

Fans have since begun weighing in with mixed opinions, such as this one user who referred to Douglas Murray as Sam Harris, an American philosopher and neuroscientist:

"How sad is it that it took less than a minute—before Rogan even finished his intro—that Douglas Murray went full Sam Harris, disparaging Rogan for inviting disinformation artists with "no no" opinions onto his podcast?"

Here's what the rest of X is saying:

"Douglas responds to facts with “you’re not an expert and you’ve never been to the place it happened.” Seriously disappointing performance by @DouglasKMurray, and maybe @ComicDaveSmith‘s best, which is saying a lot," someone penned.

'“Why do think that is” Maybe because he wants to interview decent human beings and the bare minimum qualification would be being against slaughtering children?' another chimed in.

"Deflection and appeal to authority is all I’m getting 30 minutes into this episode from Murray," yet another claimed.

"I’ve enjoyed some of Rogan’s episodes, but yeah, sometimes it feels like he sidesteps the heavier hitters on certain topics. It’d be great to see him bring in more actual historians and other experts, like pro-vaccine doctors, alongside the usual guests," one user noted.

The comments didn't end there, however. Scores online defended Joe Rogan, noting that he's simply inviting whoever he's interested in, and that he's seemingly not pushing any sort of propaganda. Others asserted that there's no need for him to defend himself, seeing as it's his show, after all.

"Joe Rogan doesn't need to justify the guests he has on. It's a podcast, he invites people on to talk, people can listen or not. It's also not true that he never has on "real historians", he's invited a lot of authors, scientists and journalists on," someone stated.

"He's just a dude asking questions and having conversations with interesting people. He doesn't owe you or anyone else anything," another echoed.

"It is his show, he said he talks to people who he wants to talk to, that is a pretty good justification. He is not obligated to interview people you or I or Douglas want him to interview," yet another chimed in.

"Rogan has said numerous times that the secret to his success has just been talking with people he was genuinely interested in talking to. Accuracy is certainly not the agenda," one more penned.

The conversation between Douglas Murray and Joe Rogan explored as the former seemingly slams him for "tilting" one way:

During the segment, Douglas Murray asked the host:

“Can I ask you something? Since the war in Ukraine began, and the war in Israel began, you’ve had quite a lot of people who are very against both, in different ways. Do you think you’ve had enough people on who are supportive of either war?”

Murray, a vocal advocate of Ukraine and Israel, characterised Rogan's guests as being "against" the war in Ukraine. “I don’t know that word, ‘enough’, if that’s a good word,” Joe Rogan responded, prompting Murray to clarify, "Let’s say enough people who are on the side of Israel, rather than wild critics of Israel." Rogan noted, "Well I’ve had a few."

“Do you think you’ve tilted one way? The guests you’ve had?” Murray probed, prompting Joe Rogan to respond by noting that he just invites who he thinks is interesting.

“But if you’re going to interview historians of the conflict, or historians in general, why would you get someone like Ian Carroll?”

Murray went on, referring to Carroll, a conspiracy theorist and not a historian.

“Ian Carroll, I didn’t bring him on for that purpose,” said Rogan. “I brought him on because I wanted to find out, how does one get involved in the entire conspiracy theory business? Because his whole thing is just conspiracies.”

Murray didn't stop there, as he pressed on,

“But do you have any – I mean, there’s been a tilt in the conversation, both conversations, in the last couple of years. And it’s largely to do with people who have appointed themselves as experts, who are not experts.” He added: "If you throw a lot of s*** out there, there's some point at which 'I'm just raising questions' is not a valid thing. You're not raising questions. You're not asking questions. You're telling people something."

He then referred to “that other dude, who thinks he’s an expert on Churchill" — Darryl Cooper, who infamously regarded British prime minister Winston Churchill as “the chief villain of World War II." Elsewhere in the episode, he said, "I think there are very fringe views that have become mainstreamed on the right."

While users online are divided, the prevailing sentiment seems to be that Joe Rogan is free to invite whoever he wants on his show.

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