In the aftermath of its loss on Nov.5, the left has turned its lonely eyes to Joe Rogan. The irreverent, world-conquering podcaster — 14.5 million Spotify followers and counting — is considered a symbol of Donald Trump’s ability to use unconventional media outlets to reach disaffected voters, especially young males, a k a “bros.” Trump’s interview with Rogan has garnered 50 million views on YouTube, while the podcaster endorsed the former president in the final hours of the campaign. With Trump showing extraordinary strength among young men, progressives are wondering how they can get into the Joe Rogan-type game.As a headline in The New York Times put it, “Trump’s Win Leaves Democrats Asking: Where Are Our Bro Whisperers?”Bernie Sanders has said when “clearly you have an alternative media out there” with “millions and millions of viewers,” Democrats have to be taking part. Elie Mystal of the left-wing Nation magazine has declared, “Liberals need to BUILD THEIR OWN JOE ROGAN.”Progressives are correct about the power of Rogan and his cohort of bro podcasters, but they don’t understand how thoroughly anathema their ideology and cultural sensibility are to this kind of programming.They could — like the Harris campaign — have $1 billion to spend and still not be able to create one semi-popular bro podcaster. How is the party of policing what people say to ensure that the discussion always stays within a narrow set of guardrails going to create — or even tolerate — free-wheelingly heterodox media voices? If the left did manage to create a progressive Joe Rogan in a lab, as soon as he said something controversial out in the wild, he’d be anathematized and subject to cancelation. This is exactly what happened to .
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Joe Rogan.Before he was a Trump bro, he was a Bernie bro.He is socially liberal, has mocked religion and is no way a traditional Republican.But the left turned on him with a vengeance because he expressed con...