Jon Stewart, Joe Rogan, and the Baconator Problem
We don’t crave truth anymore, we crave dopamine. That's why the Daily Show host's “do better” is delusional.
David Remnick interviewed Jon Stewart and inquired about Joe Rogan:
Remnick: What happens with Rogan sometimes is that he’ll hear somebody who’s on the dangerous end of the spectrum and he’ll just kind of soak it in.
Stewart: And I think this is a great point. He will just kind of soak it in. And whoever thinks that that information is dangerous—it’s their job to fight to get their point of view out there to counter what they think is misinformation.
Remnick: But the reality is, Jon, that it might be my job, or the New York Times’ job, or even your job, but I don’t have the audience that Joe Rogan does.
Stewart: Then get it. Then go on that show. Then do those things. Like, it’s not acceptable to just say, “Well, I don’t like what he does.” Then do it better, beat them at their own game. There’s no one in this world right now that isn’t platformed. And my biggest frustration, honestly, with a lot of scientists is that they all go, “R.F.K., he’s so f*cked up. That’s terrible information.” Oh, O.K. What’s the information? Nothing. Where are they? Get out there. Fight.
I’m generally Team Stewart, but this felt to me like out-of-touch utopian thinking.
“Go on that show.” C’mon, Jon. We all know Rogan won’t invite Remnick on his show unless he learns astrophysics or Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu. As for scientists, those who represent the consensus don’t get nearly as much play in podcastland as the “here’s what the establishment doesn’t want you to know” heretics.
“Then do it better, beat them at their own game.” What exactly is Remnick supposed to “do better”? He is a thoughtful writer, deep thinker, editor of one of the brainiest magazines left standing, and now hosts a podcast too. Dude is out there. Is he supposed to act dumber in order to attract a bigger audience? At some point, we need to consider the masses want conspiratorial nonsense more than Remnick’s fact-based “coastal elitism.”1
“Fight.” Sure. But the “do better” view ignores the systemic issues of what gets an audience now. It’s not merely about having a platform, it’s about what gets elevated. Our algorithmically-skewed information hellscape revolves around ragebait, gossip, conspiracies, and half-truths.
The people don’t want Michelin star cuisine, they want the Baconator. Same same with they media they consume. A reasoned view of geopolitics can’t compete with “Macron’s wife is a man” or “H*tler wasn’t the bad guy.” So we get what the system incentivizes (i.e. freaky lies over boring truths).
Years of tolerance and even embrace of conspiracy theories, election lies, and bigotry have reshaped the MAGA base and its media ecosystem, giving credence to radical voices that have pushed the party further from its traditional conservatism and deeper into grievance and hate.
Here’s another analogy: People don’t want Olympic wrestling that’s real, they want WWE wrestling that’s bullsh*t. Because the lie is more amusing than the truth. The solution isn’t to command Olympic wrestlers “do better.”
Let’s be real: Our country is dumb and thirsts for entertainment over reason. Telling the Remnicks of the world that this woeful state of affairs is their responsibility is blaming the messenger when no one will even check out his message because no one reads anymore which, by the way, is also a massive part of the problem.
A reasoned view of geopolitics can’t compete with “Macron’s wife is a man” or “H*tler wasn’t the bad guy.”
Scrolling is too damn fun and we’re addicted to that hit. And wonks like Remnick are a snooze compared to Macho Man-flavored “Oooh yeah!” podcasts. The real question: Is there any noble way to beat someone at “their own game” when the game rewards bullsh*t?
🔌 Sign up for the paid plan. You’ll get bonus stuff and it helps me feel like I’m not just shouting into the void. Appreciate you, brothers and sisters.
Zohran
It’s Mayor Zohran now. And he delivered this message to Trump:
I’m shocked SHOCKED that this coalition failed to convince NYC of anything: Cool Girls for Capitalism, hysterical NY Post headline writers, rural FOX News viewers, annoying billionaires, AIPAC mouthpieces, immigrant-hating MAGA politicians, and Zero Bond members who threaten to move but obviously won’t because lol at the mere idea of Zero Bond Nashville. The opposition to Zohran was like the Avengers of people that New Yorkers despise.
All that ragebait may kill at the nursing home, but it doesn’t work on people who ride the subway every day; We’ve already conquered our worst fears.
As for what this means for the Dems nationally, I suggest we all hold our collective horses. Zohran’s opponents were laughably bad. Plus, NYC might as well be its own country. See this:
Mamdani managed to prove that a socialist can win US elections. All it takes is:
- Running in a city that votes +38 D.
- The incumbent dissolving his re-election bid just weeks before Election Day, leaving the field cleared for you.
- Your main opponent having resigned in disgrace from a sex scandal just 4 years earlier.
Clearly this is a formula that can be applied to the country as a whole.
#sarcasm
Centrist Dems did good last night too. I’m curious if a hybrid approach is doable. Like, how about we try a Democratic candidate who is not a slave to big money corporate donors but is not a socialist. Is that even possible? ‘Cuz I feel like that person could do well.
(ICYMI: I did a deep dive on the silliness of this election last week.)
Comedy
💥 Why I support gender affirming care:
💥 I’m serving up jokes in Seattle on 11/20 (tickets). Come through/tell your friends.
💥 Speaking of the NY Post, it loves our “Schtick or Treat” show as much as it hates Zohran! Tickets for Gramercy Theater show on Nov. 10 here.
Quickies
🎯 The key to financial success is to start saving money when you have no money.
🎯 Crazy that when you see a green frog online, it’s either a racist hate symbol or wants to sing “Rainbow Connection.”
🎯 “Define woman.” No problem. A woman is whatever the woman I want to have sex with says a woman is.
🎯 A gossip is just a slut for information. And phones are just boredom pacifiers.
🎯 Dating is the first three days of vacation. Marriage is the taxi ride back to the airport after the vacation’s done.
🎯 So many of our grandmas hated our grandpas when they first met. If red flag culture existed back then, a lot of us wouldn’t even be alive.
🎯 Elon Musk sure did butcher that economist joke. He offers a constant test of which do you think proves intelligence more: someone’s net worth or their ability to speak coherently? The more he talks, the harder it is to believe he’s actually got anything to do with the impressive technology produced by his companies. I mean, if he can never land a punchline, how am I supposed to believe he can land a rocket?
🎯 I miss small talk that wasn’t so serious. Conversationally, we traded weather for climate change and traffic for sex trafficking.
🎯 Low horse people are bullies to high horse people. Look, I can’t help it if my horse was born this way. Stop height shaming my horse, please.
🎯 The problem with dating apps: You may think you want someone exactly like you, but what you actually need is someone with complementary pathologies. One of you dirty, one neat. One spontaneous, one planner. And so on. We crave ego stroking but actually need someone telling us when we’re wrong. (Same with everything else in society too.)
🎯 Any time a journalist publishes a book with a big scoop it just makes me think they’re a bad journalist since books take months to publish and, um, why didn’t you tell us about this sooner?
🎯 Basic Economy is the travel version of BDSM. You board last, no bags allowed, no refunds, last row/middle seat/doesn’t recline/next to bathroom. You’re basically agreeing to submit to JetBlue for a few hours.
🎯 Someone else gonna connect the dots on both Judd Apatow and Cameron Crowe being teens in the 70s who somehow managed to interview their artistic heroes and then eventually directed stuff about it and just wrote books that serve as love letters to it?
🎯 Prostitution is a weird profession because you get punished for seniority: The longer you’ve been doing it, the less clients wanna pay you. No other profession works that way: “I’m a rookie accountant who’s never done math before.” ”Ooh, we pay extra for that.”
🎯 I’m a disruptor. Holding space and letting go? Nah, I’m letting space and holding go. What can I say? I love to f*ck out and find around.
Thanks for reading. If ya liked it, share it with someone who “gets it” but doesn’t get it. Y’know? Because how else they gonna know?
-Matt
OK, if I’m being honest, this is all the same explanation I give myself after looking at my Follower count.
During that interview, Stewart said something publicly that I'm not sure I've previously heard from such a public figure—especially one on the left. He has family who are right wingers and he obviously loves them. I would guess that he is a longtime friend of Rogan's, who is not a right winger but certainly dances with them. In an era when people are extremely quick to jettison friends and family because of politics, it's revealing to see Stewart get chastised for retaining his conflicted loyalty. I think he was being honest in a way that's rare across the political spectrum.
The Baconator analogy really nails the systemic issue. Stewart's response treats this like a marketplace of ideas problem when it's really an algorythm design problem. If the game itself rewards engagement over accuracy, telling people to 'beat them at their own game' just means you have to compromise truth for virality. That's not a solution, it's capitulation.