Growing up, Joe rogan was always just the "evidently fear is not a factor for you" guy. Then I got into UFC and saw a whole different side of the man. And then, in 2012, I first watched an episode of the infamous Joe Rogan podcast which led me to where I am today, sitting here telling you with confidence that Joe Rogan knows the truth about aliens.
For those unaware, The Joe Rogan Expereince is a podcast hosted by the titled standup comedian, where he and his friends talk at length about fighting, current events, hunting, comedy, health and science, and a litny of other topics that peak their interest.
For a while conspiracy theories were a big subject a lot of the time. Joe Rogan's friend and frequent guest to the show, Eddie Bravo, is a Diehard when it comes to conspiracy theories. There isn't a corner of the internet Eddie hasn't explored. From 9/11 to chem trails to shapeshifting reptilian aliens, Eddie's been through it all. He constantly goes on rants on the podcast about the crooks in the government stealing tax money and fixing economies. NASA is like a mortal enemy to Eddie; he doesn't believe a word that's ever come out of the organization. There's not an event out there that Eddie can't find the malevolence in.
Personally I love it, my favorite episodes of the show are Eddie Bravo episodes, but Joe always seems irritated and stand-offish when these kinds of topics are brought up. It wasn't always this way though. Joe used to be just as deep into the conspiracy swamp as his friend.
Back when he was still the Fear Factor guy Joe Rogan was a loud believer in the idea that the moon landings were faked. There are many radio and podcast interviews of Joe dropping facts on the close-minded hosts.
He said, "There's no way people landed on the moon. There's no way".
From telemetry data to cropped crosshairs, Joe knew every detail of the moon hoax like the back of his hand. Some will argue that Joe simply changed his stance on the moon hoax from age and wisdom, and realized the error of his ways. There's definitely something else going on though.
In 2013 the show Joe Rogan Questions Everything first aired on the Syfy network. Joe would travel the nation investigating some of the leading conspiracy theories in the game today. He interviewed "experts" on topics like bigfoot, chem trails, telepathy, UFOs, and more. The show is framed as a genuine inquiry into the validity of these popular conspiracy theories, but most episodes work to discredit the theories by showing these crackpots ramble on about their "research". This is why many have speculated that the entire show was just an attempt at disinformation: a term conspiracy theorists love to throw around. This theory gets pretty juicy when you take into account the fact that it was right around this time that Joe's stance on conspiracies started to change.
It was the UFO episode that seemed to disappoint Joe the most. Aliens and space cosipracys were always closest to Joe's heart. To this day he says aliens are the one bastion of hope he still holds onto.
At the end of the Close Encounters episode of the show, Joe looks to the camera and proclaims that he will gladly use his status and influence to help spread disinformation about conspiracies if he's just given a chance to see the truth about aliens. He claims he would even "lie to my mother" for the privilege. There used to be a clip of this floating around but I am having a suspiciously hard time finding it now...
Now obviously Joe is a comedian, and this comment was said in jest.
It was a fucking joke, calm down Eddie.
But after that episode aired and the series wrapped Joe's opinions on conspiracy theories changed from skeptical optimism to a nonbeliever. Even the moon hoax, a theory once so close to Joe was up for grabs, with Joe publicly disowning his affiliation with moon hoax believers in an interview with Dr. Niel Degrasse Tyson.
The theory is that the government heard Joe's plea for information, and listened. The Joe Rogan Experience is a huge media source at this point, which makes Joe Rogan himself the perfect candidate to target as an outlet for disinformation, if you believe in that sort of thing. The government showed Joe what he wanted to see, maybe it was real maybe it wasn't, but now he's indebted to them. He's entangled in the web and getting out is never without it's consequences. Joe' a family man; a loving father of three children. Or in other words, he is easily manipulated. A threat on Joe's life likely wouldn't shake the man, but a threat to his family is serious business. And that's how they get you.
the best interview in all of conspiracy theory, fast forward to 1:49:10 to get down to business.
A rational person will say that Joe changed his mind about conspiracy theories after doing his show because once he investigated the facts and saw the faces of the "experts" in the fields, his confidence in all this speculation just crumbled. But when you hear his friends like Eddie as well as Duncan Trussel, and even the king of conspiracy himself Alex Jones speculate on Joe's fear about telling his audience the truth, its tough to not put on my tinfoil hat as well.