Joe Rogan to many people is the guy from Fear Factor or a comedian and to many others like myself he is an important male role model in society. In a world where young men are taught to be ashamed of their masculinity or told they are toxic, Joe Rogan stands alone showing that men can be both athletic and smart, firm yet fair and assertive yet kind. Rogan is truly curious and open-minded; he will talk to anyone from any political point of view. His guests range from Democratic Socialist Cornel West to Ben Shapiro. Rogan’s podcast threatens the mainstream, because the days of unintelligent and frankly uninteresting talking points may end or be altered so journalists and commentators will actually have to do the job of questioning and getting to the truth.

My dad introduced to me the Joe Rogan Experience when I was 17 and he was, unfortunately, in another battle with drugs. I was 17 depressed and usually angry. I was aware of those problems and sometimes acted impulsively, filled with anger and was depressed to the point of self-harm. Those issues are now long gone thanks to my family, finding meaning in my life through God, though I am always an imperfect Christian man of course. I cleaned up my act a lot when I was 17 going on 18. Of course, I struggled, I discovered politics and was ardently conservative I would argue with everyone and anyone over politics, but this is exhausting and not healthy. I saw myself becoming what I accused liberals of being: Intolerable, angry, and very tribal. As of 2017/18 due to quite an embarrassing display of decorum, I do not debate with people online because I was not mature enough to handle it and now I realize I am confident enough in my own opinions so for me there is no need to “own the libs” online. Politics was not apart of my life it was consuming my life. It is fairly common for young people that participate in politics to have politics consume them. I would defend every conservative talking point even if I had my own reservations. As I discovered when politics becomes your only identity you will defend it no matter what. I was convinced that conceding mistakes and policies made me weak, but a man who concedes nothing all the time is an insecure man and one who only concedes is a weak men, confident men follow their own path. I am not very good at lying to myself so the behavior stopped because I did not like that intellectual dishonesty.