We could have discovered another excuse why some males have such a tough time taking accountability.
Manosphere mouthpiece Joe Rogan proved to have a difficult time admitting he made a boo-boo on his podcast final week after he mistook an clearly pretend AI video of Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) as actual.
Rogan introduced up the topic of Walz — who unsuccessfully ran with former Vice President Kamala Harris within the 2024 presidential marketing campaign — an hour and 40 minutes into an episode whereas he was interviewing comic Tim Dillon.
“You know what’s really fun? When someone is in that whole race and running for president or vice president, and then the race is over and they realize that person was a liability,” Rogan mentioned. “So they cut them off and then that person goes wacky like Tim Walz.”
Rogan then went on to explain the weird AI-generated video of Walz that was shared by Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) on X late final month. In the video, a saucy AI-generated Walz wears a “Fuck Trump” shirt, dances and slaps his butt whereas driving down an escalator to the Pussycat Dolls’ 2005 hit “Don’t Cha.”
“If you were at the mall with your kids and this guy rolled down the escalator, you would call the cops and get him banned,” Riley wrote alongside the video, which now boasts a group notice on X that states the video “is clearly AI.”
AFP Truth Verify, a division of the worldwide information company Agence France-Presse (AFP), additionally revealed a tweet on Sept. 4 that knowledgeable the general public that “the clip is altered, with the Minnesota governor’s face superimposed on the body of a TikTok creator.”
But, it appears that evidently Rogan had not seen the AFP’s truth test final week when he excitedly requested Dillon, “Have you seen this video?”
When Dillon mentioned he hadn’t and instantly requested Rogan to “please play it,” the podcaster requested his producer, Jamie Vernon, to seek out the “weird” clip.
As Vernon pulled up the video, Dillon requested, “Is that really him?!”
“No, it’s not real,” Vernon mentioned.
“It’s real.,” Rogan mentioned.
“No, it’s not,” Vernon doubled-down.
“Yes, it is,” Rogan insisted.
“It’s AI-generated,” Vernon argued.
“No, no, no. It’s real,” Rogan shot again.
As the 2 continued to argue, Rogan finally admitted, “I love it.”
“He slaps his ass. Definitely him. This is 100% real, Jamie — you’re a plant by the government,” Rogan mentioned.
And at that, Vernon identified that it clearly states on the high of the video he was taking part in for Rogan that the footage was AI-generated.
“‘Riley Moore fell for an AI-generated video of Minnesota Gov–’ I fell for it too, and do you know why I fell for it?” Rogan requested earlier than making a really telling assertion.
“Because I believe that he’s capable of doing something that dumb.”
Rogan’s incapacity to confess he’s improper as a result of he appears like he ought to be proper is emblematic of a fragile ego, not less than in keeping with a 2018 article revealed in Psychology At this time.
In accordance with the article, somebody who has a tough time taking accountability for his or her errors accomplish that as a result of “to the outside world, they look as if they’re confidently standing their ground and not backing down, things we associate with strength.”
“But psychological rigidity is not a sign of strength, it is an indication of weakness,” the article says. “These people are not choosing to stand their ground; they’re compelled to do so in order to protect their fragile egos.”
Contemplating that males make up 80% of Rogan’s viewers and that the highly-influential comic is understood for praising traits stereotypically related to masculinity, like energy, it’d clarify why the form of males who take pleasure in listening to Rogan’s podcast may additionally battle to confess they’re improper.
This isn’t the primary time Vernon fact-checked Rogan, just for Rogan to fail to apologize. In 2023, he tried to show that then-President Joe Biden was experiencing cognitive decline by attributing a fairly dumb factor President Donald Trump mentioned to Biden. Within the clip Rogan was making an attempt to hawk, Biden appeared to assert that there have been airports in the course of the Revolutionary Struggle. However when Vernon stepped in to point out Rogan an extended lower of Biden’s remarks, it instantly grew to become clear that Biden was making enjoyable of Trump for saying that years prior. Vernon went on to play a video of Trump giving a speech in 2019 during which he mentioned that Revolutionary army forces “took over airports.”
“Oh, OK, so he fucked up,” Rogan mentioned of Trump after watching his speech, and laughed it off.
Rogan’s visitor for the episode, MMA fighter Bo Nickal, took it one step additional in making an attempt to deflect from Rogan’s mistake.
“That’s the thing about media these days,” Nickal mentioned. “It’s like, you gotta look into it.”
But — contemplating the remarks he made about Walz simply final week — it appears Rogan determined to not take that recommendation.
