Zach Richardson

Editor’s Note: The U.S. Transhumanist Party publishes this perspective from our Director of Publication, Zach Richardson, on the importance of respecting the free speech of Joe Rogan, which is consistent with our strong support for vaccination against COVID-19. Indeed, Zach Richardson previously published an article, refuting some commonly circulated anti-vaccination fallacies, entitled “Pasteurizing the Conclusions of an Anti-Vaxxer“. Here Mr. Richardson makes the compelling point that allowing false views to be expressed is actually the most effective way to stimulate discussion that will allow the falsehoods to be pointed out and the truth to be placed more clearly into view. 

~Gennady Stolyarov II, Chairman, United States Transhumanist Party, February 12, 2022

Here is the open letter that lays out the concerns about Joe Rogan.

Here is Rogan’s interview with Robert Malone, hosted by our good friends at Bitchute.

Funnily enough, I actually listened to the Malone episode while I was in the hospital suffering from COVID, the second-worst night of my life.

Up until that point I didn’t really care. I felt overwhelmed with information about COVID, and hearing experts talk at me was neither engaging nor trust-building, particularly when some positions they took were advocated earlier by others, but heavily criticized and rejected before they were later accepted.

Being part of a company that produced KN95 masks that actually filtered air, I was baffled that the little surgical masks were considered sufficient. The masks we created were airtight, and all air passed through a KN95 filter which could be changed daily and cost less than a dime.

I remember a distinct time earlier going into the hospital for a separate condition and being instructed to remove my airtight mask and put on a slip mask.

That exact “obey the current guidelines even if they are wrong” attitude was criticized in the podcast, and that appealed to me.

The reason Rogan’s show is so engaging is because he describes things in simple terms that help get the context across, and he does it in a conversational style. I think it’s dumb to criticize him for this, like how in the letter they attack him for calling the vaccine “gene therapy” when he was just referencing how it used mRNA. I can’t know for sure, but I’ll bet if you asked him if it was directly editing genes he would have said “No.”

Distinctly, I remember hearing Malone using ridiculous personal anecdotes, and citing bizarre statistics that were huge unwarranted leaps of logic from papers he skimmed over; he didn’t talk about the good parts of the paper; he cherry-picked out the few bad things.

Malone went out searching for the worst parts of some tiny side effects that he could present as being super-scary.

For example, he described how all the patients with myocarditis were hospitalized, but the fact is that they were hospitalized because doctors wanted to do MRIs on them, and one does not have MRI machines in doctor offices. Totally misleading!

Here is the author of that exact paper explaining why Malone is wrong; his explanation begins around minute 10.

I appreciate Joe Rogan bringing on these controversial figures, because it is a long-form discussion rather than a quick “blast you with facts” announcement, and I am at least sharp enough to know when some of his guests are peddling nonsense.

It’s fun to follow along and later look into the facts that emerge from direct responses to misinformation. The truth is that those facts would not proliferate without the misinformation first appearing. Here is an example:

“Joe Rogan interview with Peter McCullough contains multiple false and unsubstantiated claims about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines” – from Health Feedback.

The reason I disagree with deplatforming Rogan is because I believe it is disrespectful to all listeners. I feel that it is disrespectful to assume that others are too stupid to do their own research in response to bizarre claims.

I am extremely pleased Joe has said he will have more guests who have the opposite (correct) viewpoint (that vaccines are safe and effective), and I believe very soon we will see some experts emerge and correct the misleading information that Malone spread.

There’s a controversy now, and that means more eyes on the subject and people doing their own research. It’s a beautiful symphony of yin and yang energy.

Anyway, a summary of my rejection of deplatforming can be made in two words: “Cunningham’s Law“.

Zach Richardson is Director of Publication for the U.S. Transhumanist Party.