Joe Rogan Thinks People Are Not Allowed To Leave Oxford, England
People are allowed to leave Oxford, England.
Yesterday, I watched my very first (almost) full episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, which I watched because his guest was Cheryl Hines, the wife of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and now the cloud over my Curb Your Enthusiasm … enthusiasm. I mean, I’ve seen clips before, but I’ve never sat through a whole three hours of it, mostly because I don’t hate myself enough for that.
And, you know, I actually learned a lot. I learned that, first of all, said “Experience” is not unlike the experience of being trapped in a basement for three hours with a bunch of stoners who only think they are having a very deep, intellectual discussion. I also think I now have a greater understanding of What Cheryl Hines’s Deal Is. I think she did improv for so long that she actually just “Yes, ands” pretty much anything anyone says to her. Except she doesn’t add to the bit as much as she says “Wow” and “That’s crazy” and “Wow, that’s craaaaazy.” This, I suppose, is what makes her an ideal partner for Secretary Brainworms.
The other thing I learned is that Rogan’s entire schtick appears to be saying untrue things and being just … absolutely astounded by them. For instance, during their discussion on vaccines — because of course they had to get into vaccines — Hines starts talking about how there have been examples of medicines that have been on the market and approved by the FDA for years before being pulled because people discovered they weren’t safe. True enough! Accutane and Darvon/Darvocet are pretty famous examples of this. In these cases, it turned out that these medicines had delayed adverse effects or toxicity buildup that would not have been discovered in trials, as opposed to the immediate onset of autism people claim happens with vaccines.
But neither of them mention that. Rather, Rogan puts on his most concerned face and says “What about thalidomide? With what it did with birth defects in children?”
Yeah. Thalidomide, which women took to treat morning sickness, did end up causing birth defects, famously resulting in what were derisively called “flipper babies.” But guess what? Thalidomide was never approved by the FDA. While there were clinical trials here and doctors who did “prescribe” it, FDA reviewer (and the first woman to receive a Phd in Pharmacology) Frances Oldham Kelsey stood her ground and refused to approve it, in spite of immense pressure from the manufacturers, and was later awarded the President's Award for Distinguished Federal Civilian Service for her efforts.
This is, quite literally, the very opposite of Joe Rogan’s point and, to some degree, everything he stands for.
However, of all the deeply stupid moments that occurred during this three hour interview (and there were many), there was one that just really stood out for me. At some point after a very serious discussion on whether Jurassic Park could happen in real life, they moved on to the subject of 15-minute cities.
Now, for those of us who live in reality, “15-minute cities” just means creating communities in which people can get the majority of their basic necessities within a 15-minute walk or bike ride. As someone who has lived in both a food desert and a block away from a supermarket, I can tell you which I find preferable. The point is so that people don’t need to use their cars as much (which is obviously good for the environment), to build community, and to ensure that people have the things they need to survive.
For crazy people, however, it’s an evil plot to force people to stay in this area and never, ever leave, so that they can be more easily controlled by the one world government. Why? Because fuck Occam’s Razor, that’s why.
Joe Rogan, it turns out, is one of those crazy people. In an incredible feat of ignorance, he falsely claimed that residents of Oxford — the one in England — are being trapped there and not allowed to leave.
“Like Oxford, England, just established like this new, um, they’re they’re doing this thing called like 15-minute cities? Where you have like an area where you’re allowed to travel to and if you decide to travel outside of that area, you get a certain amount of them per year.”
“And uh you get a certain amount of what?” Hines asked.
“Travel passes to leave your area.” Rogan explained.
Off-camera, someone who is clearly trying to help him out (to no avail), says “It was a congestion zone.”
“Okay. Whatever it is, the same.” Rogan responded. “I’m just … that’s what it was. You call it whatever you want, but whatever it is, it’s the government telling you you can’t leave an area. And if you leave that area, it costs you money. So, it cost you the equivalent of like a $100 a day to leave this area.”
“WOW,” a very credulous Hines responds.
Yeah, no. No one is being charged $100 a day to leave their special 15-minute zone. What we’re talking about is a temporary congestion charge that is being instituted on six roads while one of the roads is being repaired, so that people are not stuck in traffic for hours and hours and can actually get where they need to get. There are, swear to God, 165 roads in Oxford with Wikipedia pages and who knows how many more after that.
It is also not $100 a day, it is $5 a day. Residents are also getting $2.50 all day Park and Ride (which includes bus fare), because more people taking the bus means less traffic. Even if you are someone who really likes to stick it to the libs via carbon emissions and polluting the environment, you probably aren’t super into sitting in traffic all of the time.
In fact, you know who really doesn’t like traffic? Joe Rogan, who has very often cited the traffic in LA as one of the reasons he moved to Texas.
The city does plan to ultimately institute traffic filters on those roads for certain times of day in the future, in order to ameliorate the traffic problem.
The 15-minute neighbourhoods proposal aims to ensure that every resident has all the essentials (shops, healthcare, parks) within a 15-minute walk of their home. They aim to support and add services, not restrict them.
For the benefit of Oxford residents, what we are aiming to do is to ensure that areas of the city such as Barton, Blackbird Leys and Rose Hill have all the essential services that areas such as East Oxford and Jericho already have.
Under the traffic filters, residents will still be able to drive to every part of the city at any time — but in the future, at the times when the filters are operating, you may need to take a different route (e.g. using the ring road) if you want to travel by car. […]
The reason we have proposed these changes is because — as everyone who lives and visits Oxford knows — the city has had awful congestion for decades. This is damaging both our economy and our environment, and is making the bus network unviable.Our aim is to reduce traffic levels and congestion, make the buses faster and more reliable, and make cycling and walking safer and more pleasant.
But no. Joe Rogan is absolutely certain that this is not about a temporary congestion charge, it is about “control,” and people wanting to “control” you for various reasons.
“So, what this is is the beginning of them telling you where you can go and how often you can go and this is the government doing it and the temporary congestion charge. Bullshit!” he claimed. “They’ve been they’ve been proposing stuff like this, it’s bullshit. They’ve been proposing stuff. They want to do it. They want to control people. They want to be able to tell you where you can and can’t go. The more they can put restrictions on you, the more they can pass laws that they can profit from, the more they can benefit from whatever control they have over you, the more they can tighten down on it.”
Yes, people have been proposing things like this, because people always propose solutions to problems. A $5 fee meant to hopefully cut down on people making unnecessary trips in their cars in order to keep traffic at a minimum is a solution to a problem, not the first step in a nefarious plan to “control” people for no particular reason.
For what it’s worth, I don’t have a car and I live in a city with a great public transportation system. When I am outside of the city and have to use a car, I actually feel like I have less freedom of movement. Driving a car is super annoying! You have to deal with weirdos speeding up to get to red lights and you can’t even read a book. You also can’t drink if you are driving, or you’re not supposed to. Personally, I don’t see the appeal.
Joe Rogan is not, of course, the first person to start-in with the 15-minute-city conspiracy theories — that’s been a thing since the Tea Party days and the furor over the UN’s “Agenda 21.”
Because, you see, conservatives will straight out tell you what their evil plans are (Rogan, for instance, would not have been so surprised by Trump’s immigration horrors had he taken even a cursory glance at Project 2025). They will say “We want to force everyone to practice our religion” or “We want a country with only white people in it” or “Women shouldn’t be allowed to vote” or “We want to own the moon and also Greenland” or “We’re going to charge Switzerland more tariffs because a Swiss person was rude to Donald Trump one time” or “We don’t want trans people to exist.” Rogan himself spent several minutes during the interview complaining about the existence of trans people and allies refusing to share his personal view on what a woman is.
But the Left? Well, the Left usually only comes out with plans that sound like they benefit and help people, so people like Rogan have to make the evil parts up themselves or just assume that it’s in there somewhere. Because, you know, it just can’t be that people want to reduce traffic and carbon emissions. Who would want to do that? No, it has to be that they want to “control” you for some future evil, as-yet-to-be-decided, purpose.
Hell, on this very episode, Rogan explained that he likes and believes conspiracy theories because sometimes people do bad things and no one finds out until later, therefore proving that all of the conspiracies are true. So instead of believing what people say they are doing or want to do, he prefers to believe something or just make something up that could be true, and to then believe that the made-up thing is more plausible than the thing for which there is evidence.
After listening, it’s pretty clear to me that if Joe Rogan needed evidence to believe things, he wouldn’t have a show to begin with.
PREVIOUSLY ON WONKETTE!
He thinks Oxford England is the Hotel California?
I've heard they're going to force Oxford residents to drive vintage Jaguars, solve crimes very slowly in an erudite manner, and never tell anyone their first name. Monsters.