Joe Rogan Experience #1465 - Tim Pool

1. 0:00 – 4:12

   Tim Pool’s cross-country “bug-out van” and van-life setup

   1. JRJoe Rogan0:00

      Oh. Three, two, one. Tim Pool, you madman.

   2. TPTim Pool0:03

      How's it going?

   3. JRJoe Rogan0:04

      Dude, the ride that you made to get here. You drove from the other side of the continent-

   4. TPTim Pool0:09

      I just-

   5. JRJoe Rogan0:10

      ... in a Bug Out van.

   6. TPTim Pool0:11

      Well, I mean, you, you, you've had guests on who've driven here. You know what I mean? I drove here.

   7. JRJoe Rogan0:14

      You drove here.

   8. TPTim Pool0:15

      Yeah, yeah.

   9. JRJoe Rogan0:15

      But it took four days.

   10. TPTim Pool0:16

       It took four days.

   11. JRJoe Rogan0:17

       It's a different kinda drive.

   12. TPTim Pool0:18

       (laughs)

   13. JRJoe Rogan0:18

       Have you ever done that before?

   14. TPTim Pool0:19

       Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. Not in the van. But, uh, I've driven around the country t- too many times.

   15. JRJoe Rogan0:25

       The van's pretty dope.

   16. TPTim Pool0:26

       Yeah.

   17. JRJoe Rogan0:26

       I, I, I'm, I'm impressed.

   18. TPTim Pool0:27

       I told you last year-

   19. JRJoe Rogan0:28

       Yes.

   20. TPTim Pool0:28

       ... I was getting a van, and I got a bunch of people on Twitter making fun of me, like, "Ew, he's gonna get a Bug Out van, he's crazy." I got a van.

   21. JRJoe Rogan0:35

       You got a Bug Out van.

   22. TPTim Pool0:36

       It is awesome.

   23. JRJoe Rogan0:36

       Like, you could live in that thing.

   24. TPTim Pool0:37

       Oh, totally, dude. The s- the s- the solar power on it-

   25. JRJoe Rogan0:40

       Yeah.

   26. TPTim Pool0:40

       ... lasts you forever.

   27. JRJoe Rogan0:41

       That's pretty amazing. I didn't know that you could power everything. So you have a solar power roof panels that is ... Is it less effective in, like, Jersey where it's cloudy right now, you know-

   28. TPTim Pool0:51

       Oh, totally, totally.

   29. JRJoe Rogan0:52

       ... summertime?

   30. TPTim Pool0:52

       Yeah.
2. 4:12 – 6:45

   Road-trip weirdness during the pandemic and towns closing themselves off

   1. TPTim Pool4:12

      Oh, Barst-

   2. JRJoe Rogan4:12

      Like Bar- Barstow's type, type areas.

   3. TPTim Pool4:14

      There was ... Just because of, like, the pandemic and all that stuff?

   4. JRJoe Rogan4:16

      Yeah. Well, the pandemic and they're weird already.

   5. TPTim Pool4:19

      I've driven across this country too much. And I, I've purposefully in the past have driven through really weird parts, like, off of interstate highways. I've been in some pre- pretty crazy places. I went to ... I, I've been to one motel that once looked like used to be a prison or something.

   6. JRJoe Rogan4:32

      Used to be a prison, they turned it into a motel?

   7. TPTim Pool4:33

      No, no, no, no. I'm just saying it looked like it did.

   8. JRJoe Rogan4:35

      Oh, okay.

   9. TPTim Pool4:35

      Like, there's no windows. There was just, like, those block windows you can't see through, with, like, the weird wavy glass. I had no idea what the building used to be. But it was a motel now, it looked like I was in a meat locker or something. But there was ... There's one town, I think it was in New Mexico. I don't wanna say the name 'cause I get it wrong. But they put up a sign saying, "No one's allowed in." Nobody.

   10. JRJoe Rogan4:53

       The whole town?

   11. TPTim Pool4:54

       The whole town was, was closed off.

   12. JRJoe Rogan4:54

       Because of the pandemic?

   13. TPTim Pool4:55

       Yup.

   14. JRJoe Rogan4:56

       No one's allowed ... Can you do that?

   15. TPTim Pool4:58

       It- it said, "No visitors, no business." Something like that. It said res- like, "Residents only."

   16. JRJoe Rogan5:03

       Is that legal?

   17. TPTim Pool5:04

       I don't think it is.

   18. JRJoe Rogan5:05

       That's where it's weird, right?

   19. TPTim Pool5:06

       I don't think it is.

   20. JRJoe Rogan5:06

       A lot of this stuff is like, what, what is legal as far as, like ... As far as lockdowns, what's legal? Is it completely up to the ... There're ... This is a debate right now, right?

   21. TPTim Pool5:18

       Yeah.

   22. JRJoe Rogan5:18

       Whether or not it's completely up to the governors, whether it's the mayors have individual liberty in whatever town and ...

   23. TPTim Pool5:26

       I mean, I'll tell you what, sounds like the Constitution doesn't exist right now.

   24. JRJoe Rogan5:29

       Well, I wouldn't go that far. I'm a- I'm saying-

   25. TPTim Pool5:31

       I'm b- I'm being a little hyperbolic, but-

   26. JRJoe Rogan5:32

       Yeah. But-

   27. TPTim Pool5:32

       ... I mean, come on.

   28. JRJoe Rogan5:33

       ... there's, there's definitely some protections. Let's put it this way, let's be as generous as possible. Protections that are in place to shield the vulnerable people from the pandemic.

   29. TPTim Pool5:42

       Yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan5:42

       But a lot of folks feel like there's some overstepping. And there's a problem with power, man. Like ... If you give power to people, they do not like to give it back.
3. 6:45 – 8:31

   Who decides what’s “essential”? The practical contradictions of lockdown rules

   1. TPTim Pool6:45

      I, one of, one of the biggest problems I'm looking at is who determines what's essential and what's not essential.

   2. JRJoe Rogan6:50

      Yeah, weed stores are essential.

   3. TPTim Pool6:51

      So we heard, like in, in Michigan for instance, they, th- they were closing off certain parts of certain stores. D- did you hear about this?

   4. JRJoe Rogan6:58

      No.

   5. TPTim Pool6:58

      So a lot of people took it, because, uh, there were photos of seeds at Walmart or something, where there was, like, tape saying, "You can't ... you know, this part of the store is closed." And so the story went out that you weren't allowed to buy seeds anymore. The story actually was that stores over 50,000 feet had to close off nonessential areas like flooring and gardening and things like that. And who's to determine what is and isn't essential about any of those services?

   6. JRJoe Rogan7:21

      Particularly gardening. I mean-

   7. TPTim Pool7:22

      Well-

   8. JRJoe Rogan7:22

      ... I'm just saying, like, if there's a time where you wanna have your own food readily available in your backyard-

   9. TPTim Pool7:27

      Yep.

   10. JRJoe Rogan7:27

       ... now is the time.

   11. TPTim Pool7:28

       Well, even think about just general hardware. If they're gonna shut that down, what if you, what if f- a, a hole breaks open in your floor, you know, your kid falls through it or something? You gotta-

   12. JRJoe Rogan7:35

       Right.

   13. TPTim Pool7:36

       ... get that fixed.

   14. JRJoe Rogan7:36

       Yeah.

   15. TPTim Pool7:37

       I mean, that's a, that's a serious safety issue. So you've got these governors determining what is essential and what isn't.

   16. JRJoe Rogan7:42

       I heard a good argument for keeping liquor stores open, 'cause I was like, "Come on, liquor stores?" But someone said, "Actually, it is to prevent people from going into detox, from having problems detoxing, or they would take up a hospital bed that we need, p- potentially need because-

   17. TPTim Pool7:57

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan7:57

       ... of the, the virus." I ... That makes sense.

   19. TPTim Pool8:00

       I also think about the reality of you take away booze in a time of a crisis-

   20. JRJoe Rogan8:04

       Yeah.

   21. TPTim Pool8:04

       ... and you're gonna see people's nerves snap real quick.

   22. JRJoe Rogan8:06

       Have you seen the video of this guy jogging down a street and he, he examines everybody's recyclables?

   23. TPTim Pool8:11

       No. (laughs)

   24. JRJoe Rogan8:11

       And it's all filled with vodka bottles and tequila and whiskey and wine, and it's like-

   25. TPTim Pool8:15

       He's gonna-

   26. JRJoe Rogan8:16

       ... he just goes from house to house. He's like, "Let's see what they've been up to. Oh." Well, people are so stressed out-

   27. TPTim Pool8:21

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan8:21

       ... they're just getting hammered.

   29. TPTim Pool8:22

       Yeah.

   30. JRJoe Rogan8:22

       You know?
4. 8:31 – 15:54

   Reopening vs. shutdown: tribalism, global starvation risk, and second-wave uncertainty

   1. TPTim Pool8:31

      Here's, here's the prediction I made, you know, very early on. I was talking to my friends. Actually, I think I said this. Uh, what they're gonna do, they're gonna say, "We're only gonna keep things closed until April 12th." And that's what Trump said at first. "Easter, we're gonna come open up." And I said, "About a week before, they're gonna say, 'Oh, we gotta push it back.'" Sure enough, April 30th, then May 15th, now it's June 1st. They're gonna-

   2. JRJoe Rogan8:51

      June 1st for who?

   3. TPTim Pool8:52

      Uh, we just s- I think New York just announced this.

   4. JRJoe Rogan8:55

      They said June 1st?

   5. TPTim Pool8:56

      Yeah.

   6. JRJoe Rogan8:56

      But I think they said they're gonna start May 15th with outside of New York City, right? Isn't that-

   7. TPTim Pool9:02

      I'm not, I'm not-

   8. JRJoe Rogan9:02

      ... what Cuomo said?

   9. TPTim Pool9:03

      I'm not entirely sure, but-

   10. JRJoe Rogan9:04

       I feel like he said they're gonna start-

   11. TPTim Pool9:05

       I, I do know a lot of jurisdictions have slowly entered, you know, the phase one.

   12. JRJoe Rogan9:08

       Mm-hmm.

   13. TPTim Pool9:08

       There was that Trump argument with, with Kemp in, in Georgia about going too fast and stuff like that.

   14. JRJoe Rogan9:13

       Yeah.

   15. TPTim Pool9:14

       So I guess, you know, people are starting to realize, if you don't open things up, there's nothing to save, right?

   16. JRJoe Rogan9:20

       Right.

   17. TPTim Pool9:21

       What's, what's freaking me about all of this is the tribalism behind whether or not we should reopen the economy or stay locked down.

   18. JRJoe Rogan9:27

       It's connected to everything, right?

   19. TPTim Pool9:29

       What, what do you mean?

   20. JRJoe Rogan9:30

       The tribalism, it's connected to every-

   21. TPTim Pool9:31

       Oh, totally, totally.

   22. JRJoe Rogan9:31

       Yeah.

   23. TPTim Pool9:32

       It's, it's, it's ... So, you know, I had a friend messaging me saying, "We're ... Stupid people who want haircuts are gonna get us all killed," and they're going out and protesting. And, and the first thing, I'm like, you, you really don't think just because one guy was holding that dumb sign, that's what everyone is thinking, right? No, that's, like, that's not the case. But what's crazy to me is you had the UN, a, a UN advisor come out and say, "We're looking at 130 million people are going to starve because of the economic shutdown," and that's gonna be much worse, potentially, than the actual pandemic itself. And these kind of facts are ignored because of the tribalism of what's happening. You know, Trump tweets it out, therefore it's now a right, left, you know, conservative-

   24. JRJoe Rogan10:07

       Yeah.

   25. TPTim Pool10:07

       ... whatever.

   26. JRJoe Rogan10:08

       I don't think they know exactly what to do. I mean, I think there's some educated decisions that are being made by medical professionals, and then they have to adjust those based on new statistics that come in. And I don't know if they have adjusted. Like, the, the initial idea was that there was an X amount of people that were infected in California.

   27. TPTim Pool10:27

       Yeah.

   28. JRJoe Rogan10:27

       Turns out there's many, many, many more, and the most recent thought is that there's somewhere around 400,000. Now, there has been some dispute about these studies, you know, whether or not these studies are accurate, whether or not the, the tests are accurate, whether or not you could get it again, whether or not it even matters if you've already had it-

   29. TPTim Pool10:45

       Yep.

   30. JRJoe Rogan10:45

       ... you might be able to get it again. But there's no adjustments ... N- no one's saying, "Hey, this is way less deadly than we thought it was going to be." You know? There ...
5. 15:54 – 28:20

   Authoritarian creep: policing parks, surveillance tech, and WHO as the censorship yardstick

   1. TPTim Pool15:54

      Dude, the, the authoritarianism is scary.

   2. JRJoe Rogan15:56

      It's weird. They're arresting-

   3. TPTim Pool15:57

      The pow- the-

   4. JRJoe Rogan15:57

      ... people for fucking going to the park with their kids.

   5. TPTim Pool15:59

      Yup. You see that tweet from the UK where they posted the shadows of the two cops? And it was like, "Think going into a rural area to have a picnic is y- you'll get away with it? We're gonna look out of the shadows and find you."

   6. JRJoe Rogan16:10

      No way.

   7. TPTim Pool16:10

      I swear to God. Yeah, yeah, it went viral.

   8. JRJoe Rogan16:12

      Oh, God. What? (laughs)

   9. TPTim Pool16:13

      "You're in the middle of nowhere having a picnic?"

   10. JRJoe Rogan16:14

       (gasps)

   11. TPTim Pool16:14

       "Go for it." Th- th- here's the thing, man. They told-

   12. JRJoe Rogan16:16

       That's fucking China shit, you know?

   13. TPTim Pool16:18

       Totally.

   14. JRJoe Rogan16:18

       Like th- that, that is like ... Fuck, man.

   15. TPTim Pool16:21

       Well, now there's another story. Bill Gates apparently said, you know, China did a bunch of things right. And now, now what, what they're doing is they're taking that quote and they're putting it next to pictures of them welding doors shut and barricading people in their homes.

   16. JRJoe Rogan16:31

       And then him hanging out with Epstein?

   17. TPTim Pool16:33

       Oh, probably.

   18. JRJoe Rogan16:33

       That's the, the latest thing-

   19. TPTim Pool16:35

       Yeah.

   20. JRJoe Rogan16:35

       ... is, uh, I've been getting all these videos-

   21. TPTim Pool16:36

       I really don't like that guy.

   22. JRJoe Rogan16:37

       Well, these p- people are sending me all these videos about Bill Gates and how he used to party with Epstein. You know? And I'm like-

   23. TPTim Pool16:42

       But a lot of people did.

   24. JRJoe Rogan16:43

       Yeah.

   25. TPTim Pool16:44

       I wonder how many of them knew. But I bet one of-

   26. JRJoe Rogan16:46

       Bill Gates-

   27. TPTim Pool16:46

       ... a lot of them did.

   28. JRJoe Rogan16:46

       ... apparently traveled with Epstein after Epstein had been con- and convicted.

   29. TPTim Pool16:50

       (laughs) Oh, man.

   30. JRJoe Rogan16:51

       Yeah. He, he apparently ... Like a couple years after he'd been convicted. It wasn't like he didn't know about it.
6. 28:20 – 33:12

   Platform takedowns, the “forbidden name,” and moderation at massive scale

   1. JRJoe Rogan28:20

      Yeah, I mean, look, w- what's, uh, really interesting th- came out of this was Twitter banned an account that is a publicly traded biotech account that has a legitimate therapy.

   2. TPTim Pool28:31

      Yup.

   3. JRJoe Rogan28:32

      Um, when someone has been intubated, when they've been ... when they're on a respirator, they can send UV light through that tube and actually kill some of the bad bacteria in the lungs. Now, the, the video that shows how they do it, it shows, like, the tube and this, like, it's an animated thing which shows the lungs. They banned them.

   4. TPTim Pool28:51

      Right.

   5. JRJoe Rogan28:52

      They banned a publicly traded biotech company, which is just ... I don't know if they banned them because they think that in some way this supports what Trump was saying or if someone just pulled the trigger too quickly. I mean, who's d- who's doing this over here? I think you have a bunch of fucking kids that are making decisions whether or not something gets banned or not. Something gets reported, like someone report ... I- I'm just guessing. Someone reports and says, "Look, these fucking idiots are saying that Donald Trump's right. You can get light in there." Ban it. Ban the account.

   6. TPTim Pool29:21

      Nuke it.

   7. JRJoe Rogan29:21

      Nuke it.

   8. TPTim Pool29:22

      We sat here-

   9. JRJoe Rogan29:23

      Yes.

   10. TPTim Pool29:23

       ... with Jack and, uh-

   11. JRJoe Rogan29:25

       Vidya.

   12. TPTim Pool29:25

       Vidya, and, uh, uh, I don't think we got a definitive answer necessarily. We got a, you know, thank you for your feedback.

   13. JRJoe Rogan29:32

       I think we got an answer in terms of what Jack wants, in terms of he ... I think Jack is a, a legitimately honest guy-

   14. TPTim Pool29:40

       Yeah.

   15. JRJoe Rogan29:40

       ... who is trying to manage things at scale, and I think that's almost impossible.

   16. TPTim Pool29:45

       I don't, I-

   17. JRJoe Rogan29:45

       The sheer numbers that are coming in, and he's trying to do a Wild West Twitter now. This is his concept of ch- having a Twitter that's just wide open, we could do anything, and then having, like, a regular sort of moderated Twitter.

   18. TPTim Pool29:58

       There's a, there's a name I can say right now.

   19. JRJoe Rogan30:00

       A name?

   20. TPTim Pool30:00

       If I say a name right now-

   21. JRJoe Rogan30:02

       Candy Man?

   22. TPTim Pool30:03

       ... this, this video will be pulled from YouTube. Did you know that?

   23. JRJoe Rogan30:07

       Really?

   24. TPTim Pool30:08

       I can say one guy's name. And he's a-

   25. JRJoe Rogan30:09

       Alex Jones?

   26. TPTim Pool30:10

       No. I'm not ... Don't, don't say it. If you know who it is, don't say it. I'm not gonna say it.

   27. JRJoe Rogan30:13

       What does it start with?

   28. TPTim Pool30:15

       I don't think I should even do that.

   29. JRJoe Rogan30:16

       Really?

   30. TPTim Pool30:17

       I've had my video taken down and I've been told that, so-
7. 33:12 – 1:02:47

   Performative journalism: Cuomo’s quarantine story, rage-bait incentives, and trust collapse

   1. TPTim Pool33:12

      ... and then somebody came and- or s- somehow. So, so do you know what happened with, uh, CNN and Chris Cuomo getting, getting COVID? You know they faked that whole thing, right?

   2. JRJoe Rogan33:21

      What do you mean they faked it?

   3. TPTim Pool33:22

      So Chris Cuomo was spotted 30 minutes from his house on a property with a new co- with a new construction being built.

   4. JRJoe Rogan33:28

      Yes.

   5. TPTim Pool33:28

      A steel frame. A guy on a bike saw him. Chris Cuomo, they got into it.

   6. JRJoe Rogan33:33

      Right.

   7. TPTim Pool33:33

      Chris Cuomo goes on his radio show and says, "I don't want this jackass on a fat tire bike coming up to me. I should tell him what I want." The guy on the bike says he called the cops and said, "He threatened me." So this basically confirms the encounter. Chris Cuomo then, then shot a segment for CNN of him emerging from his basement like, "This is what I've been dreaming of, finally getting out of my basement, seeing my kids."

   8. JRJoe Rogan33:52

      Yeah.

   9. TPTim Pool33:52

      But he was witnessed seeing his kids somewhere else.

   10. JRJoe Rogan33:55

       With his kids.

   11. TPTim Pool33:55

       Yeah, so you even had the- you, you even had Ben Smith of The New York Times call this out saying... He- w- Ben Smith used to be the editor-in-chief of BuzzFeed News, now he's a media columnist for New York Times said something to the effect of it's, it's like shocking how CNN is eliding this whole controversy. They're, they're pretending like it didn't happen. Everybody knows Cuomo faked it.

   12. JRJoe Rogan34:11

       Yeah.

   13. TPTim Pool34:12

       He wasn't in quarantine. He was out... Presumably he was, he was with two women and three kids. So we can, we can assume it was his wife and his kids, whatever. I bring that up because you've got a couple other moments, right? You've got Brian Stelter on- y- y- on his show saying that "We gotta channel the anger for the people."

   14. JRJoe Rogan34:27

       Yeah, that he was saying that journalists need to do that.

   15. TPTim Pool34:30

       Yep. Which is, which is, you know... I basically said, "So you're admitting you're rage bait." You-

   16. JRJoe Rogan34:34

       W- Yes, I saw you did that.

   17. TPTim Pool34:35

       Yeah.

   18. JRJoe Rogan34:35

       And I was glad that you said that. Like, finally they're admitting it.

   19. TPTim Pool34:38

       Right, right, right. I mean, look, it's no secret I'm gonna rag on, on the media. I work for these companies and I've seen them slowly getting worse and worse with everything.

   20. JRJoe Rogan34:45

       I wanna see Brian scream.

   21. TPTim Pool34:47

       You wanna see Brian scream?

   22. JRJoe Rogan34:48

       Yeah, I think, like, him enraged would be adorable.

   23. TPTim Pool34:51

       Oh, yeah. (laughs)

   24. JRJoe Rogan34:53

       Like, I don't- I wonder how much anger he can muster. Like... (laughs)

   25. TPTim Pool34:55

       I can't, I can't... So what, what... So here's, here's the point I was getting to. CNN is called an authoritative source.

   26. JRJoe Rogan35:01

       Yes.

   27. TPTim Pool35:01

       They, they're lying in our faces. I mean, you just had the Joe Biden thing.

   28. JRJoe Rogan35:04

       Mm-hmm.

   29. TPTim Pool35:04

       For- f- I don't know if you've talked about this yet, but if you go to Google Play and look up Larry King's show from 1993, you will see, there... So actually, I checked many of the different, uh, months. What people noticed was that one episode was missing, August 11th, 1993, the episode where Joe Biden's accuser called in saying, "My daughter had a problem with a prominent senator."

   30. JRJoe Rogan35:25

       No, it was Joe Biden's w- accuser's mom.
8. 1:02:47 – 1:08:45

   Biden, media asymmetry, and identity-based VP selection

   1. JRJoe Rogan1:02:47

      But what about this weird thing that he wants to do where he wants to insist on a woman of color as a vice presidential nom-

   2. TPTim Pool1:02:55

      Biden.

   3. JRJoe Rogan1:02:55

      No, no. Biden wants to.

   4. TPTim Pool1:02:56

      I think he said... I'm not sure if he said woman of color. I think he said he's, he's, he's guaranteeing it's gonna be a woman, and he's looking at a woman of color. I'm not entirely sure. To me, that's, th- that's absurd. I mean-

   5. JRJoe Rogan1:03:06

      Absurd, yeah.

   6. TPTim Pool1:03:07

      ... if you've, if you've, if you've got a good candidate, I think-

   7. JRJoe Rogan1:03:09

      Yeah.

   8. TPTim Pool1:03:09

      ... you know, I don't care what they look like, what their skin color is, their race, gender. I know a lot of people on the left view that as, like, short-sighted because... And, and I think there's, there's decent reasons to talk about how identity plays, you know, into how you, you view the world and the policies you wanna implement. I just think it's dangerous to create that kind of, uh...

   9. JRJoe Rogan1:03:29

      Yeah, we're not talking about prom queen. We're talking about someone who actually has a real important job.

   10. TPTim Pool1:03:33

       I, I-

   11. JRJoe Rogan1:03:34

       You shouldn't pick them based on what part of the world their ancestors are from or what gender they are. That's ridiculous.

   12. TPTim Pool1:03:39

       I, I, I would actually say on a scale of one to 100, that's not near, like, the top 50. But it, I think it is fair to say that there's a real reason why that would play a factor, play a role. Like, you, you've got a lot of people who have never experienced certain things, and that includes the left. And one of the big problems we have in politics is what we see coming from the left is really based on urban living, and from con- conservatives on more likely to be rural living. So when you see people, uh, on the left argue for like rent strikes and things like that, well, yeah, you're in a, you're in cities where you're predominantly renters, so that's your big issue. It doesn't resonate the same with people who live in areas where they primarily own their homes. Or if you're talking about the Second Amendment, like obviously people in cities, they tend to be liberal, they want gun control. Yeah, because you've got a very, very dense population, gun accidents probably are an issue, and you've got cops within a minute's notice. If you live in a rural area, the cops are 40 minutes away, you need to protect yourself. So this, this divide creates a, a difficulty in creating policy for the entirety of the country. I-

Episode duration: 3:02:02