Olympic gold medalist argues in video that podcaster’s remarks about war in Ukraine is result of Putin-led plot
Summary
Former Ukrainian boxing champion Wladimir Klitschko accused podcaster Joe Rogan of “repeating Russian propaganda” after Rogan criticized U.S. military aid to Ukraine and suggested it could escalate into World War III.
Klitschko defended Ukraine’s resistance against Russia, highlighting the country’s fight for freedom and condemning Rogan’s remarks as aiding Putin’s agenda.
He invited Rogan to discuss their differences on the podcast “like free men.”
Rogan, who recently endorsed Donald Trump, called the war a “proxy war” and criticized Biden’s decision to allow Ukraine to strike Russian soil with U.S.-supplied missiles.
“I listen to your latest podcast,” said Klitschko, whose brother Vitali Klitschko was also a world champion boxer and is now mayor of Kyiv.
“I’m sending you this video to let you know that I disagree. You talk about these American weapons being sent to Ukraine, which you believe will lead to the third world war. So let me tell you that you’re repeating Russian propaganda.”
. . . Rogan said Russia’s invasion of Ukraine was “100% wrong” but remarked of the Ukrainian president: “[Volodymyr] Zelenskyy says Putin is terrified. Fuck you, man. You fucking people are about to start world war three.”
He added: “The whole thing is a proxy war … it is fucking insane.”
Putin has long claimed US assistance for Ukraine is part of a proxy war aimed at weakening Russia.
“Putin’s Russia is in trouble, so they want to scare you and people like you,” Klitschko said in his message to Rogan. “His war was supposed to last three days. It has lasted three years thanks to the heroism and sacrifice of us Ukrainians. So you’re using the only weapon that Putin really intends to use, propaganda, and this weapon really weakens our democracies.
“Putin’s Russia wants to destroy Ukraine quietly. They want America to stay quiet. Not great, but quiet. A great America is not an America that abandons countries that defend freedom with their lives.
“In short, you see, I have quite a few points of difference. If you invite me on your podcast, we could discuss them like free men.”
Brilliant. But someone get him a fediverse account please. It's crazy this is on Xitter.
I hate America being world police but we are supposed to ally with democracy. That’s the whole reason we didn’t defend the government of France against the people of France.
I now see Rogan as our generations Rush Limbaugh. He fell so far, I used to enjoy listening to his podcast and now he's just a rich, bitter, insular propaganda mouthpiece.
Crazy that he once had Bernie Sanders on his show and sat there agreeing with him on so many things. I think he also had Andrew Yang on it and nodded his head most of the way through it. I wonder what it was that made him turn to the dark side. For Musk, it was his child transitioning, but for Rogan? No idea...
I've never heard his show but isn't a common critique of him is that he almost never pushes back or questions the guest? He wasn't just agreeing with progressives, he was agreeing with everyone and that eventually turned progressives away from him.
I have recently been trying to enlighten my Joe Rogan loving relative as to his (what I would consider, clear) political leanings and tendency to spew propaganda. "I'm just asking questions" is one of the most powerful propaganda tactics, since it can be used to relatively quickly normalize any topic.
As one might expect, the conversations haven't gone well. People who listen to Joe Rogan tend to think they are well informed by virtue of listening to Joe Rogan.
I think collectively we need to start referring to him only as "the former host of Fear Factor" to really drive home exactly who it is these people are idolizing.
I watched a lot of early Rogan.. And even though he was an idiot, there were so many wonderful conversations with interesting people.
Then came the likes of Jocko Willink, and slowly you saw more right wing people creep into his orbit. The early Peterson was even fun to listen to and said some good stuff.. but the conversation became more political, more right wing and in my opinion less interesting... Just regurgitation of right wing talking points. Once Rogan was in talks with Spotify.. there was nothing interesting left. Rogan probably got info from Spotify on demographics, targeting, subjects that do best and decided a 100 million was enough to sell gis soul. Then by constantly being in the same room with the ghouls and smelling their farts.. they managed to convince him the farts smelled nice.
I've said it before, but he was good in Fear Factor. I don't like Rogan, but it's like this man was born to convince aspiring actors and models to eat maggoty cheese or sort tarantulas with their mouths.
"C'mon, man. I know you want that key!!! Get in there!!! Pick up those spiders. You've only got seven and you need at least nine to beat Brock. The clock is counting!!!"
He is not paid by the Russian propaganda. He is honest in his beliefs.
He is a prime example of a person that is not a bad person per se, but just too dumb to understand the complexities and chaotic nature of the world. So they invent shortcuts in their brain, the same kind right wing demagogues are pushing.
It is inevitable that he becomes a right wing propagandist.
I’m interested to see how JR responds. I heard the “Kamala was a chicken” line pre-election because she avoided him, for whatever reason. Now the tables have been turned! It’s a win-win for me because either I can sing out “Rogan is a chicken” or he actually has a discussion with Klitschko and many will have their positions challenged.
It's just a war where at least one of the belligerents is supported by at least one third party.
Is there anyone who doubts that the Ukraine war meets any part of that definition?
Because proxy wars are deeply associated with the Cold War era of superpowers funding long and brutal wars. The problem is that the Ukraine war is closer to the lend lease portion of WWII, we’re putting our thumb on the scale, but it’s an economic strategy as much as a geopolitical one.
The cold war era proxy wars were all about saving Democracy and the "free world". We funded one war after an other under the "domino theory."
Those are the same arguments we hear today except we've replaced USSR with Russia and Communist with Authoritarian. The message is the same; we don't want to get involved directly but we'll support this country as a bastion against world domination.
Some of the aid to Ukraine is structured as loans with expedited provisions to forgive the loans and some of it is outright grants. The US made a lot of money off of the lend lease program to the UK. I haven't ready any analysis that suggests that the US expects to make any money off of Ukraine.
This is much more like our support of Afghanistan than our support of the UK.
A proxy war has nothing to do with either side being "a proxy." It only means that one of the sides is being supported by some nations that's not part of the war. That's very obviously the case here.
I get that people don't want to associate Ukraine with the US's horrible track record with proxy wars but the term is still just a dry political definition and the Ukraine war fits it perfectly.
It would stop being a proxy war if the US (and everyone else) cut off funding or if they actually engaged in hostilities. As long as the US (or any nation) aids Russia or Ukraine without directly participating, it's a proxy war because that's how proxy wars are defined.
Yeah, saying the truth about Ukraine is the fastest way to get someone to call you a Russian bot. Even suggesting Zelenskyy should hold elections or allow opposition parties/media will piss off nafo stans.
An individual within the country, such as the former heavyweight champion, has a patriotic obligation to challenge any statements made against their nation or in favor of its adversaries. On the other hand, someone like Rogan, observing from an external perspective, might interpret Ukraine's actions as merely executing the use of weapons provided to them.
Ukrainians are being leveraged by this administration to sustain the demands of the military-industrial complex. The former champion would benefit from considering Rogan's perspective, as doing so could potentially contribute to saving many lives.