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.

  • Sam_Bass@lemmy.world
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    5 hours ago

    Challenge the pipsqueak to a boxing match. If he accepts or demurs he still looks like the twerp he is

  • WrenFeathers@lemmy.world
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    9 hours ago

    Broprah says what he’s paid to say. Noting more, nothing less. The guy is a spineless coward- nothing less.

  • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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    7 hours ago

    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.

          • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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            6 hours ago

            So just hold onto power indefinitely by never ending the war. Netanyahu and Zelenskyy using the same playbook.

            It’s actually a fine idea, and the only way for a truly democratic country to allow the citizens to choose themselves whether or not the war should continue.

            • Pilferjinx@lemmy.world
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              6 hours ago

              It’s not the same. What are you talking about. Ukraine is the one being invaded. How do you get Ukrainian citizens currently being occupied ballots?

              • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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                6 hours ago

                Considering the last fair Ukrainian election leaned friendly towards Russia, before the US staged a coup with the far-right, I’d be willing to bet Russia would allow neurtral election monitors in.

                • Adm_Drummer@lemmy.world
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                  5 hours ago

                  Sorry, when was the last fair election in Ruzzia again?

                  Who was it that backed the totalitarian ruler that was overthrown by the people of Ukraine?

            • zalgotext@sh.itjust.works
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              6 hours ago

              the only way for a truly democratic country to allow the citizens to choose themselves whether or not the war should continue.

              So you’re saying that if the Ukrainian citizenry simply votes to stop the war, Russia will stop shelling their homes?

              • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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                6 hours ago

                Considering the last fair election leaned pro-Russia, it’s more likely Zelenskyy’s far right regime would kill the ethnic Russian Ukrainians in retaliation, as they did for 8 years prior to the invasion.

    • LustyArgonian@lemmy.world
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      6 hours ago

      And what do you think about Russia’s fake elections? What do you think about what happened to Navalny?

      • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
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        5 hours ago

        I think they’re a fascist oligarchy.

        I’m gonna blow your mind here: you don’t have to support Russia to oppose the Nazi puppet government in Ukraine.

  • blazeknave@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    Like my dad taught me, give bullies everything they want all the time so they don’t take stuff or hurt you.

  • Optional@lemmy.world
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    “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.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      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.

    • Naz@sh.itjust.works
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      1 day ago

      I have watched Klitschko in the ring at Madison Square Garden. He’s a modern day Heracles. Insane upper body strength.

  • circuitfarmer@lemmy.sdf.org
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    1 day ago

    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.

    • RubberDuck@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      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.

  • MataVatnik@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    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.

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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      1 day ago

      Yea he had some great guests and it was interesting, now it’s Alex jones and right wing shit wagons… it’s really fucked.

      But with these comments from him, he can go fuck his self. He’s repeating russian propaganda. Fuck him and fuck russia.

      Slava Ukraini

      • fluxion@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        He went from supporting Bernie Sanders to being a fascist bootlicker of the most anti-worker administration ever.

        • RedditRefugee69@lemmynsfw.com
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          4 hours ago

          I think he’s just a pseudo intellectual contrarian and conspiracy theorist, deep down. He longs to be the one wise person in the room, and with an increasingly large audience, he has to grasp at increasingly bizarre ideas to be different.

        • krashmo@lemmy.world
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          1 day ago

          I wouldn’t do what Rogan has done as a response but I don’t blame people for being disillusioned with the way Bernie was treated either. All the bad stuff people say about Trump is true but he wasn’t the one that did everything in his power to prevent a progressive with grassroots support from getting the nomination to run for president. That was all the DNC. They shouldn’t be surprised to see backlash to that kind of treatment. Obviously it would have been much better for everyone if that backlash had occurred when Republicans were running a relatively sane candidate but here we are.

          • Alex@lemmy.world
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            1 day ago

            Yea Rogan and a good amount of Trump-supporters don’t care about his policies, he’s just a vessel for them to wreck the system so it can be built anew, without fptp-voting and with laws applied equally. Many of them expect a civil war because they’re revolutionaries but since that word is associated with the radical left they don’t actually use it, they just prep and vote for whatever nutjobs the current system enables to exist, in their minds bringing them closer to eating the rich and “fixing” the system, king or no king.

        • ArtieShaw@fedia.io
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          1 day ago

          I’d say that he was fine in News Radio, but that was an incredibly one-note character. Seemed harmless compared to Andy Dick.

          My, how the turntables.

          I wonder what Russian propaganda or piles of cocaine Dave Foley is up to these days.

          • Cracks_InTheWalls@sh.itjust.works
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            9 hours ago

            Man, has Dave Foley done anything really clearly, publically untoward (aside from the child support stuff, which as described in Wikipedia at least makes some sense. It’s been settled since)?

            He is one of my Canadian comedy idols - to the point that if I ever saw him in public, I would actively avoid him to not risk destroying that if he is, in actuality, a piece of shit.

            • ArtieShaw@fedia.io
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              8 hours ago

              Not that I know of, although he does seem almost aggressively nice? Surely he’s hiding something.

              Since you mentioned the possibility - I’ve never had an actual Foley encounter, but one time while at a restaurant in TO in the early 2000s we were pretty sure we spotted Dave Foley in full Kathy costume at the next table. I’m sure it wasn’t him, but sometimes we talk about that time “we saw Dave Foley’s mom” at the restaurant down the street.

              I’d be sadder to encounter Kevin on a bad day

        • TachyonTele@lemm.ee
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          1 day ago

          Wasn’t that character supposed to be a one off, but they liked how dumb Rogan was so they made him part of the show?

    • atro_city@fedia.io
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      1 day ago

      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…

      • bitchkat@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        It wasn’t just Elon’s daughter transitioning, Claire dating Chelsea Manning is something else the man child can’t handle.

      • This is fine🔥🐶☕🔥@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        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.

        • atro_city@fedia.io
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          18 hours ago

          He did push back sometimes and he wasn’t always agreeing with people. Letting somebody speak isn’t the same as agreeing with them, but there are too many people who mistake one for the other.

          Joe was one of the few people who would let people actually voice their opinions - good or bad, in their nigh entirety. His show was one of the few where people like Bernie Sanders and Andrew Yang could talk about their ideas in depth, without being constantly interrupted by some biased TV show host to try and get a sound bite or clip for the next headline.

          What was missing was Joe’s critical thinking. He let them say a lot and did ask questions, but he, in my opinion, lacks the mental acuity to be able to deeply analyse what came out of his guests. It was also a reason why some people went there. They knew Joe was going to ask questions, but he was high quite often and the questions weren’t going to be as pointed or sharp as say Sam Harris.

          And of course, Joe likes to talk about apes.

  • MrSpArkle@lemmy.ca
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    1 day ago

    Bless this guys heart, but after the Dibble affair it is clear there is no point debating insane positions in front of an insane audience.

  • Carrolade@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    If Rogan accepts him on his show, I’ll actually gain a touch of respect for him.

    • takeda@lemmy.world
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      In my eyes it is the opposite.

      Klitschko is a heavy weight world champion, Rogan should be excited to have him.

      If he ignores it, it will be a clear signal that he isn’t independent as he claims to be, but also gets paid to spread Russian propaganda.

      I don’t see how one would reject such guest unless the goal is spreading disinformation.

      • NoiseColor @lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        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.

        • Doomsider@lemmy.world
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          23 hours ago

          What makes you so sure he is not involved directly with Russian propaganda?

          He could be compromised which is something Russia is known for.

          Just because he has hundreds of millions doesn’t mean he doesn’t want billions either. This is a high stakes game like never before.

        • aStonedSanta@lemm.ee
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          I think this is my take also. I don’t think he’s purposely malicious or has any idea of the impact he has. I think he just shows up and does his job and smiles. 😆

          • Pips@lemmy.sdf.org
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            There is no world in which he doesn’t know his impact. He’s got a number one podcast in terms of listenership. He’s an idiot but there’s no way he’s that far gone.

  • urno@lemmy.world
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    1 day ago

    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.