The Joe Rogan Experience, the incredibly popular podcast by comedian, former actor, and MMA announcer Joe Rogan, may not always be everyone's cup of Black Rifle Coffee, but you cannot overestimate how influential it is in our culture and political conversation. There is no question that Donald Trump going on JRE for three hours -- and Kamala Harris not having the courage or the chops to do the same -- impacted the presidential election in Trump's favor.
Not long after the Trump interview, Rogan officially endorsed Trump for President and it was devastating for the Harris campaign that could never find a way to connect with men, young men in particular. (Hint: Choosing Tim Walz as a running mate was not the answer.)
The election has come and gone, of course, but Rogan keeps dropping great episodes of his show with interesting guests. During Thanksgiving week, however, a new episode of JRE was released and it was one of the most terrifying conversations I have ever listened to.
On a new episode of JRE:
— Ben Averbook (@benaverbook) November 26, 2024
Marc Andreessen (@pmarca) dives into secret debanking of tech founders, AI control plans, and remote workers gaming the system.
Nothing was off limits, from food policy to Silicon Valley's civil war.
Let me save you 3 hours: 🧵 pic.twitter.com/qJx92x5heh
Entrepreneur and billionaire investor Marc Andreessen is one of the most wired people in the world, in every sense of the word. He is connected with the bleeding edge of the tech industry, knows all the behind-the-scenes operations of the financial sector, and has strong political ties across parties.
He and Rogan talked for FOUR HOURS.
Recommended
Some of it was very enlightening in terms of Andreessen's political re-alignment. Like Rogan, he always considered himself a Democrat and always supported Democrat candidates, but in recent years he noticed how batpoop crazy the left was going and announced his support for Donald Trump in the summer of 2024.
He explained how Silicon Valley is deeply divided these days along these lines.
Silicon Valley is breaking under pressure:
— Ben Averbook (@benaverbook) November 26, 2024
One side blindly follows every NYT narrative.
The other sees the truth.
“We’ve even split into two kinds of dinner parties.” pic.twitter.com/dwaI909RA0
That was all interesting and entertaining, but where Andreessen truly scared me was when he was talking about the state of affairs in terms of government collusion with corporate America. Some of what he revealed was horrifying in terms of what the government can legally do to people it disagrees with -- and how the Biden administration was seeking to create even greater control than they already have.
For instance, there is the tyrannical practice of debanking 'undesirable businesses' and political opponents that began under Barak Obama and escalated under Joe Biden:
They’ve uncovered a new way to destroy companies:
— Ben Averbook (@benaverbook) November 26, 2024
30 tech founders were secretly debanked.
No warning. No explanation. No appeals.
Pure, silent government power. pic.twitter.com/iKPn9XmI82
This is the government stripping away our freedom, but it is even more nefarious than that. As Andreessen explains, the government technically isn't doing the debanking, it is the banks. But the direction comes from the government, of course. He noted that the Treasury Secretary could (and has) simply pick up a phone, call banks, and put a company out of business forever.
This is the same collusion that the Twitter files exposed but 1,000 times worse. If you are debanked, as many of Andreessen's friends and colleagues have been, you simply cannot function in America.
And they want to make it worse. Andreessen explained how the goal is to reduce the number of banks in America to just a few ... and it is working.
Biden's administration laid it all out:
— Ben Averbook (@benaverbook) November 26, 2024
Only 2-3 AI companies would be allowed to exist.
Complete control over development. pic.twitter.com/HEz8pAWXq5
If you want to know why Andreessen endorsed Trump, he explained it right there.
He also exposed the huge national security threat the United States is exposed to right now by having so much of our technology produced by China.
Our national security is hanging by a thread:
— Ben Averbook (@benaverbook) November 26, 2024
• 90% of US military drones are Chinese-made.
• FAA regulations wiped out American manufacturers.
Each drone has the potential to be a weapon—or a spy platform. pic.twitter.com/tldx5xuVOJ
The government is literally regulating U.S. manufacturing out of business while handing over that function to America's biggest geopolitical enemy and rival.
Andreessen explained that this was not the first time the government has taken this level of destructive control, citing the USDA and high fructose corn syrup.
They’ve already tested this level of control on our food system:
— Ben Averbook (@benaverbook) November 26, 2024
• The USDA promoted high fructose corn syrup everywhere.
• Created the infamous upside-down food pyramid.
Now, they’re aiming for the same dominance over tech. pic.twitter.com/bIYzapFJCw
No wonder America is so unhealthy. And the government was behind all of it. It makes it very easy to understand why the Washington establishment is so terrified of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. taking the reigns of Health and Human Services.
When Andreessen started talking about the level of control possible through artificial intelligence, though, it was worse than any dystopian sci-fi movie I have ever seen.
"If you thought social media censorship was bad, AI control will be 1000x worse. It's going to be the control layer for everything:
— Ben Averbook (@benaverbook) November 26, 2024
Your kids' education, your loans, your front door." pic.twitter.com/7oVksN6zR8
There is no avoiding an A.I. future. It is inevitable. The only thing we can do is make sure that the government is not controlling how A.I. becomes the 'control layer' that Andreessen warns about. Otherwise, as he says, 'We are in for a very bad future.'
On a less dire, but equally corrupt, note, Andreessen explained how federal employees are protecting their positions of power.
The government workforce has been exposed:
— Ben Averbook (@benaverbook) November 26, 2024
• Half never returned to the office after COVID.
• Some show up just one day a month.
• Yet, they still collect full DC-level salaries. pic.twitter.com/MCzNZJIC6x
And he explained how many of those employees are using technology to game the system while not doing any productive work for the American people.
However, @elonmusk and @DOGE might have the solution:
— Ben Averbook (@benaverbook) November 26, 2024
“You can work from home… just not for the federal government.” pic.twitter.com/CaukJjmkY5
And they can't be fired.
Well, at least in the past, they couldn't be fired. There is only a hint of it in the two clips above, but over the course of the four-hour conversation, Andreessen also talked about how Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy could use DOGE to weed out the corruption and laziness in Washington, not to mention tear down the Orwellian regulations.
Marc is one of my favorite thinkers. The topics he addresses aren’t just interesting—they’re crucial.
— Ben Averbook (@benaverbook) November 26, 2024
If we don’t tackle them, we’re headed for serious challenges as a country.
Watch the full podcast here: https://t.co/hbya3Rcm6s
We can't wait for Elon and Vivek -- 'The Bobs' from Office Space -- to force federal bureaucrats and agencies to justify their existence.
More critically, however, the Trump administration and DOGE may be the only opportunity to remove the destructive regulations Andreessen talked about that are corrupting every aspect of our nation -- from food to banking to tech to national security.
If you have the time to spare, I highly recommend listening to the entire conversation. It opened my eyes like they have never been before, not just to how bad things could get, but also to how bad things in Washington currently are.
We desperately need serious thinkers like Andreessen, Musk, and Ramaswamy right now, who are independently wealthy enough that the government cannot cancel them like they can do to most of us, but who are also honest enough that they know that the government-regulatory-industrial complex must be destroyed, or at least completely restructured, if America is to survive.
