If Spotify’s Staff Can’t Cope with Running a Content Library, They Should Find Another Job

Spotify’s CEO made a statement over the weekend:

I want to reiterate that nobody is actually “impacted” by Joe Rogan’s podcast. Nobody is actually “drained” or “frustrated” or “unheard.” Nor are they hurt or damaged or bruised or wounded or pained or distressed or scarred or stricken in any way. This whole thing is a game. Joe Rogan has a podcast, on which he talks to various people about various topics. One can choose listen to it, or one can choose not to listen to it, but, whatever choice one makes will have precisely no effect on one’s wellbeing.

This is, at root, a power play. In recent years, Americans of an authoritarian bent have come to understand that if they mutter the correct incantations they can get the people they dislike to go away. It is now Joe Rogan’s turn to be targeted. Eventually, the owners and managers of traditionally liberal institutions — universities, newspapers, art galleries, museums, streaming platforms — will get wise to this, and stop indulging it. Instead of saying, “I am deeply sorry for how this controversy continues to impact you,” they will say, “we run an extremely large and extremely diverse content platform, and if you cannot cope with that, this job isn’t for you.”

It really is that simple. There are many vocations in this big and rambunctious world, and there is no good reason whatsoever that the ones that demand a commitment to foundational cultural liberalism should be staffed by tinpot despots. If, upon earnest reflection, the current staff of Spotify are unable to perform their duties while a man with whom they disagree remains featured by their employer, then it is time for the powers that be to thank them for their help, to dissolve their contracts, and to set about finding a new crew, capable of discharging its role without bursting into tears at the first sign of a new idea.