The Clapback Mailbag: Debate Bait

Our weekly response to emails, DMs, messages and comments from our readers

I used to listen to Joe Rogan a lot.

Although I wouldn’t necessarily call myself a fan, I started listening to The Joe Rogan Experience before there were three podcasts for every podcast listener. Although I never thought he was especially intelligent, I found him interesting. He was curious about a lot of subjects, and I have always been willing to read, watch or listen to people whom I don’t agree with. I heard his first interview with race scientist Jordan Peterson and his conversation with Gavin McInnes, who founded a little group called the “Proud Boys.”

As Rogan’s audience grew, I began to notice that many people in his disproportionately white, male manosphere were becoming fans of Joe Rogan, not his podcast or his comedy. Over time, I watched him become a product of his fandom. As Rogan slowly slid further to the right, he became less of a curious, open-minded explorer of ideas and more of a champion for his own beliefs.

By the time I wrote articles criticizing Rogan for sharing his platform with vaccine skeptics, I had already left the Rogan club. But to this day, about once a week, I still get angry messages from Rogan fans who somehow came across those pieces. If they critiqued my jiu jitsu technique, my flotation-tank experience or my ability to remain lucid during a three-hour conversation while smoking weed, I’d value their opinion. However, when I criticized Joe Rogan, I had listened to hundreds, if not a thousand, of Rogan interviews. I was familiar with his podcast and his comedy. I had seen his audience in person.

By contrast, the Rogan’s fans who criticize me are usually people who have never sat in a predominantly Black audience or consumed content created for Black people. Still, I would never debate a Rogan fan, even when I receive a message like the DM that landed in my inbox on Monday:

The Clapback Mailbag doesn’t answer every email, DM, tweet and comment. Some debates are impossible to win.

Because I don’t respect their opinions.

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Our article on America Derangement Syndrome prompted a variety of responses.

From: Jim

What does race have to do with the Epstein files? Are you saying that your community doesn’t care about pedophiles?

Dear Carl, @peppermacaroni and Jim,

This article was about people who support Donald Trump. According to Pew Research’s validated voters study, the 2020 and 2024 elections had the highest voter turnouts in the past century. In those elections, 55% of white, non-Hispanic voters cast ballots for Trump. He did not win a majority of any other ethnic or racial group.

Therefore, according to actual facts, white people are historically, politically and mathematically like this:

Statistically, if you were to pull a random white person off the street, they likely voted for Donald Trump. If you disregarded race and asked a random woman who she voted for, it is mathematically unlikely that she would say Trump. Most men voted for Trump, but they are not as statistically pro-Trump as white people. The same is true for people under 50 and people over 50. In fact, if you break down income, education and religious affiliation and every other measurable category, whiteness is the most accurate determinant for who voted for Trump. For instance, Trump won rural voters, but just the white ones. He won Protestants and Catholics, not Black Protestants or Hispanic Catholics.

Now here’s the thing:

If you were to turn on your television after the election, you might’ve heard a pundit explain that Trump won because of Democratic messaging, as if Trump’s rants made sense. You might see Skeletor descendant James Carville say that “wokeness” doomed Kamala Harris’ campaign, even though she was more moderate on every issue than Trump. Maybe you read an op-ed explaining how Trump won because of “economic anxiety” or kitchen table issues. However, the group (African Americans) with the highest unemployment rate and the lowest median incomes didn’t vote for Trump. Asians have higher incomes and lower unemployment rates than their white counterparts, but they also didn’t vote for Trump.

Trump didn’t win because of moderation, messaging or the economy.

He won because of white people.

In any other instance, it would benefit a news organization to be more accurate and have more facts than its competitors. It’s not like I obtained a secret statistical analysis of the 2024 election. So why do you think every single television network and mainstream newspaper in America is willing to push unfounded, uninformed speculation instead of telling viewers the absolute, verified, mathematical facts? There must be a reason.

Don’t worry, Carl, Jim and @peppermacaroni, I’ll tell you why.

It’s because of people like you.

You didn’t question the facts or the data that I presented. You didn’t question the research and history I cited or the statistical methodology. Your only concern was that I was using unimpeachable, peer-reviewed facts to make my point. But to you, protecting the delicate, paper-thin veneer of whiteness that defines you is more important than facts, Black people’s humanity or telling the truth. The newspapers know it. The television networks know it. I know it.

And you just proved it.

So, to answer your question: What are white people like?

You.

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The same article produced at least one great observation: