A clip recently posted on Twitter highlighted Joe Rogan attempting to use a made-up news story to push a conspiracy about Australia.

A recent Twitter thread from @BrandyZadrozny uncovered the plot behind a viral Joe Rogan clip in which Rogan pedals a crooked misinterpretation of an Australian bill. The bill in question helps to do the following:

* The amendments will help safeguard food security, food safety and access to export markets. For example, by preventing contamination of food from pesticides.
* The amendments will not result in the destruction of crops, nor will they prevent people growing their own food.
* Information circulating online misinterprets and misrepresents amendments in the Agriculture Legislation Amendment Bill.

Rogan instead mischaracterizes the bill to fit the agenda he is pushing: that the Australian government is trying to control its citizens’ access to food in order to push them to get vaccinations. This claim is made evident by statements he made on his podcast:

“I read something briefly and I didn’t get into the article.” Rogan claimed before stating that Australia is “trying to pass a bill that would outlaw you growing your own food.”

Rogan continued to use his false footing as a means to launch off ad hominem attacks against a character archetype he made up in his head. “f***ing creeps,” he called these imaginary people.

Joe began using a tone to mock his fabricated opposition, “They got a good grip on people during the pandemic. They locked everybody down in Australia and they thought ‘You know what? We’re going to stop these motherf***ers from growing their own food.’ ‘Cause that’s how you f***ing smoke out an anti-vaxxer.”

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It’s also interesting to see Rogan stumble deeper and deeper into his own sauce as he aligns himself with anti-vaxxers at the end of his statement, transcending his previous sentiments that it was only the COVID-19 vaccinations he ‘mistrusted.’

Joe continued, “You can’t even go to a grocery store anymore and you can’t grow your own food – take that shot, bitch!”

When Rogan’s co-host and fact-checker, known to many simply as Jamie, did a quick search online, the truth was quickly revealed, ”nothing’s coming up.”

Rogan doubled down, “That’s gotta be a real thing. It seems too good to not be.”

To which Jamie responded once more, “Not a single thing comes up.”

Joe quickly whipped out his phone and looked for about ten seconds through the search results to whatever term he put in and said, “Yep, I can’t find it either. Dammit! Better not be fake. It might be fake.”

His guest also seemed overly charitable in a big way towards Rogan’s statements, even after Jamie told them the story was completely baseless, stating, “But even if it’s fake, the fake is usually the warning,” in a desperate attempt to use the fabrication to stoke fear.

For a deeper dive into the chain of false information that led to Rogan’s viral blunder, check out Brandy Zadrozny’s Twitter thread, which is laid out below.

“OK. So I’ve got a minute. Why Does Joe Rogan think Australia is trying to make growing your own food illegal? Let’s investigate.”

“He’s not alone. Twitter search shows lots of folks claiming the same. A lot of the videos and tweets include a screenshot from something called Apex World News.”

“So who is @apexworldnews? The account is a typical “breaking news” type of misinfo account. No ownership listed, spammy and unverified content. It does list a website. But … expired.”

“To the Wayback! Site looks junky, serves ads. And much of the content is authored by a “Grace Siwale.” There is a person on Twitter with this name (not linking) and she shares a lot of Apex World News links. She’s also deeply religious and a fan of one particular preacher.”

“Uebert Angel a British-Zimbabwean who preaches the prosperity gospel. (“God wants you to be rich and he’ll make it so if you … give me money?” I don’t know just go with it.) And a little Googling shows us that. Angel founded Apex in 2020. uebertangel.org/2020/07/17/pro”

“The kind of thing you might read / see on Apex World News? Misinformation Madlibs:”

“Just for good measure, we can take a look at the website in DomainTools and see that Apex shares a mail server IP with other sites, including those that clearly belong to the preacher.”

“So, I wouldn’t get my news from a so-called prophet’s junk news site, but you know who might? Rogan fan, vaccine critic, Ivermectin-loving, friend of the IDW, Chris is a self described financial analyst & founder of a self-help/actualization thingie that’s definitely not an MLM.”

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