Oh, Bernie. Sweet, Fiery Bernie Sanders. The eternal crusader against billionaires.
The man who’s been railing about income inequality since before most of us had our first existential crisis over student loans.
But there he was — sitting across from Joe Rogan in that dimly lit studio — looking like a deer caught in the headlights of a monster truck rally.
The topic? Media manipulation — specifically, how CBS and 60 Minutes allegedly doctored Kamala Harris’ interview to make her sound like a coherent policy wizard instead of the word salad chef she apparently was in the raw footage.
This wasn’t some fringe conspiracy. It was a pivotal moment leading up to the 2024 election, where the network got sued for $20 billion by Trump — and they settled faster than you can say fake news.
Rogan’s Calm vs. Bernie’s Deflection
Rogan, calm as a zen master on ayahuasca, kept trying to pin Bernie down on the sheer dishonesty of it all.
But Bernie? He danced around it like a politician at a wedding avoiding the electric slide.
Let’s break this down — painstakingly — because if there’s one thing Bernie excels at here, it’s the art of not addressing the damn point.
Rogan lays it out plainly:
Networks editing interviews to alter what people actually said isn’t just sloppy journalism — it’s straight-up deception.
He’s talking about CBS slicing and dicing Harris’ responses to hide the rambling, the confusion, the moments where she sounded like she was auditioning for a bad improv troupe. This wasn’t a mistake; it was manipulation, designed to prop up a candidate during crunch time.
Rogan, ever the voice of the everyman, sums it up:
“That’s not investigative journalism; that’s campaigning for a candidate.”
Boom. Mic drop.
But Bernie swerves like a pro:
“No, not really,” he mutters, pivoting to a hypothetical about suing over a “stupid question.”
Wait, what? Joe wasn’t talking about bad questions, Bernie — he was talking about fabricating answers. It’s like Bernie heard “media bias” and his brain autofilled with “defend the press at all costs.”
The Psychology of Political Deflection
This deflection isn’t accidental — it’s classic political maneuvering.
As one study on political pressure deflection explains, politicians often “avoid taking stands, duck responsibility, and hide behind others to dodge accountability.”
Bernie does exactly that — delegating blame to abstract ideas like:
- “A free press sometimes makes mistakes.”
- “Lawsuits intimidate journalists.”
He’s not engaging with the specifics of the Harris edit. He even admits multiple times he doesn’t know the details – yet defends the media anyway – this is not logical at all and makes one wonder his motives.
Why?
Because acknowledging the manipulation would mean confronting a reality that doesn’t fit his worldview — that the mainstream press, which he sees as a bulwark against the right, might be guilty of the same sins he accuses Fox News of committing daily.
Zero-Sum Thinking and Confirmation Bias
When Rogan presses —
“They’re being sued for that.”
Bernie counters —
“Most objective people would say 60 Minutes has a sterling reputation. It was probably an honest mistake.”
Honest mistake? Editing out incoherent ramblings and splicing in polished soundbites isn’t a typo — it’s putting words in someone’s mouth.
Bernie then reframes the issue as intimidation of journalists, shifting from facts to feelings.
It’s textbook avoidance, rooted in what psychologists call zero-sum beliefs in politics — where one side’s gain is the other’s loss, so people dodge ideological conflict entirely.
To Bernie, criticizing CBS means helping Trump.
So he sidesteps, cites unrelated issues like Trump’s threats to defund NPR, and stays vague. No details. No substance.
Psychologically, this screams confirmation bias — cherry-picking information that supports your beliefs while ignoring inconvenient facts.
In politics, it turbocharges polarization and makes people like Bernie resistant to evidence — even facts that should shatter their views.
Age, Rigidity, and Cognitive Flexibility
Bernie’s 84 now, and age can mess with cognitive flexibility — that ability to adapt to new information instead of clinging to old scripts. Research shows older adults often exhibit rigidity in thinking due to declining hippocampal neurogenesis — the brain’s process of generating new neurons for fresh perspectives. In animal studies, this manifests as trouble switching tasks or updating mental maps. Translate that to Bernie:
He keeps reverting to his comfort zone — free speech and anti-intimidation rhetoric — ignoring Rogan’s laser focus on manipulation.
It’s not dementia. It’s the slow grind of age — the mind’s gears sticking when reality challenges long-held convictions.
Or maybe it’s both: decades of ideological entrenchment hardened by habit.
Joe Rogan: Calm in the Chaos
Through it all, Rogan is the hero we deserve — calm, relentless, like a jiu-jitsu black belt gently submitting an opponent without breaking a sweat.
He never raises his voice, never mocks.
He simply circles back, again and again:
“That’s a mischaracterization. This isn’t about opinions — it’s about factual deception.”
Even when Bernie equates Rogan’s point to “suing over opinions,” Joe clarifies:
“Freedom of speech doesn’t mean freedom from consequence.”
He even references his own experience: CNN lying about him taking “horse dewormer” and altering his skin tone to look green. He didn’t sue — he just spoke out.
That’s the difference between outrage and integrity.
The Exit: Bernie’s Retreat
In the end, Bernie bows out gracefully:
“I should probably get on my plane.”
He admits he doesn’t know enough — but the tragedy is, he didn’t need to know more. He just needed to listen.
This wasn’t just a clash between two men.
It was a mirror — reflecting how ideology can blind us, age can harden us, and deflection can kill honest dialogue.
He Exits! At this point, Bernie basically gives up—he admits he doesn’t know the specifics and starts looking for the exit. Joe stays calm but firm, pressing the point that deceptive editing isn’t “free speech”—it’s fabrication. The exchange ends with Bernie politely bowing out, saying something like, “I should probably get on my plane.”
Final Thought
Bernie, many may love ya.
But next time — just address the point.
Your voters, and the truth, deserve it.
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