Spottify Responds To Calls For Censorship
New letter from the CEO to employees on Joe Rogan controversy
Ragnar Lodbrok
CEO Spottify
1 Courage Way
Sweden
7 February, 2022
Spottify Team,
It has come to my attention that some of you feel hurtful for the words used by Joe Rogan on some past episodes of his podcast. I have been told this controversy continues to impact you and the company. Part of that is my mistake. I should have never submitted to your emotional fragility last year by removing certain episodes from our platform with figures you found controversial. I created a monster in you that has manifested into something that will be the end of this company if I don’t put a stop to it immediately. I am responsible for running a business, not a day care center.
I am hereby restoring all episodes of the Joe Rogan Experience to the platform effective immediately. Nobody will be censored on this platform for words or the words of their guests or their beliefs or ideas that anyone holds. There is already far too much censorship everywhere and we’re not going to follow those lemmings off that cliff into an abyss of frailty and ignorance that leads to worse outcomes for everyone. If you want to live in a society that is already there, feel free to move to one. Might I recommend China as somewhere that might appeal to you.
Some of you really need to get over yourselves. We have the best employee benefits in the world, including free psychological and psychotherapy support in our health care packages. Many of you clearly need to utilize these services to explore why you find controversy in words and other people’s beliefs. How you can claim violence and harm in words shows some of you may need to take serious time away to get much needed mental help. I’m running a business, not a bug house. We have no rubber rooms on campus and I’m sincerely worried for your well being.
There will be no more quiet rooms for healing, no more rooms or spaces for certain groups, no more team or department meetings dedicated to managing your feelings and emotions. We are running a music and podcast streaming platform and your energies should be put toward your work. You are free to engage those coping activities on your own time.
Many of you have brought up the word ‘values’ and there are some internally who have been stressing certain ‘company values’. Here is what I’ve been hearing in meetings about ‘values’: You want the company you work for to be an extension of yourself because the rest of your life is so pathetically meaningless. You believe it’s the company’s job to manage the impressions people have of you. You would rather embrace the historical methods of tyrants to censor, blacklist, ban, demonetize, shame and demoralize good people like Joe Rogan because it makes you feel good about yourselves. You are bullies of the worst kind and you are not welcome here any longer.
For those of you who merely take offense or don’t like something we offer, here’s another solution - don’t listen to it. Nobody here is going clockwork orange on your ears and eyes and forcing you to watch and listen to anything. If something “triggers” you, then you aren’t capable of working here and you should resign immediately. Our new ‘values’ are tolerating everything with an open mind and not believing we are righteous arbiters of truth. I have heard more truth from Joe Rogan’s guests the past two years than any other sources around and that’s why we value the conversations he has. If you think he’s spreading Covid misinformation, you might want to reconsider if you’ve done any thinking at all on that position.
As for the sacred and dreaded word that Joe Rogan has been persecuted for by political hatchet men of the devious American Democrat party and its elites who benefit from sowing racial and political divisions, please remember what the great comic George Carlin said about words. They only have power over society so long as people choose to allow them to have that power and that power comes from context. Please watch the video below and learn something.
I have taken control of the board of directors in anticipation of the backlash and retribution against me I know many of you will be planning. I am not going anywhere. Please submit your resignation letters instead of trying to protest to oust me and don’t waste my time. You will not succeed in anything you plan. I’ve fired most of the human resource team and several department managers who opposed my decisions so there is opportunity for some of you who wish to be a part of the new future and culture we’re building here. We’ll start by hiring internally. If you cannot handle my words or the words of any one else, do not apply. For the rest of you that think you can, remember we are running a business here, not a day care center. That will also be our new company slogan. Spottify: Not a day care center.
Ragnar Lodbrok
ragnar.thegreat@spottify.com
PS - From now on we want our workplace to look like the left side of this image, not the right. You are free to smoke indoors.
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Refreshing! Delightful! If only people like Ragnar existed somewhere besides your fertile imagination, Citizen, what a world it would be. Yes, there are a few - the Red Bull owner for one and Mike Rowe, too. I read what Spotify's insect leader had to say to his drones, and it was sickening.🤢 Your Ragnar is just the antidote I needed.
At some point not long so ago this could have been a real company letter. But then it wouldn't have been needed.