A semblance of sanity paired with “thirst traps” found Joe Rogan begging for explanations and accountability from New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D).
“… you have to say how you f*cked up.”
During the latest episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience,” a conversation with podcaster Chris Williamson abruptly turned to the congresswoman. When Rogan was asked about her “pivot,” insisting “Woke 1 was crazy,” the host insisted such a thought process be fleshed out in walking back “defund the police” for those who hadn’t aligned with the Marxist ideology.
After quipping about the influencer content — including Ocasio-Cortez’s egg-freezing chronicles — being “hot,” Rogan seriously addressed the change in tune as being akin to testing the direction of the wind with your finger.
“… makes me think that you’re willing to change your opinions based on public reaction. I don’t like that,” he told Williamson. “‘Cause if you really thought ‘defund the police,’ and then you just ascribed it to ‘woke 1 was crazy,’ well how did it get you? ‘Cause it didn’t get me. How did it get you?”
Joe Rogan RIPS AOC a new one for trying to whitewash her previous rhetoric as “Woke 1” — “You have to be honest.”
ROGAN: “Makes me think that you’re willing to change your opinions based on public reaction. I don’t like that cuz if you really thought defund the police and then… pic.twitter.com/lziDG3fNf8
— Overton (@overton_news) August 21, 2026
“Give me your thoughts,” he continued. “How far out did you track the consequences of defunding the police? ‘Cause I immediately went to: you’re gonna have more crime ’cause no one is gonna be able to stop the crime; we’re gonna be f*cked, it’s gonna get scary and then you’re going to want more police; and saying ‘defund the police’ is just gonna make more police and more control and more totalitarian government.”
“Like, what did you think ‘defund the police’ meant? Everyone is gonna, like, eat mushrooms and we’re all gonna be like flower children?” added the host.
Unlike Rogan’s demonstration of a desire to push back and grill the congresswoman on the supposed logic train, ABC’s Jonathan Karl laughed along with the “Woke 1 was crazy” line before shifting to Republican attacks against communist ideology after Ocasio-Cortez folded the “defund the police” positions into “fruitful” dialogues.
AOC on Francesca Hong’s old tweets calling for abolishing prisons and the police:
“Woke 1 was crazy.” pic.twitter.com/OuqYhSwtbk
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 9, 2026
As primary elections showed leftist voters picking increasingly radical nominees for the general election, Rogan suggested honesty would get the Democrats out of the absurd big tent they’d cornered themselves into.
“If you want us to take you seriously, you have to say how you f*cked up,” he told his guest who called for authenticity and evident embarrassment over past choices rather than apparent political calculus, “and that you went with the hive.”
Further along in the conversation, Williamson posited the hypothetical if Ocasio-Cortez would still be suggesting “Woke 1 was crazy” if then-Vice President Kamala Harris had won the 2024 presidential election.
To that, Rogan called out Elon Musk’s purchase of Twitter as having near-equal impact, “because before that, you could get silenced,” which led many to self-censor over fears about losing their livelihoods. “That’s where Woke 1.0 died. That’s where it really died.”
