During a recent episode of the JRE podcast with musician Marcus King, Joe Rogan launched into a passionate rant about reports that Palantir Technologies supports some form of mandatory national service in the United States.
The discussion began when Rogan referenced something he had recently heard on The Tim Dillon Show.
“I was listening to Tim Dillon’s show and he was saying that Palantir thinks that we should reintroduce conscription, that kids should start getting drafted again into the military and they should have mandatory military experience for kids,” Rogan said. “I just don’t understand why anybody would want to support that. That sounds crazy, especially after this Iran war where everybody’s like, ‘Why are we in Iran?’”
Rogan then asked producer Jamie Vernon to verify the claim, and after confirming that Palantir executives had publicly discussed moving away from an all-volunteer military toward some form of universal national service, Rogan sharply criticized the idea.
“Why would a tech company be saying that we need to move towards a universal national military service?” Rogan asked. “How about you go? Because you know none of these tech dorks that are running these companies, they’re not doing it. Throwing meat into the machine. Throwing people’s children into these unnecessary wars.”
He argued that technology companies should instead focus on preventing conflicts rather than preparing more people to fight them.
“How about let’s figure out a way to use your technology so there’s no more wars,” Rogan said. “Wouldn’t that be a better goal? Instead of getting kids to learn how to go sh**t people they don’t know, because someone tells you to.”
Rogan also questioned the logic behind nearly every major American military conflict since World War II.
“How many of these, out of all the wars that we’ve been in since World War II, is it zero that made sense?” he said. “I think it’s zero. I don’t think there’s one war that we’ve been in since World War II that makes any sense at all. And they’re like, I think the solution is we need more people to be forced into it.”
Additionally, Rogan questioned why private tech executives or influential media personalities were even weighing in on military policy in the first place.
“I just don’t understand how people that aren’t elected officials, that essentially just run a tech company, would think it’s a good idea to call for national military service,” Rogan said. “I’ve heard other people say that too. I’ve heard podcasters and weird tech people say it’s a good idea and I don’t know what they’re thinking. I think they should have to go over there and experience war and then come back and see if you really think the same thing.”
