"People for the most part can smell lies"
About this Quote
Rogan’s line lands like a barstool truism, but it’s doing sharper work than it first admits. “Smell” is the key verb: not “detect,” not “prove,” not even “sense” in a polite, psychology-text way. Smell is animal, involuntary, visceral. It suggests that bullshit isn’t primarily a logical problem; it’s a bodily one. You don’t need to litigate a lie when your nervous system already decided something’s off. That’s a powerful claim in a culture drowning in spin, where “debate” often functions as a time-wasting ritual to keep people from trusting their own discomfort.
The soft hedge, “for the most part,” is Rogan’s comedian’s escape hatch. He wants the swagger of certainty without the liability of being wrong. It also flatters the listener: you, regular person, aren’t helpless in the face of experts, PR handlers, or polished politicians. You’re equipped with an internal lie detector. That populist subtext fits Rogan’s broader brand: suspicion of institutional narratives, preference for first-hand experience, and a bias toward authenticity as the highest credential.
Context matters because Rogan’s world is built on long-form conversation, where tells accumulate: evasions, overrehearsed phrasing, the micro-panic behind confident claims. The quote isn’t an argument for empirical truth so much as a defense of vibe-based epistemology. It’s equal parts empowerment and warning: if lies have a scent, so does your appetite for being conned by someone who smells like what you already want to believe.
The soft hedge, “for the most part,” is Rogan’s comedian’s escape hatch. He wants the swagger of certainty without the liability of being wrong. It also flatters the listener: you, regular person, aren’t helpless in the face of experts, PR handlers, or polished politicians. You’re equipped with an internal lie detector. That populist subtext fits Rogan’s broader brand: suspicion of institutional narratives, preference for first-hand experience, and a bias toward authenticity as the highest credential.
Context matters because Rogan’s world is built on long-form conversation, where tells accumulate: evasions, overrehearsed phrasing, the micro-panic behind confident claims. The quote isn’t an argument for empirical truth so much as a defense of vibe-based epistemology. It’s equal parts empowerment and warning: if lies have a scent, so does your appetite for being conned by someone who smells like what you already want to believe.
Quote Details
| Topic | Truth |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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