Marc Maron Calls Out Comedians Who ‘Joke Around’ With ‘White Supremacists and Fascists’ on Their Podcasts: ‘All It Does Is Normalize Fascism’

Marc Maron has called out “comedians with podcasts” who “joke around” with “shameless, self-proclaimed white supremacists and fascists on their show,” saying, “all it does is humanize and normalize fascism.”

“When someone uses their platform for that reason they are facilitating anti-American sentiment and promoting violent autocracy,” he wrote in a blog post shared to social media.

While Maron did not call out anyone by name, the post comes three days after Joe Rogan, whose “Joe Rogan Experience” is the No. 1 podcast in the U.S. on Spotify and Apple, released an episode with guest Donald Trump. Maron has hosted his own widely popular podcast, “WTF With Marc Maron,” since 2009.

“Even though I do not do a political show I have been very clear in my specials and on the podcast that I believe, and have believed for years, what is brewing in this country is an American fascist movement rooted half in grievance and half in Jesus and enabled by tech oligarchs and an inundation of propaganda from many sources,” Maron wrote. “Well, it’s fully percolated and pouring into the minds of all of us. It is shameless and proud. Culturally, the combination of blatant racist fear mongering and the anti-woke movement has delivered their message for the future. A future that marginalizes almost all voices.”

He continued that the “anti-woke flank of the new fascism” is being “driven almost exclusively by comics, my peers. Whether or not they are self-serving or true believers in the new fascism is unimportant. They are of the movement. Whether they see themselves as acolytes or just comics doesn’t matter. Whether they are driven by the idea that what they are fighting for is a free speech issue or whether they are truly morally bankrupt racists doesn’t matter. They are part of the public face of a fascist political movement that seeks to destroy the democratic idea.”

In the blog post, Maron pondered whether “greedy influencers and comics” are aligning with the “right wing movement” for “self-serving reasons.”

“Fascism is good for business if you toe the line,” Maron wrote. “Popular podcasts became tribal and divisive years ago. Now they may be in the position to become part of the media oligarchy under the new anti-democratic government.”

He added, “Hopefully, it goes the other way and tolerance and diversity can breathe and inch forward but who knows? … Try to realize that you don’t have to annihilate yourself in the face of cultural annihilation. Hold onto who you are and try not to be afraid to live your truth in the midst of an avalanche of toxic bullshit.”

Before appearing on “Rogan,” Trump appeared on a handful of other podcasts hosted by comedians, including Andrew Schulz’s “Flagrant” and Theo Von’s “This Past Weekend” (the No. 2 podcast in the U.S. on Spotify). The former president also invited comic Tony Hinchcliffe, host of the “Kill Tony” live podcast, to perform at his Oct. 27 rally at Madison Square Garden. Hinchcliffe drew backlash after referring to Puerto Rico as a “floating island of garbage.” The Trump campaign has since distanced itself from the joke.