Dude Departure? What Elon Musk And Joe Rogan Have In Common

As the United States continues to manage a balance between public health and financial recovery, every American is finding themselves faced with a myriad of choices – whether to wear a mask, whether to go back to work, and how to stay socially distant. For most of us, these are personal choices about how to navigate the rules of where we live to help keep ourselves, families, friends and coworkers safe.

For Elon Musk and Joe Rogan however, it has become a different, and very public question altogether – should they leave California? And the fact that they are making so much noise about it over the recent days it says more about them than about the state they reside in. In fact, as opposed to constructively contributing to the debate, Musk and Rogan’s threats of leaving their home state might be a perfect example of bullying by bro-ness.

How did this ‘dude departure’ conversation even get started? Last month Elon Musk apparently finally became fed up with California’s state and local ordinances related to the coronavirus pandemic. Amidst an escalating stream of proclamations on Twitter, and the reopening of his Fremont-based Tesla factory in contravention of shelter-in-place restrictions, the eccentric entrepreneur threatened to move his companies to Texas and Nevada and sell all his California homes. Since then he has followed up on at least some of his threats, listing his four Los Angeles homes for sale and, according to the San Jose Mercury News, listing his three other California residences as well.

In other words, it looks like Musk really is ready to pack up his things (if he is even keeping any possessions at all) and move out of the Golden State.

Apparently not to be outdone, popular podcaster and comedian Joe Rogan also has threatened to move out of California and head to Texas. Speaking on “The Joe Rogan Experience” podcast on Wednesday, Rogan riffed on leaving California, saying “[i]f California continues to be this restrictive, I don’t know if this is a good place to live.” He further went on to say “[f]irst of all, it’s extremely expensive. The taxes here are ridiculous. And if they really say that we standup until 2022… I might jet.”

So apparently Joe may go too.

What’s interesting about both Musk and Rogan’s threats isn’t their sudden realization that California is expensive and highly regulated. Pretty much everyone in America knows that, and both men have spoken about it before. What is fascinating is that these two men are confident that their pronouncements genuinely make a difference – that merely by threatening to leave, they might somehow change the calculus of how California is managing its response to the pandemic. Rather than finding ways to see this crisis as a moment to lead, they are looking at it as a moment to leave.

In some ways, it is the ultimate ‘go, bro, go’ move – threatening to pick up one’s marbles and walk away when the game doesn’t go your way. And while there is no doubt that there are plenty of people who agree with Musk’s and Rogan’s perspectives, what makes these two men think that there ‘jetting’ is going to influence others to do the same?

Of course there are the over 10,000 jobs that Musk’s Tesla and SpaceX companies have created in California, and especially in a time of economic crisis, that is a very real threat. But if Musk has the attitude of ‘do it my way or I’ll hit the highway’ now, then it’s only a matter of time until he threatened to move them anyway. And Rogan? What will his move do? Just make it less convenient to see his friends or host guests on his podcast?

At a time when people like Musk and Rogan have platforms that afford them the privilege to responsibly contribute to the conversation on how we reopen our country, instead they are making the story about themselves and their needs. In doing so, they not only diminish the real challenges many Californians and Americans are facing, but they make themselves look small.

It’s called leadership by leaving – which isn’t real leadership at all.