Kid Carson is now Vancouver's equivalent of Joe Rogan, and he's positioned himself to become an internet superstar to the easily-fooled masses.
The former host of the morning show on Z95.3 in Vancouver went on a controversial on-air rant earlier this week where he discussed the dangers of "digital IDs" for children, and praised the trucker convoy in Ottawa. He hinted that he thought he might get fired for it, and not long after there was an announcement that he and the station had parted ways.
Joe Rogan and Kid Carson have a few things in common beyond their whiteness, their baldness, their tattoos, and their glaring, smarmy privilege.
They're both excellent communicators who have seen their faces plastered on billboards, as similar versions of celebrity. One global and one local.
They both started out as hosts of generally frivolous shows - Rogan on TV's Fear Factor where he would get people to eat bugs and Carson on music radio where he would get people to listen to jokes and insights sandwiched between pop songs.
Their prior work wouldn't be considered journalism, and it involved very little research or knowledge, but they both seem to have been blinded into self-importance after seeing their names in lights for years. They now both view themselves as truth-tellers who are meant to report the reality of the world (as they see it) to their listeners.
At some point, both Rogan and Carson decided to "dO tHeiR owN reSEaRch," and found the narrative they were looking for in the opinions of quacks, grifters, and conspiracy theorists on YouTube and other social media platforms. They both went on to share that information, one more widely than the other. But Kid's career is just getting started.
The former Z95.3 host is claiming that he gained 30,000 Instagram followers in one day since he left the station. He says so in his latest Instagram video where he discusses how "mainstream media" reacted to his rant, and he talks about his subsequent career change to budding podcaster.
Globally, there are millions of people who are interested in quackery and nonsense. A small minority are interested in hearing great communicators tell them fact-free things they want to hear about politics, COVID-19, and whatever issues may come up in the future.
Kid Carson is promoting his podcast in a way that appeals to that global audience, and now that he doesn't have the limited reach of the population of Metro Vancouver radio listeners tying him down, he'll build a massive audience. Many will be happy to pay him $20 per month to listen to his podcast.
Spreading misinformation is trash, and what we've seen in Kid's on-air rant is the tip of the iceberg, but it's going to happen.
Kid Carson is going to be Canada's Joe Rogan.
