"Oil pays for everything" - When former PayPal CEO discussed Saudi Arabia's stability and compared it to California's on Joe Rogan podcast

Episode #2190 of The Joe Rogan Experience went live months ago, welcoming PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel. Together, the pair discussed numerous topics, including the stability of Saudi Arabia's oil industry relative to California's technology industry.

In particular, Thiel pointed out superficial similarities between Saudi Arabia and the state of California, before detailing the key difference between them. While, again, just a state, California is among the largest in the United States and larger than numerous countries across the globe.

For this reason, Thiel felt that the comparison was apt:

"Crazy religion. Wokeism in California, Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia. Not that many people believe it, but it distorts everything. And then you have oil fields in Saudi Arabia, and you have the big tech companies in California, and the oil pays for everything. Then you have a completely bloated, inefficient government sector and you have all sorts of distortions in the real estate market, where people also make lots of money."

Thiel outlined further similarities between Saudi and California to the longtime UFC commentator.

"The government and real estate are ways you redistribute the oil wealth or the big tech money in California. It's not the way you might want to design a system from scratch, but it's pretty stable, and people have been saying Saudi Arabia is ridiculous. It's gonna collapse any year now. They've been saying that for 40 or 50 years now. If you have a giant oil field, you can pay for a lot of ridiculousness. I think that's the way you have to think of California."

Check out Peter Thiel and Joe Rogan discussing Saudi Arabia and California (11:10):

Despite having lived in California on and off throughout the years, Rogan has been critical of the state due to its adoption of liberal politics, which he has moved steadily away from.

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Joe Rogan recently criticized San Francisco

On episode #2249 of his podcast, Joe Rogan and fellow comedians Yannis Pappas and Chris Distefano tackled San Francisco's recent appointment of body-positive activist Virgie Tovar to its Department of Health, where she serves as a weight stigma expert.

Check out Joe Rogan criticizing San Francisco's Weight Czar (49:01):

Naturally, Rogan lambasted the appointment, criticizing Tovar and accusing her of promoting an unhealthy lifestyle. Moreover, he labeled a large chunk of liberal women as mentally ill in his latest swing at the American left.