This was always the case, it's only that recently you feel it's been extended to your particular issues. At various times in the history of the US specifically

This was always the case, it's only that recently you feel it's been extended to your particular issues. At various times in the history of the US specifically, but analogues exist in most other places, you could have been fired or otherwise pariah'ed for: Freely discussing the conditions and rights of laborers Discussing political ideologies like communism Discussing various sects of Christian belief Discussing Non-Christian beliefs Being for or against political popular movements Being against police authority Discussing or demonstrating opposition to wars Simply being one of a set of ethnicities Being, or discussing, being gay Being, or discussing, being an atheist While I personally think that Joe Rogan's podcast, the conversations of a pedestrian comedian and self-professed moron who sometimes lands interesting guests, is a strange hill for Spotify to be fighting on, there was no time in US history that such "unfortunate and unacceptable" events weren't happening. McCarthyism and the blacklisting of many otherwise wealthy entertainers is usually the textbook case of this and that is within living memory. This sickness is rooted deeply in American culture, and we only think there was some reprieve due to the academic freedoms and immense prosperity of a post-WW2 boom era that ended 40 years ago, followed by a brief period of online semi-anonymous expression that lasted until around 2000 when the great masses finally found it and brought it back to the baseline awfulness of the rest of the culture