I gather police did investigate him over several complaints - none of them complaints raised in the original press stories (I wonder what happened to them).
Nothing since. Must have been innocent then, but still demonetised.
It is "childish" to listen to ALLEGED victims, but what else could one expect from you?
You grab the stick by the wrong end. Only because you like the cool bad guy for his non-mainstream political views, he may have assaulted women. As a crime writer who studies cases and the way predators' minds work, Brand talks and behaves like those we call dangerous.
To address point no.5, it is my understanding(& I could be mistaken) that these women were sought out by news station investigators.“Pointing this out does not mean one is condoning rape or sexual assault.”
Brand found a niche gap in the market and filled it by performing a cartoonish version of talking sesquipedalian Truthiness to people who wanted someone to speak some kind of Truth to Power: the fact that Power no doubt (as we now know) overheard it was good enough. He was not the first mainstream figure to say the unsayable (and I'd be willing to wager that the most unsayable things he sort of said are fairly unsayable here, as well), but he was early enough to get credit for doing it.
People had a real hunger to see mainstream (ie "credible") people reassure them that the World was, in fact, acting crazy: the ***Lockdowns*** (a carceral term, full stop) made him what he is, and lots of money, too. Brand's connections to the characters and institutions he appeared to be chiding/ exposing/ exploring prevented him from charming me, ever. And many marginal figures had been devoting their lives, doing much more clearly and bravely, what Brand was doing as minimally, and evasively, as he could and still make bank..
If RB really wanted to Let the Sunshine In, why not mention, or link to, wise old marginalized enemies of The Corporate State who've been at it, sincerely, forever? The ones with 1,500 followers and no health insurance and the kind of knowledge a university course, or two, could (in a better world) offer higher degrees in. The World is a dauntingly complex proposition, especially the 8/10s of it that no dares to talk about.
What they (THEY) did to Brand was called "give him enough rope". When the rug got snatched (in mid-gesticulation), they (THEY) left quite a few Brand Worshippers devastated, confused and absolutely humiliated. Imagine all the Normie smirks behind those bare-shouldered t-shirts at home, school, work. Yes, Brand still has his die-hards but I think he lost quite a chunk of disciples (and future dates). He did it for the adulation and the money. Maybe cuddle-chum Yuval "You're All Useless Eaters" Harari has a sofa-bed RB can sleep on when the wife starts distancing...
The Ruling Psychopaths loved ***Lock downs*** so much they (THEY) would like to play with them again, as quickly as possible (especially as the UFO nonsense is gaining traction only among the nuttiest of the nutties among the fewest of us). First they (THEY) need to clean up YouTube a bit more. A demonetizing bloodbath among the Limited Hangout brigade is coming, mark my wizened words. Jimmy Dore, you're next... ! Rogan.... ?
Or are they (THEY) even slicker than we could dream? Is this an engineered melodrama? A 36-month redemption arc? Will Brand come out of this, even stronger than he was before, as a Pied Piper of a magnitude we've never seen, urging his young followers (our kids) to get their brains COSMIC with a good Smart-chipping...?
He might not be guilty of a crime but he's a horrible man and social media is, by it's very nature, a popularity contest.
Of course Brand isn't the only problem here. It's BBC, C4, his management and the production companies who enabled him. But questions about that ARE being raised in mainstream media.
The implicit attitude of some commentators to the women who come forward is uncomfortably close to Alex Jones' labelling of the Sandy Hook survivors and relatives as crisis actors.
Russell Brand is in no way comparable to Julian Assange or Jeremy Corbyn. He is as much of a critic of capitalism as is Donald Trump or Andrew Tate.
There should be little or no doubt that Brand infuriates so many MSM & Anti > Christian Semite Nazi Capatalists either by his comical direct corruption claims or his personal mockery of their obvious deceptions, as he laughes as the highest names of people/ Presidents and corperates that either run or control our World. These people are saying time for Payback with a very low Punch of sexual of uncertainty's & allegations to silence him for the short term during these political times? Russell Brand scares these people for so many reasons. He mocks and laughs such a large powerful group of people that hate him for it. I believe he will be back sooner than we think I believe they may hate him almost as much as Trump?
Abbie Hoffmann, Abbie Hoffman. Excellent diagnosis of the situation. Brand the critic has grown too big a following for comfort by those he quite capably criticizes. This all is one of those British Intel-Media "stings," who could care less about sexual predation (Jeffrey Epstein, anyone?) unless it works to silence and/or discredit dissent. It's part of a pattern: Just ask Max and Aaron at the Grayzone. Again, well and excellently said. As an analyst/writer, Mr Cook always delivers the goods...
I think this attempt to destroy Russell Brand's credibility will back fire on an establishment determined to silence dissent or exposure of their lies and corruption.
This is repeat performance of the first attempt to silence Julian Assange with similarly false accusations.
Gary Webb had his credibility torn to shreds by a CIA compliant media, for exposing the CIA's drug and gun running activities that was used to support Reagan's Contra against Nicaragua.
Is it conspiratorial thinking, or is it having the skill to ask the right questions?
Someone called him an anti vaxxer conspiratorialist, but all I recall is extremely intelligent, experienced doctors, scientists and consultants standing firm against the uk govts threat to sack anyone working in the NHS for refusing to be vaccinated. Their stance, if anyone was really listening, should be the starting point - why were they refusing to be vaccinated. The answers are far more helpful than screaming conspiracy theorist.
You’ve made some very interesting points here, most of which I completely agree with.
I do think Brand has some serious mental health issues that have been exploited by the media in the past, and have not been addressed by him. It looks from the outside like he has replaced his sex and drug addictions with conspiratorial thinking (even if some of the things he espouses are good ideas), and is still addicted to attention. I also think that his addictions have more than likely led to some people in his life being very badly hurt by him, which he also needs to address. But hey, I don’t know the guy, and I’m not a psychologist/psychiatrist - I can only go on what he shows the public.
I am not commenting on the allegations made in the Dispatches programme, and since, as that is what the law is for, and I do not know the facts.
And I am definitely not condoning rape or sexual assault with my comments!
Reads well 6 months on.
I gather police did investigate him over several complaints - none of them complaints raised in the original press stories (I wonder what happened to them).
Nothing since. Must have been innocent then, but still demonetised.
What a lot of narrow minded bigots we have in these comments.
Hold a mirror to your face and tell us all how you have you turned out?
I don't believe there are many people in this world who haven't done things they are ashamed of.
Brand speaks too much truth and has to be shut up. It's that simple.
It is "childish" to listen to ALLEGED victims, but what else could one expect from you?
You grab the stick by the wrong end. Only because you like the cool bad guy for his non-mainstream political views, he may have assaulted women. As a crime writer who studies cases and the way predators' minds work, Brand talks and behaves like those we call dangerous.
To address point no.5, it is my understanding(& I could be mistaken) that these women were sought out by news station investigators.“Pointing this out does not mean one is condoning rape or sexual assault.”
Time should not be wasted on people who suddenly discover they're victims of abuses that happened a very long time ago. The end.
Thank goodness. Sanity.
I just think it's strange to label middle class liberals/capitalists "the left."
I think the whole left-right thing is out-of-date and meaningless.
A person is left-wing because he loves the war in Ukraine and roots for Zelensky to kill Russians?
A person is right-wing because he is alarmed at the open southern border controlled by Mexican drug cartels.
How stupid can it get?
Brand found a niche gap in the market and filled it by performing a cartoonish version of talking sesquipedalian Truthiness to people who wanted someone to speak some kind of Truth to Power: the fact that Power no doubt (as we now know) overheard it was good enough. He was not the first mainstream figure to say the unsayable (and I'd be willing to wager that the most unsayable things he sort of said are fairly unsayable here, as well), but he was early enough to get credit for doing it.
People had a real hunger to see mainstream (ie "credible") people reassure them that the World was, in fact, acting crazy: the ***Lockdowns*** (a carceral term, full stop) made him what he is, and lots of money, too. Brand's connections to the characters and institutions he appeared to be chiding/ exposing/ exploring prevented him from charming me, ever. And many marginal figures had been devoting their lives, doing much more clearly and bravely, what Brand was doing as minimally, and evasively, as he could and still make bank..
If RB really wanted to Let the Sunshine In, why not mention, or link to, wise old marginalized enemies of The Corporate State who've been at it, sincerely, forever? The ones with 1,500 followers and no health insurance and the kind of knowledge a university course, or two, could (in a better world) offer higher degrees in. The World is a dauntingly complex proposition, especially the 8/10s of it that no dares to talk about.
What they (THEY) did to Brand was called "give him enough rope". When the rug got snatched (in mid-gesticulation), they (THEY) left quite a few Brand Worshippers devastated, confused and absolutely humiliated. Imagine all the Normie smirks behind those bare-shouldered t-shirts at home, school, work. Yes, Brand still has his die-hards but I think he lost quite a chunk of disciples (and future dates). He did it for the adulation and the money. Maybe cuddle-chum Yuval "You're All Useless Eaters" Harari has a sofa-bed RB can sleep on when the wife starts distancing...
The Ruling Psychopaths loved ***Lock downs*** so much they (THEY) would like to play with them again, as quickly as possible (especially as the UFO nonsense is gaining traction only among the nuttiest of the nutties among the fewest of us). First they (THEY) need to clean up YouTube a bit more. A demonetizing bloodbath among the Limited Hangout brigade is coming, mark my wizened words. Jimmy Dore, you're next... ! Rogan.... ?
Or are they (THEY) even slicker than we could dream? Is this an engineered melodrama? A 36-month redemption arc? Will Brand come out of this, even stronger than he was before, as a Pied Piper of a magnitude we've never seen, urging his young followers (our kids) to get their brains COSMIC with a good Smart-chipping...?
Only Time (and our Media Crushes) will tell.
Jonathan. A few thoughts.
He might not be guilty of a crime but he's a horrible man and social media is, by it's very nature, a popularity contest.
Of course Brand isn't the only problem here. It's BBC, C4, his management and the production companies who enabled him. But questions about that ARE being raised in mainstream media.
The implicit attitude of some commentators to the women who come forward is uncomfortably close to Alex Jones' labelling of the Sandy Hook survivors and relatives as crisis actors.
Russell Brand is in no way comparable to Julian Assange or Jeremy Corbyn. He is as much of a critic of capitalism as is Donald Trump or Andrew Tate.
There should be little or no doubt that Brand infuriates so many MSM & Anti > Christian Semite Nazi Capatalists either by his comical direct corruption claims or his personal mockery of their obvious deceptions, as he laughes as the highest names of people/ Presidents and corperates that either run or control our World. These people are saying time for Payback with a very low Punch of sexual of uncertainty's & allegations to silence him for the short term during these political times? Russell Brand scares these people for so many reasons. He mocks and laughs such a large powerful group of people that hate him for it. I believe he will be back sooner than we think I believe they may hate him almost as much as Trump?
Abbie Hoffmann, Abbie Hoffman. Excellent diagnosis of the situation. Brand the critic has grown too big a following for comfort by those he quite capably criticizes. This all is one of those British Intel-Media "stings," who could care less about sexual predation (Jeffrey Epstein, anyone?) unless it works to silence and/or discredit dissent. It's part of a pattern: Just ask Max and Aaron at the Grayzone. Again, well and excellently said. As an analyst/writer, Mr Cook always delivers the goods...
I think this attempt to destroy Russell Brand's credibility will back fire on an establishment determined to silence dissent or exposure of their lies and corruption.
This is repeat performance of the first attempt to silence Julian Assange with similarly false accusations.
Gary Webb had his credibility torn to shreds by a CIA compliant media, for exposing the CIA's drug and gun running activities that was used to support Reagan's Contra against Nicaragua.
Is it conspiratorial thinking, or is it having the skill to ask the right questions?
Someone called him an anti vaxxer conspiratorialist, but all I recall is extremely intelligent, experienced doctors, scientists and consultants standing firm against the uk govts threat to sack anyone working in the NHS for refusing to be vaccinated. Their stance, if anyone was really listening, should be the starting point - why were they refusing to be vaccinated. The answers are far more helpful than screaming conspiracy theorist.
You’ve made some very interesting points here, most of which I completely agree with.
I do think Brand has some serious mental health issues that have been exploited by the media in the past, and have not been addressed by him. It looks from the outside like he has replaced his sex and drug addictions with conspiratorial thinking (even if some of the things he espouses are good ideas), and is still addicted to attention. I also think that his addictions have more than likely led to some people in his life being very badly hurt by him, which he also needs to address. But hey, I don’t know the guy, and I’m not a psychologist/psychiatrist - I can only go on what he shows the public.
I am not commenting on the allegations made in the Dispatches programme, and since, as that is what the law is for, and I do not know the facts.
And I am definitely not condoning rape or sexual assault with my comments!