russell brand - C or D?

When people say facile things like 'he's the ~only high-profile figure~ addressing these issues', it just makes me very, very suspicious of what criteria they use to define "high-profile".

X post Billy 100% OTM. The guy has many many faults but I think people from both sides are quick to be cynical about people like Brand (people like Brand? Who else is like him?). Of course the left has its campaigners and pundits but these are ultimately preaching to the choir. Brand seems like the only person interested in speaking to those who are disinterested, while the vast majority of political figures and commentators spend their time either worrying about how they can snatch so-called 'voters' from the other parties or simply lecturing their own crowd about things they already agree with.
I put scare quotes around 'voters' because it seems that no one is interested in people. In the eyes of the powerful we're measured by our allegiances first, closely followed by our monetary contribution to society. Anyone who doesn't vote doesn't count - not just in terms of having a say in the political landscape, but in the eyes of party leaders too. And it tends to be those with the least contributory value who don't vote, so it goes.
The winning party will be the one that finally takes an interest in people as opposed to voters, and stops measuring people by their perceived contributions to society.

Russell Brand is on the DM permanent hate list, he blows his nose in public, they immediately ring Andrew Sachs for comment.

The ideas in his book are very similar to those expressed by the Beatles in the mid-60s

Yeah imagine a parallel universe where there was no Beatles and so that generation grew up to be entitled shitheads who voted for Thatcher. Think we dodged a bullet there lads

Haha yeah I read that & was like ok writer & activist Russell Brand may not be the best advocate for Buddhism but don't impugn them by appealing to john fucking lennon

Also I've not historically minded this guy but pace dog latin I don't think he cares about "people" all that much & certainly not to a level that separates him from the average leftie rent-a-mouth

Woody’s guitar didn’t really kill fascists

It didn't even oppose them for a while but that kind of talk gets you thrown out of the Bragg clubhouse

When people say facile things like 'he's the ~only high-profile figure~ addressing these issues', it just makes me very, very suspicious of what criteria they use to define "high-profile".

and also the lack of understanding of how any given potential activist figure *becomes* high-profile and is permitted to remain high-profile - questions that are central to what brand is purportedly talking about

russell brand needs to get in the fucking bin and stay there

― lex pretend, Monday, October 27, 2014 1:27 PM (5 hours ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Classic disappointing, elitist, ultra-conservative Lex. The Pavlovian reaction to Brand, "let him shut up", is so so telling. People want him to shut up more than listening to what he says and disagreeing with him first. Regardless of what he says, Brand's a comedian so needs to stfu right? Smdh.

I don't agree with Brand per sé. I don't like his comedy routine, his movies or his dvd's and whatnot. But it is so annoyingly elitist to discard a popular comedian's opinion because he is a popular comedian.

No, we won't have other voices in the media than Tories and other politicians telling us fuck all. A comedian entering the public debate? For shame!

How do you know lex hasn't listened to what brand has to say?

Marching in this thread merely saying Brand needs to be binned? Iirc

yes the sum total of my knowledge about russell brand is what i have posted on ilx

What's the point of merely saying you want someone to shut up? Without adding why you feel this way?

what's the point of any given offhand remark on ilx

if you want my considered opinion you need to ask nicely or pay me

but in the meantime i'll just point out that there is no reason to hail a rampant misogynist on a publicity campaign disguised as an ego trip as a revolutionary just because he keeps saying the word "revolutionary" ad nauseam

the options are not limited to either russell brand or the westminster establishment, luckily

Imagine being annoyed by someone rallying against ghovernemtns and corportates

ether russell brand and the Westminster establishment

rampant misogynist

hahahehe

Ah, so it was an "offhand remark". Wishing someone to be binned. Unlike a considered opinion. Good luck with that.

I didn't intend to single you out Lex, but your response is exactly what I hear all around me from (ultra-)conservative peeps: "Oh Russell Brand, I wish he would should the fuck up!" Instead of actually explaining why he should.

Xps etc

Should=shut

luckily the debate on russell brand and the reasons he should get in the bin are not solely confined to this thread, you could look at what people - not ultra-conservatives! - are saying elsewhere, and have been saying at length for months, for a hint or two

ether russell brand and the Westminster establishment

― keep the meat alive: pampas grass (wins), Monday, October 27, 2014 7:45 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

yes

Some great misspellings here: Ether Russell Brand, etc

any given offhand remark on ilx

there's no such thing, imo

also just because russell brand blathers on about how he's anti-establishment, that doesn't mean he's anything other than a different kind of establishment and not really threatening the establishment at all

Uh xxp

anyway it's about time the widespread problem of bin threats against male comedians was taken seriously

luckily the debate on russell brand and the reasons he should get in the bin are not solely confined to this thread, you could look at what people - not ultra-conservatives! - are saying elsewhere, and have been saying at length for months, for a hint or two

― lex pretend, Monday, October 27, 2014 7:48 PM (34 seconds ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Luckily. And "people" have been saying things! Saying things "elsewhere" too! Oh my... Amazing. Yeah, that really lets you off the hook. Everything better than saying how you feel yourself. Say he needs to be binned, and when asked why say it has been discussed by "people". Splendid.

Dude I really don't think lex is being evasive

Dismissive, yeah. Which is allowed!

first they binned the comedians, and i did nothing

russell binned

dammit shoulda wrote "first lex binned the comedians" fucked up my callback

I mean, I *get* that Brand seems able to reach a specific audience who do not typically GAF about the left or about politics in general. But I do think that it's perfectly valid, that if someone is given an audience, to ask what their message actually consists of.

Because Brand doesn't ever seem to go any further than a kind of gestural politics akin to wearing a Che Guevara t-shirt - in fact, worse than that, turning up wearing a T-shirt of his face photoshopped onto a Che Guevara shirt and acting like this is some kind of radical stance.

And it's that self-aggrandisement that really irks. It doesn't feel like a publicity campaign for any stance in politics, it feels like a publicity campaign for Brand and his ~brand~, using vaguely left-flavoured poses and images as a prop. Like, the example Bragg gives, of Brand turning up at the E15 Mothers - it doesn't feel like he's trying to bring attention to their struggle, it feels like he is using their struggle to add a genuine sheen to the Brand brand. Like one of those celebrity 'activists' who find it most important to be seen - or more importantly *photographed* supporting certain causes, than it is to do a damn thing about them. I find that gross; it's like he's using people's actual actions as an accessory to look cool.

It's like "revolutionary sloganism and vaguely leftie politics" is something he read in a late-60s era rock biography of "How To Be Mick Jagger". And like Jagger, the politics is a sham, a pose, a fashionable gee-gaw he can wear as a T-shirt without ever having to back it up or explain it in any way beyond "Yeah, the government sucks now."

p.s. who the fuck is our ~new contrarian~ sock? I can't keep track any more.

Branwell: Not a sock, new ID due to unfortunate circumstances, explained on 77.

Really don't mean it bad, heart Lex, just don't get why someone is dismissed just because he is a comedian entering the discourse. Still don't.

I think it's important and worthwhile to at least try and separate Russell Brand the loudmouthed misogynist dandy comedian with Russell Brand's overall message and belief system. Seems that most people have trouble separating the two, understandably. But if Tony Benn, Barbara Castle,Gandhi and however many other benign thinkers were to have their personal characters sullied, would it make their ideals any less valid?
How much use are entities like Owen Jones, Monbiot, the Occupy movement etc really, when rhe majority of non-voters probably feel neither here nor there about them, and right-wingers simply ignore them. All they do is galvanise existing left voters to continue what they're doing.
I don't want to be capn save a brand here, as he's done a lot of stupid useless shit and still does a lot of stupid useless shit, but I don't see anything interesting or beneficial happening on the political landscape unless people like him start making a racket and getting up people's noses.

Oh FUCK YOU and your government-naming antics, whoever you are. Clean-up operation on aisle sock, please.

it's getting to the stage where we need a rolling thread for people doing that

I have just lost patience for people saying "oh, let's overlook the guy's rampant misogyny because he's vaguely left-flavoured, right?" and those kind of arguments. I'm really done with them. That is not a revolution, that is a change in management.

^^^^

Yes but that's not really what anyone's saying

It'd be one thing if he really renounced that shit, and he does seem like a person capable of a fair amount of self-examination

well exactly, his defenders aren't saying a damn thing about his misogyny, branwell's point entirely

Xpost Yes it would. At least it would be a step in the right direction. But that goes without saying.

My internet connection is going; can people just FP that government-naming post until someone does something about it? really appreciate that. Thanks.

Posted on mrf

Brand is a misogynist. Furthermore he is pretty much clueless about anything. I've no trouble admitting that. But that still doesn't make it right to just want to 'wish him away' and not listening to him. We've had enough Tories doing that. Why follow that dreadful example?