Russel Brand

I said I agreed with you about him being a hypocrite, you convinced me. I also agree that he is definitely being targeted by the right-wing press as a way to undermine all of us.

Finally, I agree with people like big boss that we need to stand together. If he wants to help, regardless of whether he is being hypocritical or not, we should let him do it. His profile helps. Let's not fall into exactly the trap they want us to and start turning on each other as if any of us were saints.

None of us are saints. I believe that was one of the main reasons for Jesus' insistence of not judging unless you yourself are whiter than the driven snow: he knew what building social solidarity entailed.

 

So did Socrates.

 

Good article on Vice about it, sorry if it already has been posted.

http://www.vice.com/en_uk/read/russell-brand-calling-someone-a-snide-905

 

The entire point in a nutshell.

 

Benefiting from a system that you disagree with is not hypocritical. Calling him such is such a lazy cop out.

 

Eh, aye, he does. He wrote a fairly lengthy book that did exactly that.

He's an activist, as well.

 

It amazes me that academics like Chomsky and Graeber - who, I'm sure, live fairly comfortably - can put forward the same ideas without attracting the same kind of criticism. I know why the media have reacted the way they have - people like Murdoch don't want issues like inequality, environmental harm, corporate influence on gov't, etc., etc. brought to the table. I don't know why ordinary people are buying into their bullshit though. Brand's uniquely placed to speak to the masses. The left should be embracing him.

 

* cat Boyd

Kris body's * cousin ain't it? I heard she also lives on Boyd Street in Govanhill as well. Can anyone confirm?

 

Aye
Got a dug called Ally and a hamster named John Greig's A *

 

Whit? :smiley-laughing002:

 

We'll he did help save 93 families from eviction in London recently , the profits from his book are going towards setting up a non profit cafe to help ex drug addicts.

He's no angel but who is? At least he's putting in a lot of hours to help people less fortunate than himself. Most people can't say the same.

 

Again, it has nothing to do with him living comfortably for me, and everything to do with him actively taking advantage of certain regulations that he is vocal against. His response when he was questioned on those circumstances also didn't sit well with me. The reporter was simply doing his job, asking about information that had been provided by his superiors.

I have no issue with people who are successful and/or wealthy fighting the good fight, and would mirror what RR says when it comes to the names you mention there.

There's just something about Brand that doesn't seem genuine to me. He talks a lot but really says nothing. I believe he's using the current unrest in the country as a way to sort of revamp himself and his career.

And regardless of the excuses some are making for him, the truth is if he was vehemently opposed to tax breaks for the wealthy and tax evasion he'd want nothing to do with it. That he is raises my suspicions.

 

Would you be saying the same if it was a Labour politician who was vocal against MP's taking the * with their expenses, only for it to emerge that he was actually doing the same?

I doubt it.

 

As Dáibhí explained, his problem isn't with the comfortable lives of people like Graeber, Chomsky, the late G.A. Cohen, etc. Personally I find his argument convincing for the reasons I gave above (i.e. my Slave Trade analogy).

Nevertheless, to continue my Slave Trade analogy, if we wish to make gains, we need to not turn on powerful allies like Brand. He may well have written similar ideas to Chomsky and Graeber (ironically, in view of what I'm about to say, I haven't read him but have read the former two); but he reaches a far bigger audience because he knows how to market ideas better, how to use humour to make points (of course Chomsky is quite funny in a dry kind of way) and how to speak a language that reaches the heart as well as the mind.

It's no coincidence that they want to undermine him now and I have to disagree with one thing you say, Daíbhí: I don't think that reporter was just doing his job. You have to ask yourself why Brand exactly and why precisely now. Does a reporter's job consist of exposing the wrongdoings and hypocrisies of anyone who threatens the powerful?

A real reporter worth the name is a rare species these days. Nick Davies, Robert Fisk, Chris Hedges, George Monbiot, a handful of others. Look at the people Davies and his colleagues went after in the phone-hacking thing, that's "doing your job" as a journalist IMO.

 

* quoting kris body's cousin....what's worse she lives on Boyd Street in * Govanhill...* Boyd street

 

Fukin BOYD street in Govanhill ya plonker

 

Vice run by Murdoch aswell

 

Him n Nigella on question time should be good annol

 

I'd think that if you examine most people lives, you will find an element of hypocrisy.

That shouldn't detract from the light he is shining on some absolutely galling elements in the way our society is run to benefit the few and keep the majority enslaved and poor.

Brand's only "mistake" is the persona he's created which, unfortunately, will cause a percentage of the very people he is trying to highlight their issues, against him.

That's the real shame. People will always find away to be critical of the most positive things and, in that sense, Murdoch's job is already done. He's just crossing the t's and dotting the i's.

Brand is becoming a powerful global speaker on this, and more power to his elbow. I find him fascinating for all sorts of reasons.

Though I've maybe grown too accustomed to his humour over the years, it's great to see him speaking up against powerful people and the sham they are blatantly masquerading in front of us.

 

Hate this *.Utter joke of a bloke.he speaks so much *.