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Russell Brand accused of rape and sexual assault

The right wing news confusion over Brand is hilarious. Careerists pulling one way, zealots the other. Grifters having to toss a coin.
GB News, TalkTV and the Tabloids are going to explode.

Meanwhile Dan Wootton still oozes through the corridors of sleaze, as if butter wouldn’t melt
 
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Brainster said:
I noticed that part too and it doesn't make much sense; "newfound prominence" for a guy who has hosted the MTV VMAs and appeared in a fair number of major motion pictures?

It sounds a bit more like whoever pushed the story to the Beeb used that reason to convince the women to come forward.

That said, I can't help agreeing with those who find Brand several standard deviations above the mean for creepy.
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Lest we forget, he was fired from MTV for showing up to work dressed as Osama bin Laden. On 9/12/2001. His excuse is that he was addicted to crack and heroin at the time, leading to bad decisions. But it takes some effort to dress up as Osama bin Laden. Also, I made a poor decision because I took illegal drugs isn't a great excuse in the first place. Don't like him. Never liked him.
 
Puppycow said:
Lest we forget, he was fired from MTV for showing up to work dressed as Osama bin Laden. On 9/12/2001. His excuse is that he was addicted to crack and heroin at the time, leading to bad decisions. But it takes some effort to dress up as Osama bin Laden. Also, I made a poor decision because I took illegal drugs isn't a great excuse in the first place. Don't like him. Never liked him.
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Yep, that sums up my feelings about him too.

I despised the way that a lot of supposedly serious news and current affairs outlets in the UK (Question Time, Newsnight, The New Statesman, the bloody Houses of Parliament committees, etc...) would invite him to debates which he reliably derailed with incoherent and self-important filibusters drowning out anyone who tried to discuss the issues.
 
You Tube have stopped paying him for his videos.

At the moment, the way the media have in large turned on him, suggests many are sick and tired of people like him in the media. An interview this morning on BBC Breakfast TV had one of the presenters asking a guest, who is himself a presenter, who has written a kids book (I don't remember any names) about the problems in the media, with a veiled reference to Brand. The response was that the majority are decent people and they are fed up with how some are dragging the whole system down.

Maybe we have hit a tipping point, where, instead of laughing off and covering up misconduct, people will turn on those responsible.
 
There’s always been a niche for self-important “bad boys” I’m afraid. They have an audience. Even the likes of Andrew Tate with his performative hyper-masculinity and overt misogyny has its following. Mature people find it distasteful but it seems unlikely to ever go away completely.
 
Brainster said:
I noticed that part too and it doesn't make much sense; "newfound prominence" for a guy who has hosted the MTV VMAs and appeared in a fair number of major motion pictures?

It sounds a bit more like whoever pushed the story to the Beeb used that reason to convince the women to come forward.

That said, I can't help agreeing with those who find Brand several standard deviations above the mean for creepy.
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It's our other public broadcaster Channel 4, that aired the documentary not the BBC.
 
Darat said:
Was in a few Hollywood movies, had a celeb marriage/girlfiend or two, the last few years he's turned being a contrarian into being an almost cult leader and made it a profitable business.
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It's interesting to note how many people have these kinds of personal scandals, especially sex abuse scandals, be a radicalizing moment where they pivot hard into right wing politics and whatnot. Whether it's sex pests getting "me too'd" or other generic "cancel culture" nonsense, personal and professional failure seems an express lane to right wing radicalization for so many.

Right wingers are so hungry for high profile personalities on their side, especially those from the entertainment industry which is generally seen as dominated by liberalism, that they are more than willing to overlook bad behavior and vigorously defend their own. The right wing base never gets tired of the "I used to be a liberal, but now I'm a frothing at the mouth reactionary" routine. There's nothing these freaks love more than an aggrieved, embittered personality doubling down on anti-social tendencies in the highest possible profile. Hard to say how much of this is purely cynical and how much of this is more "community of last resort" for people who find themselves unwelcome in more decent company, but the right wing leper colony is always accepting new members.

In this case I wonder if Brand could see the writing on the wall regarding his past behavior and decided years ago to be proactive by building up a right wing fanbase that we see circling the wagons around him today. There was certainly a quite pronounced pivot for him, like you point out.

If you're a sex pest it's extremely clear what side of the partisan divide is more willing to not only overlook, but stridently defend their own.
 
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Brand has drifted out of fashion, in the same way Bernard Manning did.
 
Jack by the hedge said:
I couldn't help thinking how noble and high-minded it is of YouTube to decide to pocket the advertising earnings from continuing to stream his videos.
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I was under the impression that YouTube channels demonetized for objectionable content no longer carried advertisements at all.
 
trustbutverify said:
Well, at least he's still funny.

Oh, wait.
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The BBC and Channel 4 are removing his content, because viewing is now deeply uncomfortable and not funny, just as Manning and other racist/misogynistic comedians dropped off our screens in the 1980s.
 
I haven't really looked into this in detail so I'm not commenting on any specific allegations here. And I never followed Brand closely, so I don't feel like I really have a stake in the outcome let alone any insight into events. But my first thought with something like this is that multiple things can be true at the same time. It could be true that people are going after him now because of his politics, but it can also be true that he really did the bad things he's accused of. These are not mutually exclusive possibilities.
 
Ziggurat said:
I haven't really looked into this in detail so I'm not commenting on any specific allegations here. And I never followed Brand closely, so I don't feel like I really have a stake in the outcome let alone any insight into events. But my first thought with something like this is that multiple things can be true at the same time. It could be true that people are going after him now because of his politics, but it can also be true that he really did the bad things he's accused of. These are not mutually exclusive possibilities.
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You have to assume that most victims of famous people are considering how the public might react to their accusations, and the more beloved a celebrity is the less likely victims may be to speak up.

At the very least I assume victims are doing a cost-benefit analysis of some sort, weighing the toll of the huge amounts of public attention vs the likelihood of getting any justice, about whether or not they should make their accusations public. This is probably true for all victims, even those not involving celebrities.
 
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TurkeysGhost said:
You have to assume that most victims of famous people are considering how the public might react to their accusations, and the more beloved a celebrity is the less likely victims may be to speak up.

At the very least I assume victims are doing a cost-benefit analysis of some sort, weighing the toll of the huge amounts of public attention vs the likelihood of getting any justice, about whether or not they should make their accusations public. This is probably true for all victims, even those not involving celebrities.
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The way in which such allegations and complaints have been dealt with in this country, whether in legal terms or in the court of public opinion, acts as a distinct deterrent to reporting.

Not to mention what we know longer term about societal pressures not to open up about such things: FFS, that bastion of radical feminism the old English National Board (the then over-seeing body for nursing in England) put an essay question about someone not revealing sexual abuse for years on my finals paper in 1988 (I did answer that question, as I had come across such a thing on an acute ward a couple of years before).

The Graun has run a couple of pieces recently which refer back to how Andrew Sachs' grand-daughter was treated in the press after the Ross/Brand episode: it isn't good.
 
Andy_Ross said:
Cold War Steve.

Uncle Jimmy

A 'Savile Row' tracksuit Snigger

[qimg]http://www.internationalskeptics.com/forums/picture.php?albumid=672&pictureid=13738[/qimg]
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Did Jawn Waters come out to defend Brand (lad with long dark hair white beard). If so Brand has sunk way below rock bottom.

Oh and anybody who's ever paid attention to Brand would have known he's got something like this in his closet. Only surprise for me was that it took so long to come out.
 
That will be Neil Oliver who once presented half decent programmes about the coast of the UK.

He's now become a raving right-wing, conspiracy believing dickwad. You name it he's on the wrong side of the argument. Semi-pro contrarian.
 
TurkeysGhost said:
It's interesting to note how many people have these kinds of personal scandals, especially sex abuse scandals, be a radicalizing moment where they pivot hard into right wing politics and whatnot. Whether it's sex pests getting "me too'd" or other generic "cancel culture" nonsense, personal and professional failure seems an express lane to right wing radicalization for so many.

Right wingers are so hungry for high profile personalities on their side, especially those from the entertainment industry which is generally seen as dominated by liberalism, that they are more than willing to overlook bad behavior and vigorously defend their own. The right wing base never gets tired of the "I used to be a liberal, but now I'm a frothing at the mouth reactionary" routine. There's nothing these freaks love more than an aggrieved, embittered personality doubling down on anti-social tendencies in the highest possible profile. Hard to say how much of this is purely cynical and how much of this is more "community of last resort" for people who find themselves unwelcome in more decent company, but the right wing leper colony is always accepting new members.

In this case I wonder if Brand could see the writing on the wall regarding his past behavior and decided years ago to be proactive by building up a right wing fanbase that we see circling the wagons around him today. There was certainly a quite pronounced pivot for him, like you point out.

If you're a sex pest it's extremely clear what side of the partisan divide is more willing to not only overlook, but stridently defend their own.
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Brand became a reich-wing shock jock very quickly after he tried being a left wing influencer, largely because nobody on the left was buying his incontinent nonsense. He tried being a left wing leader, was ridiculed for being intellectualy lazy and deeply uninformed and ran headlong into the arms of the far right.
 
sinnikal said:
That will be Neil Oliver who once presented half decent programmes about the coast of the UK.

He's now become a raving right-wing, conspiracy believing dickwad. You name it he's on the wrong side of the argument. Semi-pro contrarian.
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Thanks. Waters is Oliver only twenty years further along.
 
He always irritated me with his dodgyness and ability to use hundreds of words to say nothing of substance like an irritating ********, but it seems the media are already cancelling this and that and treating him as already guilty, which isn't good.
 
Gulliver Foyle said:
Oh and anybody who's ever paid attention to Brand would have known he's got something like this in his closet. Only surprise for me was that it took so long to come out.
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Intimidation. Surprisingly, most of his victims aren't excited about his army of "awakening wonders" promising them violent rape and murder, while posting their names, home addresses and work numbers. I can't imagine why.
 
trustbutverify said:
Hopefully he keeps uploading anyway. I need more fawning Tucker Carlson interviews.
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Sidebar: I rather enjoy Tucker staring blankly at his guests with drooping eyelids and his mouth open as if stuggling to understand a cop's instuctions during a roadside sobriety test. A picture is indeed sometimes worth a thousand words.
 
Thermal said:
Sidebar: I rather enjoy Tucker staring blankly at his guests with drooping eyelids and his mouth open as if stuggling to understand a cop's instuctions during a roadside sobriety test. A picture is indeed sometimes worth a thousand words.
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That's the patented Tucker Carlson "I can't believe I'm hearing how evil da libs are right now " douche stare. Greenwald has it down almost as well.
 
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historically, the kind of diet alt right wing-ish grifter-y podcaster fandom has been pretty accepting of accused sexual misconduct/rapists. of course, the support isn't "russell brand didn't do it" but "well the timing is pretty suspicious"


also i don't think going alt-lite is necessarily something that he planned for. it's just they make a really low effort podcast possible. not too many people are going to sit through 6 manscaped ad reads in a 90 minutes podcast, but those guys get it done.
 
Nessie said:
Brand has drifted out of fashion, in the same way Bernard Manning did.
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In other words, Brand's act/shtick got old. The problem with building your whole career on shocking people is that sooner or later people expect it and it looses it's shock value and becomes boring.
 
Gulliver Foyle said:
Brand became a reich-wing shock jock very quickly after he tried being a left wing influencer, largely because nobody on the left was buying his incontinent nonsense. He tried being a left wing leader, was ridiculed for being intellectualy lazy and deeply uninformed and ran headlong into the arms of the far right.
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Pretty much correct, though you give the left too much credit. They can support some pretty intelleutally lazy figures.
 
In the C4 (cough) documentary "Nadia's" actual voice is heard relating her experiences.

Her voice is very clear, obviously close miked and there is no ambient noise of any kind, but it's been noted that there's also a curious lack of any breathing sounds whatsoever.

Very difficult for most people to accomplish this, although voice training and and expert use of top-notch studio equipment and DSP's can reduce it almost to inaudibility.

However, this lack of breathing is also a distinct characteristic of AI generated voices.
 
IsThisTheLife said:
In the C4 (cough) documentary "Nadia's" actual voice is heard relating her experiences.

Her voice is very clear, obviously close miked and there is no ambient noise of any kind, but it's been noted that there's also a curious lack of any breathing sounds whatsoever.

Very difficult for most people to accomplish this, although voice training and and expert use of top-notch studio equipment and DSP's can reduce it almost to inaudibility.

However, this lack of breathing is also a distinct characteristic of AI generated voices.
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This is bollocks.

I have a degree in sound recording, and being able to spot this bollocks as being, well, utter bollocks may be the only time it has come in useful.

Hooray.
 
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Anyone who has being paying the slightest attention will have noticed the absence of breathing sounds in artificially generated voices, and some will understand why this is so.
 
AI voices don't have breathing, but not all recordings without audible breathing are AI voices. It's not difficult.
 
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quote of subsequently moderated content removed


What? What am I full of?

Feel free to provide any material to support your bollocks claims regarding audio recording of the human voice, especially in the context of a professionally produced and edited documentary.
 
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