There was previously discussion about Russell Brand denying allegations that were to be shown in a TV documentary, and now things are developing.

  • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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    1 year ago

    There is zero chance the agent didn’t know what Brand was up to, this is nothing but an exercise in ass covering…

      • TinyPizza@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        They knew 3 years ago and suggested suing her:

        I wonder if that’s why this guy turned into a right wing grifter around the same time? Elon Musk did the exact same shit with that flight attendant story.

        • 4am@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Mah this is who they always were. If anything, they were a sort of left-wing grifter before; they said and did shit that would anyone from American libs and further left kinda say “ok thank god not all the rich privileged people are insane” but now that they’ve been caught out for doing terrible shit out of the spotlight, they go right back to their true selves and spout shit like “people with a conscience don’t want to bankroll my lavish lifestyle anymore! Can’t they just not vote with their wallets? I DESERVE that revenue! Cancel culture has gone TOO FAR now that affects my bottom line!”

          Absolutely no self-awareness as to how their own hubris has done it to themselves; or absolutely no scruples about doubling down and doing anything they can to keep the cash flowing.

          Remember, the worst think that can happen to a capital owner is they can become working class again. This is why they always kick and squirm.

        • ChrisLicht@lemm.ee
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          1 year ago

          Matt Taibbi is on a related journey. He stopped turning up to his own podcast a couple of years ago, and you can now catch him on random NewsMax segments.

          After seeing Naomi Wolf make the full heel turn to Steve Bannon acolyte, in the aftermath of her book and reputation being utterly destroyed in a single BBC interview, it seems like it’s not necessarily Me-too driving the flipping phenomenon.

          The MAGA right provides the last bastion for people with huge egos and well-paying careers in the public eye who refuse to go away.

          • TinyPizza@kbin.social
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            1 year ago

            Checked in on Taibbi after you mentioned this. There’s something weird in that dudes past where he went off to Leningrad at the end of his college years and then was just kinda over there for a decade +. My guess there is some flavor of komprimat having to do with his past heroin usage and probably sex tourism. He’s really towed the line for the pro Russia narrative since he started being a “both sides” guy, and went out of his way to say the Ukraine invasion would never happen. Interesting that more recently he got a home visit from the IRS after pushing the whole Twitter files thing with Musk and then cut ties with Musk almost immediately.

            I wonder if there’s a place where all these shit bags hang out together? A Club Shitbag, if you will.

            • circuscritic@lemmy.ca
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              1 year ago

              He didn’t tow Musk’s line on the Twitter files, hence the fallout. He also spoke truth to power to Congress, which directly preceded the IRS house call.

              That said, everything else you said, sounds pretty spot on, or at least, reasonable assumptions, based on his work as of late.

              He’s pretty unbearable at this point. Which is unfortunate, as he’s done some great work in the past.

            • I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              https://www.vocabulary.com/articles/pardon-the-expression/toe-the-line-vs-tow-the-line/

              “toe the line” vs. “tow the line”

              On your mark, get set, go! When you stand ready for a race with your toes on the starting line, you literally toe the line.

              In fact, people used to say, “Toe your mark, get set, go!” These days, the expression toe the line is more commonly used to refer to doing what’s expected of you, or conforming. If you constantly misbehave in class, your teacher might tell you that you need to start toeing the line.

              This phrase can also mean being right up against the line between two different things. If your short story toes the line between fantasy and science fiction, then it probably includes elements of both those genres but doesn’t neatly align with either one. Any way you use it, the idiom toe the line always uses toe as in the one at the end of your foot.

          • lobut@lemmy.ca
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            1 year ago

            I was pretty sad about hearing about Naomi Wolfe, so I had to Google it and realized I was thinking of Naomi Klein.

            Matt Taibbi was a bit of a disappointment.

            The grift is lucrative. I guess I should be surprised the number of people you can squeeze money out of it before they get wise but it just doesn’t seem to run out.

              • Atomdude@lemmy.world
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                1 year ago

                Holy shit, I did the same thing. I hadn’t heard from Klein in a couple of years and when I read something about Wolf I was really surprised, thinking it was that No Logo writer.

            • ChrisLicht@lemm.ee
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              1 year ago

              I went through the exact same experience with the Klein/Wolfe mixup.

              And, Klein has what sounds like a fantastic book coming out right now that was triggered by the confusion.

              Check out some of her recent interviews on Qanon Anonymous, Conspirituality, and On the Media podcasts. She is a really shrewd person.

            • markr@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              The wolf/Klien confusion is the subject of klien’s latest book, doppelgänger.

              If it’s Klien it’s fine.

              • lobut@lemmy.ca
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                1 year ago

                lol I’ll use that mnemonic from now on. I didn’t know it was such a common error!

                The book is out, I’m definitely going to read it. Thanks!

                • markr@lemmy.world
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                  1 year ago

                  I can’t take credit. I have up on both Naomi’s until I read the articles on Klein’s new book.

        • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          Tbf, both have plenty of other reasons to lean right (wealthy white cis hetero abled men, any or all of the above), my guess would be that eventually enough legit productions/companies will refuse to work with people with a certain reputation, so they end up grifting by default.
          For people like them it’s all about having power and influence over others, they don’t care who, as long as their egos and pockets are fed…

        • theodewere@kbin.social
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          1 year ago

          you are onto something my friend… check the rapid descent of one Dave Chapelle for further details…

      • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        Yeah, this was mentioned in the program I saw last night, I hadn’t realised it was still the same agent he had now, but that’s one of the reasons I had no doubt they knew…

      • theodewere@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        seeking an apology from a lawyer will always get you a rude letter telling you, in legalese, how wrong you were to ask for one

      • QuentinCallaghanOPA
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        1 year ago

        Even at the risk of guilt by association, the people who come to defend tell a lot about a person.

    • arc@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      It’s like a cavalcade of awful people. People who spout hate and misinfo and have somehow accumulated an audience of followers.

    • EnderMB@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      To be fair on the last one, Brand is married to Kirsty Gallacher’s sister. I’d be shocked if she didn’t know he was a wrong-un, and IIRC she had her own allegations a while back.

  • Illuminostro@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Apparently, Brand has been running from this shit for a long time, and jumped on the Fascist conspiracy grift train because no reputable movie or TV studio will hire him.

  • gmtom@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This is the first I’m hearing about it, but doesn’t surprise me at all. If I made a list of famous people who seem like sex offenders Russel would very close to the top.

  • Ulrich_the_Old@lemmy.ca
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    1 year ago

    elon musk, alex jones and andrew tate are vouching for him. So he is probably guilty. If piers morgan vouches for him he is definitely guilty.

  • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    This guy always annoyed me, if he’s “censored” because of his bad behavior, I doubt many sane people will miss him. I remember seeing him on Maher (yeah, yeah, I know) not too long ago and he was just insufferable - even more so than usual. If he went down the “just asking questions” rabbit hole, that’s little surprise.

    And - unfortunately, I know a lot of people like this IRL - people that started off maybe a bit wacky, but at least on the surface, lefties, only to end up voting for donnie, and going full maga, with the gear and everything. And believe me - NO ONE wants to talk to them about anything past basic weather comments; the minute they start up with the ItWasAPlandemicChineseGlobalWarmingHoaxHunterBidensLaptop stuff, people are crawling over each other to get to the exits.

    • themeatbridge@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      I feel like theres a “clever spiral” where witty and observant people become addicted to the praise and attention they get from seeing through the bullshit and pointing out overlooked thruthisms.

      The trouble is, clever isn’t the same as informed. It takes effort to be informed, to be educated, and it’s pretty easy to spot flaws in other people’s logic. It’s subtly tempting to slide from “I think we should rethink the way we treat each other,” to “Maybe there is a government conspiracy to inject mind control via vaccines.”

      Because the world is fucked up, and the vast majority of people take too much for granted. They live unexamined lives, and a person can come along and hold up a mirror for laugh and profit. Eventually, though, the observant ones run out of low hanging fruit, and if they want to stay relevant, they either need to put in some effort or start making shit up.

    • tron@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      Oh my god, I remember the Maher bit, you could tell Bill was getting pissed off about this guy coming on and spewing conspiracy theories. Actively rooting against Brand ever since! I believe all these allegations are probably true, as Brand seems to have a very tenuous relationship with reality.

  • Syringe@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    I really liked him. Get him to the Greek is one of my favorite movies.

    Innocent until proven guilty, so I’m going to hold off on judgement ( not that my judgement matters). There seems to be A LOT working against him here. He’s not cancelling tours and losing his agent if people thought this was unfair - sometimes up.

    There’s a lot of rape apologists in this thread though. As much as he’s innocent before proven guilty, so is his accuser. “All it takes is an accusation to ruin a perfectly good career”. Y’all should be ashamed. That doesn’t happen without MAJOR consequences for a false accusation, as well as consequences for any media outlet that ruins the story without due diligence. It’s extremely hard to prove rape cases, meaning that if it’s gotten this far, there’s enough evidence to put it into print. This is global news, and NOBODY has come out with any compelling story as to why the accuser is lying.

    Bottom line, none of us really understand what actually happened, and everyone seems too eager to write off Brand or his accuser. Chill out. More info will come.

    • Swarfega@lemm.ee
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      1 year ago

      I’m not a real fan of his. He seems like a pretentious twat to me. I agree though, at this point it’s allegations so could be totally false. It is shit though that things like this can tarnish someone’s name when they turn out to be not guilty.

      Reminds me of the “Stereophonics - A Thousand Trees” song

  • lath@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Well, on another site i saw a gif/video of Brand defending himself. To sum up, he said he has been very open about his past promiscuity many times in the past, all encounters were consensual, has witnesses contradicting the accusations, it’s a very directed agenda by specific media towards discrediting him and to stay tuned for how it turns out.

      • XIIIesq@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Well yeah, is it not what an innocent person would also say?

        In a democracy, the premise of “innocent until proven guilty” is quite important and I’m wary of a trial by social media.

        If he’s found guilty then he’ll get whatever is coming to him, but I’m not going to cast aspersions until that time.

        • dangblingus@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Going out in the media to cry about cancel culture and how you’re innocent isn’t exactly the behavior of an innocent man. Someone who truly knows they’re innocent will clam up, beat the court case, and then declare vindication.

          • thenightisdark@lemmy.world
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            1 year ago

            How many times has this actually worked? I’m not going to go on a very far limb to say that social media’s ability to revisit topics is very very very low.

            In fact it seems like it’s the opposite and and once you’re out of the media cycle you’re gone.

            I wouldn’t take your advice. 👍 By the time the court case is over and you’ve ‘won’ you’ve lost your job house and family to bad press.

          • JeffCraig@citizensgaming.com
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            1 year ago

            Someone who’s innocent generally wouldn’t be dropped by their manager either. They know something we don’t and are jumping ship real quick.

            • lath@lemmy.world
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              1 year ago

              They definitely know something we don’t and until they come forward with that knowledge, we still won’t know what that something is. And unless all doubt are cleared, the ambiguous situation will cast shadow on his presumed guilt.

        • Lazylazycat@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          Not really, one of the women went to a rape crisis centre right after he assaulted her and the investigators were able to verify this, as well as text messages between her and Brand where he apologised for raping her. The MET are asking for other victims to come forward so I think it’s unlikely the end.

    • ZeroCool@feddit.ch
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      1 year ago

      Oh he denied the accusations? Well that changes everything! Yes, it must be the mean ol’ mainstream medias fault then! Please.

      • lath@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Why not though? Media have been proven to create false stories before, so it’s not like they wouldn’t.

      • lath@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        How do you know? Was he already on trial and failed to provide such witnesses?

  • Decompose@programming.dev
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    1 year ago

    How to destroy anyone’s life if you hate them:

    1. Accuse them of sexual assault from 2000 years ago, and rely on dumb people’s emotions and corruption.
    2. Profit!

    Clown world.

    • QuentinCallaghanOPA
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      1. There hasn’t been any need to fabricate sexual assault allegations. Brand has had a long history of unwanted sexual advances and in the ages before #MeToo he could get away with it. Many women have come forward with their experiences about Brand and now the police is investigating this.
      2. Brand has been trying to profit for the last few years by grifting MAGA/QAnon folks.
      • Decompose@programming.dev
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        The history is filled with fabricated sexual assaults. Kavanaugh, Justin Bieber, Justin Roiland, Andy Signore, and the list goes on. They all get completely destroyed before the evidence shows in the dumb court of “public opinion”, and then they get absolved of the charges because guess what… women lie, like everyone else. Humans lie. So, we have “innocent until proven guilty” and “due process”. That, or nothing. Shut your mouth and don’t make shit up. I hope this happens to you and you get destroyed and lose everything until the evidence shows you’re innocent and then no one gives a shit. Maybe then you’ll learn, you evil little piece of shit.

    • DessertStorms@kbin.social
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      1 year ago

      If all it took was an accusation he would have been removed from any and all positions of power a long long time ago, and at least a few of the women he raped would have been spared.

      Instead, and even with many accusations (and not only proof but essentially his own admission), assholes like you will still jump to the rapists defence and pretend as if the whole entire system isn’t rigged in their favour.

      You are an active part of the problem.

      • elouboub@kbin.social
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        1 year ago

        I’m not on anybody’s side. If he’s guilty, there has to be proof. If the legal courts deem him guilty, then he should be punished to the full extent of the law. It shouldn’t be up to a kangaroo court, with a limited view of facts and primarily allegations, to make a judgement.

        Instead, and even with many accusations (and not only proof but essentially his own admission), assholes like you will still jump to the rapists defence and pretend as if the whole entire system isn’t rigged in their favour.

        Claiming to be promiscuous doesn’t make one a rapist. By that logic anybody going through their slutty years is a rapist. And if screenshots are proof to you, I don’t know under which rock you’ve been living, but you might have noticed that tech is able to fake voices and even video now.

        People like you are the actual problem - jumping to conclusions. “They said he’s guilty, so I say he’s guilty”. Save your grandeur and moralistic posturing.