None apparently concerned about due process or the concept of innocent until proven guilty. All apparently still under the #Metoo spell of 'believe all women' with no consideration that women are as capable of lying or misremembering as men are. No lessons learned from the Assange case. No analysis about why the media & govt would be so keen to push these allegations and the subsequent need for skepticism. Even if all the allegations are true this display of unquestioning conformism disguised by poses of feminist solidarity is truly disgusting.

jeers,
I

*****

Naomi Klein:

'Of course Russell Brand's followers deny the allegations. He has groomed an audience to deny/disbelieve everything they see and hear, which is very different from healthy skepticism. This knee-jerk denialism is precisely why people with plenty of skeletons in the closet love conspiracy culture: they have a built-in defense against accountability. It's all a conspiracy, always. I have met Brand, been on his show (years ago). It took a hell of a lot of courage for these women to come forward. They have all my solidarity.' - https://nitter.net/NaomiAKlein/status/1703743886022127971

Ash Sarkar:

'The details of these allegations are horrifying. And for those asking why women are only coming forward now, imagine what it must be like to go though the trauma of abuse, knowing that the person you're accusing has all the advantages of wealth, fame, and a loyal following.

The reality of sexual violence is that it can be deeply disorienting and confusing. It's easy to sit on the sidelines and say "well, if it happened to me, I'd do *this" but that's not how trauma always works!' - https://nitter.net/AyoCaesar/status/1703069656901161314#m

(Both retweeted by https://nitter.net/OwenJones84/ who has yet to come up with his own shitty put-down, and has only tweeted about Brand twice, tangentially, since he endorsed Millipede in 2015, which Jones was of course very happy about - https://nitter.net/OwenJones84/search?f=tweets&q=russell+brand&since=&until=&near= )

Monbiot has more to say (reposted the initial thread from below):

'I've no insight into the grave allegations against #RussellBrand aired this weekend. But I've been concerned for a while about the way he now amplifies groundless conspiracy theories and the far-right influencers who promote them. theguardian.com/commentisfre…🧵
I once admired Russell Brand. But his grim trajectory shows us where politics is heading | George...
In an age of distortion, public figures have powerful tools and a responsibility. This is an object lesson in how that can go wrong, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot
theguardian.com

As Brand repeatedly points out, there's a lot wrong with the mainstream media. But there's also a lot wrong with shows like his, whose audience numbers appear to depend on propagating ever more ridiculous claims and conspiracy fictions.

Brand is not on the far right. But I see him as cynically using the themes, obsessions and spokespeople of the far right to boost his numbers. In doing so, he is assisting them, by mainstreaming far right politics. Even though this is doubtless not his intention.

The question I've never been able to resolve is why far right conspiracy fictions seem, for so many online influencers, to be the key to massive audiences. What is it about this nonsense that attracts so many people?

Here's a thread from before in which I explore these questions in more depth, placing Russell Brand's journey in the context of similar influencers who have travelled from progressive critiques of power to amplifying far right themes, such as @ggreenwald.

1. What the hell has happened to Russell Brand? Here’s my column on his terrible political journey, plus a thread on the wider context, that explains what makes his shift so dangerous. 1/
theguardian.com/commentisfre…' - https://nitter.net/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1703324378660847812#m

[...]

'Alice, one of the women who has accused Russell Brand of of rape or sexual assault, has neatly expressed the problems with the way that he and his fans have framed his defence. The following thread consists of quotes from her interview on Woman's Hour.🧵

"it’s laughable that he would even imply that this is some kind of mainstream media conspiracy. He’s not outside the mainstream – he did a Universal Pictures movie last year, he did Minions, a children’s movie."

“He is very much part of the mainstream media, he just happens to have a YouTube channel where he talks about conspiracy theories to an audience that laps it up."

"it may sound cynical, but I do think that he was building himself an audience for years of people that would then have great distrust of any publication that came forward with allegations. He knew it was coming for a long time." ' - https://nitter.net/GeorgeMonbiot/status/1703741282210787400#m

Hadley Freeman wants you to pay for the Times investigation:

'If you care about stories like this, if you want the powerful and predatory to be exposed, please don’t share links that break the paywall on this story - journalism like this COSTS MONEY TO DO. Free journalism = clickbait about who said what to who on Twitter that day' - https://nitter.net/HadleyFreeman/status/1703352760844861639#m

'Dannii Minogue on Brand in 2006, Piers Morgan interviewing him in 2006.
Both describe him as a “predator”, one seriously, one jokingly.
Yes, things were different in the past. But not that different' - https://nitter.net/HadleyFreeman/status/1703511788619284612#m

Billy Bragg retweets:

'Rosie Holt @RosieisaHolt
You’ve got to hand it to Russell Brand; painting himself as an outlier and rebel, persecuted by the system, when the reason why this took so long to come out was he has lots of money and power that allowed him to use the system to be quite litigiously nasty.' - https://nitter.net/RosieisaHolt/status/1703354954247733349#m

and:

'Cara Lisette @CaraLisette
Russell Brand won’t see your tweets supporting him, but your friends who have been sexually assaulted will, and they’ll know you aren’t a safe person' - https://nitter.net/CaraLisette/status/1703191032525984101#m