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Russell Brand: rape and sexual abuse allegations, grifting and general dodginess - discussion

Brand exposing himself and then laughing about it on air feels like a microcosm of the whole thing. Firstly, there's Brand himself carrying out a sexual assault* and then thinking he has impunity, either because that's what he thinks full stop or because, somehow, he thinks the 'comedy/sleb' persona he has created plays by different rules. He's the fixed point in this. It's really about Matt Morgan, the wider programming team and the BBC itself. I doubt Morgan's own sense of right and wrong can be that great, but he's the minor player at this point in Brand's career. Maybe he's a misogynist himself, but he certainly thinks the Brand bubble puts this sexual assault into a different column. Hard to tell how he's processing it, but he's just had a giggling Brand reporting a sexual assault to him and then he's still able to play that out as business as usual broadcasting.

Then the BBC. For me it's not so much a case of blaming senior managers about something that should have been passed up the chain of command that very day (I mean, obviously, that's exactly what should have happened in a sane world). As discussed a few pages back, it's the idea of 'edgy' broadcasting (aka sexual assault), the race to the bottom, the new media environment. Throw in neo-liberalism and plenty more besides. It's a creation where nobody in power at the BBC would even conceive of this as something they should intervene it. All the obvious stuff about competition and not wanting to lose the 'talent', but more, everything is fine if it gets a market share. In fact the edgier the better - go on Russell, Jonathan et al - keep it coming. The only point to panic, to intervene, to start taking responsibility for the monsters you've created is when it blows up in your face (Sachsgate for example, the current allegations against Brand even more so). There's absolutely no hinterland between 'let the talented edgelords get on with making money' and falling into panic mode when the shit hits the fan, despite all the talk of lessons learned every time this happens. And the truly, truly awful thing to end on is that an assault on a woman at reception didn't get anywhere near triggering the panic response, either when it happened or even in 2019.

* won't bother with 'alleged', given that he admits it in the fucking clip.
 
Scots too.

O Bessie Bell an' Mary Gray!
They were twa bonnie lasses,
They biggit a bower on yon burn-brae,
An' theekit it owre wi' rashes.


They theekit it owre wi' rashes green.
They happit it roun' wi' heather;
But the pest cam' frae the Burrow-toun
An' slew them baith thegither.

The typical cheery stuff you learn in primary school.
 
There's still people making comments sometimes but it's not nearly as bad as it was. A couple years back a transphobic comment might have turned into a major barney and derailed the thread entirely. Now it's mostly the comment followed by "oh stfu."
 
Brand exposing himself and then laughing about it on air feels like a microcosm of the whole thing. Firstly, there's Brand himself carrying out a sexual assault* and then thinking he has impunity, either because that's what he thinks full stop or because, somehow, he thinks the 'comedy/sleb' persona he has created plays by different rules. He's the fixed point in this. It's really about Matt Morgan, the wider programming team and the BBC itself. I doubt Morgan's own sense of right and wrong can be that great, but he's the minor player at this point in Brand's career. Maybe he's a misogynist himself, but he certainly thinks the Brand bubble puts this sexual assault into a different column. Hard to tell how he's processing it, but he's just had a giggling Brand reporting a sexual assault to him and then he's still able to play that out as business as usual broadcasting.
.

* won't bother with 'alleged', given that he admits it in the fucking clip.
He appears to have distanced himself from Brand pretty quickly since this came out.
 
There's still people making comments sometimes but it's not nearly as bad as it was. A couple years back a transphobic comment might have turned into a major barney and derailed the thread entirely. Now it's mostly the comment followed by "oh stfu."
I'm not sure that the trans and/or non binary people would completely agree with this. But it's up to them to say tbh. I don't think the sexism's getting much better. Eg some bloke decided for me that I was being "white knighted" earlier in this thread, oh the fucking irony.
 
I appreciate the sentment but...

A blue whale calf weighs two tons (1,814 kilograms) at birth

true but a baby elephant is more likely to be next to a white cis male, what with being a landlubber an'all
 
I'm not sure that the trans and/or non binary people would completely agree with this. But it's up to them to say tbh
That’s fair comment. And I of course welcome correction. But from my perspective, generally things look to be improved but with further still to go.
 
In all honesty (and I may be missing out - I put a couple of threads on ignore a few years ago in the interests of my blood pressure and avoiding the chances of me getting banned for telling certain individuals to fuck off) I think things round here are at least getting less worse on that score. a few years ago, it was generally trans / NB people, or who argued with transphobes who were getting told to stfu and in many cases leaving urban. i don't want to get in to call-out territory, but from where i'm sitting it seems to be more often the other way round now.
 
I'm not sure that the trans and/or non binary people would completely agree with this. But it's up to them to say tbh. I don't think the sexism's getting much better. Eg some bloke decided for me that I was being "white knighted" earlier in this thread, oh the fucking irony.
I was pissed off with Pickman's not you. I've clearly misunderstood what WK means. I thought it was something women had done to them without discussion or whatever; I was having a dig at the WK not the person they were 'gallantly defending'. It felt over the top. Genuinely sorry that I fucked that up. I didn't mean to decide anything for you.
 
That’s fair comment. And I of course welcome correction. But from my perspective, generally things look to be improved but with further still to go.
It was a reply to Rob rather than correcting you but maybe I should have posted it as a stand-alone comment tbf.

I think the main driver for improvement in the area of trans and non binary acceptance is a new generation of young people with much less tolerance for entrenched attitudes, unfortunately we don't get to see much of that on urban but many parents of the new generation are helping by their questioning and challenging.
 
I was pissed off with Pickman's not you. I've clearly misunderstood what WK means. I thought it was something women had done to them without discussion or whatever; I was having a dig at the WK not the person they were 'gallantly defending'. It felt over the top. Genuinely sorry that I fucked that up. I didn't mean to decide anything for you.
Thanks for your reply. I disagree re your basis for being pissed off with Pickman's but your offence is a matter for you - you could have just called him a cunt for supporting me when I was obviously upset and rape-triggered as I had specifically posted.

Anyway, let's draw a line under it. Thanks again for your reply.
 
You've been around since 2010, but appear not to have posted about anything else apart from Formula 1 until now. (I admit to not searching very hard, but 13 years is a long time.) Why has Russell Brand -- whom you say you've never heard of -- brought you into the mainstream?
1%er might not be the most prolific poster but he's started dozens of threads on a wide variety of subjects
Thank you :)
 
You've been around since 2010, but appear not to have posted about anything else apart from Formula 1 until now. (I admit to not searching very hard, but 13 years is a long time.) Why has Russell Brand -- whom you say you've never heard of -- brought you into the mainstream?
To many (small l) liberals post here ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
 
You can get into a lot of trouble for calling someone a rapist if they haven't been convicted of it. I guess "sex pest" is sufficiently nebulous to avoid legal problems, and few would disagree that Brand is one, at the very least.
That's why the word potential was used. You can say sexual predator. The point is the use of the word pest needs to go and it's not just media, it's used in conversation too.
 
Nothing about the allegations and seems he's asking for money.


I mean maybe I am too much of a sheeple, but I just don't get the paranoia, the "hidden shadowy forces" behind everything that is the implication of what he is saying. I mean we know that - it's the movement of capital, the power that capital brings as it solidifies and exerts, lobbying, etc - but these "grand shadowy collusions", I just don't buy - and that's what he is suggesting, isn't he? All I see is x amount of victims, making x amount of claims, and journalists using their stories to make a program. Why the perpetual paranoia? But that's what the conspiratorial/trump right is all about, isn;t it? Sandcastles in the air. They think they are performing some Watergate level of deep diving, when really they are just clutching at things and shouting into a mic. It's a career in drawing the wrong conclusions.

If the deep state is only concerned with "proteching legacy media" then they reallly can't be much of a deep state. If there was a true "deep state (translation: jews and marxists) then youtube etc probably wouldn't even exist in the first place.
 
The implications of what he is saying too is that the victims are somehow in collusion with the "deep state". It's disgusting really the presentation of his defence in this. What are you saying, Brand, about their testimony? That their testomony is not real somehow, that it's manipulated by shadowy men in black suits? And if you are not saying that, then surely you deserve court.
 
I mean maybe I am too much of a sheeple, but I just don't get the paranoia, the "hidden shadowy forces" behind everything that is the implication of what he is saying. I mean we know that - it's the movement of capital, the power that capital brings as it solidifies and exerts, lobbying, etc - but these "grand shadowy collusions", I just don't buy - and that's what he is suggesting, isn't he? All I see is x amount of victims, making x amount of claims, and journalists using their stories to make a program. Why the perpetual paranoia? But that's what the conspiratorial/trump right is all about, isn;t it? Sandcastles in the air. They think they are performing some Watergate level of deep diving, when really they are just clutching at things and shouting into a mic. It's a career in drawing the wrong conclusions.

If the deep state is only concerned with "proteching legacy media" then they reallly can't be much of a deep state. If there was a true "deep state (translation: jews and marxists) then youtube etc probably wouldn't even exist in the first place.

I swear half of this shit is because people like fantasy blended with reality. The hidden 'truth', the sexy mystery that (lol) Brand or whoever has the powers of insight to reveal. Too many wankers around who buy it.
 
I swear half of this shit is because people like fantasy blended with reality. The hidden 'truth', the sexy mystery that (lol) Brand or whoever has the powers of insight to reveal. Too many wankers around who buy it.
Yes there’s huge shots of emotional gratification that goes with it. “I march to a different drum, I’ve seen through the game”. Incredibly soothing and capturing. That’s not even going into the inherent narcissism in such outlooks.
 
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