Russell Brand - Moving Right

Ramshock said:
First time I saw Brand on tv I thought god what a horrible cnut. But the more Ive seen him over the years the more impressed I was with him. Is he a bit of a twat at times yes but his interpretation of the political landscape and current events definitely grab my attention.
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My thoughts exactly. He is an interesting counterweight to the mainstream media. He has a clear bias in his interpretation of events but then so does the Daily Mail or even serious broadsheets. He just represents a different perspective, and one that is hugely underrepresented in the media. I like listening to him.
 
the trews are quite an interesting watch.

he's got an incredible command of the English language, like no one you've ever heard, and his best stuff is when he's ripping those Fox news guys to bits, while remaining dignified when they try and mock him for appearance and Katy Perry and suchlike. real cheap shots.

If you have to mock someone's appearance to put their views down you show yourself up.
 
Sandikan said:
the trews are quite an interesting watch.

he's got an incredible command of the English language, like no one you've ever heard, and his best stuff is when he's ripping those Fox news guys to bits, while remaining dignified when they try and mock him for appearance and Katy Perry and suchlike. real cheap shots.

If you have to mock someone's appearance to put their views down you show yourself up.
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His command of English is overrated imo. He uses far too many complex words to describe fairly simple concepts.
 
I think his hearts in the right place, but he needs to simmer down and come up with better arguments to support his views, than the usual stream of consciousness / thesaurus fueled, ADD rambling.
 
I think that he cost Ed far more votes than he won him with that interview before the election. It was funny to see his genuine surprise that Ed lost afterwards, he really thought that he could influence the election!

I still am a kind of fan. I used to listen to his radio show back in the day when he was making his breakthrough. It was very good.
 
Classical Mechanic said:
I think that he cost Ed far more votes than he won him with that interview before the election. It was funny to see his genuine surprise that Ed lost afterwards, he really thought that he could influence the election!
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Definitely, I thought that at the time as well.

I think Brand is one of the most obvious pseudo-intellectuals currently alive. Fancies himself as a Chomsky type figure, but he's more like Alex Jones.
 
Sandikan said:
the trews are quite an interesting watch.

he's got an incredible command of the English language, like no one you've ever heard, and his best stuff is when he's ripping those Fox news guys to bits, while remaining dignified when they try and mock him for appearance and Katy Perry and suchlike. real cheap shots.

If you have to mock someone's appearance to put their views down you show yourself up.
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Using sesquipedalian language isn't an incredible command of the language. It comes across as ostentatious; making him seem quite magniloquent. Anyone can read a dictionary and use formidable language and in his case he doesn't come off as well-read or as staunch opposition to 'elites'.

Honestly though his use of language is just a further part of his flamboyant character and comes off as pretentious and trying too hard and the problem is people watch his videos and think 'oh look at his amazing use of language!' There's a reason 'elites' in politics and the media don't talk like that and it's about, as someone above mentioned, optimal communication and familiarity to the audience.

He's a comedian commenting on social issues.
 
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/...ew-New-Left-is-Probably-Not-Going-to-Save-Us#

Interesting article even if it's a few years old. Some pertinent quotes:

Consider this: When you hear the term multi-tasking, how often is it spoken of glowingly, as an ideal goal to be sought with near-religious fervor, vs. being spoken of as the inherent compromise it actually is? Personally, I've never seen it referred to negatively, as something that was hindering the achievement of any desirable goal. And frankly, that fact makes me think that some amazingly effective cultural brainwashing has occurred. Everyone is brought to believe that "multi-tasking" means something akin to "two for the price of one" rather than being what it really is - 1.5 for the price of two, 2 for the price of 4, or 3 for the price of 9, etc. "We're going to force you to do so many things at once that you won't have the necessary attention or energy left to make effective plans, understand what you're doing, or make any sensible moral judgments about it."

It's the new form of making workers too tired to attend labor union meetings: Make them too distracted and intellectually occupied to form coherent subversive thoughts and effectively implement them into action.
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Millennials have grown up in an environment of extreme group interaction, where they interact on some level with hundreds, thousands, even millions of people on an hourly basis, if not minute-to-minute. Their sense of identity and even personhood is more diffuse, distributed among far more activities and shallower connections, with deeper ones increasingly treated as the distractions rather than being the more important things that are distracted from. Growing up with the early versions of the internet, I'm personally aware of this phenomenon in myself, but it was incomplete enough in my childhood that I can see it. They can't. They have no conception of their vulnerability no matter how frequently it's demonstrated to them, and that worries me.
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If the "New New Left" is going to be of any use to our future, Millennials will have to learn something that this electronic culture is failing to teach them: Self-awareness. I don't mean selfishness, or self-involvement, or solipsism, or idiocy, or any of the other numerous counterfeits for self-awareness that proliferate on the internet. I mean taking responsibility for setting the boundaries of your own relationships and actions, and learning how to focus on a single thing in depth for an extended period of time. In other words, learning how to exist as a human being with independent sensory organs, the ability to reflect on what they tell you, and the ability to draw independent moral and intellectual conclusions based on that that are not dictated by social consensus. In other words, critical thinking and independent will.
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Jam said:
Using sesquipedalian language isn't an incredible command of the language. It comes across as ostentatious; making him seem quite magniloquent. Anyone can read a dictionary and use formidable language and in his case he doesn't come off as well-read or as staunch opposition to 'elites'.

Honestly though his use of language is just a further part of his flamboyant character and comes off as pretentious and trying too hard and the problem is people watch his videos and think 'oh look at his amazing use of language!' There's a reason 'elites' in politics and the media don't talk like that and it's about, as someone above mentioned, optimal communication and familiarity to the audience.

He's a comedian commenting on social issues.
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I disagree. you've clearly hunted around on a thesaurus to use some huge words. His use isn't like that at all.

And of course politics isn't about using wordy terminology, it's rhetoric, get as many people on side for their votes. Simples.
 
Sweet Square said:


It's all very wishy washy(In the same vein as someone like Deepak Chopra). Michael Shermer calls it Religious Woo Woo which is good description.


Also vanilla hydrogen sounds yummy.
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Ughh.. that was painful. Each time he posts a decent video it's obliterated by one like this.
 
Jam said:
Using sesquipedalian language isn't an incredible command of the language. It comes across as ostentatious; making him seem quite magniloquent. Anyone can read a dictionary and use formidable language and in his case he doesn't come off as well-read or as staunch opposition to 'elites'.

Honestly though his use of language is just a further part of his flamboyant character and comes off as pretentious and trying too hard and the problem is people watch his videos and think 'oh look at his amazing use of language!' There's a reason 'elites' in politics and the media don't talk like that and it's about, as someone above mentioned, optimal communication and familiarity to the audience.

He's a comedian commenting on social issues.
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You're right that it doesn't take much intelligence to be grandiloquent in a vlog. The impressive thing about him is he's just as eloquent when speaking off the cuff. I read his first autobiography ages ago and he clearly has a way with words, I can't help rolling my eyes at the tired "sixth former who's been bought a thesaurus" accusation.

My favourite video of his remains the one about mental health, I think it might have been at the time of the German wings crash. My favourite for reasons other than being funny that is, the ones where he replies to comments tend to be the funniest ones.
 
Sweet Square said:


It's all very wishy washy(In the same vein as someone like Deepak Chopra). Michael Shermer calls it Religious Woo Woo which is good description.


Also vanilla hydrogen sounds yummy.
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Without rewatching, from what I remember I more or less agree with him but I'd never make a video about it presuming that I could change a single persons mind :lol:. It's a very personal thing (I don't mean that as in private) and something that's far beyond the realms of rational debate.
 
soap said:
You're right that it doesn't take much intelligence to be grandiloquent in a vlog. The impressive thing about him is he's just as eloquent when speaking off the cuff. I read his first autobiography ages ago and he clearly has a way with words, I can't help rolling my eyes at the tired "sixth former who's been bought a thesaurus" accusation.

My favourite video of his remains the one about mental health, I think it might have been at the time of the German wings crash. My favourite for reasons other than being funny that is, the ones where he replies to comments tend to be the funniest ones.
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He is grandiloquent though, nonetheless.
 
Sweet Square said:


It's all very wishy washy(In the same vein as someone like Deepak Chopra). Michael Shermer calls it Religious Woo Woo which is good description.


Also vanilla hydrogen sounds yummy.
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He's so annoying. I just cant understand what he is saying...Gave up halfway
 
He belongs to a different decade.
 
You can make any old rubbish sound insightful if you say it with big words and a cheeky smile. And any old rubbish is usually what he says, which makes it a shame that so many people fall for it.
 
11101 said:
You can make any old rubbish sound insightful if you say it with big words and a cheeky smile. And any old rubbish is usually what he says, which makes it a shame that so many people fall for it.
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I think he says things to are reasonable for level of intelligence. He uses his celebrity to give himself a platform where he can express his opinion. Generally I think his opinions are OK, I find myself agreeing with him on drugs (or at least what he said when he was interviewed by Channel 4). Not everyone can have profound and novel thoughts about the world. I worry more about people falling for the rubbish that someone like Ben Shapiro comes out with.
 
We need more people like Russell Brand who talk endless shite but never actually specify any solutions to problems.
 
Not listened to his latest Joe Rogan appearance yet, but is he actually moving to the right?

I know he has a lot of ant-vax, anti-government restrictions stuff on his YT channel and seems to be trying to find common ground between the disenfranchised across the spectrum, but I don't think that makes him a right winger.
 
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