Why Are Governments, News Outlets and Social Media Giants Targeting Russell Brand?
British actor, comedian and podcaster Russell Brand is being targeted by the government and media in his native country with sexual assault and rape allegations from as far back as 17 years ago.
The timing of the allegations against him, as well as an ongoing and coordinated effort to demonize him, have led to numeorus theories — some raised by Brand himself — as to why years-old allegations are suddenly coming to light now.
Brand, 48, has been in the public eye for decades. Once married to pop singer Katy Perry, the celebrity was previously known for being brash, lewd, addicted to drugs and alcohol and for being an outspoken liberal.
He has also been open about the promiscuity he engaged in throughout his youth. But sobriety, mental clarity and an open mind about the government overreach he witnessed throughout and after the COVID pandemic saw a new side of the “Forgetting Sarah Marshall” star.
Brand has dedicated much of his popular show to highlighting the importance of free speech and to fighting collusion between governments and corporations. Could this be why he is suddenly under the gun and has lawmakers in Britain calling for his cancelation?
It is a point being raised.
To be clear, the allegations against Brand are very serious and should not be taken lightly. Four women have anonymously claimed through the British media that he either sexually assaulted or raped them from 2006 to 2013.
One of the women claims she was only 16 at the time.
But Brand has vehemently denied every claim, and he deserves due process. He also hasn’t been charged with any crimes. That is important to remember.
Before the scope of the allegations was made public in a collaborative investigation by The Sunday Times and The Times of London, Brand made it a point to get ahead of them:
This is happening pic.twitter.com/N8zIKLbJN2
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) September 15, 2023
So, why are women suddenly sharing these stories and why are lawmakers essentially calling for Brand to be bankrupted and banished from polite society? Some of the theories are being discussed at great length online.
Brand Challenged the Status Quo and Is Now Paying the Price
One theory is that Brand, a liberal-turned-centrist, is the latest high-profile independent-minded person to find himself a target of the power structure that globalist leaders and those who support them rely on.
Many people believe Brand poked the bear — leading to what they see as a coordinated effort to punish him.
Popular social media commentator Ian Miles Cheong is among those who believe Brand’s bold fight against the Western establishment put him in the crosshairs of powerful people.
“I stand with Russell Brand,” Cheong commented online, after it was divulged Brand had been accused of sex crimes.
I stand with Russell Brand.
Russell Brand is the media’s latest target for a takedown. They’re making serious accusations against him—which of course refuted by reality. The reason is simple: he’s speaking out against the narrative and he’s rejected the establishment.
They did… https://t.co/4nFilIfBnZ
— Ian Miles Cheong (@stillgray) September 16, 2023
Cheong’s theory went viral and was quickly endorsed by people such as former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, conservative author Sean Parnell and Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk.
Naturally, anyone willing to publicly state that Brand is being targeted for going against the grain is going to be branded a conspiracy theorist.
That didn’t stop Musk — now a frequent target of the left — from offering his support. When Brand addressed the allegations and questioned whether there was a coordinated effort by powerful people to take him down, the billionaire commented, “Of course. They don’t like competition.”
Of course. They don’t like competition.
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 15, 2023
It is unclear who “they” in this scenario are, but Brand has taken on politicians, corporate media empires and pharmaceutical giants.
Brand’s Position Against Corporate Media Narratives Could Not Be Allowed to Go Unpunished
Many people who casually read or watch news might not have known about Brand’s newfound political positions if not for a viral moment earlier this year on HBO’s “Real Time with Bill Maher.”
In March, Brand embarrassed one of MSNBC’s most partisan left talking heads, John Heilemann, in a segment that caught fire online.
The 48-year-old thoroughly and eloquently took down Heilemann during a discussion that was devastating to prevailing narratives about media bias.
WARNING: The following video contains language that some viewers might find offensive.
BREAKING: Angry MSNBC’s John Heilemann melts down, curses out Russell Brand, gets crushed when Russell goes off pic.twitter.com/xgcr4RNaiK
— Jack Poso 🇺🇸 (@JackPosobiec) March 4, 2023
“It’s disingenuous to claim that the biases exhibited on Fox News are any different from the biases exhibited on MSNBC,” Brand told Heilemann, who had just attacked Fox News. “I’ve been on that MSNBC, mate. It was propagandist nutcrackery over there.”
The Briton went on to say:
“… Do you think you can improve America by determinedly and avowedly condemning Fox News without acknowledging that you’re participating in the same game?
“… Bickering about which propagandist network is the worst is not going to save a single American life, not improve the life of a single American child, not going to improve America’s standing in the world — and the world needs a strong America, I’ll tell you that.”
The clip began to circulate online in the days after Brand was accused of sex crimes. Given that so few people trust the legacy media in general, people across the internet theorized the media colluded to silence Brand.
Russell Brand came out before the allegations and claimed he felt this was a coordinated attack against him. Quite a bold claim.
Then the UK government tried to get all his social media accounts demonetized, thus essentially confirming that this is indeed a coordinated attack.
— Orion (@ori0n7) September 21, 2023
Indeed, British MP Caroline Dinenage, the chair of parliament’s Culture, Media and Sport Committee, asked the media platform Rumble to demonetize the star on Wednesday. That happened a day after Google-owned YouTube voluntarily ensured Brand could not profit from his show after the allegations against him were made public.
Brand has said numerous times in the past that powerful forces in the private and public sectors often come together to silence perceived troublemakers.
Tucker Carlson, whose April firing from Fox News while at the top of his game has still not been explained, appeared to endorse this theory in a tweet in support of Brand.
“Criticize the drug companies, question the war in Ukraine, and you can be pretty sure this is going to happen,” Carlson observed.
Criticize the drug companies, question the war in Ukraine, and you can be pretty sure this is going to happen. https://t.co/3T7GjBddA5
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) September 16, 2023
Brand’s Decision to Get Sober and Live a More Meaningful Life Angered Those Who Used to Champion His Behavior
One of the more interesting takes on the allegations against Brand came from conservative radio host, author and attorney Ben Shapiro — who said he considers Brand a friend.
In a nearly half-hour segment on his show on Sept. 18, Shapiro noted that Brand’s trademark early career debauchery and philandering was celebrated by the same media that is now aghast at allegations he mistreated women.
Russell Brand, a person I consider a friend, has been accused of rape, sexual assault, and abuse between 2006 to 2013 in a supposed “exposé” from the Sunday Times in the U.K.. I didn’t know Russell during that time, but the media did. They knew that Russell Brand was not only… pic.twitter.com/4zqSpJzaBP
— Ben Shapiro (@benshapiro) September 18, 2023
“Russell Brand has remade himself. And in the period where I’ve known Russell, which is really the past 3 or 4 years, Russell has been a person who is searching for something meaningful,” Shapiro said. “He has settled down. Obviously, he’s married. He has kids. He’s a person who’s been trying to put together a good life.”
Shapiro continued:
“Now, can I attest to Russell Brand’s character from 2006 to 2013? … I cannot. I did not know him at that point. Do I think that Russell Brand today is a good person? Yes. I think that Russell Brand today is a good person.
“Now, is it possible that you’re mistaken about people you think you know? Sure, that’s possible too. But here is my problem with this particular attack on Russell Brand from the media. My problem is the timing. During the time that Russell Brand was pretty flagrantly and obviously not only promiscuous but incredibly vile in the sorts of things that he said publicly about sex and about women and all the rest of this sort of stuff, the media were championing him.”
Shapiro concluded, “He was a hero of the left at this time, when he was engaged in this sort of behavior. He was treated as some sort of person to emulate at this time.”
Brand Might Be Under the Gun Because His Accusers Are Being Truthful
One obvious theory regarding why there is a sudden campaign to shut down Brand is that his accusers are actually telling the truth.
U.K. public broadcaster Channel 4 aired a 90-minute documentary that protected the identity of the accusers, who laid out disturbing claims against Brand. It was claimed Brand engaged in a pattern of physical, sexual and emotional abuse for years.
Even still, the accusations are just that — accusations.
Ultimately, no matter the reason for the sudden effort to go after the star, he has not been convicted of a crime and the allegations against him are from women who are, for now, nameless and faceless.
People deserve the benefit of due process, which of course does not apply in the court of public opinion.
But it is peculiar that Brand has long claimed that powerful institutions collude and seek to destroy those who oppose their shared agendas.
Within a week of mere allegations being made, the British government and Google both essentially convicted the actor of horrifying crimes, and in the process of doing so, they appeared to many onlookers to have for now proven Brand’s point.
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