Watch: Russell Brand Says He's Made 'Alliances' at Fox News, Bipartisan Conversations Fight Tyranny
British comedian, commentator and actor Russell Brand is not a conservative activist by any means, but he has come a long way in a decade in regard to appreciating perspectives other than his own.
Brand was so far to the left almost a decade ago that he stormed up to the Manhattan headquarters of Fox News and demanded to be let inside to “have a look around.”
The bit was good for attention, but much has changed in the country — and with Brand — since that gimmick.
Now, the 47-year-old has grown, is sober, and is seeking to form “new alliances” with conservatives as part of his personal goal to challenge what he calls “centralized power” propped up by the media.
The liberal legacy media has stood against transparency as a mouthpiece of the Democratic Party for decades. But its collective gaslighting of Americans only increased during the COVID pandemic.
As a result, the institutional left — which has always rejected nuance — is no longer listening to opposing voices. The message to the rest of the country is simple: Get onboard with our agenda or you’re a threat to Democracy™.
But something good might have been born out of tyranny: actual bipartisanship.
Brand has been challenging his cohorts on the left since 2020, and he recently began to widen his reach on his wildly popular YouTube channel to be inclusive of conservatives. I will admit, I have watched and enjoyed his shows, as have 6.3 million other subscribers.
If I had been told when Brand was married to pop singer Katy Perry from 2010 to 2012 that one day I would agree with him on important issues, I would have written that off as psychotic rambling.
But Brand is now calling out groupthink, and he has made a point to team up with prominent conservatives by appearing on their programs. He has recently spoken to commentators such as Tucker Carlson, Greg Gutfeld, Ben Shapiro and others.
“You’ll remember if you’re my age that ‘right-wing’ just used to be one of the things that a person could be, and wasn’t automatically associated with things like fascism and racism,” he told his viewers on Wednesday.
He added, “There is a new willingness to form new alliances in order to be able to attack centralized, establishment, authoritarian power.”
The comedian said that one thing he shares with Carlson is opposition to a government that he said has been “co-opted by financial interests to such a degree that no one is voting for anything meaningful anymore.”
Brand endeared himself to many conservatives on Bill Maher’s “Real Time” this month when he humiliated MSNBC’s John Heilemann.
“To sit within the castle of MSNBC throwing rocks at Fox News is ludicrous,” Brand said. “It’s propagandist nutcrackery on [MSNBC].”
WARNING: The following video contains language that some viewers will find offensive.
Russell Brand Calls Out MSNBC’s Hypocrisy on COVID
“Do you want an example? The ludicrous, outrageous criticisms of Joe Rogan around Ivermectin deliberately referring to it as a horse medicine when they know it’s an effective medicine!”@rustyrockets @billmaher @joerogan pic.twitter.com/5J0e0hkpSh
— Chief Nerd (@TheChiefNerd) March 4, 2023
Brand followed up that direct and bold attack on MSNBC by appearing on Fox and numerous other platforms where conservatives go to get news and analysis.
He said Wednesday he was surprised by how much he agreed with what he heard.
Americans are never going to agree on every issue. But Brand, in spite of his past, has proved in recent years to be intellectually sound and willing to engage in a good-faith dialogue.
That’s something conservatives have been seeking for years.
Will the “alliances” Brand is forming result in systematic change in the fight against a government drunk on power? Probably not.
But such conversations are a good start. Kudos to Russell Brand, of all people, for using his platform to encourage unity during such a dark chapter in America’s history.
“The only way forward for us is to have more democratic power and autonomy in our communities,” Brand said Wednesday.
“The price for having autonomy and authority in your own community … is to allow other people to have their own power and authority in their own communities.”
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