I'm the main problem. I'm the main problem.
Let's go full screen on Russell. Welcome to the AAA, the A A A,
the the the It's not baseball or a or a high end video game.
No, it's it's ask Al anything for you beloved patrons.
I thought it'd be interesting to see if you've got any questions
for me and questions you have, which is which is fun and
hopefully I've got a new camera here as well.
And hopefully you can see me in shining higher definition here
of of some description. So I don't know test run.
Anyway, we'll see how it goes. I've been fiddling with the
settings a little bit, so hopefully it looks decent.
Anyway, we're going to jump off with a a couple of kind of
Russell oriented questions because I'll put in a little
preview of this out on the main feed for people to get a little
taste. And I thought, you know, keep it
relevant and we'll get into some more personal stuff a little bit
later. So we're going to jump off with
a question from Natalie's Hot tea, The Elixir of Life.
And I must use the full name in that instance.
Oh, I think we've got Popo. Is it Popo or ambulance?
There's something, I tell you what.
Like, I live in a small town. Nothing ever happens here.
So like when you hear sirens, ah, it's an ambulance.
Ah, that's what I'm saying. Well, I hope whoever it is is
fine anyway. Nothing ever happens here.
So like when when you hear sirens, it's like, oh OK,
Natalie's hot TV likes of life. What do you think is the future
of Russell Brand and his brand of grifter in general?
We've been dealing with an epidemic of this kind of asshole
media figure over the last decade, and I wonder how this
pops is going to leave its mark on our collective Western quote
UN quote culture. Yeah, I mean, the future of
Russell Brand specifically. Hopefully prison.
That'd be good. I I would like prison if that's
an option. However, what I will say is even
even in the event of him going to prison, you know, he's
managed to kind of make the narrative so much of A
conspiracy against him. You know, oh, it's the MI 5 and
government and the CIA, all of them trying to take me down and
the, and the media. It's all, it's all a big whole
thing. That even if he does go to
prison, I reckon he'd be able to keep up the kind of martyr
status and still be able to, to get a good grift going when he
gets out. Which, you know, I mean,
unfortunately, I would say the charges for, you know, the
things he's on trial for, which would be rape, sexual assault,
etcetera. Like the, the actual sentencing
is pretty, in my opinion, lenient in this country.
So I think, you know, five years, 10 years, I don't think
he'd be gone away for long anyway.
And I think he would manage to turn it to his benefit, though
he'd probably have a miserable time while he was there.
But failing that, I mean, say he doesn't end up in prison.
The future of of this brand of grifter in general, the future
looks pretty bright for them. Unfortunately, You know, we're
we're reaching, we're reaching that point of I think as a
society where we're, we're collectively realizing that, oh,
it doesn't matter what I say to these people because they
believe the thing anyway. Like my show is, is never like
I, I will be shocked if my show changes anyone's mind.
You know, if, if, if someone comes into this with an open
heart, you know, and from Russell's kind of sphere of
things and is actually like, yeah, you know what?
He is a shit, you know, then I, I'll be genuinely surprised
because we are, we are all kind of siphoned off and separated
off into different media bubbles.
And that one in particular, the one of, of right wing conspiracy
theory stuff is, is so incredibly toxic and, and
isolating in its nature. The, the people can't get out,
you know, and people, people become incredibly radicalized
even when they don't think they're particularly radical.
And you get a situation of of kind of programming not too
dissimilar to what happened a century ago in, in, in Germany,
right. And so you kind of look at the
thing of like, well, you know, how how do you how do you kind
of de propagandize and kind of, you know, get people back to
some kind of neutral base of like at least appreciating
facts? And how do you do that on mass?
Like, I've no fucking idea. We we had to kill half of them
last time, you know, and, and and that whole thing was bad.
And so when you, when you then kind of think about all the
people that are doing it, I'm like, Oh yeah, no, they're,
they've, they've got a while to go.
They, you know, the things, things, things are still ramping
up. Things are still ramping up
politically and in and in every other aspect.
And I think we've got a while to go of that.
And I think, you know, line is going to keep going up until
something's got to give eventually.
But you know, in the, in the grand scheme of things, you
know, end of World War 2 is, is 1945, We're currently in like
1932, something like that. You know, we've, we've got some
time. And so these kind of asshole
media figures in general, they're going to keep ramping it
up. Not to say they don't have a few
spanners in the works, though. Obviously, you know, a bunch of
them are starting to kind of eat each other over divisions over
Trump because a couple of them have realized, hey, this guy's
not going to be around that much longer.
I need to pivot, you know, to, to be able to kind of separate
myself from the pack. And, and, you know, because not
only is he not going to be around much longer, but also
he's, he's doing a bad job. And it's it's increasingly
difficult to defend him from the from the perspective that he's
going to do everything we want him to because he's not doing
everything we want him to. So, you know, there, there are,
there are, there are hurdles and pitfalls in, in the way for
these people. But but you know, most of them
are, are pretty adept at pivoting about the place to be
able to manoeuvre in this space, you know, and a good chunk of
the time, I mean, you see it enough with Alex Jones.
You know, they don't even need to get it right on the first
try. You know, they, they can, they
can pivot in that direction and be like, whoop, that's not
working. And then just go in the opposite
way. And and nobody seems to really
hold them accountable or give a shit about hypocrisy or, or any
of that side of things. So yeah, how it's going to leave
its mark on our collective, on our collective culture.
It's it's not good. It's not good.
What I will say is happening in the UK at the moment is kind of
interesting politically because the Conservatives after 14 years
of destroying the country, kind of imploded.
And now the Labour Party are, are in a position where like
basically they've shot themselves in the foot so many
times. And, and it's, it's been
fascinating to watch a government just be like, because
they'll shoot themselves in the foot with like a handgun.
And then they're just like, you know what, it's not enough.
And they'll graduate to like a fucking AK47, then a shotgun.
And, and at this point I'm just, I'm just looking at news about
the Labour government in general.
I'm like, oh, you're, you're aiming an RPG at your own feet.
Is, is what's happening here repeatedly.
And so they, they've kind of destroyed any hope of them, of
them coming in the in the next election.
And there is a, there is a Senate election happening in
Wales, right? The, the Senate is, is Welsh
Parliament and we, we don't have as much power as even Scottish
Parliament have because not as many things have been devolved
to us. It's it's complicated, but not
really just classic more, more discrimination against the
Welsh. But you know, this election's
coming up and traditionally Wales have always been like
Labour majority since forever, you know, and, and, and that's
based in kind of the roots of of kind of Welsh socialism being a
big part of the Labour Party. That was, and that being, you
know, what, what created the NHS essentially it was Welsh
socialism. It was, it was, it was based off
of minors essentially, you know, kind of grouping together and
looking after each other and then doing that on a broader
scale. But anyway, what's what's
happening there politically is, is, is neither the Tories nor
Labour are polling at all in Wales anymore in, in any
significant metric, which is remarkable.
And so the, the two parties you have left are Plaid Cymru, who,
who I support and have voted for, who are, you know, leftist
and, and very pro Welsh independence.
And then you've got Reform, which is Nigel Farage's party.
And so in terms of the mark on our culture at the moment,
everyone is being driven further to extremes.
We are seeing almost in real time the death of centrism, for
now anyway, because it's just nobody's happy with it.
Everyone's pissed off. I, I had a family gathering, you
know, a little while back, you know, and I've, I've got a
couple of right wing family members, as do we all.
And what was really interesting was despite coming from total
fucking opposite directions, politically, we could all unify
around the fact that we fucking hated Keir Starmer.
That was something we all agreed on, you know, and, and I think
that's telling. So I, I get, I guess I don't
know, the best we can hope for as people are driven to extremes
is that the extreme left will somehow win out, you know, like
I guess because ultimately that will be better for everyone in
terms of policy and everything else.
And that's what happened. There was a by election in
Caerphilly, you know, for, for the Senev and, and Reform lost
to Blight Cymru in that instance, which is a good
indicator, certainly positive at least.
But yeah, and, and I think what's going to happen in, in
the UK in the next election in general is we're going to see a
coalition government of some form.
And it's whether it's going to be reform on the Tories or
Greens and maybe Labour, maybe Lib Dem, I don't know.
No, the Lib Dems are fucking you.
They, they just, they're like photo opportunities.
That's all. They that's all they really seem
to stand for. But of course, America doesn't
have that is the thing like you, you guys are somehow more
entrenched than we are in, in, in terms of in terms of
political parties. Here's the thing, like in France
and Germany and places like that that are more democratic than
the UK because they don't have a first past the post system like
we do. It's not surprising to see
coalition governments like throughout Europe, but you know,
to, to see a coalition government in the UK, something
has to have gone truly fucking disastrously wrong, which it
has. But you guys don't even have
that because there's, there's such a monopoly on both sides
and so much money and so much is entrenched.
It's unbelievable. And so you have this problem in
the US of of like you don't have leftist alternatives.
You don't have these because the DNC won't let them run.
You know, you know, you're you're going to get fucking.
I don't know someone else who decides that palling around with
the Chinese is a good idea. You know, on the left and then
the right are going to be like, no, we want literal Hitler this
time. We're going to revive him and
we're going to make him president.
We're going to change the constitution so that it can
actually be someone born in Germany, you know, in the 1800s.
That's. And that's who we want.
Yeah. It's it's not it's not a
positive outlook. I'm not going to lie to you, but
you know, that's not to say that all hope is lost.
Like I said, the, the, the, the main thing is, is leftism.
Leftism has to, has to be able to, to come together and go
further left. Like the, the further they go
right, though we should, we should just be openly advocating
fucking straight up communism at this point.
But like, you know what, screw it.
Universal basic income for everyone.
Yep. What are you going to do?
You know, you want to frigging, you know, put all of the, put
all of the migrants in prison. Well then you know, we're, we're
going to, I don't know, yeah, just give everyone money is what
we're going to do. And you know, in, in the US
healthcare, healthcare might be a start.
It's difficult for me to kind of measure in terms of metrics
because obviously, you know, the UK is is semi socialist in it's
nature. And and and it's it's easy for
me to forget like, Oh yeah, there's so many basic shit that
you guys just don't even have that like Christ, that's radical
to you people, to your country. Anyway, in any case, yeah,
that's where we stand. We just need to unify the left.
And Zoran Mamdani winning in New York is a good indicator as well
of like potential flat. But yeah, the problem that the
US has is, is, is that entrenchment and, and the amount
of control that the DNC has has over how that's going to go.
Whereas at least over here we do have the alternative parties.
So there's there's perhaps an easier Rd. of it comparatively,
though it's still going to suck in many ways and still require a
lot of fighting. OK, so I chatted for a long time
on that one, but there we go. That's my thoughts.
Hopefully prison for Russell. That's still where I stand.
OK, Next, a question from Mag 28.
I'm sorry if this is obvious, but I only started listening
recently. How much of Russell's bullshit
do you think he actually believes?
Like, what is his actual belief versus scam slash not going to
jail? Like the crunchy Wellness versus
Christian Republican shit? I mean, yeah.
So in terms of stuff that Russell believes, you know, I, I
kind of, if, if it's any, if it's any kind of story of the
week, I have to take whatever he's saying with at least a
grain of salt because he usually doesn't know what he's talking
about until he reads it on the auto queue for a start.
And he's just kind of making it up as he goes.
In terms of the Christianity, I think that's sincere.
I think that's genuine that that he does.
He does believe in that and and and I think there's a fair body
of evidence to show that that he that that that is genuine and
has been going on for a lot longer than he would have anyone
believe. And yeah, I think he believes
that like a bunch of the anti vax ship as well, like a bunch
of the Wellness stuff, you know, and it and it's it's it's easy
for him because he's again, he's among the nought point nought 1%
wealthiest people on the planet. And so he doesn't have to, you
know, he he doesn't have to eat the same food that that we do,
you know, he doesn't have to drink the same water that we do.
And he doesn't, you know, and and so he can believe that
everything is poison and merrily skirt that despite the rest of
us, you know, having all of these things and being fine for
the most part. And with the vaccine stuff, I
mean, that's, you know, it's going to affect his kids more
than it is him because obviously he's vaccinated up to the gills
for the most part. OK, good.
Because his mum seems to not be as much of A dipshit as he is.
As for what else he believes, yeah.
I mean, you know, tiny theocratic ethnostates.
He's a big fan of that. You know, he's he will tolerate
the existence of queer people as long as we're nowhere near him.
He just wants his, you know, theocratic, Christian white
people place. And, you know, all the African
Americans can go over there and blow it right in this, in this
kind of bizarre utopia of his where all these tiny communities
are self governing and, and, and there's no war between them at
all. You're like, OK, OK.
But in terms of like the conspiracy theory stuff, I don't
know. I, I think he likes to avoid
specifics because they tend to challenge his wealthy bit.
Because here's the thing, like in many ways he can be a dipshit
it but in many other ways he's not stupid.
You know, he's he's not a moron. He he's incredibly ignorant of
many things, but he's not a moron.
And so when something comes along the the the seems a bit
off to him, he'll be like, OK, interesting.
And and he he will kind of zoom out to be like, OK, at the very
least, this is representative of this other problem about how
Farmer is doing this and very, you know, and the systems of
control and we need a revolution, you know, and blah,
blah, blah, blah. And the other thing I'll say
about that is, is that Russell, he's infamously lazy.
To, to, to an incredible degree. And I, I sympathise, I like to
take the path of least resistance where possible a lot
of the time. I understand it and I sympathise
with the impulse. The, the, the problem, the
problem seems to be where like his values are also, you know,
in the direction of the path of least resistance as well.
You know, I'm like that, that that's those, those things
should not merge, which is why he's, you know, he's now eating
beet again. You know, he was smoking a
cigarette on Infowars. I'm like, OK, what's what's
going on here? Because he used to, you know, he
used to be a vegan and, and, and all this other stuff.
And he's just throwing that by the wayside, you know, And, and
so for, for him, it would be, you know, what he believes will
be a, a case of one of the things that I can, that I can
say and do that will make people like me and trust me and are
also the easiest to pull off. You know, what, what, what can I
do to, to lean in that direction?
And that's always where he will go because he's a phenomenal
trend hound, you know, and, and he's also incredibly insecure
and repeatedly Googles himself. So.
Yeah, Yeah. And in terms of the crunchy
Wellness stuff, yeah, a lot of that has fallen by the wayside,
you know, like he's not, he's not leading meditations anymore.
You know, he was a year ago. He's not anymore, you know,
well, a year and a half ago, you know, he's, he's completely
gotten rid of that entirely. Because while you know, it's
it's, it's too much juice, you know, too much juice.
No, the juice isn't worth the squeeze.
Yeah, with his audience anymore, whereas it used to be.
Which leads me on to the next question actually, which is from
Ian from Iceland. Have you felt like Russell has
lost any of his audience slash supporters in recent years or do
you think he has gained in popularity now?
Then it's an interesting question because I think there's
been a bit of a transplanting of his audience.
Some of the old school have left.
Not all of them, but some of them have the, you know, the
kind of the crunchy Wellness ones who kind of knew him from
when he was doing videos about, you know, how to get through a
tough relationship crisis or whatever.
You know, back back when he was more in his guru phase.
You know, most of those people have kind of gone now, which
again, is, is why he will have stopped doing the meditations
and all of this stuff and why he's happy to abandon veganism
and everything. It no longer serves his interest
to do so, you know, and, and it serves the new audience better
to not be doing meditations because because you know, some,
some Christians really take issue with the concept of it,
but as, as, as though it's some kind of blasphemy.
And same with same with veganism as well.
Like particularly in America, you know, the, the right wing
Christians will all be steak eating and, and Bible thumping
individuals. And so, you know, he's he's
fitting in with them who are now his audience in Florida.
So he has lost a bunch, but he's also gained a bunch.
I mean, because like the the allegations was kind of a big
turning point of a lot of people abandoning him, you know, from
his old audience. But at the same time, the week
following, in the, in the weeks, sorry, following the allegations
coming out against him back in September 2023, his, his
subscriber rate went up by like 800% or something.
You know, so like people, people were flocking to him on the
basis of his, his pre emptive response and, and everything
like that as well. And, and you know, the
presentation from people like Tucker Carlson be like, oh, he's
being attacked because he's a truth teller.
And I'm like, OK, Tuck, you know, so, so ultimately probably
a net gain. What has been interesting is, is
Russell, Russell took a break a few weeks ago.
He was, he was off for a couple of weeks and he made like big
dramatic statements about like, Hey, I need to, I need to go
away and reassess, you know, what I can bring to this space,
you know, and, and, and if I should really be doing this at
all and things like that. And I was like, oh, is Russell
going to quit? That would be interesting.
He didn't quit, no at all. He he came back and doubled
down, went on info was right. But what what I had noticed is
obviously Russell, Russell has a, he has a personal deal with
Rumble, like his contract is with Rumble.
That's how he gets paid, you know, and he has, he has other
revenue streams, obviously, but but that's kind of the main one.
And what I had noticed around the same time as as his break
happening was that his, his actual kind of viewership
numbers on Rumble have not been great.
They used to sit at like 400,000, half a million,
something like that. And like for a while now they've
been hovering around like 200,000 Max on a good on a good
day, you know, and the rest of the time, you know, half that.
And you know, he, he's got, I don't know, 2.34 million people
on Rumble now, you know, subscribing to him.
And so I'm like, that's, that's low numbers in terms of
subscribers versus people actually paying attention to
your content. And then you look at the likes
of Steven Crowder and, and obviously you can't trust the
numbers on Rumble, particularly for actual Rumble creators.
But Steven Crowder has fewer subscribers and yet is pulling
in supposedly, you know, 700,000, you know, views on his,
on his Rumble and everything. I'm like, OK.
And I, I kind of, I had wondered whether like perhaps popularity
was waning and, and there were problems behind the scenes in,
in terms of people actually giving a shit about what he has
to say, which is possible because on the surface you, you
do kind of, you do kind of look at it and, and, and you have to
be like, well, what does he actually bring to this space?
You know, he's, he's, he's a useful, he's got a useful story,
had a useful narrative to to, you know, if, if he's going to
appear on other people's shows, you know, in many ways, you
know, being the martyr. And then you've got the, you
know, redemption story and Christian spark in lava
redemption story, right. But in terms of his own show,
like you watch it and it and it's just like, OK, you're just
regurgitating the same bullshit, you know, from from the news and
and you don't know that much. You don't have that interesting
a perspective. You vaguely waffle about
revolution every now and then. You know what, what do you have
to offer, you know, to society on this?
You know what, what do you bring to this space, you know, other
than just just more open shirts, I guess.
Yeah, Yeah. So, you know, it's, it's, it's
difficult to tell because whether he's gained popularity
or not, because in, in in some ways, like some numbers have
gone up, but others seem, seem to have gone down and others
seem deeply suspicious. At the very least, he is
certainly a much more popular figure within that sphere than
he was a couple of years ago. He seems to be much more
accepted now than he was when I first started covering him.
I'm not sure that's a good thing for him, but we'll see.
OK. This one was a bit out of left
field. It's from Griff 24 or Gruff 24.
Sorry. I immediately went to the Welsh
pronunciation of that. It could be Gruff 24.
But I'm going to say Griff because I I I I know people
called Griff in this country. What do you make of Netflix
acquiring Warner Brothers? The right wing are freaking out
about it for some reason. Yeah.
All right. I'm going to finish now because
I'm hungry and I want to eat something.
All right, bye.