 So I think that most of my longtime viewers know that when it comes to pop culture topics I'm pretty illiterate. In fact, I would argue that I'm totally clueless most of the time However, when it comes to this particular celebrity that we're gonna be talking about today I actually do have some insight because I used to consider myself Surprisingly a pretty big fan of Russell Brand. I love his movies for getting Sarah Marshall Get him to the Greek is probably one of my favorite movies ever And I actually used to watch his YouTube videos all the time I don't necessarily agree with everything that he talked about some of his views were more unorthodox He would talk about spirituality which doesn't resonate with me But he was solidly left leaning at least when I watched him But eventually I stopped watching his YouTube channel not necessarily for any particular reason just because I kind of lost interest But now I've learned that he may have taken a very very bad turn To the right at least according to this article published in The Daily Beast Titled comedian Russell Brand has become a powerful voice for anti-vaxxers and the subtitle reads The comedian seems to have found a loyal fan base and conservatives and anti-vaxxers who have flocked to his YouTube and Facebook Accounts for his rambling vaccine skeptic views. So after not watching his content for years I will admit it's a little bit heartbreaking to see him take this turn and I have read through this article already obviously in preparation for this video And I do have some disagreements with the concerns raised by the author here having said that though when you actually look at his channel There's a lot left to be desired to say the least if I being incredibly charitable and we'll look at his YouTube Channel, but first I want to get to the arguments presented by the author in this article So she writes the forgetting Sarah Marshall actor has always presented himself as a contrarian a free thinker Who isn't afraid to challenge established views or spout off at the government both UK and US? But recently Brand who has always seemed to skew left in his political beliefs has found a loyal fan base in right wing Conservatives and anti-vaxxers who have flocked to his YouTube and Facebook accounts hailing the 46 year old as a so-called voice of reason He's played heavy to this fan base interviewing right wing trolls been Shapiro and Candace Owens Although he does disagree with them on certain points in June He asked his watchers if he should accept Fox News's invitation to appear on the network most agreed He should I would suggest Tucker. He's very fair one fan commented The titles of his videos are often designed to delight or infuriate Depending on the viewer's political stance leaning heavily on incredulous clickbait titles such as thought Biden couldn't sink any lower Think again. Did liberals use feminism to justify Afghanistan clusterfuck? Shocking Wuhan evidence did Fauci lie and so Trump was right about Clinton and Russia But for the past few weeks Brand has taken issue with the vaccine casting doubt on the trustworthiness of the FDA Asking if vaccine mandates aren't assault on people's bodily freedoms calling the vaccine a gold rush and Pondering whether people could trust Bill Gates most recently Brand declared that there was a vaccine apartheid going after CNN anchor Don Lemon after he cold-out people who refused to get Vaccinated while these videos don't necessarily flop brand only recently found his core viewership when he began discussing COVID-19 and political hot topics after Donald Trump left office So I'll explain to you some of the objections that I take with the author's argument here But just that last paragraph it really says a lot it speaks to a phenomenon known as audience capture Which is when you have this YouTube channel You've had it for a really long time and all of a sudden you post a video that gets lots and lots of views It just inexplicably blows up. So then you see the positive feedback You do it again and the same result happens So you enter this sort of feedback loop where you give your audience something that they want and in return They reward you with views clicks and engagement Which is everything on YouTube the issue with audience capture and the issue with this feedback loop in general is that you In the long term ultimately cultivate this audience that Expect you to give them a particular thing and the more you do it the more difficult it is to break out of that cycle And that's an issue having said that though. I don't agree with all of the points made by the author Bill Gates is a trash person who's untrustworthy I think that you can be pro-vaccine and also hate Bill Gates and think that he's a scumbag Especially if you are pro-vaccine because he doesn't want to release the patents for the COVID-19 vaccines So developing countries can manufacture their own versions Generic versions of the COVID-19 vaccines. So I don't take issue with that the clickbait titles I mean, this is something that we're all guilty of on YouTube It's just part of the game I don't blame him for that a lot of the topics I don't really find interesting but it's general anti-establishment type of topics that he talks about on top of that when it comes to Implatforming people like Candice Owens and Ben Shapiro I don't really care if he is in fact challenging them Which the author does say that he does now some of the portions of this article that I actually take issue with and disagree with is how they pick out certain comments and They essentially attribute these bad comments to Russell Brand now I will say that you can Kind of get a sense of what the creator talks about pretty frequently by gauging the audience and how they talk about things So it can be useful, but the couple of anecdotes here It's not sufficient to lead me to believe that he is as bad as the author is implying at least just by reading this But there's a big but here if you look at his YouTube channel It does point to a really really bad trend There's a lot of things in here That give me Dave Rubin vibes to say the least now This is a sample of videos that he posted from the last month and some of these titles were actually named in the article But I mean just right off the bat You can see how clearly all of his videos overall are skewed towards the right just based on the titles alone That doesn't mean that all of his videos are bad But just overall I mean what is the message that you think he's sending? Who do you think he's appealing to based on this superficial glance so far at his video titles? So I mean look at this one Joe Rogan and Iver Mectin should COVID be politicized Well, no it shouldn't be politicized obviously, but this title suggests That Joe Rogan isn't the one who's politicizing the pandemic by making his refusal to get vaccinated about freedom and by Opting for alternative treatments that haven't been proven to actually be successful at treating COVID-19 like Iver Mectin So who's the one that's politicizing it? I mean that's left up to interpretation, but if you look at all of his videos and some I mean I think you kind of get a sense. Let's look at some of these titles here Is the vaccine an assault on your bodily autonomy? Question mark? No. Can we really trust vaccine fact-checkers? COVID and health. Why can't we talk about the science? This is why you can't trust big pharma and you see the FTA logo right there implying that Maybe the emergency authorization isn't sufficient enough for us to trust it because you see some sort of a pay-to-play thing going on On the you know that thumbnail so without even clicking a single video Just by browsing his catalog you can easily deduce that he's appealing to one particular crowd of people Anti-vaxxers by looking at all of these titles if you step back in some you kind of put them together like pieces to the puzzle When you see the complete puzzle There's this tacit implication that maybe the vaccines are bad If the FDA is lying to me and COVID-19 is being politicized and Fauci is lying Maybe the vaccines are bad now. He doesn't explicitly say that so he does give himself plausible deniability Having said that though when you actually watch the videos, which I have a couple that we're gonna take a look at here He's not doing himself any justice here. So take a look at exhibit a this is the video titled Our vaccine mandates an assault on your bodily freedom Vaccines are now being mandated for businesses with more than a hundred employees This is going to affect 80 million American people. Is this an intrusion on your rights? Do you trust your government to have that amount of authority are these necessary measures or is this situation being mobilized for political ends? Now as ever when talking about this subject it's necessary for me to express my neutrality I am Switzerland when it comes to this subject. No view at all I am merely a floating series of molecules spores in space that through the spike protein got attached to something now I'm completely neutral. Let's see what this New York Times journalist Robbie Sove had to say in December 2020 The prospect of imminent mass vaccination against COVID-19 was becoming a reality and Biden said he would not force anyone to get the jab No, I don't think it should be mandatory told reports. I wouldn't demand it be mandatory So Biden, however, you see Biden and increasingly post-Afghan war withdrawal Situation he is receiving a little more criticism even from his traditional supporters is Changing we're seeing that ordinary process campaign promises. What takes place in action? You know what my position is this is an area where I can declare what I feel I'm neither left nor right because I don't believe in Centralized bipartisan democracy, so I'm not a socialist or a Marxist I agree with kindness compassion sharing service Supporting one another and I can talk about the administrative underwriting of those emotions because all governmental systems are ultimately Leaning into an emotion somewhere along the line They have to because I thought you know, what is humanitarianism? Why protect human beings at all? So just by watching the short clip you kind of get a sense of what he's doing here He's not explicitly saying that vaccine mandates are an assault on your freedom He's not saying that vaccines are bad, but he kind of gets you to think about these things He gets you to a certain conclusion by using innuendo and priming and I think it's really slimy Especially because you can see what he was doing there. He was presenting himself as an enlightened centrist. I'm not left I'm not right. I'm perfectly neutral except no, you're not you can try to pretend to be neutral But when we look at your video catalogue and in particular your titles, you're very clearly creating this content for one particular group of people and When you title a video Vaccine mandates an assault on your bodily freedom and the entire setup is that Biden went back on his promise I mean, even if you don't explicitly say that vaccine mandates are indeed an assault on bodily autonomy Who is this supposed to appeal to and the person who you're obviously appealing to? What do you think their conclusion is going to be when you present them with this question? I think it's pretty obvious what he's doing now. Let's go to another video I present you with exhibit B the left versus right culture war Conflagration continues to increase in temperature and many people are asking are we on the brink of civil war? Well, Tim Poole when I spoke to him on my podcast under the skin available from Luminary you can get it on Apple link in the description Says we're already in a war. The war has begun It's just being practiced on the level of psyche We're in the middle of a psychological war being subtly fought through media and sometimes not so subtly fought an Invasion of the mind policeman of the brain Tim Poole is a great and influential orator Have a look at this clip from under the skin. Let me know what you think in the comments below Stay to the very end because some interesting points are made Actually, there's a story right now a journalist was attacked by anti-fascists and I believe it was in Portland There's a video of it You can actually watch the video of them calling her a slut shoving her to the ground spraying with paint and Macing her and right now if you go on Twitter all of left Twitter says it was actually the Proud Boys They're they're so tribalist on on their worldview they will not accept fault for their own side and Obviously, I think the right has its faults. I think the Proud Boys who show up to fight are causing, you know, equal trouble to a certain degree and People have just they have their sides that they want to fight. They're they're not interested in what is true They're interested in what they believe and they're interested in confirmation bias. I think When independent voters start swinging away from Biden, which they are and they might vote for Republicans Which I don't necessarily think solves any of the problems You'll end up with a massive reaction on a scale much worse than we saw in 2020 with the riots because People are entrenched, you know, they don't want to back down from what they believe to be true or their worldview And I think just one final thought on this a simple way to explain the difference I do not think you will ever see A large movement of Trump supporters embracing critical race applied principles critical race praxis You will see that You know the left will obviously be very much in favor of their vision of equity and equal outcomes and you know racial quotas The right won't do that And so long as you have two governments, you know fighting over control of one centralized system where they want to implement their moral framework I think it ultimately ends up with some kind of implosion So ask yourself, who is this for? Is this for left wingers? You have tim pull here attacking the left saying that they're as bad as proud boys and that they're Tribalistic and they're very biased and the right has their problems too, but I mean the left Let me tell you about the left with their critical race theory peddling Nonsense racial quotas Who is this for? Come on This isn't for left wingers. This is for right wingers right wingers who are tuning in Because now they realize that wrestle brand is going to tell them exactly what they want to hear He's going to reinforce their world views and maybe he doesn't reinforce their world views explicitly But he gives them enough presents them with enough information to where they can make their own decision Even though they've kind of been led to that particular place Now one last clip that I want to show you this is from the nikimanage COVID vaccine testicle discourse that I thankfully missed When it was taking place take a look nikimanage is there to have an opinion on a Controversial subject and is now getting the ire of the government and commentators everywhere Should public figures and celebrities and that be able to say stuff or is it irresponsible? And should it be stamped out or does it depend if they're parrot in your perspective or not? Let's work it out right now and became impotent after getting the COVID jab Also like this news is framing it as a series of anti-vax tweets i.e. it belongs to a genre Which I think is a little unfair because there's some of the most personal and particular information I've ever read in text form. I should clarify at this point that I have no opinion on any medical crisis or pandemic treatment of what you should do as an individual or any opinions about anything See me as sort of like a glass sphere floated through space the information just goes through So just pray on it and make sure you're comfortable with your decision and not bullied Now that suggests that nikimanage's general view is that it shall be an individual choice Made by each of us individually cool nikimanage. I guess it's like nikimanage is being utilised By any side on this argument people that are circumspect hesitant cynical about the Vax concerned about the reporting of anomalies will think ah nikimanage freedom fighter People that are like no just get vaccinated. This is an unprecedented crisis nikimanage She stepped out of line if a celebrity says something that's a bit mad they're a celebrity And if you agree with them cool you're into them and you like them if you disagree with them Oh, you know they're a celebrity. Everyone gets all serious. Oh no, but with your platform With your platform you should be saying what I would say if I had your platform That's not how reality works people are all different No, see that right there is what I take issue with using your platform responsibly Doesn't mean that you can't share your own opinions even if they're spicy But using your platform responsibly means that you very clearly differentiate between What are facts and opinion if I say it's my opinion and people know it's my opinion No harm no foul but what nikimanage did there is she didn't just Dare to share her bold opinion she presented an anecdote and made it seem as if This is some widespread phenomenon. She implied that there's a cause and effect Relationship between the vaccines and impotency. That's not her just sharing her opinion That's her sharing incorrect facts or what people will perceive to be facts About the COVID-19 vaccines that may persuade people to not get the vaccines Themselves and what we know so far based on facts is that the vaccines have saved Hundreds of thousands of lives so by her saying that having one of her impressionable Fans view that they might think wow, I don't want my my testicles to swell up I guess I should probably avoid getting the vaccine That's dangerous and again he presented himself as a neutral arbiter of information Here but when you look at his channel he's obviously deliberately trying to appeal To a very specific group of people so I find it especially disingenuous and slimy If you're going to clearly pander to anti-vaxxers that's what he's doing come on But yet still claim oh well I'm neutral no you're not you're you're pretty clearly Taking a position you don't have to take a position explicitly to take a position You can take a position implicitly you can say things without saying them directly And that's what he's doing here. It's pretty obvious. So I've seen enough This is um Not good Russell brand. I mean, I'm not gonna say That he's as bad as Tucker Carlson or even Jimmy door for that matter And I don't agree with all of the points of contention in the article But I mean he's undeniably a powerful voice for anti-vaxxers Given how big his platform is at this point and how famous he is And even if it could be a lot worse than I was expecting after having read that article It's still not helping us during a public health crisis. This is unhelpful. You're pandering to anti-vaxxers He knows it. He could be in denial But this is the result of audience capture And it's bad overall You're not helping us get the virus under control by implicitly discouraging people to take the vaccine And during a public health crisis. I just I don't appreciate that and I find it especially Gross when you very clearly present a particular skewed image to people and a narrative to people But yet you claim that you're just some neutral arbiter who's sitting in the middle You're not taking a stand. You're not left. You're not right. You're totally above the frame No, you're not You're now functionally in the camp of right wingers at least on this issue And It's not a good look Recovery mode my brain idea Recovery mode my brain idea