When you bring up Russell Brand and his revolution against politics, it’s hard to get a firm grip on where he stands on things. It’s also hard to have a proper conversation about whatever the topic might be, especially if Brand himself is involved. Take his recent turn on BBC Newsnight that has many using words like chaotic, paranoid, and idiot.
That’s because Brand managed to tread water in 9/11 conspiracy territory mid-interview, all on the road to create a bit of an Internet stir with his hatred of graphs. From The Independent:
As well as shouting about his utopian stance on social reform, he also admitted he remained perceptive to the validity of 9/11 conspiracy theories.
“We have to remain open-minded to kind of possibility,” he said, asked by Davis whether he believed the terror attacks on the Twin Towers had been orchestrated by the American government.
Now when you watch the interview embedded below (above found at the 11:25 mark), you can make your own decision. I can sort of understand where he’s going in the interview, but it raises alarms when you start throwing around the words “controlled” in a discussion about 9/11. You’re going to lose a lot of people, even if what you’re saying seems pretty sound.
Of course, the part that really got everyone buzzing was the part where Brand said he wasn’t a fan of graphs:
He told Evan Davis: “I don’t want to look at a graph, mate. I ain’t got time for a bloody graph… This is the kind of stuff that people like you use to confuse people like us.” (via)
That led to a group of people Tweeting graphs at Brand, some for fun and some well beyond the realm of something you should be throwing on Twitter.
https://twitter.com/woodo79/status/525595123007356928/photo/1
https://twitter.com/LeeATrade/status/525587720203419648/photo/1
https://twitter.com/UOldfield/status/424177483554906112/photo/1
https://twitter.com/DuncanStott/status/525585532848726016/photo/1
Brand responded after a while and seemed to be a pretty good sport about it, making a nice point at the same time.
Cheers for the graphs.The 5 richest families in UK have as much money as the poorest 12 million people. Do us one for that.
— Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) October 24, 2014
Somehow I think there’s a look at a larger problem here, like how movements can get derailed by silliness and miscommunication. Or maybe it’s just really hard to be taken seriously when you’re the same guy who wore a Bin Laden costume on September 12, 2001. What do you think?
(Via The Independent / BBC )
