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I was never a Russell Brand fan. He’s not funny and uses too many words to make his point. He was married to Katie Perry. She’s right up there with Taylor Swift for artists I’d rather not listen to. Mr. Brand claims he was very promiscuous in the past. That’s believable. Now, he’s being accused of rape and sexual assault. There has been no trial, but Brand has been pronounced guilty, cancelled, demonetized and deplatformed. Welcome to the post modern world of justice. Although since Lewis Carroll wrote about it in 1865, it could also be called mid-Victorian. From Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, the Red Queen:
. . . “Let the jury consider their verdict,” the King said, for about the twentieth time that day.
“No, no!” said the Queen. “Sentence first–verdict afterward.”
“Stuff and nonsense!” said Alice loudly. “The idea of having the sentence first!”
Not stuff and nonsense today, but deadly serious. I have no idea whether the charges have any merit or not. They are quite old and for the most part anonymous. Here is what we know, so far from Yahoo:
Last week, the London Sunday Times accused Brand of sexually assaulting multiple women during the time period from 2006 and 2013. One of the alleged victims claims that Brand raped her at his home in Los Angeles and that she visited a rape crisis center; The Sunday Times reported that medical records support her story. Another alleged victim claims she was 16 when she began a relationship with Brand, who was then 31. The age of consent is 16 in the U.K., but the woman says that Brand was “emotionally abusive and controlling” and also forced her to perform oral sex on him. All four women in the joint investigation by The Sunday Times, The Times, and Channel 4 Dispatches spoke under conditions of anonymity.
Brand has denied the allegations, but the consequences have been swift. His talent agency dropped him the same day the story was published, and now YouTube has demonetized his channel, meaning that he can’t make money from advertisements.
This is very serious. A man’s life and livelihood are at stake. I have watched a few of his videos with commentary on globalism, vaccines and the like. He is even more wordy than when he was supposed to be funny.
Is he guilty of rape and sexual assault> I have no idea. He hasn’t been charged with any crime yet, no judge or jury has tested the claims for truthfulness. No verdict has been rendered, but the sentence has been proclaimed. And, don’t forget that men and women speak different languages. What a man may take as consent, a woman may mean that she is still considering. I know one of the anonymous victims was 16 at the time of her relationship with Brand, but that is the age of consent in England.
What torques me off is that the Red Queen of the British Parliament, Caroline Dinenage DBE, MP, has demanded he be cut off from most other social media sites:
Dame Caroline Dinenage is facing calls to quit as Chair of the Culture, Media & Sport Committee after asking video-streaming platform Rumble to demonetise Russell Brand.
Dinenage, 51, wrote to Rumble yesterday after Brand, 48, was accused of rape and sexual assault.-snip
In her letter to Rumble chief executive Chris Pavlovski, Dinenage said: “While we recognise that Rumble is not the creator of the content published by Mr Brand, we are concerned that he may be able to profit from his content on the platform.
“We would be grateful if you could confirm whether Mr Brand is able to monetise his content, including his videos relating to the serious accusations against him.
“If so, we would like to know whether Rumble intends to join YouTube in suspending Mr Brand’s ability to earn money on the platform.
“We would also like to know what Rumble is doing to ensure that creators are not able to use the platform to undermine the welfare of victims of inappropriate and potentially illegal behaviour.”
The Gosport MP’s letter came under fire on social media, with many users suggesting the former Culture Minister was breaking key clauses from the Magna Carta.
Responding to the letter, controversial commentator and former UKIP MEP candidate Carl Benjamin said: “Caroline Dinenage has violated one of the few clauses of the Magna Carta which are still in effect, that an Englishman’s property may not be arbitrarily seized or stripped from him without the lawful judgement of his peers. She must resign or be fired immediately.”
In case you didn’t learn about the Magna Carta in school, our Constitution was an improvement on the right’s enumerated in the Magna Carta. Forbes listed some of the language Dame Dinenage used in her letters to Rumble and TikTok:
“While we recognise that TikTok is not the creator of the content published by Mr Brand, and his content may be within the Community Guidelines set out by the platform, we are concerned that he may be able to profit from his content on the platform,” Dinenage wrote to TikTok’s director of government relations, Europe, Dr. Theo Bertram.
“While we recognise that TikTok is not the creator of the content published by Mr Brand, and his content may be within the Community Guidelines set out by the platform, we are concerned that he may be able to profit from his content on the platform,” Dinenage wrote to TikTok’s director of government relations, Europe, Dr. Theo Bertram.
A similar letter was sent to Rumble, which has emphatically rejected the right of the committee to ask such questions.
Dinenage’s letter to Rumble points out that Brand used the platform to issue his preemptive video responding to the allegations and asks whether he has been able to make money from his activities on the site.A similar letter was sent to Rumble, which has emphatically rejected the right of the committee to ask such questions.
Dinenage’s letter to Rumble points out that Brand used the platform to issue his preemptive video responding to the allegations and asks whether he has been able to make money from his activities on the site.
Here is that “extremely disturbing” letter that Rumble received:
BREAKING: Rumble's response to the UK Parliament's letter to their CEO @chrispavlovski to cancel Russell Brand (@rustyrockets) over allegations is a grand slam. READ pic.twitter.com/7R1h8cG7g8
— Simon Ateba (@simonateba) September 20, 2023
British citizen Daniel Boland, also a content creator was also extremely disturbed:
Daniel uses Orwell’s “1984” as his example. I used the Red Queen. You are pronounced guilty by the establishment and whether you are cancelled or sent to “Room 101” from 1984. The State is all-knowing and we are helpless against its dictates.
Good luck to Russell Brand. Innocent or Guilty.
Featured Image: Eva Rinaldi/flickr.com/cropped/Creative Commons
As I have said elsewhere, people like Ms. Dinenage need to learn the hard way that they exist at our sufferance. I have no opinion about Russel Brand but I don’t care for what is being done to him because some women decided that the sex was boring and they want revenge.
Human memories are far too unreliable for allegations this far back. Unless there is some evidence other than the “good word” of the women who have only come out now the Russell has some unpopular political opinions.
I really thought this sort of thing reached peak outrage with the metoo bullcrap.
Maybe it did. Time will tell.
The only thing now to do is fight trolls with other trolls. Like the Kavanaugh case.
“Then he said, ‘toot toot! I’m on the r*pe train!”
-was a troll.
The media seems to have stopped calling all unverified and unverifiable allegations “credible” since.
Some trolls are on the side of the angels.
The difference between a citizen and a subject.. or at least it used to be.. some in this country seem to want to return to such an existence.. or that of slaves, doing their masters bidding.. Our Founders weep..
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