We don't think we can be surprised by anything that Russell Brand does anymore. He started as a funny character. Then he turned into the bad guy everyone hated because he broke up with Katy Perry over text. After that, he disappeared for a while and came back with some new views of the world that are interesting, to say the least. He seems to have come back with new ideologies that don't align with most fans. In fact, fans aren't too pleased that he seems to think he knows everything about the universe now. He's become outspoken, but fans can voice their opinions too.
When Did Russell Brand Change?
Brand has been into big thinking lately, but his views on various things aren't necessarily correct. KQED writes that Brand likes to talk about "economic ideology." He said, "I think an economic ideology is oppositional to the spiritual ideologies that are what we need to adopt if we’re to save our planet and humankind." Whatever that means.
KQED writes that the critical turning point in Brand's drastic change happened when the comedian (is he still, though?) took a trip to Africa for Comic Relief in 2013. After seeing the dire conditions in the country, Brand couldn't believe the way he lived as a celebrity (sort of). From there, Brand started appearing in intellectual places. He guest-edited The New Statesman and appeared on the BBC's Newsnight. It caused controversy because, honestly, who is Brand to talk to the British public about current affairs?
Junkee wrote on their site about both events, saying, "Brand took both opportunities to rant at some length about corrupt politicians, the malicious elite, and why you shouldn’t vote. As always, he was very witty and entertaining."
Here's what Brand had to say in The New Statesman: "Hear you this, regular New Statesman reader, browsing with irritation that the culture of celebrity has just banjoed the arse of another sacred cow and a Halloween-haired, Sachsgate-enacting, estuary-whining, glitter-lacquered, priapic berk has been undeservedly hoisted upon another cultural plinth, but – young people, poor people, not-rich people, most people do not give a f**k about politics."
"It is a sad reflection of the dire state of politics and the media that it falls to a celebrity comedian such as Russell Brand to speak truth to power — and an even sadder reflection that mainstream cultural commentators find themselves incapable of even understanding his key message," wrote Nafeez Ahmed in The Guardian, while Elizabeth Renzetti of the Globe and Mail reported, "Mr. Brand’s rant struck a big, brassy chord; he’s given shape to an inchoate sense of anger and frustration, especially among the have-not generation." This was a dangerous thing to behold, and we didn't even know the term "fake news" yet.
By 2014 he basically declared that he wanted to embark on a path that had both spiritual and political activism. In his book that year, Revolution, Brand writes, "The solution is not fame or money or any transient adornment of the individual. The only revolution that can really change the world is the one in your own consciousness, and mine has already begun."
In his 2014 documentary, Russell Brand: A Second Coming, he says, "Fame, power and money is bulls--t. I’ve now seen what happens if you make money in Hollywood. It’s a pretend world. Nothing’s real." Since then, he's campaigned for better drug addiction help and has made two Netflix documentaries on the subject. These are all wonderful things, but still, this is Brand we're talking about. Brand has even returned to school to study religion and global politics. Then there is his YouTube channel, where he likes to vent on a whole range of topics.
Fans Don't Appreciate Anything He Says
When Brand appeared on Dax Shepard's Armchair Expert podcast, fans on Reddit couldn't be bothered to hear what he had to say. "Wow, listening to this lowkey gave me a headache," one fan wrote. "I like Russell’s ideas but he talks too fast and waxes poetic in a way that feels entirely unnecessary." Another user agreed, writing, "I felt the exact same. I turned it off halfway through."
Recently, Brand has received backlash from fans because he's started to lean more right-wing than left and voiced skepticism on the importance of the Covid-19 vaccines. He seems to follow right-wing conspiracies as well and talks about them on his YouTube channel. One of his most recent YouTube videos, titled "Trump was RIGHT About Clinton & Russia Collusion!!" went viral.
Fans instantly weighted in. "I’ve been interviewed by Russell Brand. I think Brand is generally smart and well-intended. I’m also certain that the sum total of his knowledge about the Trump-Russia scandal is dogs—," author and political columnist Seth Abramson tweeted. "All that’s happened here is that Glenn Greenwald found another mark for his disinformation."
​​​​​​"I would welcome Russell Brand to the QAnon cult, but let's be honest: he's been embodying their extremist mentality for years. It's just that his narcissism finally overtook his drive to help others and I'm sad about it," one person said.
"So we’ve definitively lost Russell Brand. I knew he was drifting rightwards but this is so disappointing. Because he used to have such a brilliant mind," another user wrote.
Who knows how far Brand will take his latest epiphany on politics, but it's starting to anger some of his fans who just want him to return to his comedy days. Now he just seems like he wants to preach, and he's got the look too.
