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Feb. 15, 2024 - On Brand

02:57:09

OB #43 - Putin Pals: A Nesting Doll of Incompetence

Tucker interviewed Vladimir Putin, and Russell and his audience both side with Putin over the USA. This gets a little wild. Support us on Patreon! - patreon.com/OnBrand Buy a magnet! - realliveactualgoldyeeaaahh

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Time	Text
	This is propaganda live.
	I only suggest how to take him out of the boat.
	Extraordinary cultural moment.
	Already iconic.
	Already iconic.
	We love you.
	You're welcome here.
	Where did this guy come from?
	It looks like he's been doing it for ages.
	He's very confident.
	Plainly, and this is a matter now of fact and record, I'm right wing.
	I feel that Christ may have had a better vision.
	Is this misinformation or is Vivek Ramaswamy in the lavatory?
	That's sort of like a poem.
	Is this Eminem?
	Man, if we didn't come together in that stream.
	I'm assuming it was just the Pete.
	Now these are the kind of conversations I think that the legacy media can no longer compete with.
	Win win win win win win win This is On Brand, a podcast where we discuss the ideas and antics of one Russell Brand.
	I'm Al Worth, and each week I go through an episode of Brand Show with my co-host Lauren B. That's me!
	I'm Lauren B. And I have no idea what we will be covering today, going in cold, but I do know history's taught us it's probably going to be bad.
	It is, in fact, going to be bad, which is why we do the good thing before the bad thing.
	Lauren, what is your good thing before the bad thing this week?
	I was a little cagey about previous, I was just like, mm, shit sucks and I don't wanna talk about it.
	But I can now, so again, this might be a trend, I don't know.
	Stick with me, everybody.
	Okay.
	So our car, a couple weeks ago, our car was stolen.
	Stolen using a robbery, crashed.
	By a miner who had downed a bunch of Bud Light Micheladas because we know there was empties in the car.
	So was drunk and barfed everywhere as a cherry on top.
	It doesn't get less crazy the more you tell it, you know?
	It's still insane.
	It sounds fake!
	You can't write it, people wouldn't believe it.
	So yeah, anyway, I had Amazon returns in the back and he fucking barfed all over those, it was incredible.
	Like, that's incredible.
	Like, oh my god, okay, fine, great.
	You know, it's Christmas time, it was like a panic buy at last minute and I'm like, Sick dog tight.
	Yeah, so anyway, so that's, it's been a bit of an ordeal.
	And while, you know, living in a major metropolitan area that is great for some public transit, but there's other, there's like life, life
	stuff that we kind of need a vehicle for.
	And not everybody has to deal with that. We do. And so it's been a fucking nightmare to, to deal with.
	And so we got a car!
	So we have a replacement.
	And that finally got taken care of a couple of days ago.
	Awesome.
	Um, I did have to cancel our, well, we had to cancel our trip to Austin and our friends that listen, um, I miss you all terribly.
	And I had to avoid Instagram because you're all posting cool pictures of all the fun stuff that you're doing.
	And not even, it's not like, it's not a FOMO, um, necessarily, you know, like seeing everybody going out of the club and then you see the pictures the next day or whatever from back when we used to upload pictures from like digital cell phones or digital Cameras, not cell phones.
	It's not that.
	It's more like, oh man, because we had to cancel all that stuff because of the car thing.
	And that's a trip we didn't get to take.
	And also, my partner Mike and I both had birthdays while this is going on, which let me tell you, no, you don't have a birthday.
	No, you don't.
	You have a car to deal with and you have a lot of stress.
	So we're still having piecemeal birthday time.
	I'm, as I told Elle earlier, I'm not on speaking terms with the concept of turning 40.
	But I do accept, I accept well wishes, but just understand Please respect my boundary of not really acknowledging.
	I don't know why I have such a thorn in my side about it this year.
	It is an arbitrary number, but really unpleasant.
	I'll get over it.
	I know I usually do.
	I'll be OK.
	I'll be OK soon.
	But the car thing, like getting taken care of, is such a huge relief.
	And it's worked out.
	It's been cool.
	For the most part, we have more coverage than we thought.
	Like we have better insurance coverage, which like that was kind of the deciding factor of like, oh, this is a nightmare to like, well, it's kind of fine.
	So that stress ball being over with is kind of like the biggest, coolest, most awesome thing that's like, we can handle it.
	Oh, we did get Kia Boyd.
	It wasn't a Kia boy.
	There's no, like, awesome... Are you familiar with the Kia situation?
	They're just extremely easy to steal and it's like a social media... Yeah, it's like a social media thing.
	And so there's no, like, cool TikTok video of this psychotic... Oh, that's a shame.
	I know!
	I'm like, at least we could get like, I'd be searching the hashtag like, oh man, that'd be fun at least, but that's not what was up.
	This was just like a standard.
	And mostly like, I'm, I, you know, we're okay.
	I'm very concerned for this person.
	I hope that because they're a juvenile, it doesn't follow them in their life.
	Because that's not a choice that you make.
	Being able to discern fantasy from reality as an adult, this was not an adult choice.
	Yeah, no.
	No, no, no.
	And there's a lot of mitigating factors that probably make it worse.
	And I'm scared and sad for this child that made this choice.
	And I really hope that it doesn't follow them.
	So yeah, that's...
	Man having that done like I'm still kind of like decompressing from from that like situation so that's sort of where so that it's again sounds bad actually very good is a great thing.
	Yeah, it's great.
	And, you know, I appreciate it getting taken care of and now we can kind of, yeah, we're still doing kind of what is like two hour blocks of birthday over several weeks is what we're doing.
	So yeah, what's your good thing?
	I have an idea as to what it might be.
	Am I wrong?
	I don't know.
	I don't know if you do.
	No, no.
	I mean, happy.
	I finished the theme tune.
	That's what I thought.
	That's what I figured that would be.
	No, no, no.
	I am happy about that.
	And hey, we have a theme tune, everybody.
	I hope you like it.
	Quotes are subject to change as and when I feel.
	But yeah, no, it's not that at all.
	It's been superseded by, I had a bit of a whirlwind 24 hours in Manchester this last week, where on the Friday I went in and hung out with my little brother for a bit, and my older brother Rob had bought me and Ivan both tickets to go and see Hamilton.
	Which is touring at the moment.
	I think he saw it in London and he was like, you both have to see it.
	You both have to see it.
	It's so good.
	And I'm like, well, it's my favorite musical, so fine.
	And so went to see it and yeah, terrific.
	I'm nitpicky because it's, you know, my kind of field, my kind of area, the music side of it.
	You?
	Me?
	I never!
	I know, I know.
	Who'd have thunk it?
	And I've done musical theatre, I've studied the acting bit and all of that as well, so, you know, I perhaps have higher standards than are reasonable.
	But, you know, and there are a couple of- Again.
	You?
	Me?
	But there are a couple of technical issues in the first few tracks, the first few songs.
	But it all came together and it was great from there on out.
	And the second half was completely flawless and I spent most of that crying.
	In a good way.
	But yeah, that was really terrific.
	It was nice getting to hang out with my little brother.
	We got some food beforehand.
	He had his first ever burrito.
	What?!
	I know.
	I know.
	He's what?
	He's 20.
	So I'm like, how has this never occurred?
	He's never had like an actual burrito until that moment.
	I have to remember.
	Things are different.
	Things are different, but that is still a pretty common food over here these days.
	Like nowadays, you know?
	I'd definitely had one before the age of 20.
	I can't necessarily track down my first burrito of a given month, let alone my entire life.
	That's crazy.
	In my opinion, that's the way everyone should live.
	Burritos are fantastic.
	That's really nuts.
	Well, but I also, I'm not trying to judge.
	You know what I mean?
	No, no, no, no, no.
	I'm not trying to judge and be like, what in the shit?
	Not a judgment.
	No, no, no, no, no.
	One of those cultural things.
	I was surprised as well.
	So it was like, well, we're doing this then.
	And, you know, fairly quick and easy to eat before we go into a show.
	Great.
	That's a big part of it.
	Yeah, that's one of the biggest burrito benefits there is.
	Exactly!
	That's convenience.
	So then I slept on his floor, which is great in university halls.
	You know, I'm getting to the point where that's getting more uncomfortable.
	But you know what?
	Not the worst floor I've slept on.
	It's fine.
	And then the following, so the rugby was on the following day, hung out in a pub with Ivan watching Wales play England.
	It was a great match for the first 70 minutes and then we lost.
	Is that how rugby only works now?
	Because that's how I feel.
	That's been my impression.
	Do you know what?
	There's a theme with the Welsh team.
	I'm going to say that.
	There is a running theme at the moment that I'm not happy about.
	We had our hopes up, it was going to be a historic win against England and then, as always when it comes to Wales versus England, I'm just inevitably disappointed.
	It kind of mirrors our history quite well, to be honest.
	Too much pressure.
	Right.
	And then we were joined by Rob, who bought us the Hamilton tickets, and then us three went to see a band called The Scratch, because I'd bought them tickets for Christmas.
	Have you ever heard of The Scratch?
	So they're an Irish band, and as my little brother described when listening to them for the first time, oh, they're very Irish, aren't they?
	I went, yes, yes, they are.
	And as in, you know, Irish accents and all of this, and it comes through in their music and everything.
	But there's kind of elements of traditional Irish, kind of Celtic music within what they do.
	There are kind of punk rock lyrics coming through and their last album you've got kind of elements of Tool and some heavier stuff coming through, Faith No More and like it's, there's some crazy shit and I kind of, I had no idea what they were like live but I was like I want to see what, I have an intuition that it's going to be nuts.
	And yeah, fucking raucous from start to finish.
	It was fantastic.
	Excellent, excellent band.
	Sold out room.
	It was just a really great time.
	And oh, they're playing the States.
	They're supporting the Dropkick Murphys at the moment.
	And I think they're doing a headline show in Chicago actually in, I don't know, March, May, some point soon.
	But hey, you never know.
	Might be able to catch them.
	And they've got a few headline shows.
	I haven't posted about it on social media yet, but I will soon because I've got some videos from the night and they were just berserk.
	It was great.
	Cool.
	Yeah, and that's my whirlwind 24 hours in Manchester and it was great.
	I had a wonderful time.
	It sounds awesome.
	It sounds like fun.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Blowing off some steam, taking in some culture and the like.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Really, really cool time.
	That's awesome!
	Cool!
	Yeah, I'm very, very pleased.
	Very, very pleased.
	Now, we have a show to do, and normally here we would thank some new patrons, but we've not got any new ones this week, so what I do want to do is take a second to ask our audience, hey, if you like the show, please leave us a review on whatever platform you listen to us on.
	It's a big help to us as a show, helps us reach more people, and lets us know what you like about the show, which is actually really important to us.
	So, you know, if you could leave us a review, we'd be super duper grateful.
	Nonetheless, if anyone wants to support us in what we do, become an Awakening Wanderer, join the Invisible Hand, or donate on an elevated tier, head to patreon.com slash onbrand and you will have our eternal gratitude.
	It is this which allows us to be editorially independent and ad-free.
	As a patron you'll also get a shout out on the show and access to our patron-only show Off-Brand where we discuss anything but Russell Brand.
	And this week has been part one of what is a four and a half hour discussion about the CIA.
	This first part gets into some of the main operations the CIA have undertaken and it's really interesting.
	Very much very much Lauren leading the way and me going oh shit.
	Yeah.
	I feel like you were the one that got hit in the face with the fish over and over.
	Yeah, a little bit.
	Finally.
	A little bit.
	The tables turn.
	The turns have tabled, damn it.
	Yeah, and that's certainly like, that's also what the inside of my house sounds like most of the time.
	Yes, yeah.
	Yeah, I feel like I've alluded to it a little bit, and I do enjoy, there's a couple of folks that have been like, I don't think they're talking about the CIA enough, and I was like, Well, hold my beer.
	Well then.
	And so, yeah, that's going to be split up into two parts because we just kind of had a lot to... We figured, we're like, okay, let's just do it.
	Let's go whole hog and hit it.
	And I'm glad that we did.
	So yeah, we've got... You don't have to listen to the whole thing in one go.
	And it's also not going to be... Yeah, the next one's going to be up probably this weekend.
	Yeah, that'll be out Sunday.
	It's scheduled for Sunday.
	It will be out then.
	Yeah, you can hear the whole thing.
	It was, yeah, super interesting.
	Yeah, so head to patreon.com slash onbrand to check that out.
	And please note that while you can easily listen to our audio version anywhere you can find podcasts, you can also watch us on YouTube or if you listen in the Spotify app, the video should come up there too.
	Now then, so remember when I said, oh man, hopefully we won't have to deal with Tucker Carlson again for a while.
	Remember that?
	I don't like you saying that.
	I don't know how to respond because I don't like that you said that.
	Neither do I. It turns out I might have jinxed it because America's whitest man went to Russia and interviewed Vladimir Putin, didn't he?
	Yeah.
	That's a way to describe that interaction.
	Right?
	A hundred percent, yeah.
	Because I mean, it's kind of a historic event on its face, right?
	Yeah!
	Yeah!
	The reality, however, is something else entirely.
	Did you watch the interview?
	Did you watch the whole thing?
	Plenty of clips have made their way across my feed, so I haven't gone and watched it.
	Again, we've had a lot of other total bullshit going on.
	Boy, Tucker was out, what I can say, out of his depth.
	Yep, yep, that's definitely, that's definitely fair.
	It felt like, uh, like, is this, did The Onion do this?
	Like, it feels very Hard Times, or The Onion, or like, Crack Duck.
	It didn't feel, it felt very college humor.
	It, there was something very surreal about, so we're like, I don't know if I can, I knew I couldn't stomach it all in one go, obviously I was very involved, but like, I, jeez.
	It's all so crazy!
	It's nuts.
	It was a lot.
	What are you doing, buddy?
	Why did you do that?
	Why did you do that?
	Yeah, that's a valid question in this scenario.
	Okay, so obviously I've watched it start to finish, and I've also taken in some other media outlets' takes and coverage of the thing.
	Some I agree with, some I disagree with, but today we're only going to be covering the portions that Russell deals with on his show.
	But in terms of the interview itself, there are a couple of main takeaways.
	First, Tucker and Putin were working at achieving different things from that interview, which leads to a really weird dynamic that is both cordial and threatening simultaneously.
	Which, I mean... Keep talking!
	I'm sorry!
	I'm trying to laugh away from the... It is absurd.
	It is absurd.
	No, it's fine.
	Consequently, for most of it, Putin is giving non-answers to softball-leading questions in between giving Tucker Carlson the business, which I will admit, that's pretty great.
	I enjoyed that.
	The full business!
	The full business.
	The warehouse full of business!
	The second and I think probably the most important actual point is that during that interview Putin went on a 30 minute recounting of specific portions of Russian history in service of making his point that Ukraine isn't a real country and is in fact part of Russia anyway so what's the big deal?
	And that completely runs counter to everything the alt-right has been saying about Putin for the last two years.
	That, oh, he's not trying to take it over, he just wants to get rid of the Nazis and make sure his border isn't threatened by NATO.
	Except, no.
	He makes his case very clear in this interview that he believes Ukraine is just part of Russia, Ukrainians are actually just Russians, and everyone should stop making such a fuss.
	Yeah, not great.
	Now, I mention all of this up top of the episode because, well, this show of Russell's has a bit of a different format to usual.
	See, normally he leaps straight into fluff content and starts riffing on it while the content then gets gradually darker and more serious in tone until we're eventually blaming COVID vaccines for the rise in child deaths in the UK and then we can all go home because mission accomplished.
	This show, however, we get a monologue from Russell up top.
	He comes out of the gate with his feelings on the interview, and it takes quite a while for him to actually get to showing any of it, which is unusual.
	And I have a theory as to why, which I'll expand on in a little bit, but first, let's let him introduce the show.
	Hello there, you Awakening Wonders.
	Thanks for joining me today for Stay Free with Russell Brand.
	And it is an extraordinary day for journalism.
	It's an extraordinary day for free speech because you can bet your ass that whatever you think of that conversation between Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin, If the globalist establishment could censor it and prevent you from watching it, they could.
	They can't, so what they'll do instead is tell you that it's propaganda, that Tucker's not a proper journalist.
	Indeed, I saw one ridiculous claim, that we'll get into in a minute, that Putin looked saggy and out of breath, that his eyes were hurting, that his mouth was melting, that he was drooling on screen, that he didn't look very well.
	Whoa, it's getting crazy in here.
	It's an astonishing event this for members of our community, because if you are a regular viewer of independent media, many things that you heard Vladimir Putin explaining to Tucker Carlson, you'll be familiar with.
	To you, things like the 2014 coup and its significance That's not... What would you mean?
	What coup in 2014?
	Or the impeachment or encroachment of NATO on former Soviet territories.
	You'll be familiar with that.
	Or a verbal deal between Gorbachev and Reagan.
	You'll have heard that before.
	All of these things will be familiar to you if you take responsibility for watching independent media instead of propagandist media.
	Now it would take a naive person indeed to assume that there's not such a thing as Russian propaganda.
	Of course there is.
	In fact, some great art came from the movement of Stalinist Russian propaganda.
	But is there such a thing as Western propaganda?
	I would say so.
	Hey, that's a nice little tie-in to what will be part two.
	Part two of our CIA conversation discussing how the CIA have affected the culture by aggressively funding the arts in certain ways, and we do mention Soviet-era art specifically as a contrast.
	I know it was a long time that we talked about it.
	That was still an overview.
	Like, what I had was an overview.
	It was like a light dusting on top of the doughnut of propaganda pushed by the West in the Cold War.
	Patreon.com slash ombred everybody.
	I feel bad because I feel like my like the slumber party laughter like you have there's like a normal adult I'm laughing at a thing that's funny.
	And then there's like a, you should be asleep, but you're not, little kid, I can't stop laughing funny.
	And I don't want to take it lightly that Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin had this exchange, right?
	I'm not taking it lightly necessarily, but just the moving parts within the actual The object itself, the quote-unquote interview, is fucking hilarious.
	The concept of it was serious.
	It was worrying until it happened.
	And since then, we've all just been going... But the absurdity, again, what we talked about in the CIA thrives And I'm not saying this in like a fucking- I know it sounds tinfoil hat, right?
	But like the absurd- the absurdity of something pretty- that should be serious and is in fact actually serious, like that works in- In the favor of a propagandist, because then people are like, oh, look at this stupid thing.
	Like, it can be stupid and funny, but we still have to take it seriously.
	But I feel like I am communicating, I've crossed the Slumber Party Rubicon of like, I just can't stop giggling about it.
	Like the notion of like, anyone putting themselves in a room with an expert KGB man of that level, Willingly.
	Intentionally.
	And it's not, yeah, yeah, and that's not, that's not a, like a conspiracy, like he has
	a career in the, I would be just as uncomfortable with a CIA person that was, uh, had the most
	You know, like that.
	It's scary either way.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	It's scary either way.
	You know, like Sidney Gottlieb, also very scary.
	You know, like that's very scary.
	Like that they're, uh, you know, like there's, I just don't, oh, why would you do it?
	And then it's, but then the absurdity just kicks in.
	So I don't want anyone to think that I'm taking it lightly, but at the same time, oh my God.
	Yeah, no, it's perfectly fine.
	And there are moments of this show that will veer between, okay, this is a problem, and oh my god, this is just absurd.
	Because this is the world we live in now, apparently.
	I feel like video is going to know a lot more about when and how much I'm laughing because I'm going to try to keep it under control.
	So right out the gate we can see where Russell is going to land here and it's incredibly predictable because he's been touting Russian propaganda for quite some time but I'll make it nice and clear he very much is siding with Putin and the Russian government.
	In the interview, Putin, of course, rattles off a good chunk of the very propaganda that Russell and his ilk have been spreading for the last two years, which is why Russell says, oh, if you're in independent media spaces, you'll know all this, as if they haven't just been parroting whatever the strongman God King says the entire time.
	The 2014 coup, for instance, as he calls it, was not a coup, and there is nothing to substantiate it being a coup.
	It was a revolution in Ukraine led by the people of that country to oust Russian influence from their government.
	Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.
	Yeah.
	Now, Russell has a point to make about how the world thinks that Russell's audience are idiots.
	Ask yourself this question.
	Why is Russia Today banned on YouTube?
	Is it because you're so vulnerable and so delicate?
	If you watched Russia Today and they went, Russia is a wonderful country, you'd go, yeah, Russia is a wonderful country.
	Bloody the West.
	This is like the simplification and reductivism that's applied to matters such as this.
	And indeed, the insulting, superciliousness, the condescension, the way they regard you.
	They think that we are idiots.
	They don't think we're capable of watching an interview between Tucker Carlson and Vladimir Putin and going, hmm, that's probably true.
	Hmm, I don't believe that.
	It's a bit big, that room.
	Has an enormous carriage clock.
	Bloody hell.
	Now, I've known many a seemingly very bright person taking down a conspiracy pathway, especially since the pandemic times, and while there are ample studies proving a correlation between intelligence or lack thereof and likelihood of being dragged down the conspiracy pipeline, I don't think that's all there is to it.
	I don't think all of Russell's audience are idiots.
	Though doubtless, at least some of them are, based on the Rumble and Locals chats.
	But I do think they are an audience particularly susceptible to propaganda and conspiracy theories.
	And the same concept can... Yeah, sorry?
	Yeah, well, it's not about intelligence.
	It's about the ability to rationalize.
	It's the power of rationalization, which sometimes people that are very smart, very often people are very smart.
	And if you know anything about cults, again, my true crime My true crime bones, you know, are rattling over here.
	Like, I think that it's really unfair to even do the stupid and smart thing.
	I'm saying yes to what you're saying, and I think that the ability to rationalize and to intellectualize To justify maybe some behavior or choices or information that would otherwise be, you'd kind of throw it out immediately and be like, oh, no, that's absurd.
	But because there's a rationalization and there's like an appeal to someone's intellect is specifically why very often smart, capable people can be sucked into these types of traps.
	It's unfortunate.
	It's another thing, it's like, oh, well, cults are so stupid and crazy, look how absurd it is, when like, no, we need to take induction of cognitive dissonance very, very seriously.
	To be able to induce, I should say, induction is- Yes, yeah, yeah, yeah.
	To induce cognitive dissonance in- Inducement?
	Yeah, I think that's a kind of oven.
	Yeah, I think it's a cheaper kind of oven.
	We need to be concerned about the air fries, everybody, right?
	This is the problem.
	Well, yeah, you know what I mean?
	Like, it's yeah, right?
	And that's the thing is like, I hate that.
	I mean, I hate a lot of the smoke and mirrors and generalizations that Russell does, but I feel like he does this.
	They're calling a stupid a lot.
	Yeah.
	And like, I do think plenty of people on the left, plenty of people in general, plenty of people on the left.
	Yes, they're dunking and yes, they're calling people stupid.
	And I think that's really irresponsible and unfair.
	And I do think there's more people Than ever in public discourse talking about how maybe we don't insult people because they don't deserve to be insulted.
	They have a reason why they're in this space and they have a reason why they rationalize and they're a reason why they're buying into a narrative and we need to look at the material conditions around that ability to buy into the narrative.
	I have a lot I think this is a muscle I've exercised over many years, an emotional muscle that I have a lot of empathy for people that find themselves in these places.
	This is nothing new, I think, for regular listeners, you know, that it makes you really sad to hear these people be hurt.
	Yeah, it's really difficult, and I think especially when someone like Russell, you know, a good portion of the time that he spends is saying, You listener, you audience are more intelligent than the legacy media and the drones who just watch all of that.
	You know how to rise above it and that appeals to the ego of intelligent people everywhere.
	Bingo!
	And there we go.
	Bingo!
	Yes, exactly.
	And there they go.
	The same concept can broadly be applied to Tucker Carlson's audience, which is why a good number of people were very justifiably concerned about this interview and how it could lead to a lot more people taking Putin's propaganda at face value and ultimately working in service of the Russian government.
	Now, I do want to quickly address what is sort of a good point badly made nestled within
	what Russell is saying, which is that the Western perception of Russia as a country
	and its people is generally speaking incredibly reductive and at least a little bit derogatory.
	We got into this as well briefly in the off-brand CIA discussion, either part one or part two,
	I can't recall, as to how when many Westerners picture Russia, you know, they see babushkas
	waiting in bread lines in the snow.
	You know, this is a very genuine problem within the Western media sphere, and I don't see much of the media reporting on Russia doing anything to solve the problem they've created, and that's without even getting into the conflation of the Russian people with the Russian government.
	Two different things, often very entirely fucking separate things.
	It's a discussion worth having, there's a lot of nuance there, and listeners, I invite you to examine your own biases on that front, because it's virtually impossible not to have been fed this kind of picture at least once in your life.
	There's a great discussion that could be had, and one would argue that Stay Free with Russell Brand could serve that function in some way or another.
	But no, we're just gonna point at it, say the West is silly and go on to casually justify genocide instead.
	wonderful times. Well, and I don't know if we're gonna get to this. You can, you know, let me know.
	Stop, stop me if you heard this one. But what I did notice, I think that acting like this is sudden,
	you know, or like new that maybe, you know, right wing, the right wing talkosphere, talk, T-A-L-K,
	Yeah.
	Didn't, didn't think that one out until it came out of my mouth.
	But, uh, the, like the MAGA and even like, especially QAnon, um, early QAnon rallies or whatever, once Once Trump was elected, basically, there started to be those crazy Etsy t-shirts and cricket moms going kind of wild with their tumblers.
	Merch saying, like, my entire life, Russia was like a stand-in word for bad place.
	Like, oh, move to Russia.
	Go, oh, you want to do that?
	Go to Russia.
	Oh, if you were only in Russia, blah, blah, blah.
	And then, on a dime, like, there was a day where everyone just, like, this, like, extreme far-right MAGA crowd decided, actually, Russia's great.
	Russia has been courting the American Christian right Actively, for a number of years.
	I don't know where the chicken and the egg even goes there, but I do remember once there started to be more coverage of QAnon and, you know, the QAnon kind of rally.
	What it looked like.
	Like, what they were saying on their t-shirts, which is shockingly obvious.
	They do literally wear their thoughts and feelings right upon their chest.
	It's true, yeah.
	Merch is like a big thing and it just was like overnight, you know, like this kind of John Birch McCarthyism, all this project to hate Russia that was so emphatic in America.
	Dissolved.
	Overnight!
	Overnight!
	Just gone!
	Like, oh, we want Putin.
	Like, shirts that are, like, Trump and Putin.
	Like, yay, together.
	That's awesome.
	I'm a big fan of Putin.
	The same guy who, like, last week had a totally different conception.
	And that was very jarring to me.
	And I knew these chickens would come home to roost.
	And I believe that's exactly what we're going to be talking about, is the chickens getting all comfy and roosting.
	That's kind of how it feels.
	There's definitely some straw being settled into, I'm going to say that.
	Yeah, we get a couple of glimpses of things in a little bit.
	In fact, I do have some stats on Russell's audience and their susceptibility to propaganda specifically in just a little bit.
	But for now, let's look at a bad piece of reporting from The Sun, a UK tabloid, before Russell gets into some geopolitics.
	Celebrate now instead of this we're told Vladimir Putin let's kind of just see the headline that said that um these are the sun one I love the sun the sun is a British newspaper look at look at this sickly Putin not comfortable in his own skin as he sags and twitches and looks emaciated Now, if you've actually watched this for yourself, you'll know that he did not look uncomfortable in his own skin, or sag, or twitch, or look emaciated.
	He looked like he had an incredible grasp of regional history and politics, a complex understanding of concepts such as nation.
	This is a very important interview.
	I know already that you're familiar with Edward Said's great work, Orientalism, where he introduced, philosophically, the concept that in the West we have a particular perspective of the Muslim world.
	That the Muslim world doesn't have a right to their own trajectory.
	That they don't have their own history, their own narrative, their own stories.
	And that's a pretty good approach if you want to conquer the Muslim world and get their resources, like in the Iraq War, Like in the coming soon Iran war?
	Like in the Suez Canal crisis?
	If you say, hold on a minute, isn't that another region with its own autonomy and its own authority?
	Is this assumption of supremacy?
	Does it mean that we're legitimizing an agenda that's not beneficial to ordinary Americans, not beneficial to ordinary Brits, but it's beneficial to the establishment elite?
	That's why they don't want you watching Vladimir Putin versus Tucker Carlson.
	Versus, really?
	One thing that always occurs to me whenever the likes of Russell start talking about wars is how short or possibly selective their memory is.
	When discussing Ukraine, for instance, you'll find that there's almost never a discussion of Ukraine prior to 2014 as though it somehow didn't exist until they decided to get rid of the Russian influence in their government and then suddenly there was an issue with the place.
	How strange.
	But in talking about the Middle East specifically, first, no one in Russell's audience has read the 1978 book Orientalism by Edward Said.
	I mean, a couple of them might have done, but come on.
	The book itself does badly make the case that all Western academic study of the Orient, so Asia, North Africa, and the Middle East, is inextricably tied to Western imperialism and acts in furtherance of that aim.
	Well-intentioned, possibly, but there are many issues with it, including significant historical inaccuracies.
	And Russell's simplistic takeaways from the book are actually a very generous reading of it, in my view.
	Nonetheless, what he's saying is that, aha, the West wants to take over and control what he calls the Muslim world.
	Given that Islam is a religion and ideology that theoretically has no borders, it's a little difficult to pass, but let's assume he means the Middle East and the countries he brings up.
	To my mind, there is a big part of this discussion being intentionally left out of the equation by Russell, and that's that the West is predominantly Christian.
	And so actually, the whole concept really harks back to religious wars like the Crusades.
	Oh yeah!
	Pick one!
	Pick one, we've got many.
	The whole Christian countries invading Muslim countries concept does bring me to my broader point that Russell also conveniently leaves out, which is that in 1979, Russia invaded Afghanistan and stayed there for 10 years.
	And, like, I'm not into whataboutism, so let me make it clear that Russia doing it does not then justify the U.S.
	doing the same thing.
	Both were abhorrent and unjustified, but as with all of Russell's content, the things he chooses not to cover paints a glaringly obvious picture.
	He will shit on the U.S.
	and the West in general while leaving Christianity out of any discussion, and the fact that Russia have engaged in the exact same atrocities as the U.S., because, well, he likes Christianity and he likes the Russian government.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah that and that yes, and that so the Oriental is like that there were several.
	Moments that I brushed up against that book and quotes from that book and that author, Orientalism, right?
	Yeah, when I was doing my little history corners, which I have a very different view of, you know, and I think that it is appropriate to Analyze and scrutinize a Western view of history.
	Sure, yeah.
	Yeah, yeah.
	That's, I think, yeah, we all agree on that for sure.
	Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
	So there's more of maybe wiggle room as far as the easiest and most straightforward history that is accessible to us or what we learn in school or whatever.
	So certainly mentioning With an asterisk.
	Like, well, maybe the history isn't quite what we were talking about, and maybe it's actually a lot older and more complicated and interesting than the, you know, the full-on demonization that I grew up with post 9-11.
	Yes.
	So I think that especially in that part of it, to me, it's heartbreaking in a very special, specific way that hurts my feelings.
	That that area of the world Everyone has such an old culture, and the folkways are so interesting and unique, and that's just all getting thrown away.
	It's depressing, and I don't like seeing it come... I don't like this one bit.
	Yeah, I don't like... The oversimplification is disheartening to me.
	Yes, no, absolutely.
	I completely agree.
	There is so much left out of the discussion.
	A lot of dehumanization of entire cultures, and that's a real big problem.
	And like I said, you know, Orientalism is very well intentioned.
	It does make some great points, but unfortunately I think, as far as I could tell, very much kind of Paints with a broad brush in some aspects and perhaps takes certain positions a leap too far, you know, and that kind of thing.
	Yeah.
	Well, and there was cherry picking by the author.
	Right.
	That's also one of those things that like, wow, I didn't have an extra two weeks to read all of the critiques because like, you know, you find something and then it just keeps going.
	But like there's debunking of debunking of debunking, which Like the funding from the actual book, and then the author kind of had their own bias.
	But also, if you just address the biases, then you're saying, well, this is my point of view.
	I'm not being definitive one way or another.
	But yeah, there's a lot of questions around the time of publication and the The points being published, but I don't think anybody is going to be 100% either way.
	I think, you know, the responsible thing is to take all these different points of view on board and then understand them within the context of a greater picture.
	For sure.
	And I don't think anyone reasonable would argue with the broader point that kind of, you know, Western imperial views on the Orient, as it's described, are Less than great, you know, and not helpful.
	Now, to continue Russell's monologue, he gets to his main feelings on Putin and this interview.
	Or indeed, even if you think it was a comfortable, cosy chat.
	Who do you want to go in there?
	Do you want a journalist to go and interview Vladimir Putin and go, Vladimir Putin?
	I mean, Vladimir Putin was in the KGB.
	There's no question that Vladimir Putin has people killed.
	Vladimir Putin isn't like, he's not Dick Van Dyke, is he?
	He's like a serious dude.
	That's not the question.
	We're saying, Whose propaganda and whose agenda most negatively impacts you?
	Vladimir Putin, who when you watch this interview, I think, and this I think is perhaps the most important point, I don't think he's expansionist.
	I'm not saying that Ukraine don't have their own autonomy and their own sovereignty and their own dignity, but there are other perspectives available.
	Indeed, What Putin offered at length and extrapolated on in some detail is that that region has a complex history and Ukraine and Russia could be regarded actually as a civil war rather than an international border dispute.
	In fact, in America, and maybe this is something we're going to see in coming years, were there secession?
	If we saw Texas say, we want autonomy, we want to withdraw.
	Or if you saw Florida withdraw and say, we don't want to be bagged up with the rest of this.
	We benefit from being part of a nation, an imperialist project that taxes us without representation, that bombards us with media, that doesn't respect us and tries to censor us, that plainly thinks we're a bunch of idiots.
	Perhaps you might withdraw.
	Imagine if Texas withdrew and then Russia started arming them.
	I'm confused.
	So, this is a bad argument for Russell to be making.
	Russell is pro-secession.
	He's very pro-secession.
	He made that very clear.
	He's pro-breaking up countries into smaller democracies, smaller communities as he puts it, right?
	He wants everything to be smaller and contained on a local level, so he's just described and indeed vociferously defended something he's in support of, and then used it as an example of something we should take issue with if Russia started then providing arms and funding to a seceded Texas or Florida.
	Like, the mental backflips going on here are astonishing.
	Firstly, much like France funding the American Revolution, it would not surprise me at all if Russia, or China for that matter, sent arms and funds to a seceded Texas or Florida because it works in their interest to have the US as a weaker entity in that scenario.
	And secondly, this is something you support, you dingus!
	But you're saying then, in this scenario, the morally justifiable thing to do is for the US to invade what is theoretically a sovereign country, in your estimation.
	But you absolutely definitely would not be okay with that, in this example.
	The cognitive dissonance here is crazy, and my head hurts just thinking about it.
	Yeah, well, what I got from just what he was putting forth is not so much, this is how I feel, which this is a really shitty dodge, in my opinion, is not saying that this is how I, my belief, but like, oh, they'll say this next and they'll say this next.
	You're postulating what the MSM will push as a narrative Which is, to me, like a shortcut to saying those things without admitting you believe them.
	It's an extra complication that he's...
	Like, because his worldview isn't morally congruous, so I'm not surprised.
	This is what's confusing me.
	He might very well be framing it in that way.
	I think it's a dodge.
	I don't think he genuinely feels that way.
	I think it's just a way to talk about people.
	It's like people say, you know what I mean?
	It's what people are saying.
	He's the one taking issue with the US funding Ukraine, which in what he's tried to paint is the reverse of that, which is, oh, Russia funding a seceded Texas, or whatever, but you would support that.
	You would love that.
	Well, but that's the thing, is he can, like, I think that, yeah, I don't disagree.
	I just think, like, acknowledging, I don't, I don't think he's beat.
	I mean, shocker, he's not honest.
	He's not intellectually honest, but I'm saying he can couch it in a way where he's like, well, this is what they're going to say, which I think in a listener's mind You can, there's two different ways that you can take that.
	You can give him the benefit of the doubt and say like, well, he's just postulating how the, and he's using his expertise with the mainstream media to assume what they might do.
	And then you've got another section of your audience that's like, oh, well, he's right.
	And that's already happening.
	The way that he said like, oh yeah, it's probably already going to happen as far as like demonizing one side.
	It's, it is that kind of like good versus evil, oversimplified conception that And it is that tit for tat, which I don't remember where we talked about this, if it was on main or on off-brand, but using the device of look over there, that kind of hypocrisy.
	Well, but the U.S.
	does it too.
	No, no, no.
	Yeah, what about it?
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Well, yeah, it's that kind of like, well, they're doing it too, so, like, whatever.
	And I'm like, no, no, that's not the conversation we're having.
	That is a distraction.
	That's a dodge.
	That's not, like...
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Eye for an eye doesn't work.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	We should just do better.
	What this whole discussion points out to me most severely is how Russell really should be on side with Ukraine.
	If he had any kind of honesty with his beliefs, he should be on side with Ukraine, absolutely.
	Yeah, I wouldn't be surprised to see the community festival where all the posters sign Hare Krishna at the end.
	They're posting a blue and yellow flag.
	You know what I mean?
	Because that's the marketing.
	You're looking for crunchy liberal types for that part of Europe.
	It's the only thing that fits with his apparent beliefs.
	Oh, exactly.
	Oh, I completely agree.
	I'm saying like, to look at those, his, even his personal Instagram, which is like very benign, but like relatively, even to his coverage here is very fine.
	It's like, whatever.
	But even looking at those two Instagram feeds next to each other is like, holy shit.
	What?
	This is, it's so schizophrenic.
	Yeah.
	So I do want to go back a minute to the immense red flag in the middle of that clip, which was Russell saying, quote, I don't think Putin is expansionist.
	I'm not saying Ukraine don't have their autonomy and their own sovereignty and their own dignity, but there are other perspectives available.
	And not long after, actually, Ukraine and Russia could be regarded as a civil war rather than an international border dispute.
	Yep and that!
	Also that!
	When I said that Russell is siding with Putin and the Russian government, holy shit I meant it!
	It's fucking insane and it does theoretically run counter as I've said to all of what Russell believes about breaking up countries and decentralizing power but it doesn't seem to matter in this one specific case for For some reason?
	And to his larger point saying, whose propaganda more negatively affects you?
	The implication there is that because we and his audience are in the West, we only need worry about Western propaganda and things happening in the East shouldn't matter and we should only think about ourselves individually and not about the suffering of others elsewhere in the world or whether It's fine to let other countries just invade and take over sovereign nations.
	It's essentially a libertarian argument taken to the geopolitical level where, ah, it's two other countries.
	We should just let them sort it out.
	Why do we care anyway?
	Which, I mean, tremendous.
	Because we fuck with everything.
	We, America, we fuck with everybody.
	There are so many responsibilities that we have that we are shirking on the international level, as far as, like, forward affairs go.
	That's why we start it a lot and Russia starts it because that's what imperial powers does.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	The lack of accountability or consequences.
	We're living in, you know, we're living in the results of a lack of like decades of a lack of accountability or consequences for either side.
	Hey, I mean, I live in the former British Empire, so yes, yes.
	I'm aware of these lack of consequences and fucking with everyone because we still do it just in subtler ways than you.
	It's a very gaslighting like it's it's very it is very gaslighting.
	Like it's like, oh, why are you guys so mad?
	Like, whoa.
	All the decades of covert ops, but it's like, oh, as things get declassified.
	And now we don't get to be mad about it because it's 50 years ago, but that's also the system that you put in place to keep, to cover your own ass.
	Oh, okay.
	Okay.
	Oh, sure.
	Nevermind.
	Nevermind.
	But yeah, according to Russell, we should all just, we should all just be fine with, with other countries taking over other countries willy nilly and not feel the need to, to worry about that at all.
	Fantastic.
	If proxy wars didn't exist.
	Because we're further away, we're further away and it doesn't matter.
	And the global powers in any way doesn't matter.
	Okay, fine.
	In further defence of Russia, we once again hear the idea that, oh, we shouldn't engage in any conflict with them because they're a nuclear power.
	Or, if you don't want to tax your imagination too strongly, what about the Cuban Missile Crisis?
	When, for a moment, it looked like on the border, or near the border, of the United States, there would be missiles.
	How did that go down?
	Did it go down well, or did it nearly lead to a nuclear war?
	And indeed, in Russia, we're dealing with a nuclear superpower, so before you engage them militarily, perhaps consider a few little things like, I don't know, Armageddon.
	Okay.
	So, the Cuban Missile Crisis- Drag her!
	Yeah!
	Let's go!
	Alright!
	The Cuban Missile Crisis, very different scenario to what's occurred with Russia and Ukraine and NATO.
	The most crucial point, I think, being that the U.S.
	did not invade Cuba, nor would they have been right to do so.
	It didn't invade anywhere.
	No one invaded.
	It's a stupid comparison on a lot of levels.
	Particularly as it points at what was a more reasonable response from the then-USSR, which was simply, oh, you've put missiles here, we'll put missiles over there then, rather than, oh, you've put missiles here, so we're going to invade a sovereign country.
	You know, that's the distinction between the then and the now.
	Yeah, it's...
	Terrible comparison.
	I'm sorry, I'm just, I'm- By all means, by all means, by all means tee off.
	Oh no, I mean, I'm, I, I mean, there's not a lot, like, he's making, uh, I don't even know what he's...
	I don't know why he's mentioning this, because we didn't enter a nuclear war.
	No, no.
	We didn't.
	So then why are you using that as a particular example of why we would then enter a nuclear war?
	It's not even very analogous in my opinion.
	It's really not?
	That's the thing, I'm not finding connective tissue.
	It involves missiles and the two, you know.
	Yeah, did kids get taught to, like, crawl under their desks and be terrified when they're all gonna be blown to smithereens anyway?
	Like, that was upsetting, I think, for a lot of Americans.
	For sure.
	I mean, but like, and to say that the US has not interfered...
	Some ways more effective, some ways hideously embarrassing, or attempted some quote-unquote invasions in the history with Cuba.
	Certainly it's fraught, and certainly it's a lot more antagonistic than America would like to even acknowledge.
	But I don't see how this is an example.
	No, because it's not.
	Right.
	Yeah.
	I'm like, I'm trying to find anything and I'm like, but it's also still Cold War propaganda.
	Like, You're buying into a different section of Cold War propaganda by invoking a Cuban missile- I mean, didn't you say Bay of Pigs?
	Like, come on!
	You're invoking a different- You can't use propaganda to argue against propaganda- That doesn't make sense to me at all!
	Propaganda's all he has left.
	I know, but like, my invisible friend is going to beat you up.
	Oh, my invisible friend is going to fight your invisible friend.
	Okay.
	What?
	What are we getting from this?
	I don't understand.
	Okay.
	Jeez, Pete.
	Anyway, don't go getting into a military conflict with Russia.
	They're a nuclear power.
	Okay, say I agree to that.
	Sure.
	What's the alternative?
	Because it seems to me like the alternative there is letting Russia do whatever they want and they can just take Ukraine.
	Which, again, Russell, You don't want because it contradicts your whole decentralizing power shtick, but also because if we follow that logic to its conclusion then you're somehow completely fine with the US taking over whatever countries it wants, as well as any other country that has nuclear arms doing the exact same thing.
	It seems like a messy premise.
	It's that maintenance of a status quo too.
	It's like, well, if you do enough bad stuff, It's just, you're too big to fail.
	Like, that's the thing.
	It's like, well, if it's bad enough, you just gotta let him do it.
	Which is a very Whiteman stance to take.
	Yes, it is.
	Yes, it is.
	Oh, boy.
	Personally to internationally, it seems to crop up a lot.
	Now, we're moving away from the monologue here into a few legacy media headlines from the BBC, The Telegraph and The Independent.
	And Russell, I think, shows his cards just a little bit too much.
	Let's see how the legacy media want you to think about this.
	While you're still watching us on YouTube, we'll talk about this, but eventually we'll be on that stream of freedom.
	Putin takes charge, say the BBC.
	State-funded.
	Member of the TNI.
	Remember how they behaved during the pandemic.
	Remember whose interests they advocate for.
	Remember who they work for.
	Remember this is a centralist neoliberal establishment that wants you dumb and totally controlled.
	TV host gives free reign to the Kremlin.
	What do you want him to do?
	Jump on his lap like a disobedient ventriloquist puppet and punch him upside the chin?
	In Russia you don't interview the president, the president interviews you.
	Any of you that have seen the propagandist filth surrounding the interviews around Zelensky, who indeed I respect as I keep telling you he's a comedian who now runs a country, what a We've got a great trajectory to go on.
	Have you seen the fawning sycophancy?
	Have you seen him appearing at the Golden Globes?
	Taking an Oscar from children?
	Remember repetition, guys.
	If you're watching the chat, just watch out for repetition.
	Have you seen all of that?
	The constant propaganda.
	We're not asking whether or not Putin conveys a particular perspective.
	He's pretty plain on that.
	He does.
	What we're asking you is what's the impact of the propaganda that we're generally consuming?
	Wow.
	Jealousy is a sin, Russell.
	Sorry you weren't there to get a Golden Globe.
	Yeah, right.
	Have you seen the propagandist filth around Zelensky?
	Ooh, the bile coming out in just that sentence.
	Yeah, I will point out to him that appearing via video to the Golden Globes, you know, Zelensky doing that is from a year ago in January 2023.
	And yeah, he never had anything to do with the Oscars either.
	But have you seen the fawning sycophanties surrounding him?
	Anyway, this Putin guy has an incredible grasp of history.
	Okay. Okay. Okay. I do like, are we gonna have any more?
	The like clickbaity headlines are amazing to me as far as like, analyzing what Putin, how
	he appears and what he looks Are we gonna get more of that?
	Like, that's really... Not, not, not in terms of... Okay.
	No, no, that was just the Sun, um, yeah, kind of, uh, doing, doing the, oh, he looks, uh, which I, I, I, I don't agree, personally.
	Weird.
	Oh, also, I disagree.
	Yeah, this handwriting expert ass level of like, yeah, reporting is embarrassing.
	Like I said, tabloid, you know, it's sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure, sure.
	But even like looking at the like what we're I'm so there.
	Right.
	So if you're listening, there are headlines on the screen, which, frankly, in Russia, you don't interview the president.
	The president interviews you by the Telegraph.
	Hilarious classic is pretty.
	I'm here for it.
	I was I grew up in the time when that guy's jokes were still.
	Well, no.
	So I still think that's funny.
	And stupid.
	But yeah, I don't know.
	It just, it feels very superficial.
	I don't, I mean, this is all very superficial, and I'm concerned, and you probably have a similar complaint, that coverage being superficial doesn't really accomplish anything.
	Like that's- Yeah, yeah.
	Yes, it's... I'm in two minds about it.
	Because on the one hand, you know, big deal on its face.
	On the other hand, the whole thing was completely absurd.
	So it is difficult to know how to put that succinctly.
	Right?
	Yeah, yeah.
	Yeah, I have taken a look at all three of those articles, and they are more substantive than just the surface bullshit, thankfully.
	Oh, sure!
	And I'm not necessarily... That wasn't what I was trying to communicate.
	I think it's just more like... I think that the insinuations, as far as this vile propaganda... Because Russell is saying the words vile propaganda about Zelensky, but he's got Headlines next to him.
	I don't think that's, um, I don't think that is an accident that he's like trying to call any journalism that isn't on his side propaganda.
	And so like all these ideas together visually in one place.
	I'm not crazy about that.
	You know, it's like, it's very kind of side eye to me.
	Like, I don't know.
	Like, well, no.
	No, those are two different ideas.
	And regardless of the veracity of either, you're gonna have to do... I don't like the placement.
	It's the insinuation that is making me uncomfortable.
	Right?
	Yeah, that's completely fair.
	And yeah, it's a little bit of a smooth move on Russell's part, whether he intended to or not.
	You know, it's... Yeah, it's not great.
	Somebody did.
	Somebody did.
	Fucking Gareth Roy.
	Um that's again I have no evidence of that but I'm I'm I'm fucking sure it's Gareth Rory.
	Um anyway.
	The stuff that looks slick I think we can make a safe assumption probably.
	Yeah it's just it's just yeah there are there are things.
	Um now next there's no other there's no other way to put it really there's just more defensive Putin than the Ukraine war.
	Well, I know that you lot ain't going to want to watch all of it for yourself, but we are going to talk you through some of the best bits as well as the reaction.
	Here are the things I think are most significant.
	He says that Russia do not have an interest in expansionism beyond these regions where there are disputes that he is interested in negotiating a peaceful settlement with for.
	He reminds us that we already know, and you already know, if you operate in independent media spaces, if you watch Jeffrey Sachs, that Boris Johnson was sent out to Kiev to scupper a peace deal, specifically the Minsk accord.
	They already had a peace deal.
	Zelensky had signed a peace deal, then Boris Johnson came to town and with his usual adorable bumbling ineptitude, Scuppered it, and how many people have died since then?
	The majority of whom are Ukrainian.
	So this is not anti-Ukrainian.
	I'm pro-Ukrainian.
	I'm pro-human life.
	I'm pro-peace, as I know you are too.
	As Muhammad Ali said, I ain't got no beef with a Viet Cong.
	Why are we marching this around the world?
	You have wars with people I've never even met.
	There are things that I'm sure many of us would be willing to die for.
	Our family, our loved ones, our gods, our community.
	Some of you, your sports team.
	But do you want to die for a globalist establishment that you know has been lying to you?
	Or what about the Nord Stream Pipeline?
	The Nord Stream Pipeline's been blown up by Russia.
	Putin laughed about that because it's ridiculous.
	Yeah, he's he's going off on one today. He's he's really he's pretty fucking animated over
	all this Russia stuff, you know, more so than usual. So let's have a let's have a quick
	rundown in order there. So Putin does say he doesn't have an interest in expansionism
	beyond these regions that are in dispute as Russell puts it more on that later. But then
	again, he also said he wouldn't invade Ukraine. So let's maybe take that with a whole heap
	salt yeah? Gonna say.
	Gonna say.
	He says a lot of stuff.
	He says a lot of things.
	He's been in a position to say a lot of stuff for a really long time.
	Really long time.
	Yep.
	Yep.
	Exactly.
	And it's not a secret.
	It might be hard to find, but it's not a secret.
	No.
	Putin said he's open to negotiating with Ukraine about a settlement.
	Not sure about peaceful, but also that his next phone call to the US will be once he's won the war.
	So I don't know how, yeah, that's not the best perspective as far as I'm concerned.
	As for the peace deal, there's no evidence to suggest that Boris Johnson was sent to scupper the peace deal between the Ukraine and Russia in some nefarious plot.
	The peace deal had, according to Putin, some initials on some pages of it from one of Ukraine's representatives, but it had not been signed by Zelensky.
	Johnson did offer his perspective, which was, you know, we can't trust this Putin guy, and seems justified, and there's no guarantee his opinion actually held any sway over the Ukrainian government at all.
	I think the Ukrainians probably know better than anyone not to trust Putin and were more likely to arrive at that conclusion on their own.
	And that is entirely putting aside Russell's very generous interpretation of Boris Johnson just being an ineffable idiot, you know, just flopsing around the place.
	And it's actually, no, he's a cold calculating son of a bitch who does that deliberately.
	It's documented.
	Yeah, well, Russell is very susceptible to being caught up in aesthetics, obviously.
	Isn't he just?
	Gestures, too.
	Leather jacket.
	Well, yeah, I mean, it's, yeah, like, that's, it's a theme.
	The entire picture.
	The entire picture.
	Theme of the show, our show, is like, Russell is susceptible to being swayed by aesthetics.
	Yeah, yeah.
	To dangerous levels.
	Yeah.
	And this is just another, we're going to put that in the bucket.
	We're going to file that under again.
	Maybe that's how we bring him back, you know?
	Maybe if we just- If you think I haven't thought about that a lot, like that's a shower thought I have all the time.
	What's the shiny shiny that we could wave in front of him to make him, you know, come back in the right direction, you know?
	What's, yeah, what's the 10% or the 5% change over a long period of time to bring him back?
	And I mean, it'd be money, like, it's money.
	But also, I mean, sheesh.
	Because there's so many, like, he'll go on these, again, he'll go on a bramble, and I'm like, four fifths of it.
	I'm with you, bud.
	Okay, where are we going?
	I am with you.
	Like, maybe I disagree on finer points, but I see what you're driving towards in that last fifth is, oh, no, ma'am.
	No, no, no.
	I'm gonna back away quickly.
	I'm gonna scramble backwards.
	No, no, no.
	Every time, every time.
	Yeah!
	The Nord Stream pipeline bombing is still unconfirmed, but evidence at present still points to it being a Ukrainian operation, though they vehemently deny all involvement.
	The initial possibility of it being a Russian operation to sabotage their own infrastructure, therefore justifying further aggression towards Ukraine, isn't that crazy?
	But it doesn't seem to be what happened in any case.
	And finally, Russell is not pro-Ukrainian.
	You can't at this moment in time be pro-Putin and pro-Ukrainian.
	And Russell has made it very clear he is pro-Putin and very much signed on to the idea that Ukraine is in fact part of Russia.
	Yeah.
	Can't have your cake and eat it too.
	Especially when human life is at stake.
	It's just not.
	Nope.
	Nope.
	And he's invoking Muhammad Ali to go down that road.
	Come on!
	Come on!
	Vietnam War.
	Yeah, that's the same thing.
	I mean, it's so predictive.
	I'm like, I'm... Yeah.
	I think I stopped being surprised at that five years ago.
	Are you sure it wasn't Bill Shakespeare or Thomas Jefferson?
	Yeah, we got a quote from a different Bill in a little bit actually.
	But first, let's take a look at the first moment of Putin giving Tucker the business.
	Yeah, let's have a look at this.
	This is like, you know, don't ask Vladimir Putin a question if you want a short answer.
	Tell us why you believe the United States might break Russia out of the blue.
	How did you conclude that?
	It's not that America, the United States, was going to launch a surprise strike on Russia.
	I didn't say that.
	Are we having a talk show or a serious conversation?
	We've got a Carlson laugh in there.
	I'm impressed that he even had the courage to do that laugh.
	Also, what is that room he's in?
	It's a sort of ballroom.
	There's an interesting carriage clock.
	There's some interesting designs on the floor.
	There's an interesting echo in that room.
	They should have done something about the echo.
	Aesthetics!
	Well, that's Putin making my boy Tucker look very, very silly.
	Quick, let's talk about literally anything else.
	Look at the big clock, everybody.
	I feel like the interpreter's voice is so rotted.
	I love it.
	It's so sassy.
	The tone of even the person.
	Yeah.
	It's great.
	There's a lot of salt coming through.
	I thought that's like the first couple of clips.
	I'm like, oh, this is a joke.
	This is a daily show bit.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	They've replaced the audio.
	Yeah.
	That's what I'm saying.
	That's why it feels like the onion, you know, it's like, there's no way even the interpreter sounds like that.
	Oh, but he does.
	And I'm like back to here for it.
	It's hard to even listen to what he's saying.
	Because it's like so rotted.
	It's so dry.
	So incredibly.
	And also, that's how I feel about Tucker Carlson, like, yes, drag her!
	I love it!
	Yeah, exactly.
	I can't help but also, it's like bad.
	This is bad, but wow!
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	The entertainment value is top notch!
	So shady!
	you hate and one of them just tearing the other one a new one you're like well
	I'm gonna enjoy it I can't help it I just I'm gonna enjoy it yeah this was of
	course one of the various moments of the interview I enjoyed Putin essentially
	saying you got your big boy pants on Tucker do you And Tucker nervously laughing as a response because, well, for a start, he's so used to anyone on the right wing simply yes-anding anything he says, towing the usual alt-right conspiracy lines.
	And then for this interview, not only was he made to wait for Putin for two hours, but at the top of the interview Putin starts digging into him, which is not only unexpected, but You're in his country and this man has journalists murdered for breakfast.
	Never have I seen a bigger oh fuck laugh than that one.
	I know!
	I feel like Alton Brown is better equipped to enter this interview.
	Yeah!
	Tucker is a juicy idiot steak willingly putting himself in a cage with a tiger.
	That's what he's doing.
	And he has just realised in that moment.
	It's like, oh shit!
	What have I done?
	I mean, yeah.
	It's delicious.
	Oh boy.
	Now next we've got some more reasons not to go to war with Russia.
	The quote!
	Thank you.
	It's a formidable series.
	Because your basic education is in history as far as I understand.
	Yes.
	I've been spying on you for some time, very much like the American government who tried to prevent this interview happening when you were working at Fox News.
	Like, I'm not naive about Russia and Russia's nuclear weapons and Russia's agenda and Russia's intentions and people that have died as a result of messing with Russia. All we're really querying is
	do you want to put another 60 billion dollars into a war that's frankly unwinnable?
	No one wins wars against Russia, we know this. What worries me perhaps
	most of all is the fact that our auto-didactic, instinctive understanding of
	global politics is closer to the truth than what the globalist
	agenda has conveyed to us. Like, you can't have wars with Russia, can you?
	Didn't Napoleon try that?
	Didn't Hitler try that?
	Haven't they got, like, nuclear weapons?
	And also, just bear in mind this idea.
	Putin has a vision for an end to this.
	We've started negotiations, we're up for negotiations, we will negotiate.
	What's Joe Biden telling you?
	What's the end point for Joe Biden?
	They're saying that you're up for negotiations and then the reality that you're up for people capitulating to your demands.
	And in political speak, the two can sound pretty much identical when you remove all context of who is saying those words.
	Right.
	Oh, dear.
	As for you don't win wars against Russia, it's not possible.
	There are literally dozens of wars Russia has lost through its history.
	And yes, Hitler didn't fare too well in the Second World War.
	That is absolutely true.
	The man tried for a land war in Russia in winter, which is strategically ill-advised.
	Most importantly, of course, no one is invading Russia at this moment, and no one is suggesting that we do that.
	The aim of the West and Joe Biden most probably is, of course, to get Russian troops to fuck off back to Russia and out of Ukraine.
	And there is the looming possibility of US troops being sent to Ukraine if things escalate or get drastically worse.
	But I did, of course, have a thought.
	If you're believing the narrative that Ukraine is part of Russia, then technically to those people, if you send US troops to Ukraine, that would be a US invasion of Russia.
	Which is insane.
	That is an insane way to think about the world, but... I can see how they would spin it.
	I mean, yeah.
	To go back to just the not acknowledging history.
	Not acknowledging the actual complex history of any of these huge military powers.
	The ability for Russia or the United States to absorb losses is their strength.
	That's what military strength is.
	At this day and age.
	We don't have to go in.
	They can go in for these long, protracted, immiserating conflicts, which seems to be the order of the day for the last 70 years.
	Also, terrible idea.
	Maybe stop it.
	Maybe knock it off.
	Everybody.
	Everybody stop, because you don't think there's going to be a quagmire, and there is a quagmire.
	If you're surprised there's a quagmire, you're bad at your job.
	The ability for one country to absorb the quagmire and deal with the quagmire and also, you know, like shield their actual citizens from it is their strength.
	So like, you're not necessarily saying they're, you know, it just...
	Yeah, I'm agreeing with you that Russell is not considering the reality, like the obvious reality.
	And also, just the concept that warfare hasn't moved on at all since the Second World War is baffling to me, but there we go.
	We should use that and Napoleon as an example as to why not to tussle with Russia.
	Okay, now next he starts with saying something I sort of agree with, and predictably things go south not long after.
	And do you have any recent references of what the agenda of the military-industrial complex might be?
	For example, I don't know, Afghanistan, a war that drains two trillion dollars of, by the way let me remind you, your money.
	Your money, taken to fund that war.
	And do you think Afghanistan's in a better state now?
	Do you think America's in a better state?
	I'll tell you he's in a better state!
	Raytheon's in a better state, Lockheed Martin's in a better state.
	Curiously, you know, they spend quite a lot of money lobbying and donating to the two
	political parties that run your nation, that control our nation, that control all of us,
	and then tell us that we mustn't watch this because it's propaganda.
	I think propaganda is a two-way street.
	So if you don't mind, I will take only 30 seconds or one minute to give you a short
	reference to history.
	This is half an hour before that thing ends.
	Have a look at this lovely meme that was going around.
	Mr. Poon, why did you invade Ukraine?
	Four billion years ago, the Earth was in its cooling phase.
	But that is an interesting point, actually, in itself.
	You can go full screen now.
	Because, in effect, no, on me, on me.
	God bless you.
	That's done.
	We've done that.
	This is why I'm watching.
	Because a nation is a complex thing.
	A nation is also a construct.
	A nation is an agreement, an accord.
	For example, if you're American, you're watching this now, you might think, oh, you know, the border between the US and Mexico, a lot of problems there.
	But you will be familiar, of course, that Los Angeles and Texas and San Diego, there's a reason that those states and cities have those names that are in Spanish.
	So it's complicated.
	Where a country begins, when a country begins, where a country ends, when a country begins... These are interesting questions.
	They're not just... Putin is mad and bad!
	Pay for a war against him, would you?
	And when you finish paying for it, how about you sling a few of your children on the pyre?
	And the bravest people, the boldest people, the people that are willing to give their lives because they believe in their nation, are the very people that are exploited for their globalist agenda.
	Okay, this is fascinating.
	I feel like this, again, isn't a conversation that Russell should be having with himself while on the air, because what he just did was say that, well, Ukraine used to be part of Russia, so Russia are justified in invading to take it back, and then to bolster his point about nations being complicated, said all these places in the US have Spanish names because they used to belong to Mexico, and he accidentally just carried this same logic through to its conclusion Arguments could be made!
	Mexico should be able to take back about a third of the United States if his logic is
	to be properly applied.
	Wow.
	Arguments could be made.
	Yeah, I mean, all right.
	Could be made.
	Okay, also, not for nothing, but if this is the logic we're using, everyone look out
	for the return of the British Empire.
	Or depending how far back we're allowed to go, the return of the Holy Roman Empire.
	Where do we stop?
	Where do we draw that line?
	I don't know.
	Yeah, fascinating concept.
	I just, I'm like, I keep being surprised by entering fairy tale land.
	Like, oh, we're in a fairy tale again.
	Oh, we're in fairy tale time.
	What are you talking about?
	Like, What do you say?
	He's disproven his own points!
	I know!
	We're irrelevant!
	He has done this to the fucking right wing.
	He has done this to the MAGA crowd.
	He has just said to the Donald Trump audience that he has that, oh yes, the US should theoretically be returned to Mexico.
	Texas!
	Of all people.
	Oh, it's magnificent.
	I really- When a number of us are like, you want Florida?
	Fuckin' have at it.
	You want half of Texas?
	My friends will be upset.
	My friends who live there will be upset.
	Maybe not, though, because they're mostly Hispanic.
	So maybe not.
	I don't know.
	You know, they're from that region, right?
	Like, that's yipe stripes, man.
	You know, it's it's there's there's so many like the flattening of history.
	Like you just said, Russia never loses, and then the next words out of your mouth were about Afghanistan.
	What are we doing?
	Yeah, right?
	Yeah, yeah.
	I can't tell if that's ignorance or intentional obfuscation, but I'd be willing to make a bet.
	I'd be willing to make a bet.
	It's mystifying.
	It's mystifying.
	All right, let's tackle another important portion of the interview, which is asking, who blew up the Nord Stream pipeline?
	Let's have a look at the Nord Stream pipeline moment between Vladimir and Taka Islali.
	Who blew up Nord Stream?
	You for sure.
	I was busy that day.
	Putin laughing hysterically.
	Doesn't know what day it is.
	My laughing at nothing.
	Mentally ill.
	Crazy.
	Hold on a minute.
	Joe Biden's giving a speech.
	I don't even like being mean as a man who believes in our Lord.
	I don't like to be mean about Joe Biden.
	But what he is is a revelation that democracy is a farce.
	You would agree with that because that person cannot run a country.
	Did not blow up Nord Stream.
	Thank you though.
	You personally may have an alibi, but the CIA has no such alibi.
	CIA did it, like you imagined and assumed in the first place.
	You're right, as the great late Bill Hicks, that great American comedian, used to say.
	You're right.
	You're right.
	Not those people who try to tell you how to think.
	You're right.
	Did you have evidence that NATO or the CIA did it?
	You know, I won't get into details, but people always say in such cases, look for someone
	who is interested.
	But in this case, we should not only look for someone who is interested, but also for someone who has capabilities.
	Because there may be many people interested, but not all of them are capable of sinking to the bottom of the Baltic Sea and carrying out this explosion.
	These two components should be connected. Who is interested and who is capable of doing it.
	[Birds chirping]
	Might be propaganda, but you have to bear in mind the possibility that we have been heavily propagandized
	ourselves And what that makes it fine?
	Uh...
	Jesus wept.
	So there was a lot there.
	It makes all information too confusing.
	So whatever he says has to be right.
	Well, then we never know.
	So you have to listen to me.
	So upon being asked, what evidence do you have for the CIA blowing up the Nord Stream pipeline?
	Putin's response was essentially, my evidence?
	It exists.
	It's real.
	It just goes to a different high school in Canada.
	So you can't see it.
	That's what he's got.
	He's very like, it sounds like something the CIA has done a lot.
	Sounds like something they would do.
	Very CIA.
	It's a very CIA.
	The Nord Stream Pipeline was in its CIA era.
	I don't know.
	I feel like that's enough.
	I mean, okay, this might be a sidebar, but like the notion that Russell is entertaining the idea that Fox actively avoided this interview, like stopped it intentionally.
	Bullfucking shit, yes.
	But all you need to do is watch the interview to know why you don't want your most popular news personality to be bent over and spanked on an international stage.
	It's embarrassing!
	Yeah, yeah.
	End of thought!
	End of argument!
	He's not cognizant of how humiliated he's being made, which is hilarious!
	I think it may have struck him very late on in the interview and possibly afterwards.
	But yeah, I don't think ultimately either of them got quite what they wanted out of it, but Putin definitely got a win, I think.
	He got plenty.
	Oh yeah!
	That's... I mean this is really... I can't... I don't want my judgment to be clouded by how hilarious that is.
	It is.
	It is funny.
	It is incredibly funny.
	I don't want to be cheerleading Putin.
	It's just so dry and steeped in sarcasm the entire way through.
	And him just giggling at his own joke.
	I'm like, oh gosh.
	Yeah.
	You want to talk about reading?
	Let's talk about reading.
	Because Tucker Carlson is getting red, the house down, boots, mama, yes, gone.
	It's awesome.
	I can't.
	That is great.
	What am I gonna do?
	What am I supposed to feel?
	Yeah, yeah.
	So even Russell here is forced to reckon with the fact that what's being provided is some weak tea, which brings me to the point that I would like to make about this interview and Russell's coverage of it.
	We're 11 clips in and we've seen about a minute of interview total, maybe two if that, Um, this thing did not go the way they wanted it to.
	Putin did not say the lines they wanted or expected him to say and Tucker comes off as inept and idiotic through almost the entire thing.
	And so they're having to engage in a dance of talking about the content without really showing the content.
	Of heavily editing what was a two hour interview down to incredibly short reductive clips and even those they can't show without going, oh look at that clock over there.
	What we're about to see over the coming clips is an exercise in Russell talking about anything except for what is happening in the footage being shown, which is delightful fun.
	But as the dance continues, we're going to diverge from Nord Stream briefly to take a look at a couple of polls that Russell put up on his socials.
	I said I had stats about the susceptibility of Russell's audience to propaganda, and well, Take a look at this.
	We did a poll a little bit earlier, we put it up on a couple of platforms.
	Whose propaganda do you most believe?
	Joe Biden's propaganda or Vladimir Putin's propaganda?
	A lot of you over, I can't remember which platforms we put these on, but 92% of you, Vladimir Putin's propaganda.
	And then we adjusted the question, because we thought it's important to have this perspective.
	Who do you trust?
	Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin, or God and your own intuition?
	Your individual sovereignty is what's vital.
	Your individual sovereignty.
	You don't need me or anybody else to tell you what to do.
	We have our own connection to divinity.
	We have the right to form our own communities.
	We have a right to control our own destinies.
	We have the right to opt out of taxation systems.
	Isn't the whole American revolution from the glorious country of Britain based on the fact that we were running things, taking your taxes and not representing you?
	What the fuck just happened?
	Dudes go to jail!
	Dudes are in jail for saying you have a right to not pay your taxes.
	That is... You can go to jail for telling other people that and then they believe it.
	That is just sticky wicket.
	Yeah, so we get a pro-Putin poll to a pro-libertarianism poll, theoretically, to trafficking in sovereign citizen shit.
	Fuckin' wild.
	Russell is all over the place today.
	I don't usually have this much fun!
	This is great!
	It's bananas!
	Honestly, I cut more clips than usual and I was trying to go through them and I was like, well, I'm going to have to make some cuts here and I just couldn't.
	I just could not.
	So Russell asked his audience, whose propaganda do you most believe?
	And with 56,000 responses, 92% of them said Vladimir Putin over Joe Biden.
	Oh dear.
	And if you'll recall, 85% of his audience want Trump to be the next president.
	Those two things tell us so, so much about society as a whole today.
	And then, in a second poll, which was posted after the first, and is very clearly an attempt to obfuscate the point that his audience is overwhelmingly pro-Putin, he listed, who do you trust, Joe Biden, Vladimir Putin, or God, slash your own intuition?
	That was the poll that I was just, like, hiding from.
	What?
	76.8% voted God, because duh, and Russell's audience is overwhelmingly Christian.
	But 19.5% still voted Vladimir Putin, with Joe Biden coming in at a measly 3.7%.
	3.7 percent. Holy shit. They explicitly trust the president of Russia, the prime minister
	of Russia over your own president.
	I'm saying.
	And most of them are American.
	Listen.
	Yeah.
	Listen.
	You start seeing, like, oh, Antibiotic- Our aunt bought a cricket and the back of our uncle's truck is screaming insane shit.
	The vinyl stickers on the backs of the most unhinged Ford F-150s in the world, they do have something to say.
	And we do need to pay attention to it because the first litmus test, the blood was in the water for people that were covering QAnon stuff.
	Way before COVID.
	I am sorry for anyone who is surprised by this now.
	I'm glad you're aware.
	It doesn't feel better to know this, but it's something really important to consider.
	I was alarmed the first time, and I haven't gotten less alarmed over this trend.
	It's just wild to me.
	I honestly don't totally understand the point other than just prepping your audience to accept Russian propaganda or just pro-Russian talking.
	I don't know what...
	I don't know what Russell is personally gaining out of it, I can't speak to that.
	I could maybe hazard a guess, you know, if there's some money being flung around, you know, and there have been plenty of accusations of that with Tucker Carlson over the years, which, you know, it's impossible to really know for sure.
	Oh yeah, it's definitely, like, it's a very effectively obfuscated, like, yeah.
	I long for the day where it is not.
	But yeah, it's easy for Russell to poo-poo the people concerned about Tucker doing this interview, but he has just proven them right in the space of two Twitter polls.
	He has entirely proven their point just then.
	92% Vladimir Putin.
	Just then, 92% Vladimir Putin.
	Uh-huh.
	So yeah, his audience, yeah.
	Yeah, they'll go for fucking anything that's shown by this guy, yeah.
	Also, what do you think is going to happen, American?
	What do you think is going to happen?
	Yeah, what's the end result?
	What's your end game?
	Yeah, what's the desired outcome?
	Daryl?
	Yeah, just Steve, you know, whoever.
	The thing is, it's easy for Russell to fucking say because he's over here.
	He's in the UK.
	He almost, like, why does he give a shit, you know?
	Yeah, right?
	He can say anything.
	They might have less of a dog in the fight.
	Totally.
	Yeah, but like, I guess that's the answer that I am curious about and I cannot find
	is like, what's the end game for the guy wearing a Putin for president shirt?
	Yeah.
	At a mega rally, right?
	Yeah.
	Like, what do you think is going to happen?
	And even outside of what you think, what do you want?
	What's your ideal in that situation?
	What's the plan?
	Because it doesn't feel like any of what Russell's saying.
	If you want Putin to be the president, it doesn't feel like we're moving away from centralization in that case.
	It feels like we're moving more towards empire.
	Not particularly anti-global if you ask me.
	No!
	No, it's not, is it?
	It's not.
	It's not.
	Um, I don't know.
	Yeah, this...
	I mean, Sarah Palin's like, oh, she said the thing, like, I can see Russia, I'm keeping an eye on Russia, I can see him from my house.
	It was not long ago where someone could brag.
	I remember Sarah Palin.
	Yeah, someone as a brag.
	Would say, they better watch it, I can see him from my house.
	And that's all you had to say.
	Yeah.
	This was a very, like, the heel turn was wild.
	Yeah.
	And is still, it's not less wild.
	I don't know what to make of the individual, you know, experience.
	For these numbers to come back is madness.
	It is absolute madness.
	It is, but I also expect it because I've been watching this unfold for a number of years.
	Yeah, I try and picture what the response would be if this happened in another country.
	If this happened here and half the country was like, oh no, we want President Macron instead of Rishi Sunak.
	We trust him a bit.
	I'd be like, if you're Rishi Sunak, you would be fucking concerned.
	Though Macron is not an autocratic dictator, so there is that, I suppose.
	Maybe that's a poor example.
	But yeah, wow.
	Also white, so oof.
	You know what?
	I don't know that I want to ask that question to everybody.
	You're very true.
	Frankly.
	Very true.
	So Russell is definitely dancing and is definitely all over the fucking place today and he somehow makes his way to the two-party system being a problem and then it falls apart very quickly.
	You think Joe Biden represents you?
	And if you're watching this in the UK, you think your government represents you?
	You think a choice between Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer?
	That's it?
	That's democracy?
	Don't we need to dig up Oliver Cromwell and march him back into that house in spite of the atrocities he committed in the free and great nation of Ireland?
	A free and great nation that even now is having hate speech laws introduced that means that the free people of Ireland that have fought for their sovereignty will be silenced once again by a non-representative, oppressive, globalist government.
	You see how this thing's rolling out.
	You've got to choose a side now and that's going to mean new alliances.
	People that believe in different political views from you.
	You're going to have to welcome them and brace them and hold them in your heart because this is our way through this.
	This is it.
	It's time for us to wake up.
	It's time for us to wake up.
	Old boy is lost in the sauce!
	In other news, man falls apart on camera.
	Cannot keep his show together today.
	So we need to dig up Oliver Cromwell to fix the system!
	I mean, though he did do those awful things to Ireland and the Irish.
	The Irish, those great people having censorship laws thrust upon them and you have to choose a side and that means new alliances which means shaking hands with people from differing political views to you who may happen to be on the other side.
	It's time for us to wake up.
	I hate it that people give him credit for saying the aesthetically acceptable, nice, peaceful thing.
	It drives me crazy.
	Yes.
	Because he'll tack all that shit on, and then be like, no, I hate war, I love peace.
	No.
	No, you fucking don't.
	Stop lying.
	Yeah.
	Stop fucking lying.
	That's crazy.
	It's just like... And the amount, like, the more that he says it, I'm like, that doesn't change your trajectory or your objective.
	Yeah.
	No, no, not at all.
	Not at all.
	You know, and when you say, well, you need to pick a side and then we need to come together and shake hands with people with different political views to use.
	Well, hang on.
	Which one am I going to do?
	Because I can't do both.
	Famously.
	Great plan.
	Yeah.
	Unifying, unifying and hugging and caring for a people is to pick a fucking side.
	And yes, exactly.
	Exactly.
	You do it by division.
	You do it by division.
	That's how we that's how you come together.
	Well and that's the thing is like that's that's this here's what I hear and again I'm I am exposing my bias and what I hear whenever you've got someone that says incendiary crazy like a little incendiary crazy thing wrapped in a bunch of stuff that sounds nice is exactly like you know anti-abortion Rhetoric that they're invoking like, well, saving the children, saving babies.
	No, you're not.
	Oh, you're absolutely not.
	You don't give a single solitary shit about children or the mothers of children.
	You just want to push your agenda.
	And so claiming that as an anti-choice activist, you are protecting the lives of children.
	Because that sounds great.
	That sounds fantastic.
	On its surface.
	Yep.
	You can say that all you fucking want.
	It doesn't change the rhetoric.
	It also doesn't change how many, like, oh, terrorist acts have been committed against abortion clinics and doctors.
	Yep.
	It doesn't change the reality.
	Whose side does the murdering of alive people?
	Yeah, yeah.
	We're pro-alive.
	Well, I mean, you're not when they're alive.
	Literally not at all!
	That hypocrisy runs all the way through their rhetoric.
	All the flowery shit on top, all the cute, nice stuff.
	And there's angry billboards in the country, and there's nicer Catholic billboards closer to the city that are all kind of anti-abortion propaganda.
	It's absolutely what they are.
	I don't care how you church it up.
	It's all, it's all bad.
	Yep.
	Stop.
	Yep.
	Abso-fucking-lutely.
	So we've spent some time clutching at straws, and so we're forced back to the Nord Stream Pipeline clips.
	God damn it.
	Let's have a little look, discussing propaganda together.
	But I'm confused.
	I mean, that's the biggest act of industrial terrorism ever, and it's the largest emission of CO2 in history.
	Okay, so if you had evidence, and presumably given your security services... That's such a small point, isn't it?
	Like, this is like the globalist establishment, so...
	Climate change is the most important thing.
	Lock everybody in their house forever and create 15-minute cities.
	Blow up that pipeline, it would be good for the war, just blame the Russians for it.
	services you would, that NATO, the US, CIA, the West did this, why wouldn't you present
	it and win a propaganda victory?
	In the war of propaganda, it is very difficult to defeat the United States, because the United
	States controls all the world's media and many European media.
	The ultimate beneficiary of the biggest European media are American financial institutions.
	Don't you know that?
	You start to get a sense why the legacy media and the state and the corporatist state don't want you to see this.
	So it is possible to get involved in this work, but it is cost-prohibitive, so to speak.
	We can simply shine the spotlight on our sources of information, and we will not achieve results.
	It is clear to the whole world what happened, and even American analysts talk about it directly.
	It's true.
	Yes.
	But here's a question you may be able to answer.
	You worked in Germany, famously.
	The Germans clearly know that their NATO partner did this.
	But they, and it damaged their economy greatly, it may never recover.
	Why are they being silent about it?
	That's very confusing to me.
	Why wouldn't the Germans say something about it?
	This also confuses me.
	But today's German leadership is guided by the interests of the collective West rather than its national interests.
	Brilliant.
	This is an issue about globalism, isn't it?
	Haven't you had the sense that in your nation, wherever you're watching this, because I know you're watching from all around the world, that you've lost your national sovereignty, your national identity, your national autonomy.
	Isn't that what we mean by globalism?
	Isn't that what the rise of nativism is really about?
	That we're sensing that whoever you vote for, you're going to get some managerial class bureaucrat telling you this or that, reporting back to WEF, Klaus Schwab and all that lot, that you're not going to get truth.
	Off of it, they're legacy media.
	They want you dumb, spellbound.
	They accept their money, as he says, from the pharmaceutical industry.
	Isn't this time for us to awaken and step out?
	Remember that you can become an AwakendGuanda where we do additional content where you can join us for conversations.
	Okay, that was another journey of a clip.
	Isn't this time for us to awaken?
	Well, good news!
	You can give me $60 and that'll do the job.
	All right.
	So...
	Yeah.
	Putin's reasons for not providing evidence of the CIA blowing up Nord Stream is, eh, who would believe us anyway?
	The US are just too big a propaganda machine.
	Sure thing, buddy.
	Sure thing.
	And why aren't Germany saying anything?
	Because they must clearly know that the US blew up the Nord Stream pipeline?
	Well, it's a mystery.
	Um, and all this comes down to the US owning everything and the media.
	Don't you know that, Tucker, you idiot?
	Don't you know that?
	It's really, like, I... Does Russell know what side he's on?
	Does he?
	I think he's desperately trying to thread the needle.
	He is desperately trying to thread the needle throughout this show.
	The needle isn't in the same room.
	No.
	He's not anywhere.
	He's not just missing it.
	He's like on a different continent from the needle.
	What are we doing?
	What are we doing?
	desperately so having finally found his jumping off point within that clip he then uses that to stoke nativism like he literally used that word um before selling his locals channel like holy fuck um that that's that's That's not the direction to go!
	And the eagle-eared among you may have noticed that everything Russell said at the end there rhymed, and he is with increasing frequency essentially rapping on his show these days, which is weird.
	I don't know if it's like a mnemonic device or something to help him remember his bullshit, or if he's actually working on a real-time mixtape that's going to drop soon, but it's, yeah, slightly annoying.
	That's funny.
	You know, listen, if you're a talker, I've definitely been like, oh man, I just sounded like Mother Goose.
	It can be also the amount of talking he does.
	It's almost just like a, like a statistical likelihood that he's going to rhyme a lot.
	He's doing, and he's also looking very pleased with himself when he does it as well.
	Oh, that's absolutely true.
	Yes, it's absolutely true.
	Yes.
	Can confirm.
	Can confirm.
	Does Tucker think, okay, this is, I know that, listen, it's a show about Russell.
	Yeah.
	I cannot help but keep getting caught up, but also I feel like Russell and Tucker are like buddy, buddy, you know, like they're very babysitter's club with each other.
	Best mates apparently.
	And I can't tell which side Russell is on, or if there is even a- I don't know what Russell's driving at here, so like, does Tucker think that he was gonna corner Vladimir Putin in an interview?
	Any conception that that was- I don't know.
	Yeah, if he did think that, then he's a madman.
	That hubris seems too much even for Tucker Carlson.
	Even for Tucker.
	Did you think you were going to do hard-hitting journalism at Vladimir Putin?
	What?
	What?
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	He does manage a journalism within the interview, but it is just one.
	It comes a bit later and we'll get to it.
	Was it on purpose?
	It was, it was.
	It's semi-commendable.
	We'll get there, okay.
	It's semi-commendable, but yeah, we will get there.
	But for now, we're going to move along to a little clip that So Russell's just played a clip of John Kirby speaking at a White House press briefing because he was asked a question about Tucker's interview.
	Because, yeah, we don't actually want to play any more of the interview itself now, do we?
	So let's play a clip of other people reacting.
	Yeah, the clip itself said nothing interesting.
	Russell's response to it was nothing interesting.
	But it does send him down a spiral of discussing some ominous superior force working behind the scenes who are masked by the media, as he puts it.
	And then Russell catches himself and realizes what he's just said.
	He said, when Clinton offered the opportunity for Russia to join, Clinton went back and someone told him, Russia ain't joining NATO.
	That's interesting, isn't it?
	Almost as if there's an ulterior or superior force that are not accessible to you and I.
	Who are masked by the media.
	I'm not talking about any form of identification connected to ideologies.
	Any ideology other than dominion and power and finance.
	This is what you have to watch for.
	This is what you have to watch for.
	Do not fall into the traps of hatred.
	Remember, remember the deepest principles of whatever faith that you hold on to.
	Love and kindness and compassion.
	But this doesn't mean that we're not alert.
	I'm not talking about the Jews, everybody.
	I don't mean hate the Jews.
	Just hate dominion, and power, and finance.
	You know, those things that anti-Semites say the Jews are all about.
	But I'm not talking about the Jews!
	Just the things that large portions of my audience say the Jews are connected to.
	Again, like, no, no, asterisk, asterisk, asterisk, like, you said the thing.
	Yeah, you fucking.
	And you're working toward a project that is, ah.
	Mm-hmm, that is antisemitic in nature.
	Okay.
	Just, ah, that was delicious.
	Just him catching himself going, ah, fuck.
	Yeah, man.
	Don't fall into hatred.
	Okay.
	But also, but also hate these, you know, dominion and power and finance.
	Finance, everybody.
	Okay.
	Okay.
	We get the message, Russell.
	Teaching people to call it something other than hatred is also a very insidious insistence.
	And it's not just Russell doing it.
	Mm-hmm.
	Yeah, yeah, no, absolutely.
	It's a very intentional way to obfuscate what's actually being said.
	And I guarantee all of the anti-Semites in Russell's audience will have heard that and gone, gotcha.
	We know what you're really saying, Russell.
	We've got you.
	We've got your back.
	Every single time.
	Also, the premise there was incorrect, by the way.
	What Putin said in the interview was that he spoke directly to Clinton about joining NATO.
	Clinton seemed receptive, but apparently later sent Condoleezza Rice and someone else to meet with Putin to be like, hey, yeah, that's not going to happen and here's why.
	It's not some nefarious deep state or globalist agenda pulling strings.
	or some Jewish cabal. It's Clinton sending his lackeys because he didn't want to have
	that conversation himself. And again, this is all from Vladimir Putin's recounting of
	events. I would be very curious to hear the other side of things.
	Yeah, I mean, it's not for nothing as far as like being critical of the United States
	using their position or their NATO, their position within NATO or other governing, like
	you know, international governing bodies to posture and antagonize that option.
	Sure.
	I will make that accusation right now, but not how they're talking about it.
	Like, this is not...
	You're talking about clocks and wallpaper, dog.
	There's no veracity to this.
	Yeah.
	Should've done something about that echo.
	Okay.
	All right, so we'll move to Russell playing a clip from Sky News.
	I mentioned a myriad of technical issues within this show.
	There have been a lot that I have cut out.
	One of the recurring ones being clips playing from the middle rather than the beginning.
	And so Russell then has to tell them to take it back to the start.
	It happened several times.
	It's very, very funny, but the clips weren't actually worth covering.
	And it happens now before it jumps back to the start.
	But viewers, do take note of Russell very angrily looking at Gareth Roy off screen, because it is delightful.
	Have a look at this British piece of propaganda from Sky News.
	It's owned ultimately by Rupert Murdoch.
	So that's, I would say, someone that's broadly speaking in support of what you might regard as a globalist agenda.
	You know, you or anyone else in your profession would say something like that on television and then call yourself a journalist.
	And so he's definitely not a journalist.
	Number one enemy.
	Bill, great to see you.
	Thanks so much for joining me on this.
	My first question is, is it OK for A Western journalist to do an interview with Vladimir Putin?
	Well, in theory, of course it's okay for a journalist to do an interview with Vladimir Putin.
	I wouldn't categorize Tucker Carlson as a journalist.
	He's... When what you're saying is true, they'll attack you.
	If what you're saying is true, they will attack you.
	If the glove fits, you must acquit.
	Rhyming.
	Great rhetorical device.
	Russell can complain all he wants, but this chap Bill Browder is making a pretty astute point about interviewing Putin and Tucker's position specifically.
	See, if you watch the whole thing, what becomes abundantly clear is that with Putin not towing the alt-right talking points Tucker expected, Tucker is somewhat painted into a corner of his own making.
	Because he can't critique or criticize the things that Putin is saying because it goes against the narratives that he's been spinning for the last two years, and he would lose all credibility in that moment to his audience if he backpedaled on them.
	So for the most part, Tucker just has to dumbfoundedly go along with whatever Putin is laying before him.
	Yeah.
	I've had to tamp down.
	Yeah.
	I mean, first of all, I'd love to see more of the interview.
	That sounds like a lot of fun.
	But just watching Putin sit back and laugh, watching the men's two laughs and how different the wells from which those laughs spring, the difference within the core of that laugh Yeah, yeah.
	And I hate it that I'm like, man, Putin's fucking good at this shit.
	Like, oh my God.
	Oh no, he's a fucking expert.
	We're watching a master at work.
	Absolutely.
	And it is fun because Tucker being, you know, fucking media star, incredibly wealthy, like he never has to deal with someone who is in a better position than he is.
	You know, he never has to deal with being the small boy.
	Not even a little.
	No, not even a tiny bit.
	And so it is a joy from that perspective, that is absolutely sure.
	He brought a pebble to a gunfight.
	Yeah, right.
	So this problem that Tucker has in the interview, a credible journalist theoretically wouldn't have that issue.
	Tucker Carlson does not do a journalist's job.
	He's an alt-right talking head who spins conspiracy theories about Obama being gay and provides cover for dictators, which makes him entirely ill-equipped to then go and try and have a conversation with one of those very same dictators.
	That's pretty much the entire reason that the thing went as badly as it did.
	And had that been an actual journalist in that room, Would have been a very different conversation.
	I would be fascinated to watch a legit journalist try and have a conversation with Putin and nail him down on some stuff.
	That would be fantastic.
	I would not feel good about their safety.
	It's never going to happen.
	No, nor would I. And it's never going to happen.
	I wouldn't wish it on anyone.
	That's terrifying.
	Maybe one of the old ones, you know, let, I don't know, Trevor McDonald or Jeremy Paxman, you know, take them on.
	It's like, ah, they've not got that long left anyway, you know.
	Oh, elder abuse, great plan.
	They can take a risk.
	If they want to, if they want to, you know, I'm not going to force them.
	Yeah no it's true it's true but you know if someone had to I guess but but yeah I would love to I would love to see I would love to see that interview actually happen in earnest you know but it's never gonna happen No, okay, here's the thing.
	Putin's never gonna be honest.
	Like, there is no catching that guy.
	That's not, like, he has all the tricks.
	He has all the manipulation tricks and he has decades of practice.
	Like, he's the professor, you know what I mean?
	Like, no one's gonna nail him down because he can just lie.
	Like, what?
	Yeah, and there's no way he'd accept the interview in the first place.
	Of course!
	He would never put himself in the position of being asked an actual tough question.
	Sacrificing an elderly...
	An elderly journalist, for no good fucking reason, I think is a little silly.
	Sorry, Trevor.
	Sorry, Chad.
	Because no matter what, that's the thing, is like, he's watching this dude, just, he's the slipperiest fish to the, I mean, and the world is his ocean, like he doesn't, it's...
	Yeah, he's splashing around having a great time.
	Oh he's having a ball!
	Let's continue the Sky News clip here.
	Now continue that clip if you can from where it was.
	Thanks guys.
	If you can, should I press play?
	The way I'd categorise him is as an influencer.
	He's been very explicit about his support for Putin.
	When he was a Fox News host, he was actually quoted as saying that he's on Russia's side versus Ukraine.
	That isn't what he said.
	In fact, Tucker Carlson very plainly and explicitly said, I'm here because I love America, not because I love Putin.
	Technically, both are kind of true.
	Tucker said, quote, Why do I care what is going on in the conflict between Ukraine and Russia?
	I'm serious.
	Why do I care?
	Why shouldn't I root for Russia, which I am?
	Unquote.
	The left dunked on him pretty fucking hard for it, and he came back with the quote.
	Of course, I'm joking.
	I'm only rooting for America, mocking the obsession many on the left have.
	Unquote.
	And ever since then, he's acted in staunch defense of Putin and the Russian government.
	Tucker, if you're still joking, you can stop now, buddy.
	We get it.
	Please, please stop.
	What a fucking fool's errand, right?
	Like, this is an example of, to the right wing, to conservatives of the right wing, or to any, I mean, if you're, Too extreme on either side, and that's all you're interested in, is appealing to these, like, these figures, like these totalitarian, you know, like these kind of, these, like, it's not going to work out.
	They're going to throw you away also.
	Like, fat lot of good that all of that sucking up to Putin for years that Tucker did.
	Yeah.
	Because he wiped his ass with you.
	He got the interview.
	You know what I mean, though?
	He batted you around!
	Like a little chew toy!
	Yeah, like a little mouse to play with.
	Yeah, absolutely.
	So don't give your blind allegiance for this!
	It's not gonna work out!
	It's never gonna work out!
	It will be interesting to see if there's any change in perspective on Tucker's show, but I somehow doubt it.
	There should be.
	This should be a come home to Jesus kind of moment, shouldn't it?
	I am!
	It's not going to.
	I'm fascinated to see what happens.
	I'm fascinated!
	Is he gonna get a ministerial position within the government?
	That'd be sick.
	Tight.
	That'd be tight.
	Like, what do we do from here?
	He needs to do a show in his fake little log cabin, you know?
	It's too important.
	It's too important work.
	They got log cabins in Russia?
	That's true.
	That is true.
	He did also say that Moscow is nicer than any city in the United States.
	Which, I mean, okay, fucking move there, Tucker.
	Like, just fine.
	We're fine with you going.
	We are fine with you going.
	Maybe that is the endgame.
	Maybe that is what he wants.
	Yeah.
	Because he doesn't fucking want to be on Twitter.
	I promise you that.
	He does not want to be on Twitter.
	He wants to be on Fox.
	And if RT will give him a spot that looks like Fox.
	RT.
	RT.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	Maybe.
	That actually.
	Maybe.
	Yeah.
	That could be an angle.
	Yeah.
	Though he did a terrible job with this interview.
	Maybe Putin will take sympathy.
	You know, he's like, ah, I did have some fun with you.
	Go on, you little scamp.
	Like if my insides were completely rotten, like if I were Tucker Carlson and just like all of me on the inside was just like a raw, I was just a husk.
	You know, like an amoral husk.
	I'd be gunning for RT in a second.
	In a second.
	If I lost my Fox, because Fox didn't do nearly as much as potentially, you know, an actual state funded Not all controlled, but highly controlled.
	You know, like, production, right?
	Like, television production.
	Dominion wouldn't have gotten anywhere near R.T.
	No, that's true.
	In the same way that Dominion could sue Fox.
	That's very true.
	That's very true.
	Yeah, yeah.
	We'll have to keep an eye.
	We will have to keep an eye.
	That is an interesting prediction.
	I shouldn't be having fun.
	I shouldn't be having fun right now.
	I don't like that I was having fun with that.
	Do as I say and not as I do.
	Bad for me.
	We find our good things where we can.
	Russell continues his defense of his good mate Tucker in the next clip before he gets distracted by the opportunity to shit on liberalism.
	And he's not an influencer.
	That's an attempt to be derogatory.
	And influencers like, I don't know, Paris Hilton or them Kardashians or whatever.
	Tucker Carlson is, I reckon, based on my conversations with him, a kind of, I'm guessing here, so I don't want to make any errors, but kind of conservative, kind of Christian, kind of...
	Liberal in the sense of the word that people should be like left alone what liberal used to mean before it became this extraordinary expression under the guise and neologism of neoliberalism where it became about authoritarianism apparently in order to protect vulnerable people authority has to be asserted that doesn't benefit vulnerable people at all but just offers opportunities for enormous centralized control.
	The word he was looking for there to describe Tucker and himself is libertarian, not liberal.
	Wow.
	Two different words, two very different meanings.
	Very different words.
	Yeah.
	We can establish, however, from that clip that Russell really does not like liberalism.
	Really, really doesn't like it.
	Okay.
	I mean, I'm glad you're saying it out loud.
	Thank you.
	Good?
	Right, yeah, for our purposes.
	Yeah, yes, this is progress.
	This is a lot of progress compared to trying to tread the line.
	Like, okay, yeah, you hate liberalism.
	All right, we're much closer to liberals, you know, we're much closer to that trajectory now.
	I'm like, okay, good, good.
	We're being honest.
	There isn't even a passing glance in the direction of analyzing capitalism.
	There isn't.
	There's nothing.
	That's amazing to me.
	Fuck no!
	Subscribe to my local's channel and give me $60!
	But even his own very public stances that are still bopping around the ether about him.
	Fundamental, this is what a regular person thinks about Russell Brand things.
	And he can't even give a whisper to a notion about analyzing the issue with capitalism.
	And it's basically the devil's bargain that neoliberalism made with corporate capital.
	Come on!
	It all feels like such a waste.
	You're just spinning your fucking wheels.
	When we're told that we should be scared of fascism and emergent new Nazi movements when, well, look at this, for example.
	Yeah, could be getting something done. Instead, he is just losing the threat. But he finally
	he has to get back to the interview because he's avoided it for too long for a while.
	And now we get to the subject of denazification.
	When we're told that we should be scared of fascism and emergent new Nazi movements when
	well look at this, for example.
	I mean, have you achieved your aims?
	No, we haven't achieved our aims yet because one of them is denazification.
	This means the prohibition of all kinds of neo-Nazi movements.
	Pardon my English, what is denazification?
	What would that mean?
	That is what I want to talk about right now.
	That is what I want to talk about right now.
	It is a very important issue.
	De-Nazification.
	After gaining independence, Ukraine began to search, as some Western analysts say, its identity.
	And it came up with nothing better than to build this identity upon some false heroes who collaborated with
	Hitler.
	I have already said that in the early 19th century, when the theorists of independence and sovereignty of Ukraine
	appeared, they assumed that an independent Ukraine should have very
	good relations with Russia.
	But due to the historical development, those territories were part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, Poland, where Ukrainians were persecuted and threatened.
	Admittedly, there's a lot of complexity in this story.
	It's astonishing to me what we're getting the opportunity to look through.
	And again, yes, you're right.
	The whole West has been captured by Nazis.
	We all need denazification.
	Extraordinary.
	Astonishing.
	There's no doubt that there are Nazi components like the Azov Battalion within Ukraine, but I think that what we're really interested in is the advancing powers ...of globalism and our attempts to collectively oppose it.
	We must somehow be unified yet decentralised.
	We have an opportunity now, because of independent media, in spite of the obvious opposition and increasing attempts to shut it down, to oppose these kind of narratives.
	Okay.
	So he was reading briefly off the chat there for anyone unawares about the West needing denazification.
	Yeah, that clip had a full 2 minutes 21 seconds to go and he just cuts it off.
	Doesn't come back to it either because he knew that his audience were getting bored.
	Oh god, a history lesson from Vlad.
	Now, Ukraine's Azov Battalion, which we've spoken about before, were integrated into the National Guard, became the Azov Brigade, and the extreme elements were investigated and removed.
	That said, I've no doubt there are some with neo-Nazi or white supremacist views in Ukraine.
	I've no doubt there are some in Russia too.
	I know for sure there are plenty in the USA and in the UK.
	Well, that does not make it state policy, and it absolutely does not make it okay to just invade a sovereign country because there are elements in it you disagree with.
	If Putin truly believed in what he was saying, he would have designs to invade the US and anywhere else neo-Nazis and white supremacists like to take root.
	But he doesn't, because he doesn't give a shit.
	And if anything, those Nazis are far more likely to be on his side than anyone's.
	Yeah, now!
	Like the day I saw the shirt I'm like I'm thinking of the moment that I like saw some content was like hey this is weird this guy's wearing a Putin for president shirt it's at a QAnon rally like I don't know the day that happened, but it happened.
	And yeah, no, they're probably stoked about it.
	Yeah, 100%.
	100%.
	Strong man theory, strong white man theory, specifically coming to fruition.
	But yeah, but in saying, ah, it's about denazification, it's a perfect and long running excuse to occupy Ukraine for as long as he decides there are Nazi elements within.
	Which could be now until the end of time.
	Or maybe until it's been long enough where, oh, they all want to formally rejoin Russia now because we've been there for so long.
	Let's do that, I guess.
	-The ability to absorb a stag- uh, quagmire.
	-Mhm. -Bango.
	-Mhm. -Yeah.
	That's- that's Man O' Man.
	All right.
	And then also you got, like, potentially, and the thing is, like, I don't want to draw this parallel, but the potential for, like, McCarthyism is, like, who you can qualify as a Nazi, because also Russell throws around fascist candy.
	Absolutely.
	And there's a complexity to the history of Ukraine where some prominent Ukrainian freedom fighters who fought for the independence of Ukraine in the first place were Nazis.
	They worked with Hitler.
	And so it's the whole Confederate statues kind of issue.
	Oh, yeah.
	That's a sticker that none of the imperial powers want to start picking at to peel off.
	No, no.
	Russia included.
	No.
	Yeah, no.
	Those are the parallels that I can draw that are obvious to me.
	That is the globalist unification that I think is so fucking problematic, is that these imperial...
	Military, industrial complex, imperial powers have a vested interest in not examining this whole chunk of the problem.
	There's all kinds of things they are not interested in examining at all.
	And so that's the problem with people like Russell, focusing on these little, minute, poorly informed, ahistorical, out of context moments when like, no, no, no.
	This is like a whole thing, and we've lived through these cycles over and over and over, which we should be learning from, but we're not.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, absolutely.
	And here we go again.
	Russell decides to skip ahead to the surprising part of the Tucker-Putin interview, where Tucker, to his credit, does do a journalism.
	I'm going to watch a bit about Evan Gershkovich now.
	Let's have a look.
	I appreciate all the time you've given us.
	I'm just going to ask you one last question, and that's about someone who's very famous in the United States, probably not here, Evan Gershkowitz, who's the Wall Street Journal reporter.
	He's 32, and he's been in prison for almost a year.
	This is a huge story in the United States, and I just want to ask you directly, without getting into the details of it or your version of what happened, if as a sign of your decency, You would be willing to release him to us and we'll bring him back to the United States.
	Think if a legacy media-approved journalist had asked that question, they'd be pretty excited about it, wouldn't they?
	Russell hates Makov.
	I don't hate nobody.
	I've got no room for hate.
	What business is it of mine, what your beliefs are?
	What business is it of mine, your beliefs, thoughts that you like having in your mind?
	I believe in your right to think whatever thoughts you want.
	I believe in your right to say whatever you want.
	I believe in our collective right to create new relationships, New confederacies to oppose the establishment.
	To achieve new autonomy.
	First of all, the sanctity of the individual.
	Second, the community.
	Your right for free religious worship, free speech, freedom of trade, and freedom to support and love and take care of whatever members of your community you want to.
	I don't hate no... Yeah, Russell hates globalists.
	I mean, I'm trying not to hate at all.
	You know, somewhere between Christianity and Star Wars, you will find that hate ain't no good for none of us.
	There we go, between Christianity and Star Wars, that seems about right for Russell's philosophies.
	He really does not hate MAGA, that's been made clear.
	Back to the clip that was actually played.
	Again, we're talking about anything but the clip, if we can.
	As for his assertion that, hey, if a legacy media approved journalist said this to Putin, they'd be pretty excited about it.
	Well, generally from what I've seen is most places are willing to give Tucker credit for asking at least one hard question to Putin.
	Evan Gershkovich is essentially an American citizen being held, well, not just an American citizen, an American journalist being held hostage in Russia at this point.
	And it's definitely an uncomfortable moment for Putin.
	He's not fucking happy about this question.
	And it's a shame that we didn't see the reaction there immediately afterwards, because it is something.
	Tucker later even pushes Putin on the point and says something to the effect of, was he dealing in classified information like you say, or was he just doing his job as a journalist?
	Like, great fucking question.
	Actually did a good job.
	The point where he loses me, however, is where he asks if, as a sign of your decency, you'd be willing to release him to us now and we'll bring him back to the United States.
	At that exact moment, it becomes far less about freeing Yevgeny Gershkovich and far more about Tucker getting the glory of personally saving him from prison in Russia.
	That's kind of what I was getting from that statement.
	It's posturing and delusions of grandeur.
	Give it to us so that I can go back and wave a victory banner and say, look at me, I'm fantastic.
	You in the legacy media are all wrong about me because look what I did.
	Yeah, there are so many reasons that doing that is a terrible idea, from security concerns to health concerns most probably, as well as the very concept of trying to make this negotiation presumably without the knowledge of the White House.
	I can't imagine Tucker asked permission beforehand, though I'm prepared to be corrected on that point if anyone has any evidence to the contrary.
	Oh, me too!
	Yeah.
	And how!
	I'd love to see it.
	Yeah.
	He was so close to doing a good thing, but he just had to put himself on the pedestal to do it.
	But that's the point that we're making.
	That's literally another one of the points of the whole fucking show is that these moments are not for that person, they're for Tucker.
	Absolutely.
	And if you are coming from a cynical, selfish point, even if you don't know it yourself, even if you think that Tucker isn't capable of doing something good, because even if it's subconscious, obviously you want to come home and be the hero.
	Because even saying this, Everything about Tucker doing this is so irresponsible.
	It's so irresponsible.
	Yeah, it is.
	It's shocking.
	A credible journalist would ask, will you release Evan Gershkovich to the US authorities or something along those lines?
	Can we do that?
	Is this achievable?
	There are ways to do it that are responsible.
	And that would possibly open up lines of communication to achieving that end.
	I realize we've just met, but release this guy to us now.
	So I can take him home and be the big boy.
	Thank you.
	Thank you.
	It is like a misunderstanding.
	Maybe nothing will come of this and maybe there will be no, you know, like bad results.
	Because honestly, again, this is a cat and mouse and this very big cat is batting around this little mouse.
	So maybe nothing bad will happen.
	But if this were...
	A different, like, you know, there are many instances of someone trying to make an effort that looks like the effort that Tucker is making and it actually turns out much worse.
	It backfires massively.
	For the person that is in captivity.
	Yeah, like, is that going to make this person, is that going to make his life that much less safe or the lives of his family or anyone connected to him?
	Yeah.
	Are they going to suffer consequences because Tucker wanted to posture?
	I hope not.
	Because this is obviously like an absurd farce.
	Yeah.
	Honestly, Putin doing it to entertain himself sounds like a great reason.
	I hope that's the reason.
	I hope he was bored and he just wanted to do it.
	That seems safer to me.
	Then a lot of other motivations and kind of attitude.
	I don't know.
	That's something that I think that journalists, responsible journalists should and often do consider the ramifications of their actions and their reporting.
	They consider all sides as far as like, that's why you get Anonymous witnesses, or people coming forward, but they're anonymous in the publication because you're protecting their identity.
	Yeah, but Tucker doesn't like that.
	Yeah, Tucker just wants to throw, obviously we know, it's like a persecuted minority under the bus for his own clout all the time.
	So it's not a consideration that he has a history of making.
	It's not a narrative that he can search himself with.
	He was so close, he really was.
	Anyway, Russell is jumping about a bit as to when these moments happen in the interview, but we finally get to the expansionism part of the conversation, because that Evan Gershkovich part there, that was the last question, but we're now going to go back into the middle of the interview.
	Oh, of course, it was the last question.
	Yes, oh yeah, yeah, absolutely.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	And he does ask another follow-up, you know, because he feels emboldened in the moment, But yeah, anyway, we get back to the expansionism part of the conversation.
	Hey, let's have a look at this expansionism rap.
	Is the audio going to be okay?
	The thread I think you're referring to is a Russian invasion of Poland, Latvia.
	Expansionist behavior.
	Can you imagine a scenario where you send Russian troops to Poland?
	Only in one case, if Poland attacks Russia.
	Why?
	Because we have no interest in Poland, Latvia, or anywhere else.
	Why would we do that?
	We simply don't have any interest.
	It's just threat mongering.
	Well, the argument, I know you know this, is that, well, he invaded Ukraine, he has
	territorial aims across the continent, and you're saying unequivocally you don't.
	It is absolutely out of the question.
	You just don't have to be any kind of analyst.
	It goes against common sense to get involved in some kind of a global war.
	Isn't it terrifying how often your common sense and your instincts were correct?
	Hang on a minute, you can't have a war with Russia.
	Russia have got nuclear weapons.
	That's mental.
	Russia don't lose wars.
	What about Napoleon?
	What about Hitler?
	What about your sense that Russia won't be engaged in an expansionist Expansionist project that they're probably more interested in historic and regional disputes that are likely complex in which it would perhaps be perfectly plausible for the US and the West to play a diplomatic role in the pursuit of peace but advocating for and indeed funding through billions of taxpayer dollars ongoing hostilities that will not ever successfully end for anybody it seems like your common sense is closer to the truth than the legacy media establishment narrative and you will find that again and
	And again and again.
	You don't vaccinate during a pandemic.
	That doesn't make sense.
	Why are you locking everybody in their house for?
	Hold on a minute.
	What percentage of people are dying?
	Hold on a second.
	Why are all people being moved out of... vulnerable people being moved out of care homes?
	Again and again, your instincts were correct during the pandemic period.
	And again and again, your instincts are right now.
	No, they're fucking not.
	You don't vaccinate during a pandemic, apparently.
	Good God.
	Wow.
	Yeah.
	What are we doing?
	I don't know.
	Am I being pranked?
	Apparently that's a logical thing to say.
	Apparently that is logic according to him.
	It's common sense that you don't vaccinate during a pandemic and you don't lock anyone in their house.
	I've never even heard Oh, like a conservative pundit say you don't vaccinate during a pandemic.
	I've never even heard them say that ever.
	It's pretty remarkable.
	That's amazing, frankly.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	We've got a lot of good moments.
	So.
	Wow.
	All right.
	Putin doesn't want to invade Poland or Latvia, apparently.
	Uh-huh.
	Again, did say he didn't want to invade Ukraine, so big hunk of salt.
	But see, the reason that people are very understandably concerned about Putin being expansionist is that if you follow the narrative and you follow the thought to its logical conclusion that Ukraine is part of Russia because it was part of the Soviet Union.
	Well, what other countries were part of the Soviet Union?
	Because surely they're part of Russia too, in Putin's conception of things.
	And this includes Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Georgia, Azerbaijan, Lithuania, Romania, Latvia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Armenia, Turkmenistan, and Estonia.
	All of them, according to Putin's conception of things, are presumably part of Russia.
	And that's without, you know, getting into him openly musing about Finland and wherever else.
	And parts of Poland were once held by Russia, just much longer ago, up until the time of the Russian Revolution.
	God knows where in history Putin is willing to draw that line, but let's at least say that all of the other former Soviet Union countries I just mentioned are either very, very concerned or have significant pro-Russian ties within their governments.
	It's one or the other.
	Yeah.
	Wow.
	Wow.
	But apparently we're just going to take it at face value, the things he says.
	That's why this is so irresponsible.
	And at the end of the day, Tucker probably doesn't even think that he is running cover for Putin in the way that he is.
	Probably not.
	Probably not.
	He probably thinks, like, I'm going to ask some hard-hitting questions, you know.
	Idiot.
	Yes.
	Idiot.
	Also that.
	So let's get into a little more of this clip.
	And a global war will bring all humanity to the brink of destruction.
	It's obvious.
	There are certainly means of deterrence.
	They have been scaring everyone with us all along.
	Tomorrow Russia will use tactical nuclear weapons.
	Tomorrow Russia will use that.
	No, the day after tomorrow.
	So what?
	WNPLM says, seriously refreshing to hear an actual world leader speak.
	Makes an absolute fool out of almost every president we've had over the last 20 years.
	The facade of our current president has never been clearer.
	Yeah, it would be extraordinary to hear a Western political leader talk about history with such acuity, accuracy and clarity, wouldn't it?
	When you see poor dear Joe Biden bumble his way for a sentence or Boris Johnson scuppering peace deals excited that there's a cake in Kiev named after him or Rishi Sunak putting in place policies that plainly benefit his former financial relationships or Kia Starmer nasally declaring that he's bringing about change where there's no meaningful policy difference between either party as usual when they've prevented any democracy taking place within the Labour Party, the kind of democracy that led to a leader that was opposed to establishment interests.
	You gotta Participate in this awakening right now.
	We have no choice but to oppose this globalist agenda in all its forms.
	Hang on.
	So firstly, we're just not going to discuss what was said in that clip at all.
	That's just that's just not going to come up.
	OK.
	Sounded a little to me like Putin was making a point about the West fear mongering over Russia, which would have landed right in Russell's lap.
	But OK, let's skip past it, I guess, and instead talk about the Labour Party.
	The Labour Party, who aren't democratic and prevent democracy within their ranks, but it's also the kind of democracy that did democratically elect Jeremy Corbyn as leader and have him run in two general elections, where Corbyn then lost and had to step down as leader.
	It's not democratic, but also it is!
	It's Schrodinger's democracy, is what it is.
	Yeah.
	And this is at least the third time today he has contradicted himself within the space of a sentence, which is quite remarkable even for Russell.
	He is hanging on.
	He is clinging on.
	I mean he's yeah like this is this he's it is crazy to watch Tucker be out of his depth and then in turn Russell is out of his talking about Tucker being out of his depth.
	It's like it's a Russian nesting doll.
	Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
	Of people being out of their depths.
	Oh, wow, wow, wow, wow, wow.
	Yeah, man.
	Yeah, it's just a lot.
	Anyway, let's look at some more of this important historic interview that absolutely requires discussion.
	One of our senior United States senators from the state of New York, Chuck Schumer, said yesterday, I believe, that we have to continue to fund the Ukrainian effort or U.S.
	soldiers, citizens could wind up fighting there.
	How do you assess that?
	This is a provocation, and a cheap provocation at that.
	Soldiers must fight.
	I do not understand why American soldiers should fight in Ukraine.
	There are mercenaries from the United States there.
	The bigger number of mercenaries comes from Poland, with mercenaries... Hey Russel, how come you're not reporting on Senate Bill 1409?
	I don't know what it is.
	If it's relevant, we'll report on it.
	There's nothing we won't discuss on here.
	Hey, actually, I can think I can do the Hallo ad.
	Right now, right live.
	Hallo is a brilliant new app that has thousands of prayers on it.
	They're Christian prayers.
	They do the rosary on there.
	It's absolutely fantastic.
	They do a variety of prayers.
	Since I've been investigating Christianity personally, I've been looking at the Hallo ad.
	They're one of our partners for this show.
	Okay, so that is indeed the second clip in a row where we're just not going to respond at all to what is being said.
	And this time, ad break baby for a Christian app, no less.
	Oh my.
	I can't get whiplash like this.
	We're not covered for that.
	We don't have.
	We don't have the legal protection here.
	Fucking Senate Bill 1409, which he should know because he has actually covered it.
	It's the child online safety thing.
	He has covered it.
	I don't know what it is.
	Okay.
	You can't ask him to remember stuff like that.
	That's true.
	He's not a details kind of guy.
	And this time, yeah, now we just ad break.
	I can do the ad right now!
	Yeah, the fact that it's a Christian app that's being advertised does actually tell us quite a lot about Russell and his show.
	That an advertiser, you know, a seller of a Christian app would be like, oh yeah, this is a good place to advertise.
	We'll do that.
	We'll give this guy an affiliate kind of spot because he'll be able to do well.
	With that in mind, let's have a look at what Russell has to say about Halo here.
	One of the guys who does the voices is Jonathan Rumi.
	Jonathan Rumi plays Jesus Christ in The Chosen.
	He's a brilliant, brilliant person.
	He's a brilliant actor.
	And he, before he got that amazing life-changing part, was my body double when I was on the HBO show, Ballers.
	So I can literally say Jesus was my body double.
	But now he's reading prayers like the Rosary, the Francis of Assisi prayer, the Augustine prayer.
	There's loads of prayers and meditations on there.
	This app, Halo, was set up by Mark Wahlberg out of all the movies and everything.
	He's a Christian, of course, a Catholic specifically.
	This is a lovely app.
	When it's coming up to Lent, for you to check out your love of the Lord.
	And even if you're not a Christian, maybe try because I'm finding it very powerful and informative.
	There's a special deal available at the moment.
	We'll post the link in the description right now.
	Let me know if you like it.
	Yeah, Jesus was my body double.
	Westchester Monthly for a while.
	I enjoyed it.
	Hello.
	Yeah.
	With a W on the end of it.
	You know, like hello.
	Interview Jonathan.
	I love Jonathan Rumi.
	He's such a beautiful guy.
	I really, really love him.
	All right.
	Let's get back to this stuff.
	Hello.com.
	Oh, yeah.
	We use the code brand because then they'll know the adverts work on our channel and it will help us get more partners.
	And then we'll be able to build a movement where eventually we start getting involved in democracy.
	So it's hello.com brand.
	It's in the chat right now.
	Stick it everywhere.
	Yeah.
	This is live, Russell.
	Yeah, we'll do it live!
	We'll do it live!
	Yeah, that was what I was doing.
	in the chat anyway so they can read it with their eyes. So hey, listen, should we go back to that
	bit about expansionism? Interview Jonathan. I'd love him.
	Yeah, I'd love to have Jonathan. He was beautiful. If I press play, is it going to come on where I
	was? Yeah.
	... from the United States in second place and mercenaries from Georgia in third...
	Yeah, we'll do it live! We'll do it live! Yeah, that was what I was doing. I was doing a billow
	writing. ... third place.
	And that's about a good summation as to how seriously we're taking this interview at this
	point.
	Bill O'Reilly impressions in between Putin justifying his genocide of the Ukrainian people.
	Good stuff.
	Also, to say of your body, double.
	Oh, he was beautiful.
	Okay.
	Yeah.
	You wanna?
	All right.
	I bet you think it was.
	Yeah.
	The boy who lives in the mirror is beautiful too, Russell.
	Ain't he?
	Like, come on.
	I mean...
	Yeah, they don't look that much alike in my estimation, but here we go.
	Sure.
	I don't know, that's just wild.
	As a thing to say, that's just wild.
	My body double is gorgeous.
	Yeah.
	Yeah, that Halo app is a curious thing.
	It would appear... Ain't it?
	It would appear that Russell's reputation is clearly rehabilitated enough for Mark Wahlberg to come on side and give State 3 an infinite deal.
	I don't know whether it was Mark Wahlberg personally, but, you know, his... But also, like, his... I don't know that his reputation is, like, stellar, necessarily.
	Well, there is that.
	There is that.
	Yeah.
	You know, and this isn't a small kind of outfit, though.
	You know, they had a Super Bowl.
	Oh, totally.
	Everything, you know.
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	And that cost, like, at least $7 million, I think, just to get a spot.
	Well, it's easier to make all that money if you never had to pay taxes.
	But, you know, I've got to say if I had a product, you know, Russell Brand's show is not where I'd want to be associated.
	And I am now, however, keeping a much closer eye on Mark Wahlberg as he may be coming down this here conspiracy pipeline himself.
	I don't know.
	Like, alongside also generally being a bit of a jackass, but, you know, we'll see.
	Yeah, I think that ship is sailing.
	I saw conflicting accounts of him being into Q, but then other people were saying, no, this is bullshit.
	So, yeah, you know, I'm kind of... I'm reserving judgment for now until I hear more from him.
	Though, audience, if you've got anything definitive, by all means fire it at me.
	me. But, but, well, he's, he's profoundly Catholic.
	Yeah, very very Catholic.
	So that's, I feel like, however you feel about the representation, his kind of like public facing representation of Catholicism and all the issues that are currently happening if we're talking about The fascist creep within the public face of, like, Tradcath.
	I think that there's a lot of... I think it's easy to argue either way.
	That's the thing is, like, what you're looking into, I understand.
	Because there is enough plausible deniability to not necessarily pin him down.
	But it doesn't look... Just with the conspiracy stuff.
	Yeah, no, it does not look great.
	And already this is the guy who said that had he been on one of the planes, 9-11 wouldn't have happened.
	And the hate crime attack.
	Yeah, we're already not in a great place, but still.
	Don't feel good about this whole thing.
	Anyway, so Russell, he just keeps playing clips from the interview and then pretty much ignoring them for the rest of the show.
	Weird!
	Weird!
	Weird. - It's weird.
	Weird. - It's clearly weird, yeah.
	It's clearly like, "I have to do something, but I'm just gonna talk about other things."
	You're like, "Oh my God, just don't show them that.
	Just hold..."
	It's a weird choice.
	DJs still say some stuff about the songs they play.
	It might be a little bit here or there, but they at least acknowledge the songs that they have played on the radio in the interim.
	Yeah.
	It is really strange to just like play a clip.
	Like, if I played the next clip and then just didn't say anything about it, everyone would rightly be like, that's fucking weird, Al, don't do that again.
	You know, and yes.
	Starting with me.
	Yeah.
	I'd be like, uh.
	Completely fair.
	Completely fair.
	So we're not going to deal with any more of that because we've seen enough of it and it's stupid.
	It's crazy.
	It is crazy.
	I've got one final clip and it's the last thing that Russell closes out the show with because it just wouldn't be Stay Free with Russell Brand without a bit of flinging shit at Joe Biden.
	Or that's what it would be if Russell had any clue what the clip was or why it was supposed to be a gaffe.
	Let's have a look at what the current President of the United States has been up to lately on Button 18, guys.
	He's been, you might have guessed, having a bit of a time of it.
	Is this when he gets confused about where the pyramids are?
	Because both Mexico and Egypt do have pyramids.
	Could it be that?
	Is this a pyramid-based gaffe?
	As you know, initially, the President of Mexico, Xixi, did not want to open up the gate to allow humanitarian material to get in.
	I talked to him.
	I convinced him to open the gate.
	I talked to Bibi to open the gate on the Israeli side.
	So what was he getting confused there about?
	God love him, bless his heart.
	He's trying his hardest, isn't he?
	He's trying his hardest to get through it all.
	I suppose in the great cosmic play, he's simply performing his own role.
	Mr. President!
	Zempter Sieger, have you pressed like yet?
	Have you joined?
	Have you subscribed?
	What about you, TS8169191?
	Have you subscribed?
	Subscribe, who's to subscribe?
	Press the button, it helps us baby.
	Press that button like you would dear Joe Biden fumbling over a panel of potentially war-inducing nukes.
	That is your judgment.
	That is not the judgment of the press.
	They express concerns about your mental acuity.
	They say that you are too old.
	Mr. President, in December, you told me that you believe there are many other Democrats who could defeat Donald Trump.
	So why does it have to be you now?
	What is your answer to that question?
	Because I'm the most qualified person in this country to be President of the United States and finish the job I started.
	Well, that's an extraordinary claim.
	The most qualified.
	No, I don't think so.
	That would be a really extraordinary lottery if, by chance, the establishment had delivered the most qualified person.
	Have you seen some of the astonishing people that are opposing him?
	I mean, God, even dear Marianne Williamson, who stepped out, brava, brava.
	Bobby Kennedy, brava, brava.
	There's a whole host of people.
	Bobby Kennedy's a man.
	I recognise that now.
	I was excited.
	So in the contest of who is the most qualified to be president, you have Joe Biden, who, yes, did in fact just confuse Mexico for Israel, but has otherwise held elected office in the United States for 51 years, eight of which have been spent as vice president, four of which have been spent as president.
	On the opposing side, you have Marianne Williamson and RFK Jr., neither of which have ever held elected office for so much as a fucking microsecond between them.
	There are issues up the wazoo with Joe Biden, but being underqualified is not one of them.
	Oh, no.
	And I think that our definitions of qualified can certainly vary.
	Sure.
	I know mine do.
	Sure.
	Absolutely.
	Absolutely.
	As far as experience in government, yeah.
	That's... Yeah.
	I would have an expectation for having been elected to something at least once would be my preference.
	Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Yeah.
	Yeah.
	At the very least.
	Because we saw how that went.
	We just saw how that went with Trump.
	Didn't go great, in my opinion.
	It's just like a fundamental inability to function as a political entity.
	Like, not knowing how to politic, not knowing how to govern.
	Yeah.
	Because there was no experience to be had in the top rungs.
	Exactly.
	It's a real problem when you are then the government, if you don't know how to govern.
	Anyway, Russell had no idea.
	Regardless of how you feel about it, right?
	Like, regardless of if you're like pro or against, you can look at their inexperience on its face.
	Yeah.
	And I mean, I think that that's even a selling point for a lot of MAGA is like, oh, he's an outsider.
	Yeah, exactly.
	Exactly.
	Yeah, it's like, no, that's not what you think it is.
	Yeah, go on, sorry.
	Russell had no idea what was happening in either clip there.
	He kept looking to Gareth, who gave him no answers, and so he just took it upon himself to hawk his local's channel as hard as he could, because he just didn't have a clue.
	Random!
	So random!
	Very random.
	Like, normally he's a bit of a smooth operator, right?
	Like, his show, in spite of technical gaffes, at least has him able to muster his way through it with rhetoric and bombast.
	But this today was as much of a shambles as the Tucker-Putin interview.
	It really was.
	Very frenetic.
	All over the shop.
	All over the shop.
	Not a clue what was going on through most of it.
	Yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah yeah.
	Oh this was way more fun than we usually have to be fair.
	That's true.
	I feel quite relieved.
	Yeah yeah yeah me too.
	When it comes to that anyway man oh man that's so weird.
	I was I was talking to someone about um about doing this show and they were like oh that's that's gonna that's gotta be a really heavy one and I was like you'd think you would think.
	Nope.
	Absolutely not.
	Absolutely not.
	We get, um, we get Russell, uh, saying that, uh, you know, all of, um, everyone thinks all of his audience are idiots and that we just hand-feed them information that's been, you know, regurgitated and, uh, he then does this for an hour of just, like, hand-picking tiny little bits of clips and then not even talking about them for most of it.
	It's, it's fascinating.
	It really is.
	And also, like, completely unclear, like, where his moral stance is, like, where there's no anchor.
	Like, this is such an obvious kind of, like, microcosm of his larger issue, which is, no, like, you're not coming from anywhere.
	Which also, honestly, I feel like is my complaint of a lot of American politicians and why they're not doing fucking well at the top.
	Is because you have no moral convictions to stand on.
	So you're not winning us over with your moral arguments because you aren't coming from a steadfast place of like either moral authority or just Just any amount of moral righteousness would be a change.
	You know, just having something to stand next to and be like, these are my beliefs!
	Yeah, like self-righteousness, plenty.
	We've got plenty of that.
	But yeah, coming from like a consistent moral stance that they can explain and articulate regularly.
	Listen, I can!
	Sometimes it takes me a while, but I get there.
	We gotta meander down a garden path.
	I'm sorry for how my brain works, but I know exactly where the fuck I'm coming from literally all the time.
	Yeah, yeah.
	True as an old star.
	For good or ill, you know what I mean?
	Like, you know where I'm fucking coming from.
	And to not be able to nail down In the moment.
	Because also, you know, there are plenty of times in this show where I have to take a step and be like, what am I looking at?
	What did I just hear?
	And I don't feel the need or the confidence to, like, I'm going to defer to your assessment.
	Like, okay, Al, I don't know what I just witnessed.
	What was this?
	Please tell me, because that was Bananas and I know you've been able to watch it five times.
	So like, come on, you know, like, give me give me what I need to make an understanding of it.
	I'm not like looking to Gareth Roy as like, what am I supposed to be saying right now?
	Yeah.
	Yeah, yeah.
	Practice would help, dude.
	Yeah, you're not looking to me for your moral position, you know, crucially.
	No!
	Right, like I know where I'm coming from all the time.
	Yeah.
	And I can articulate it because I understand fundamentally, like I have a thorough understanding of where I'm coming from.
	Also, it's my job to be surprised.
	It's not his job to be surprised.
	No, he's supposed to know everything.
	So the fact that I can relate to his presentation more than you can is saying something.
	In my opinion.
	Yeah.
	He's putting himself in a position of authority and not living up to the task in this here show.
	No.
	No.
	Right.
	And this is an important show of his as well.
	This naturally got a lot more views than usual.
	And then it's just rife with technical issues throughout the whole thing.
	And he's just not got a clue what's going on.
	He's desperately jumping around and grasping at straws and leaping from point to point to point, all trying to avoid discussing the thing.
	Just ignoring clips completely.
	How often have you listened to the radio and then a DJ's like, you want to know who sang those songs?
	Go fuck yourself.
	And then there's three more songs.
	Shazam it, bitch.
	Fuck you.
	Yeah, right?
	Yeah, yeah, yeah.
	Get bit.
	Go screw.
	That's who did these songs.
	Here's another five.
	You want my perspective because you're watching Stay Free with Russell Brand?
	Well, fuck you.
	You don't get my perspective.
	I want to sell my locals channel, goddammit.
	It's very, like, as a fan, I would be so disoriented.
	But also, I can't really, it's very hard for me to put myself in that headspace anyway.
	Yeah, this is the problem.
	It is very difficult to fully understand what the average Stay Free viewer would, because... The experience.
	Yeah, I find it very difficult to put myself in the headspace of being pro-Trump and pro-Putin.
	Um, you know, and then there's, there's two things on their own that are alien to me, let alone the rest of it.
	It's like fucking wild.
	Well, yeah.
	So the, as far as like the, um, the misinformation, I did want to bring something up that, um, I found it super interesting, and I don't know if you know anything about it.
	I feel like we maybe talked about this a while back, but as far as like, there is an effort, and I know, I haven't watched the whole interview, but I know that the talking points of the kind of rewriting of history from the Russian kind of perspective, of which I know, obviously, like Putin is a major proponent and is proliferating, there is a very Like, there is a unified front of how history is to be perceived from the official, like, you know, unofficial Russian letterhead, right?
	And there are a ton of, there's like a ton of YouTube videos, there's a ton of, and they've kind of exploded even since I heard this story reported a couple of years ago, that there is all of this, it feels very PragerU, as far as like, PragerU kids.
	There is there has there is it has been a Russian version for a very long time and as adults that are aware of news and of history watching them is bananas just like Prager you like put yourself in the PragerU kids.
	Videos and listeners if you aren't familiar.
	Oh my God, please, please go check them out.
	The audit is Dave Anthony's kind of like, they're they have seasons that are kind of far apart, but they do some coverage of it like of PragerU in general.
	Hi, Chicago.
	This is such a wild thing.
	I'm going to say, again, donning my tinfoil hat, but not really because this is real.
	So basically, the funding for this pretty intense child propaganda indoctrination content mill was funded by these kind of Like the funding came from Most Shady Outfit in Cyprus and where they were like basically the money from huge like social media juggernauts from several years ago like Tasty, 5-Minute Crafts.
	Bloom, I think, was one of them, and like Get Crafty was another.
	Basically, it's like this mill of, you know, like DIY content or whatever, or like makeup, you know, girly crap.
	All the, like, Pinterest, right?
	The Pinterest engine is these, and it was optimized for SEO and for the algorithm.
	I've seen a fucking million of them, and there are all these, like, You know, like DIY hacks, the people that like there are Americans like and it's kind of all over the place as far as who works on these little, you know, like social media, like a distillation of the DIY blogosphere into these little tiny, you know, bite sized videos that we're getting.
	Just like they were dominating as far as like views, clicks, turnover, all that kind of stuff that would make just they were making gobs and gobs of money and the people that were working on the actual content saying like melt an ice cube on this ink stain and it'll come out and there's a ton of There's like controversies on all sides because what has been taken to task is all these people that worked on these videos were like, it's fucking bullshit.
	We know it didn't work.
	We faked it for these videos, but we knew it was something that was trending and we made it this like, you know, this kind of like distilled bite size, which like as a person that makes their own stuff and is an autodidact and learns a lot of things, The amount of bullshit I had to sift through 10 years ago to learn how to do a thing on the internet was minuscule compared to what you have to today or even five years ago.
	This is all just like, oh this is all shit that we know doesn't work but it works for the algorithm and so we're going to get clicks and views.
	So it's bullshit all the way down.
	You've got people that are working on the content itself saying it's bullshit and then it is funneling money Into a couple of shell organizations to then fund the PragerU kids of Russia.
	I know that sounds crazy.
	It's not.
	It's real.
	It's both crazy and real.
	Really?
	Yeah, that's madness.
	Right, and considering the money thing, right?
	Like, it's not even about necessarily, like, Russia doesn't have to dump any money.
	Russia doesn't have to dump any money into anything.
	This is just something that, like, it's, you know, there are these tangential connections that are potentially rewarded.
	And if you look at the kind of, especially the geopolitical situation in that area, it's very, I mean, Yeah.
	This is just a thing.
	Maybe I am just exercising the demon of having to carry this knowledge around in my head all the time.
	In that regard, thanks everybody for hearing me out.
	It's a crazy thing I know and now you have to know it too.
	I'm sorry.
	I'm sorry.
	Thanks.
	I love you.
	I don't know what to do.
	But like, there's so many weird efforts that are happening.
	And it almost feels like it makes sense that Tucker would get tangled in this kind of propaganda.
	Yes, and it does speak to the sheer size and weight of Putin's influence and the amount of obfuscation of things that aren't propaganda.
	You know, that happens on the internet in general in our own spaces.
	You know, just within the algorithm itself.
	And it is fucking terrifying and it's one of the reasons he's such a dangerous human being to the entire world.
	And yet what we get is a terrible interview from Tucker Carlson covered in a terrible fashion by Russell Brand.
	Right.
	And the fact that we have PragerU to compare it to, you know, I mean, that's American as they come.
	That is, that is bald eagle blood running through the veins of PragerU.
	It's not like Putin's doing it by themselves.
	This isn't just, you know, there's no, they don't, you know, Putin doesn't have a, or Russia doesn't have a monopoly on propaganda.
	We're dealing with this from both sides.
	So looking at the drive behind it, but I think that, and also we talked about a little bit in the CIA, the first one, but definitely we'll be talking about it in this next episode that we're going to put on the Patreon, is the CIA across the board has made the point very clear.
	The best The best agent they have, the best informant they have is someone that never knows that they were involved with the CIA for a second.
	They have no idea that they were part of an op.
	They have no idea that they were ever involved and they were ever on the side of the CIA.
	They don't know where the money's coming from.
	They don't know where the support is coming from because it's all kind of like covert and clandestine.
	It still happens today, right now.
	Still happens.
	Absolutely.
	And that's the ideal that the CIA has laid out in no uncertain terms.
	So if you're talking about an intelligence agency, someone mysteriously benefiting from Making that kind of content.
	You need to be skeptical.
	Yeah, yeah.
	I, like God, do not play with dice and do not believe in coincidence, right?
	Yeah, so Thomas Jefferson, I think that was.
	So if you want to support us.
	Gold in my ear, actually.
	That's what I heard.
	Right.
	If you want to support us and what we do, head to patreon.com on brand.
	We'd be very, very grateful to have you.
	And you can, yes, CIA, we're talking about it a lot.
	I'm so thrilled to depress everybody.
	Come have a look.
	It's really interesting.
	It is.
	Let's have a terrible party that sucks.
	Absolutely.
	And if you want to get in touch, drop us an email.
	It's theonbrainpod at gmail.com.
	We'd love to hear from you.
	If you want to join a community... And we have magnets!
	Oh, there's wild magnets!
	And there's magnets!
	They have gold on them.
	Sorry, I never know when to put this in.
	Yes, we actually sell gold.
	I like the wild card.
	We're a podcast, we sell gold.
	Actual, real-life gold.
	Yeah, buy a magnet, link is in the description.
	Yeah, if you want to join a community of other like-minded Awakening Wonders of the On-Brand pod, go to On-Brand Awakening Wonders on Facebook, or if you're a Redditor and prefer that kind of space and like the anonymity, go to On-Brand underscore pod on Reddit, and it's there, and there's some lovely human beings there too.
	If you want to find us on socials it's the Ombrand pod in most places except for where we're not.
	Look for the artwork everybody and personal socials I'm at alworthofficial and Lauren is at made.by.lauren.b I will imminently be posting something about The Scratch and the videos there so if you if you wonder what the fuck they're like or just go listen to the latest album also but yeah.
	Yeah.
	All right.
	I did also post a real... It's not really a tutorial, to be fair.
	It's more of a showing of... The t-shirts.
	The t-shirts, yeah.
	Yeah, you can see me making Mike's birthday presents.
	That was cool.
	When you said a lot of pins, you meant a lot of pins, huh?
	I didn't realize you meant that many pins.
	A lot of pins.
	All of them.
	All of the pins.
	That I have.
	All of the pins.
	Not a lot.
	All of the pins.
	All of the pins that I have.
	But it works, it works, it works.
	I stabbed myself so much less than I usually do with these projects, because all those pins mean your little paws get all chewed up.
	And not as bad this time.
	That's great.
	I was kind of hoping to have clips where I said ouch a bunch, because it is kind of funny.
	It's more fun to hurt myself while I'm working on stuff in front of Mike, because then I at least have an audience.
	Yeah, that's true.
	Whereas if it's just by myself, it's just a tree falling in the woods.
	But, I didn't have that.
	It might be on its way.
	You never know.
	But yeah, you can check this stuff out.
	Go take a look.
	Yeah.
	I'd love to see ya.
	All right.
	We love you very much.
	And yeah, Patrons, we'll see you on Sunday for the second part of the CIA special on Off-Brand.
	And the rest of you, we'll see you all next week.
	Bye!
	Bye!
	That's not win-win-win.
	That's lie-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie-lie.

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