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May 16, 2025 - On Brand
01:16:19
Kanye, Keir & Kocaine

Russell discusses Kanye's latest song, Keir Starmer's migration rhetoric, and some world leaders with a (supposed) bag of cocaine. Support Al on Patreon! - https://patreon.com/OnBrand

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Time Text
This is propaganda live.
I only suggest how to think and how to vote.
Extraordinary cultural moment.
Already iconic.
Already iconic.
We love you.
You're welcome here.
I almost sound like a conspiracy theorist, but it's a bit lame now.
They don't want to have a conversation debate, but they're lying.
And this is a matter now of fact and record.
Trump is like Hitler.
Let me count the ways.
I'm a Nazi, actually.
I'm a Nazi actually and I've kept it now until now but this is my chance.
God is propaganda.
Did you get it?
Did you get it?
I feel that Christ may have had a better vision.
Bastards, aren't they?
I mean, you can't watch too much of this without realising they're absolute bastards.
Let's go full screen on Russell.
This is On Brand, a podcast where we discuss the ideas and antics of one, Russell Brand.
I'm Alworth, and each week I go through an episode of Stay Free with Russell Brand in order to dissect and debunk it.
Today we'll be covering world leaders in cocaine packets, Kanye West's new song, and Keir Starmer's new migration policy, which, now that I think about it, are more related than I would like.
But before we get into that, allow me to thank a new Awakening Wonder here.
So, Gary Parshak.
Parshak?
Parshak?
Either way, Gary, you are now an Awakening Wonder.
You are indeed an Awakening Wonder.
Thank you very much, Gary.
And writing in verse.
Hey, I know you.
I hope I see you at the live stream this weekend.
You are now an Awakening Wonder.
You are indeed an Awakening Wonder.
Thank you very much, Writing Inverse.
And if anyone wants to support the show financially by becoming an Awakener Wanda, joining the Invisible Hand, or donating on an elevated tier, head to patreon.com slash onbrand and sign up, and you will have my eternal gratitude, and you'll be able to access additional content as well as a completely ad-free version of the show.
Speaking of additional content, this Saturday, May 17th at 10pm, BST will be the monthly on-brand book club live stream, a couple of hours later than usual, and we will continue reading excerpts of Russell's 2007 autobiography, My Bookie Wook.
Which I'd love to say is getting less harrowing, but actually it's just a different kind of harrowing instead.
Nonetheless, we'll have as much fun as we can, and that'll be both on the YouTube channel and Twitch as well.
So that's Saturday, May 17th at 10pm BST.
I hope to see everybody there, and the recording will be available for patrons after the fact.
So, what's been happening at Stay Free the past couple of weeks?
Well, honestly...
More of the same.
Russell showed up for his court date and then went back to Florida, seemingly immediately.
And it's just been kind of more of the same shit, really, albeit with a notable lack of guests.
And that...
It does seem to have been the case for the last couple of months.
Almost like having criminal charges against you for violent sex crimes makes it less likely that people want to be associated with you.
I'm still holding out for that David Icke interview.
But then again, I've been burned by Russell before.
I've been promised Roger Waters, Elon Musk, and even Trump himself.
They've all been touted as guests for...
This Stay Free with Russell brand, but none of them have ever materialized.
Nonetheless, fingers crossed, keep the popcorn at the ready just in case.
And instead of a guest, what we'll be looking at is the show from Monday this week.
So it's just Russell doing his usual thing, and we're going to jump into what is probably the dumbest story of this episode.
I mean, let's get into this thing.
Starmer and Macron deny that they are getting groovy on the cocaine train.
Let's have a look.
So, uh, this is from the Telegraph, a British newspaper that's somewhat reliable on some issues.
Manuel Macron has denied bringing cocaine onto a train headed to Kiev for a meeting with Vladimir Zelensky.
Certainly, Zelensky's name's never been mentioned in connection with cocaine.
Have you ever seen him dancing around in them sort of red veils?
Have you ever seen him sort of, like, kissing his own biceps?
Have you ever seen him playing the piano with his penis?
Have you ever seen Zelensky's outrageous claims?
Like, I'm gonna get you, Putin!
Now listen!
Don't you disrespect me in the Oval Office.
I'll take you down.
I will beat you senseless.
I'll pummel you so I will.
Like, he's an unusual dude.
And I feel that cocaine's involved.
I feel like a lot of leaders are compromised.
I'm always reluctant to believe anything because I know that if you were to go into certain chats right now, people would just go, You're a rapist!
Like, and I actually know that I'm not a rapist and have never raped anybody.
So I have to be very discerning about information.
Discerning is a word for it.
I imagine avoidant probably better describes how Russell is having to deal with anyone talking about him at this stage.
Nonetheless, discernment is certainly required for this story.
For the record, the only things the Telegraph newspaper can be considered reliable on are being consistently right-wing and xenophobic.
Everything else...
Bit of a question mark.
Nonetheless, as Russell put it on the screen, let's take a look at the rest of what was shown on screen.
Emmanuel Macron has denied bringing cocaine onto a train headed to Kiev for a meeting with Vladimir Zelensky and Ukraine's European allies.
On Monday, his office took the unusual step of addressing a video that showed the French president hiding a white object as he sat alongside Sir Keir Starmer and Friedrich Meurs, the German Chancellor.
The footage had gone viral over the weekend due to the mystery object's apparent resemblance to a bag of the Class A drug.
The video was shared widely by Kremlin-backed social media channels.
In reaction, Maria Zakharova, a Russia's foreign ministry spokesman, claimed that the fate of Europe is being decided by utterly drug-dependent individuals and accused Mr. Zelensky of being an unstable drug addict.
Alex Jones, a hard-right US radio host and prominent conspiracy theorist, amplified the Russian claims as he reposted the video and wrote, Cocaine-fueled nuclear war-loving megalomaniacs on display!
He claimed the Ukrainian leader was a known cocaine enthusiast and said that all three world leaders looked cracked out.
Unquote.
So that was what was shown on screen of the Toregraph article there.
Merrily repeating Alex Jones there.
Now, I'm not up to date, but I do believe that the boys over at Knowledge Fight have covered Alex Jones' claims around this already, so if you want more detail about him specifically and this, then head over and give Knowledge Fight a listen.
Highly recommend.
Otherwise, to put this as simply as possible, though we will see the footage in a minute, three world leaders met on a train on their way to see President Zelensky of Ukraine, right?
Watching this was a raft of what seems like at least half a dozen reporters all taking pictures and filming the meeting and everything else.
In the conspiracy theory version of this, three world leaders decided to then break out what would be quite a big bag of cocaine in front of the world's press, who they then posed for in a photo op.
Let's entertain the idea that they're all cokeheads, like the alt-right seems to want to believe.
Let's entertain that idea for a second.
Does anyone think they'd be dumb enough to just be like, hey, people from the press, here's my big bag of drugs, hope everyone's cool with it.
No, no, of course not.
The whole thing is absurd, and brain-dead levels of dumb.
People have been trying to argue that it was actually in a paper bag, that it was like a folded envelope situation of cocaine.
And look...
From personal experience, you know, worked in the music industry, lived in London, working in the music industry.
There's no shortage of cocaine in either of those things.
And I will say, like, there's a fundamental flaw with the concept of doing it from a white bag.
It's like, you're gonna miss some, you're gonna lose some, and trust me, nobody who is a fan of cocaine ever wants to lose any cocaine.
So just, on that basis alone, unlikely.
But, you know, crucially, this whole thing fits into a narrative that pro-Putin asshats have been spinning for years.
Since 2019, the Russian government have been calling Zelensky a cocaine addict, despite him denying it, and even taking a drugs test to prove that.
And the alt-right media have been glomming onto that since at least 2022.
And the, you know...
Invasion of Ukraine by Russia, with figures like Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson leading the charge.
Tucker Carlson did a video just a couple of months ago about how much of a cokehead Zelensky supposedly is, and there is no evidence to substantiate that idea, or that Vladimir Zelensky is taking drugs of any kind, or has ever taken drugs of any kind.
Though he may have, but there's no evidence for it.
But that's not going to stop these guys, and it's certainly not going to stop Russell from following in their footsteps.
I swear...
If he's not a Russian asset, then he's a moron for doing all of this shit for free.
Seriously.
Oh, and as for his other claims about Zelensky playing the piano with his penis and kissing his biceps and whatever, he was a comedian and entertainer before he was a politician.
It's really not that interesting.
And also...
Should we be holding Russell accountable for the lyrics to the song African Child that he sang in Forgetting Sarah Marshall?
Is that the standard we want to be applying?
Like, all sketches and bits have to be taken seriously now.
That's how we're gonna move forward.
Because that sounds terrible.
Ridiculous nonsense.
So, from here, Russell gives his more, uh...
I'm gonna say broad political perspective on the world at large.
In a way...
We feel like we want more unity.
On a global level, there's a requirement for unity, a common fraternity of mankind.
But also there is a requirement for more tribalism in the terms of we need more subsidiarity and more control and communities stop aggregating power to the degree that we are and allowing people at the top of those power structures to lead us into war and profitable endeavours.
When even if they're not taking cocaine on trains, they're so plainly just normal guys, just normal people, just normal middle-aged men that this sort of would be plausible that they are taking cocaine.
Oh, yeah, I should have a cheeky line.
Oh, let's have a cheeky...
Oh, one up the snout, no arm done.
So, Zelensky is a strange dude, but Starmer, Macron, and MERS are all normal middle-aged guys, are they?
Listen, to anyone who needs to hear this, there is no such thing as a normal world leader.
I think all of us at one point or another, especially in the last decade, will have probably looked at the state of politics and said, well, I can do better than that.
In a sort of, you know, backseat driver, Monday morning quarterback kind of way, right?
I've certainly had that thought.
But then if you think for a moment, like just genuinely consider it for a moment.
The delusions of grandeur required to believe that you and you alone should lead a country, and not just any country, but, you know, global superpower countries like the UK, France, Germany, or the US.
That's some next-level shit, because, like, in order for these people...
To get where they've gotten.
Not only do they have to have Messiah-complex-level delusions about their own abilities, but they also have to dedicate their entire lives to navigating and, in a sense, dominating the gutters and cesspools of modern politics.
No one in their right mind would want that job.
They're all fucking bananas.
That's part of the point.
The ideal person for that position is someone who doesn't want it.
Which also means, like, these people who do get to that position spend an inordinate amount of time trying to appear like they're normal.
Trying to seem like they're normal, middle-aged or older in the case of some people.
People who do normal things, like...
Watching the football in Keir Starmer's case, and he won't shut up about Arsenal, with the obvious exception of Donald Trump, because there is nothing about that man that even pretends to be normal.
Anyway, according to Russell, we need more tribalism, more subsidiarity, less aggregation of power to the top, which is why he's one of the more vocal supporters of Donald Trump and Elon Musk, who explicitly want to take over entire countries to add to the United States empire and will buy entire social media companies because people were being mean to them and they didn't like it.
Yeah, that feels like subsidiarity to me.
So, now we get to looking at the actual footage that's supposed to show a bag of cocaine in front of these world leaders.
That's what we're supposed to see.
Let's have a look at this.
It's through my bathroom, huh?
It's literally.
We came through each other and then we made it in France.
Tissue on the table.
That's what's supposed to be the bag of cocaine.
So that's Merz, isn't it?
That's the newly elected German leader who again required manipulation and curtailing of the rising populist vote of the AFD.
When we see these fellas, what you see are a bureaucrat class that lack the kind of...
Pungent, visceral potency that a chieftain or tribal leader would once have had.
And I think we can see them as like shadow men, hollowed out shadow men, that probably a line of cocaine might do them good.
Okay, and Macron just hid the tissue for the pictures that you can hear.
Now, Macron did hide that, but you would hide it, I reckon, if it was a tissue, if I was going to be in a photograph.
Liseis, a bit of a French outlet.
When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs.
This fake news, you know, coined by Trump, that phrase, never forget that, is being spread by France's enemies, both abroad and at home.
We must remain vigilant and against manipulation.
But even if you don't believe this story, do you see Macron as the leader?
Of France, like the representative of the spirit of the French people.
He is speaking for les Gilets Jeunes.
He is speaking for the French farmers.
He is speaking for those that are concerned about the borders of France.
The spirit of France.
The France that had revolutions.
The France that threw out Napoleon.
The France...
What France is he a representative of?
He's not fucking French enough, this guy.
Yeah, I'd say he's representative of, you know, the current, present-day country of France.
That's what he's representative of.
The people of his country voted for a party with him as leader in full knowledge that he would then be leading the country, and so that's what he's doing.
He also won the 2022 election with just shy of 60% of the votes, which is not insignificant, and he won in many of the rural areas of France as well, you know.
Where the farmers live.
But Russell is less interested in reality and more interested in dog whistle politics because Marine Le Pen, who Macron roundly beat, is a big proponent of great replacement theory and is anti-migration in ways that would make even Nigel Farage blush, and Russell has been broadly supportive of her and her ideas the entire time.
In any case, Russell himself...
Basically said, well, it's a tissue, and I'd move it for a photo op as well.
But that doesn't matter because, you know, how legitimate are these world leaders anyway?
I mean, Starmer and Macron only won in, um...
Massive majorities.
But that MERS guy from Germany, well, he only got in because they curtailed the AFD, is what they did.
Except, well, AFD, Alternatives for Deutschland, made historic gains and came second in the German elections, despite being a party of literal neo-Nazis.
They won 20.8% of the total vote.
But not wanting to work with them in a coalition is not the same as curtailing them.
Chancellor Merz is leader of the Conservative Christian Party, who won the most votes overall, and will be governing in a coalition with the Social Democrat Party in Germany, which came in third.
So, essentially bypassing having to work with AFD.
Just working with SPD is far more palatable than working with the literal neo-Nazis of AFD.
Um, really, we should genuinely be thankful that they have enough sense to govern with the centre-left rather than give in to working with fascists.
That's something I feel like a lot of people could learn from.
and hopefully the Liberal Democrats in this country perhaps learned from after the disastrous coalition government that ran this country.
So!
From here, Russell played a couple of AI videos, making it look like these three world leaders were all partying and doing a bunch of coke, with Russell claiming that, hey, that's all something we can enjoy, that's all good fun, isn't it?
No, fuck AI for a start.
Like, generated content.
Thematically as well, one was set to Eric Clapton's cocaine, which also completely tracks to me because, like, the alt-right would be using Clapton.
That makes sense because he's also a vehement, vocal, racist piece of shit.
Genuinely.
Google any of the things he said in most of the decades.
Horrendous.
Also...
Massively overrated guitarist.
Nonetheless, from here, we move to a story I didn't quite expect.
And as I was watching this moment by moment, I was just kind of wondering, I was like, where is he going with this?
He's got a direction.
Where are we going?
Where are we taking this?
Ask yourself a question.
What do you expect from an artist these days?
Do you want them to challenge you?
Do you want them to light you up?
Do you want them to move you closer to God and to the divine?
Do you want an artist to pose questions to you about the nature of the civilization and society that you're living in?
Indeed, is it a civilization?
Let me know which artists you think these days, whether they're comedic, musical, theatrical...
Actually challenge you and invite you to ask questions.
Because I think we've gotten kind of used to the commodification of art.
The point of art used to be to elevate the divine, to bring you closer to God.
Nowadays, art is a commodity.
That's what Warhol made us confront.
I would say that Kanye West is an artist on that basis.
A great artist on that basis.
An artist that kind of drags you into all sorts of uncomfortable territory.
Let's have a look now at Kanye West's latest advent, his latest incursion into the culture.
This is a man who cannot be cancelled.
This is a man who cannot be contained and controlled.
If you're watching this on YouTube, hey, we're going to have to leave you now because the fact is this.
Kanye West's art...
Cannot be shown on your platform.
Now, I feel like with a kind of best will in the world, I'm not down with anti-Semitism or any kind of racism or anything that's ultimate aim is hate and division.
But I do believe that you should be able to decide for yourselves what you want.
So click the link in the description.
Come on over to Rumble.
We're going to analyse Hail Hitler, N-word.
I don't use that word because I've explained it to you enough times.
I don't have time for that kind of stuff.
What's that title?
Let's get into it, baby.
Yeah, don't take inches off my winkle.
Don't you take an inch off my winkle.
You leave that winkle inch right there.
Here it is.
Hail Hitler.
Let's get into it.
Let's not.
Again, I did not see this.
I wasn't aware this was going to be the subject as I was watching this.
So I was just sat here oblivious as to what was coming the whole time.
I was like, what are we doing now?
So, from there, Russell played the full song from Kanye, which I refuse to play any of, even a single bar, on this show.
The song is called Heil Hitler, or, yeah.
N-word, Heil Hitler, Heil Hitler, and I can't remember which order, but either way, not great.
And it was released on the 80th anniversary of VE Day, right?
The day which marks the Allied forces defeating the Nazis.
Problems.
Many problems already.
I will, however, read some lyrics out to you, because they're important for context as to what Russell will be talking about.
So the second half of the first verse ends with, quote, With all of the money and fame, I still can't get my kids back.
With all of the money and fame, I still don't get to see my children.
N-words see my Twitter, but they don't see how I'm feeling.
So I became a Nazi.
Yeah, bitch, I'm the villain.
Unquote.
And then the chorus reads, quote, N-word, Heil Hitler.
N-word, Heil Hitler.
They don't understand the things I say on Twitter.
N-word, Heil Hitler.
Unquote.
That chorus repeats at least six times.
So, that's a lot of that phrase.
And the whole song ends with a literal recording of a speech from Adolf Hitler himself in 1936, which Hitler was yelling to rapturous applause.
And the translation of that speech reads as, quote, If you consider the work I'm doing to be right, if you think I have been diligent, that I have worked, that I have advocated for you this year, that I have spent my time honestly in the service of my people, then cast your vote!
If so, then stand up for me like I have stood up for you!
Unquote.
Rapturous Nazi applause, right?
So, you might be able to get a sense as to why this song has been banned from most platforms, except, you know...
X. Oh man.
It's probably on Rumble somewhere I didn't bother to check, but, you know, anything goes over there.
Oh, and I should clarify, Russell saying, don't take inches off my winkle at the end there, that was a reference to Kanye doing an interview with Piers Morgan, where Piers undercut Kanye's social media following, saying that it was, I think, 37 million followers, not 38 million.
Most likely the number changed since a member of staff had Googled it, and Kanye then accused Piers of taking inches off his dick.
Which is quite the phrase.
Before storming off like the whiny little titty baby that he is.
That's what Russell was referencing there.
Anyway, according to Russell so far, Kanye West is a great artist who drags you into all sorts of uncomfortable territory and he cannot be cancelled, contained, or controlled.
I agree with some of that assessment.
So let's hear Russell's initial reaction to this song immediately after it finishes.
He's working with a lot of ideas there.
He's working with a lot of ideas when you say N-word Heil Hitler.
Now, firstly, Kanye West is a product of the culture, commenting on the culture.
Why is the phrase Heil Hitler offensive?
Because it's seen as a vow and act of reverence to a leader that executed...
millions of people and waged war throughout Europe that led to so much destruction and disaster.
Also because he was a fucking genocidal Nazi, Russell.
It wasn't just like...
Power and conquest.
It wasn't one of those classic situations.
It was like genocidal, racist, eugenical, ethno-nationalist fascism sprinkled in with basically every evil form of bigotry you can think of.
That, with a huge fucking fascistic military behind it who happened to be on a shitload of drugs.
Around 30 million dead, countless injured, and ripple effects of that regime are still being felt today.
It's part of why some people think trans people just Popped up out of nowhere as this new modern thing that's all woke.
Like, no, we've always been here, it's just that the Nazis burned most of the research about us.
Oh yes, why is saying Heil Hitler offensive anyway?
Jesus fucking Christ.
I did not see this on my bingo card for 2025.
I'm not gonna lie to you, because so far, like, so far as I can see...
Russell has been one of the more vocal defenders of Kanye West out there in this whole situation, which is really something.
I did not see that coming.
Alright, so we're off to a bad start, and someone in Russell's chat has, I think, a fair point to make, which is then immediately dismissed.
You could, in a way, what tools do you bring to analyse that?
Do you want to analyse it as a music critic, a cultural critic, as a political figure?
Gobsmacked46, it's like he's honouring Hitler.
Now, I don't feel like Kanye West is literally saying, I'm honouring Hitler.
When you hear Hitler's speech, I assume that's a Hitler speech, kick in.
That's pretty fascinating.
Almost like it wouldn't be there if he wasn't literally honoring Hitler.
Kanye West has, on multiple occasions over the last several years, honored and praised Adolf Hitler and his views.
This song...
Is an extension of that, to at least some degree.
It really is that simple.
I'm not going to comment on the musicality of the thing.
Obviously, that's my background and everything, and I normally would, but I really don't want people to go and listen to this piece of shit in order to try and understand what it is I'm saying about it.
In case I need to say it to anyone, don't listen to this song.
Just don't.
Russell has defended it, however, elsewhere, claiming it has a good hook.
Incidentally, the group Campaign Against Anti-Semitism weren't thrilled with Russell's praise of the track, saying, quote, Could the so-called hook be that the phrase Heil Hitler is repeated over and over?
Playing with Nazi slogans is not edgy or brave, and neither is Russell Brand." They also said that it's a desperate attempt to chase cliques through controversy or a sign of deeper disregard for Holocaust memory, warning that either way, the outcome was the same.
He trivializes one of history's darkest chapters.
Yeah.
Yeah.
That.
Um...
Okay, so this is still going very badly.
But thankfully, Russell asks the important and vital question of like, well, what does Hitler even represent these days?
What I would say is this.
See, in the COVID pandemic, the threat, the menace, was the COVID virus itself.
And in order to protect us from the COVID virus itself, there were certain measures taken.
There was an increased authority and control.
Stay in your houses, respect these distances, wear the mask, get the shot.
In this instance, the threat is Nazi rhetoric and the image and synecdoche of Hitler.
Because the threat of actual Hitler has gone, hasn't it?
Hitler's not coming back.
So, in a way, if you're saying, no one is actually practically concerned that Hitler's going to sort of loom up from under a bedspread or from sort of out of a closet and reclaim power.
So we're accepting that Hitler himself was a representative of a certain set of sentiments.
One of them is obviously anti-Semitism.
Another of those sets of ideologies that corral around Hitler are nationalism.
And a kind of folk reverence of the soil and the people that is kind of mobilising, energising and dangerous.
Blood and soil, one might say.
At this point, what does Hitler mean?
Who is actively engaged?
I know there's an increase in anti-Semitism.
Say when we watched that thing about Dave Portnoy the other day, Dave Portnoy, and he was saying that he's experienced a lot more anti-Semitism lately, and people here, like the work here, Isaac's Jewish.
There's a general sense that on X, there's a lot of anti-Semitism and anti-Semitic rhetoric, but in a way, extremes are being explored because of anonymity.
There's more porn, there's more racism, there's a more edge-land communique.
And that's good, is it?
Sorry, I'm not intending for this to become a list of peepshow quotes that take the piss out of Russell, but it is shocking how many apply in each moment.
For real, though, someone needs to take away Russell's ex-account.
He's commented before about how he can just endlessly doomscroll through the absolute mind-numbing filth and hatred on that site, and it is rotting his perception of reality, as well as, Probably everyone else's who's on there.
The place is full of antisemitism, racism, porn, and various bigotries, usually in meme form.
But that is not representative of the wider world.
Despite that, Russell seems to have it in his head that it's just kind of normal for people to be engaging in all of this extreme, horrendous shit.
Whereas actually, like, no.
Every time I open up X to check on what the fuck this guy is doing, every single time I'm confronted with something terrible.
Every time.
And always from people who I don't follow.
I don't follow any of these people.
On there, it's just what's thrust upon me.
Good lord.
Thanks, Elon Musk.
Also, this is petty, but I can't express how happy it makes me that Kanye...
Still refers to it as Twitter.
Obviously, it's a better rhyme as well, but man, I hope Elon gets secretly upset every time he listens to this song, which I'm sure will be often, because the guy's a Nazi.
To the extent that back in February, Kanye got upset at Elon for stealing his Nazi swag.
That was the phrasing.
I didn't pick it.
That's what he said.
Oh, what a time to be alive.
Um, okay.
In the next clip, in the midst of some terrible comparisons, I think we get an honest appraisal of why Russell might have an interest in defending Kanye so vociferously.
Like, what do you want from an artist?
What did we want from David Bowie?
Like, how would we get on with David Bowie now if he was sort of doing all of his gender bender, Ziggy Stardust, Aladdin Sane stuff?
How would we get on with Lou Reed now?
How would we get on with John Lennon now?
In a sense, what I feel like is that the culture would come for any one of those figures.
Like, they'd say John Lennon hit his wife, Lou Reed's a heroin addict, David Bowie.
Like, any...
It's not...
Russell, this is a dead end in all directions.
No, I don't think it's a dead end in all directions.
This is what I think.
Again, audience, you're wrong.
The culture can no longer contain even the edicts it claims to exist for.
It's spilling out and it's broken.
In a way...
I'm in there somehow.
Do you know what I mean?
I've been kind of kicked out and curtailed and controlled and booted out of the culture.
I'm no longer allowed in the mainstream culture.
I was once a relatively innocuous cultural figure turning up on TMZ.
Hey, Russell Brown was photographed today.
Don't you feel like there's a weird tension in the culture that people are going up into space and it's kind of weird?
Don't you think it's like odd that what's happening in the Middle East, Gaza, is so contentious and so difficult to discuss?
You know?
Yeah, again, that's your ex-wife that went into space.
Turned out to not be the best decision.
I have a feeling that Russell thinks of Kanye West as something of a kindred spirit.
Like, they've somehow both been ejected from the quote-unquote culture for reasons that are totally not their own fault.
And that is evoking more sympathy from him than would usually be applied.
That's what I think this is coming from.
Also, for the record, Lou Reed, John Lennon, and David Bowie?
None of them were literal Nazis writing songs about how great Hitler is.
That's been a pretty firm cultural boundary since the 40s.
Though, worth noting, Lou Reed, like...
I wouldn't hold it against the guy for being an addict.
That's not his fault.
But he did have a history of domestic violence, as did John Lennon.
And David Bowie, at a very minimum, was a statutory rapist, having slept with a 15-year-old girl when he was in his 20s.
The assessment that none of that would be okay today is quite correct.
And it shouldn't have been okay then.
And frankly, I can tell you from experience that there are plenty of great musicians out there who aren't violent, haven't committed sexual abuse, and don't get enough.
We can find new people who haven't done the terrible things.
That's what we can do.
It's very easy.
They're all out there just waiting.
Just waiting.
Anyway.
From here, Russell gives his assessment as to why Kanye is important to the culture and should remain within the culture.
What I would say is, you've got to have roles for Kanye.
Haven't you?
Like, if once you start to exclude Kanye out of the culture, everyone out of the culture, the internet has exposed me to prawns.
You've been exposed to prawns everywhere.
You just watch out.
Just make sure you're preparing properly.
Who's left in this culture that you can listen to and trust?
The culture's, in a sense, desiccated and remote and empty and hollowed out.
Dead, senile presidents like Joe Biden.
Dead artists telling you stuff you already know.
Carrying flags for banal ideas.
making apocalyptic claims about climate change.
The main host culture, the dominant culture, is in an odd position because Trump is president.
Who is really the culture?
Who is the dominant media?
You still see...
Bobby Kennedy, Dr. Oz, Marty Makari and Bhattacharya lined up on Fox News.
We're going to be covering that in a minute.
You still have the BBC.
You still have CBS.
You still have Warner Brothers.
You still have Apple TV.
You still have, like, Kanye is a unique figure because he's uncancellable because he reached such a zenith in the culture that he couldn't be kind of killed.
I think people would like it if he died because he's a problem.
He's a problem.
He's an anomalous and tense problem.
I mean, he is a problem.
He's definitely a problem.
I don't think him dying would help anything, though.
Like, if anything, he'd just be another martyr for the alt-right to hold up.
So, that clip right there that I just played frustrates me, because Russell came so close to making a good point about, like, well...
What is the dominant culture now?
Who is the dominant media?
Because if you look at the loudest voices, it certainly isn't legacy media institutions, is it?
It's Joe fucking Rogan and his ilk.
Russell has more reach than most legacy media outlets.
His social media combined following is somewhere around 23 million, and his videos get views in the hundreds of thousands, if not millions at times.
So when he talks about being ejected from the culture while making millions every year from his Rumble deal and whatever else, Like, buddy, if you were cancelled, I wouldn't be hearing shit from you, so shut the fuck up.
And yeah, same with Kanye.
Like, yes, he is, to a degree, uncancellable at this moment because places like Twitter and Rumble exist and are owned by shitheads like Elon Musk and Peter Thiel.
But anyway, we've got to have roles for Kanye, because otherwise you're just left with dead presidents and dead artists, apparently, waving flags and saying apocalyptic.
I don't know who the fuck he was talking about.
Like, I'm sorry you don't like modern music, Russell.
You're 49, it can happen to the best of us, but that doesn't mean we should all get on board with the Heil Hitler song.
Those two things don't add up.
Ugh, now...
As if the chat around this whole thing couldn't get any worse, Russell plays a clip of Andrew Tate getting into a Bugatti supercar and blasting Kanye's Heil Hitler song through the speakers, which again, not going to play it, but that's what happened, and that then prompts this response from Russell.
Tate, ultra masculinity, Kanye, ultra avant-garde.
You know, I tell you this, man, in the 1970s...
Kanye would have just been sort of Marvin Gaye, and Tate would have been Burt Reynolds.
The culture could just sort of handle, this is a macho dude, this is an artist on the edge.
Now, anyone that's trying to do anything challenging is outside of the culture, and the mainstream culture, you sense that if you were to look into them, you would find dark, dark skeletal filth in their closet.
That's what I think.
Based on, based on conjecture.
Okay, cool.
Also, yeah, that's an unfortunate still image that we've got here.
I happen to have landed on Russell holding his arm up in a sort of half-Nazi salute.
So...
Firstly, keep Marvin Gaye's name out of your damn mouth, Russell, especially if you're daring to compare him to Kanye.
Marvin Gaye was raised as a black Hebrew Israelite.
I don't think he would have been thrilled with the whole Nazi thing.
Kanye is doing the opposite of what's going on.
Kanye is pro-fascism and pro-racism.
Marvin Gaye was a very important activist against those things.
I cannot.
It's literally just because he's black and a musician.
That's what it is.
I know that's what it is.
But I'm like, what?
What the fuck?
And, yeah, Burt Reynolds was apparently an addict who engaged in domestic violence, which, hey, I didn't know.
He seemed like a difficult guy all round, I think.
But if there's, like, a ranking of shitheadery, I feel he does come lower down the scale than Andrew Tate, who will hopefully in the nearest future end up in prison for sex trafficking, among many other things.
And those are just the literal crimes, without factoring in the damage and havoc that he's wreaking upon society.
Oh, dear.
Thankfully, from here, we're going to move on from Kanye.
From the terrible to the surprising, because in this next clip, we may all find ourselves agreeing with Laura Loomer, of all people.
Check out this, then.
So, this is Laura Loomer.
She's talking about Casey Means, who's been on our show before, and Kelly Means is my friend.
I love Kelly Means.
Casey Means, the new Trump nominee for U.S. Surgeon General, doesn't even have an active medical license in Oregon where she established her medical practice.
How is a top doctor in the U.S. supposed to give medical guidance and advice to the nation when she doesn't even have an active medical license in the state where she allegedly practiced medicine?
Does Casey Means even have an active medical license in any state?
This is so embarrassing for the Trump administration.
They chose a social media influencer who sells supplements, who didn't even support Trump to be US Surgeon General.
Yeah!
Yeah!
Casey Means, sister of Callie Means, is the current pick for Surgeon General in the Trump administration.
She never finished her residency as a doctor, has no current valid medical license, and has no background or training in nutrition, but she is determined to address the problems with food and nutrition in the USA.
The Meanses even wrote a book about it, without even once mentioning the fact that huge swaths of Americans live in food deserts and don't have access to easily available nutritious foods.
Conveniently avoided that one.
Even more convenient, she also sells a subscription health tracking app, as well as glucose monitors and other shit like that.
Cali Means does more or less the same thing through his company TruMed, though his version tries to make them taxpayer-subsidized through health savings accounts.
And he is a senior advisor to RFK Jr. at HHS these days.
Oh, and with regards to vaccines, this is the new potential...
New potential Surgeon General here.
Casey Means said this to Joe Rogan on his podcast, quote, I bet that one vaccine probably isn't causing autism, but what about the 20 that they're getting before 18 months?
Unquote.
So, cool!
Another anti-vaxxer in power.
And as I've covered, there is no evidence to suggest that vaccines, including the ones in the childhood schedule, cause autism.
It just isn't true.
Also in that figure of, like, 20 or whatever, they're including the combined ones.
It's actually just one shot, you know, it's just there are several in it.
It's just more efficient that way, Casey, you fucking idiot.
Anyway, I'm agreeing with Laura Loomer on a thing, so that's another one I didn't expect from my 2025 bingo.
It is wild times we live in, truly.
Now, as Russell has had both Casey and Callie Means on Stay Free with Russell Brand, Callie Means has been on several times, he's not going to sit idly by while the guests he likes are dragged on social media, so let's hear what Russell has to say.
I know there are procedural requirements for positions of high office, but my somewhat superficial understanding of Casey and Callie Means is that they are very committed to health, to spiritual principles, are fundamentally...
fundamentally anti-corporate and are interested in a type of wellness that up until 10 years ago was kind of peripheral and belonged to the denizens of California and LA.
Let's get into this a little deeper.
Laura Luma is taking money from industry to scuttle President Trump's agenda.
If that's incorrect, sue me and let's do discovery.
Wow.
*laughs*
Dynamite Owen Wilson impression there.
Wow!
So, Callie Means' response to the justified critiques of his sister is to throw accusations around and play a game of lawsuit chicken with Laura Loomer.
That's what he's doing.
That was the response there.
Americans?
I have to ask: How does it feel to know these people are in charge of making decisions about your life?
I'm trying to put myself in your shoes and I feel like I'm just wearing rocks on my feet.
That's how I'm feeling.
Oh, dear.
Laura Loomer isn't the only one who's been attacking Maha from within this week, however, as none other than RFK Jr.'s former running mate, Nicole Shanahan, is making claims that he is being controlled from the shadows.
So here's Shanahan's post, Nicole Shanahan.
When we met her, she was a very nice woman.
Yes, it's very strange.
Doesn't make any sense.
I was promised that if I supported RFK Jr. in his Senate confirmation that neither of these siblings would be working under HHS or in an appointment and that people much more qualified would be.
I don't know if RFK very clearly lied to me or what is going on.
It's been clear in recent conversations that he's reporting to someone regularly who is controlling his decisions and it isn't President Trump.
With regards to the siblings, there is something very artificial and aggressive about them.
Almost like they were...
Bread and raised Mancurian assets, i.e.
sort of MKUltra-style folk.
Well, I like Callie Means a lot.
He's lovely.
He's really brilliant and really smart and really reliable.
I like Callie Means.
Casey Means I don't know so well, but I know he loves her and adores her.
Feel like Pacey Means is the type of appointment that will move America forward, that the HHS will increasingly become about addressing the health of Americans, what you eat, how you exercise, and why diet, nutrition, and medicine has been so corrupt in the past.
Yeah, America will become much more about why your health problems are actually your fault for being stupid and poor and eating the foods that are advertised to you and drinking the water that's full of microplastics and lead.
That's all your fault now.
Congratulations.
Meanwhile, we're just gonna, you know, deregulate everything and make a truckload of money out of it while we're here.
Okay, bye!
Yeah, good stuff.
As for Nicole Shanahan...
If you'll recall, this is the billionaire lady who was literally threatening elected representatives if they refused to confirm RFK Jr. as the Secretary for Health and Human Services.
She was also RFK Jr.'s running mate back when he was still pretending to run to president.
So, I'm not exactly feeling bad for her, but this is one of those juicy moments where we get to just...
Fucking let him fight.
RFK Jr. is being controlled and is taking orders from someone who isn't Trump.
And the meanses are both aggressive manufactured Manchurian assets.
You know, I'm not even going to attempt a cursory Google search to counteract this one.
Like, sure, go ahead.
They're all controlled by some shadowy figure.
Go get them, Nicole.
Let's see what happens.
Ah, Russell, however, is dismayed that all of his former guests are fighting each other.
So from here, Russell begins lamenting the splintering and infighting within Maha and Maga, which we all saw coming a mile away.
And in doing so, he gives his perspective as to how the world should be structured.
Only then, he immediately points out why the world being structured in that way would be fucking intolerable to him.
In a way, I think it comes down to the problem of living in civilisations at scale.
Do you know what I mean?
I've actually met these people and spent time with them, and they're really decent, lovely, brilliant people that have integrity and are open.
In a way, with the culture war, I've been saying this for a long, long time, at the height of the pandemic, say if you don't want to be bogged down in social justice issues, for example, or trans issues, I feel like...
Well, the world's big enough to have people that want to live in a whole variety of ways.
Let's move to a position of non-judgment.
Let's take the show business and razzmatazz right out of politics and have minimal intervention of governments and maximum community in power.
Maximum empowerment of the individual.
Maximum empowerment of the community.
So, in a sense, increased confederacy.
The state has as much power as possible.
Town, individual, community, street, as much democracy as possible.
Man, it will take so long.
Have you ever been involved in an anarchist organisation where you have to vote on every single decision?
It's so bloody boring, you cry out for a dictator by the end of it.
So just get Stalin or Hitler in here.
Yay, do them a new anthem!
Because it takes so long.
It's totally tedious.
So...
We need increased confederacy, as much democracy as possible, and we need to take all the showbiz and razzmatazz right out of politics.
The only thing is, though, have you ever been part of a small democracy because fucking hell they're boring?
Like, it makes you beg for a dictator, so, you know what, actually, yes, let's keep at it with the dictator-in-chief, who is mainly known for having been a TV star on The Apprentice.
In fact, let's give him a third term.
Let's keep the showbiz and dictators right in politics, because...
At least it's entertaining.
I mean, the entire structure of society as we know it is going down the drain, costing countless lives and causing countless harms, but at least we're not bored, right?
I've got to say, that does feel much more like Russell's actual honest perspective.
Like, don't chat with me and give me bullshit about your tiny little theocratic ethnostates, Russell.
Don't give me this, you know, maximum subsidiarity nonsense.
I know you actually just want a dictator you agree with.
That's it.
That's all you actually want.
Don't pretend otherwise, please.
Ah, dear.
And also, don't give me the shit about fucking, you know, let trans people alone.
Like, nope, you don't get to say that.
You piece of shit.
Ha, dear.
Alright, let's move away from Maha, and we'll come back to some British politics, where Russell is going to talk about Keir Starmer's alarming new anti-migration rhetoric.
Here, though, is Keir Starmer, the politician who seems to be one of those politicians that will alter their perspective according to experience.
He'll just say...
Whatever's required.
And here he is saying what's required now.
We're going to get control of our borders.
We'll obviously have a look at him making different claims when it was convenient to make those ones.
That was actually nice that we get to see the empty podium for a moment, full of potential.
Perhaps what's going to take place now is a great speech, a Clement Attlee speech, a Winston Churchill speech, a Margaret Thatcher speech, great rhetoric to inspire a nation to bring people together.
Let's have a look.
Good morning.
Oh.
Oh.
OK.
Good morning.
It's the morning.
I hope it goes well.
Fuck me.
Good morning.
Nice start.
Today we publish a white paper on immigration.
Oh.
Bit of administration.
Bit of bureaucracy on the subject of immigration.
Keir Starmer's always said Britain's a melting pot, that diversity is our strength, that...
Cultural pluralism is beneficial to the UK.
He's in fact gone so far as to call people racist if they had an opposing view.
In particular, Keir Starmer, when the three little girls were murdered by a first-generation migrant in Southport, condemned the people that protested as racist and fascist and far-right.
Also, notably, they use the admittedly brilliantly made and excellently acted show Adolescents to highlight the idea that it's young white males that are generating and the cause of violence in the UK.
In short, I believe this to be a political figure that will say whatever they want to say.
It does tickle me that people from the alt-right cannot mention adolescence without at least once describing how well done it is.
Like, I'm surprised we didn't get another, oh, and I do love that Stephen Graham, he is great, isn't he?
Which...
Correct, but it has tickled me how consistent that's been across the board with these alt-right shitheads.
Like, I feel like it's partly because Stephen Graham is quite macho, and partly because he's been in literally everything.
So, like, if they don't like him, then they'll have to suddenly decry half of the films and TV shows made in the last three decades.
Oh, and thanks to Annie Kelly for the mention on the QAA podcast the other week.
She did a great job breaking down the alt-rights response to adolescence, as well as assessing the broader public response to it, especially in the UK.
It's some very interesting listening.
If you go and listen to QAA and check that out, I would recommend.
Now...
The people Keir Starmer was condemning back in the summer of last year were conducting literal race riots and setting fire to hotels that were housing refugees, thanks to the likes of Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage.
So I think calling them racist is pretty fair and accurate.
I think they themselves would agree with that assessment.
They're like, fuck yeah, I'm racist.
I don't like these brown people.
I'm going to set fire to their hotels.
Because, you know, those are the things they were saying out loud.
You know, and then getting arrested for them, but nonetheless, that's what they did.
They said the words.
Though, Axel Rudicabana, who did the Southport murders, is a second-generation migrant, FYI.
Not a first-generation migrant.
That point is important in the context.
He was born here in the UK, in this country.
He was British, and he was Christian.
That is important.
Now...
In the midst of all of this, Russell went on a long jag about how Keir Starmer taking an HIV test is somehow crazy and paints him as being out of touch.
It's like the 80s!
Despite, you know, regular testing actually being really very important.
Which is why Russell opens up the next clip speaking as though he's Keir Starmer talking about his penis.
That's...
I had to offer context.
That's what the context is.
It's Russell mocking the idea of taking an HIV test.
As though Russell is not the fucking epitome of a person who should be taking them on the reg.
Anyway, then the tiniest amount of clip of Keir Starmer talking plays before Russell jumps the gun slightly.
Now we've got to control the borders.
The borders of reality.
The borders of my pee-pee.
And the borders of Britain, in that order.
Our borders.
And close the book on a squalid chapter for our politics, our economy, and our country.
Take back control.
That's literally the slogan of Brexit.
Take back control was the victorious slogan for Brexit, which he...
Opposed.
He was part of the political class that spanned the Conservative Party and the Labour Party that were against Britain leaving the European Union.
That was led...
primarily by Nigel Farage, even though it's clear that Jeremy Corbyn, who was the leader at the Labour Party and a very left wing, old school left wing, left wing where it means like, I care about people more than I care about money, that version of left wing.
There's positive versions of it, you know that, dear beloved Americans.
Those dudes were against Britain being in the EU because you said it sort of manacled them to administrative and bureaucratic authority that nullified the will of the people of Britain.
Keir Starmer now is literally using not only the policies of reform, but the rhetoric of reform.
Do you see what they do when there is a threat is they'll incorporate whatever they can to maintain power without ever really yielding to the will of the people because these people do not work for you.
Do you imagine for a second that they do?
I mean...
Here's the thing.
I mean, technically, these people do work for us, just FYI, technically speaking.
I would say more so in this country than in the US to a degree, but yes, they do work for us fundamentally.
Here's the thing.
I will be getting to this point shortly, but Keir Starmer absolutely is incorporating the alt-rights rhetoric around migration into his government.
It's just he's not doing it the way Russell is saying.
Keir Starmer isn't trying to claim the phrase take back control as his own or use it in that specific kind of same way.
He brings it up for a very specific reason, which Russell would know if he'd just let him finish.
Also, the people using it most prominently I mean, he got it done.
It definitely happened.
He lied to the Queen and, you know, forced Parliament to do some shady shit, but he did.
He did, in fact, get...
Something done.
Farage was key to Brexit, but it was Boris that put it over the top.
Like, without him and Gove stabbing David Cameron in the back, I'm not sure it would have ever materialized in the same way.
And, like, there are plenty of poll results that show if the same thing were held today, everyone would be like, please let us back in.
We'd love to come back.
God, you people are great.
Everything's terrible now.
Um, instead, here we are.
I mean, the thing is, statistically, even so much as a year later, like, because it was a 51-49 majority of Yes, Let's Leave, which is, like, whisper-thin!
Absolutely insane that we made such a dramatic decision on that margin, but we did.
Even a year later, uh, because a lot of the elder individuals voted yes.
To leave the EU.
A bunch of them died, and enough of them died where it would have flipped the vote the other way, and it would have been 51% remain.
Just a fun little fact for you there.
Good lord.
Also, I am fascinated by Russell trying to explain to his alt-right American audience that there is a good version of being left-wing.
Russell, the American equivalents of Jeremy Corbyn are probably Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, or AOC, and your audience would be foaming at the mouth if you tried to defend any of those individuals on your show.
But please, keep trying.
Explain it to them.
I would love to see it.
So, as mentioned, Keir Starmer isn't going to have written a speech using the phrase take back control without a good reason.
So let's hear where he takes it.
Everyone knows that slogan.
And everyone knows what it meant on immigration.
Or at least, that's what people thought.
Because what followed from the previous government, starting with the people who used that slogan, What's the complete opposite?
Between 2019 and 2023, even as they were going around our country, telling people with a straight face that they would get immigration down, net migration quadrupled until in 2023 it reached nearly one million.
That's about the population of Birmingham, our second largest city.
That's amazing, man.
He's saying that with a straight face.
There's nothing straight about his face.
Look, in a sense, if you are a leader, you have to set out a vision for how you would like the country to be and how you plan to lead it.
But you also have to be robust enough to acknowledge that the people's will is ultimately what you serve.
The problem is, is that people are fickle and broken and fallen.
All of us.
So if we are not being governed by principles that are somehow transcendent, somehow divine, that have an undergirding for their claims of truthfulness and righteousness that goes beyond just what's popular at the moment, we're going to struggle.
Okay, so Keir Starmer has switched to rhetoric that Russell agrees with.
Like, Russell won't shut up about migration control these days.
He will not shut the fuck up about it.
But that is still insufficient because Keir Starmer is not undergirded by Christianity, which is a dumb get-out-of-jail-free argument to distrust someone because Keir Starmer is an atheist.
It's also a wildly inconsistent viewpoint for Russell to hold because he just a minute ago referenced Clem Attlee as being a great uniting leader who, along with Nye Bevan, brought the NHS into existence, right?
Clem Attlee was an atheist.
Russell also absolutely adores and reveres Winston Churchill.
He's said on his show multiple times, Russell, he doesn't care about the racism, the genocides, any of it.
Winston Churchill is too important a figure, apparently.
And Russell will not accept any criticism of him.
And Churchill was an atheist who called religion a dangerous drug.
Right up until his dying breath, he was asked if he changed his mind and believed in God or anything.
He was like, nope, I believe it'll be the eternal sleep, black velvet, something, something.
I'm like, yep, fair enough.
You're still a monster.
But yeah, okay.
And by the way, not to put too fine a point on it, but Keir Starmer is being somewhat selective with his choice of city in his speech there.
Yes, Birmingham has around a million people in it, and is our second largest city just about, but London has around 10 million in it.
Also, migrants are typically spreading themselves about the country quite a bit.
It's not like we're sending them all to Birmingham, you know?
Like, the population of Birmingham has doubled overnight!
Shit!
No, it's intentionally alarmist rhetoric.
And I'm sure we'll be discussing this more in the near future when his policies are rolled out.
There's already talk of his own version of the Rwanda plan to ship asylum seekers to foreign countries without their consent.
Good times, everyone.
I just wanted the American audience here in particular to know that it's also pretty shit in the UK right now.
Different shit, but still shit.
Now, last week I mentioned that Tucker Carlson described Russell as a refugee, and it seems in this next clip that Russell agrees with that assessment before he eventually veers into much darker territory.
In the past, they've always been pretty sympathetic towards refugees and migrants.
Hey, I am a refugee and a migrant.
What I think a lot of people in Britain have felt is that their culture is being...
Challenged, diluted, undermined and broken.
And part of that, the part that I've always focused on is top-down commercial corporate control, the banalizing and...
Homogenising of the culture, that you will no longer walk down a high street and see a friendly green grocer and a butcher and a fishmonger, local businesses, friendly folks from around the way that know you and knew your dad, that ken your old man, that ken your kids, your kids, their kids going to the same school.
No, it's been banalised now, every high street the same, dropped on...
Us glommed on from on high, taxes paid elsewhere, Netherlands, Ireland broken apart.
Then, in the more observable way, slow, gradual migration of what many people observe, of fighting-age men that are either there to sort of take economic advantage of the UK, which one can completely understand, or perhaps there's something more nefarious at play.
Cool!
Yeah, let's just have some great replacement theory rhetoric painted all over this, basically insinuating that any male migrant of working age is a potential violent sleeper agent.
That's definitely what we need more of.
Also, the criticisms of everything getting homogenized and banalized and everything's all owned by, like, four companies and whatever...
The actual culprit there is capitalism.
Same with tax evasion.
It's capitalism.
That's not anything to do with migrants.
That's politicians deciding, you know what, let's just allow the wealthy to do whatever the fuck they want, buy out all the competition, destroy small businesses across the country, and fuck the working class and the small business owner.
They can come and work for Walmart or Tesco or Amazon.
Like, which is what's happened.
Your local butcher is now a butcher at fucking Morrison's.
Like, it's a valid critique, but point it in the right bloody direction instead of supporting the people who do their best to promote unregulated free-market capitalism, which is otherwise known as neoliberalism, by the way.
Like, stop being buddy-buddy with Charlie Kirk and whoever the fuck else who love that nonsense.
Jesus Christ.
Also, yeah, Russell just self-described as a refugee.
That to me does not speak well of his intentions when it comes to the legal proceedings against him.
Just saying.
And after what will be the most unsettling clip of Keir Starmer's speech we'll be playing today, Russell entirely misses the point.
That's not control.
It's chaos.
And look, they must answer for themselves.
But I don't think that you can do something like that by accident.
It was a choice.
A choice made even, as they told you, told the country, they were doing the opposite.
A one-nation experiment in open borders, conducted on a country that voted for control.
Well, no more.
Today, this Labour government is shutting down the lab.
The experiment is over.
That's weird language, man.
That's weird language.
We've all got these doubts about laboratories when they did a deal with Moderna.
Admittedly, the previous administration did a deal with Moderna for millions, millions and millions.
And Moderna, as you know, our previous prime minister was a shareholder in it, albeit for a secret trust.
And we know that their inquiry into COVID has been sort of moot and limited.
Yeah, fuck all your COVID bullshit, Russell.
The supposedly left-wing Prime Minister of the UK has just said that there has been a one-nation experiment in open borders conducted on a country that voted for control.
Elsewhere in that speech, he said, we risk becoming an island of strangers, which is a direct reference to the rhetoric of Enoch Powell, the white nationalist hate monger, and his infamous Rivers of Blood speech about migration.
In it, Powell said of a hypothetical future where a white British person, quote, For reasons which they could not comprehend and in pursuance of a decision by default on which they were never consulted, they found themselves made strangers in their own country.
Unquote.
And Keir Starmer is playing around in the same fucking waters.
I think this is possibly some of the most disgusting rhetoric I have heard from a Prime Minister in my lifetime.
I think.
One is not immediately springing to mind that is worse.
Though...
Audience, feel free to chime in.
I'm sure there are examples, but holy fuck, this is remarkable.
Certainly from a fucking supposedly left-wing prime minister.
Jesus Christ.
There was always going to be something done about migration over here, and there was always very little likelihood that I would find myself agreeing with however that was manifested, but...
This is a very specific reference point, and it comes at a very specific moment in British politics.
Just this month, there was the Runcorn by-election and several local council elections in the UK for people who want to run for city and county councils on behalf of political parties, right?
And then run the local council, right?
Wasn't across the whole country, just certain counties and cities in England.
In the Runcorn by-election, Nigel Farage's Reform Party won, beating Labour by just six votes.
That's another Reform MP now in Parliament.
So that was formerly left seat, now gone to Reform.
The local council elections have seen Reform take over several councils from Labour, and the Conservatives have been absolutely fucking creamed.
Here's the short version.
Out of more than 1,600 seats in 23 councils, Labour got 98 seats, Conservatives got 319, and Reform got 677.
Now, I say the Conservatives got creamed because they lost 674 seats total, whereas Labour lost 187.
The other party to make gains were the Liberal Democrats, who gained 163 seats.
And just for the record, all of Reform's seats, 677, those were gains.
Every single one.
They're all new.
So...
In essence, Keir Starmer got a taste of what is to come at the next election, and faced with options of pivoting back to the left, where he pretended to be at least somewhat from, or pivoting to the hard right, he has opted to continue veering to the right as he has done since gaining power in June, this time in one of the most naked and transparent ways possible.
Only Russell...
Despite agreeing with what Keir Starmer is saying, has to find some reason to disagree.
So hey, let's bring up COVID stuff and pivot quick, because he can't be seen agreeing with the Labour Prime Minister now, can he?
Now, Russell's coverage in this next clip isn't particularly useful or important, but he's about to play an old clip of Keir Starmer from 2020 when he was running for leadership of the Labour Party.
His rhetoric around migration then was quite different and may help illustrate a huge part of why leftists in the UK feel so betrayed by Keir Starmer and his government.
Let's have a look at, um...
Let's have a look at, like...
Hear Starmer in 2020 and see what he was saying then.
We need to make the wider case on immigration.
We welcome migrants.
We don't scapegoat them.
Low wages, poor housing, poor public services are not the fault of migrants and people who've come here.
They're political failure.
Political failure.
So we have to make the case for the benefits of migration, the benefits of free movement.
I want people in this country to be able to go and work abroad in Europe.
And I want people in Europe to be able to come and continue to work here.
I want families to be able to live together, whether that's in Europe or here.
And I want people in this country, in the United Kingdom, to be able to go and study in Europe just as they can now.
Yeah, all right, mate.
Thanks for helping.
I mean...
Russell's coming at it from a different perspective to me, because he doesn't like the EU either.
But that Keir Starmer from back in 2020 is someone potentially worth voting for.
Like, it's certainly a far fucking cry from who we have today, from Island of Strangers rhetoric.
Who we have today is demonizing migrants, cutting the winter fuel allowance for the elderly.
Fucking destroying rights for trans people, allowing people to freeze in their homes, and trying to cut £6 billion out of our welfare budget, primarily from the disabled.
The man is a fucking disgrace, and I'm glad I was lucky enough to be able to vote for Plaid Cymru in my area, and not have that let the fucking Tories get in.
Oh, good lord.
Now, now, Russell has had a long day of supporting fascists, so he's getting a bit tired.
And a bit hungry.
So what does he decide to do as the final piece of his show?
The cherry on top?
The pièce de résistance?
Well, he's gonna play Kanye's song again.
I've cut these next two clips together because Russell starts playing the song and then interrupts it to make a point.
But obviously I don't want any of the actual song playing on this show.
So here's him introducing it and then responding to a lyric.
Oh, my friends on Rumble, thanks for supporting us.
We love ya.
Should we do one more thing?
Pretty hungry.
I'm pretty hungry, guys.
Let's just watch Kanye doing Heil Hitler again.
It's just what helps me unwind.
I don't think he means the Jews took his kids away, does he?
Or that the Jews closed his bank account.
I think he's saying, like, these people that control these institutions that for a while are supportive when you are fodder for the machine will turn on you if you become recalcitrant.
No, no.
No, no.
He literally means that the Jews took his kids away and froze his assets.
That is what he means, has said, and believes.
The same way that only a few weeks ago there was a clip of Kanye that we were watching on this very fucking show in a black KKK outfit talking about the Jews and how they all hide in tunnels except for when they want to come out and intimidate people.
It's not a metaphor, and that's what he's getting mad about.
Everyone's falling over themselves to make excuses for the guy, and he's there getting all frustrated like, no!
Oh, guys, I'm saying I love Hitler.
How do you not understand the literal words I'm saying?
It's not a metaphor.
I love Hitler.
The Jews are bad, right?
Hence the line, they don't understand the things I say on Twitter.
Like, this isn't some genius being obtuse or anything like that.
This is just a guy who loves Hitler.
And everyone's like, wow, he's so brilliant.
What a commentary.
What a commentary that is.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Fuck me.
And now, in the closing moments of Russell's show, he gives his perspective on the criminal charges against him and what he hopes of the justice system in the UK.
In my country, there's people that just flat out, he's a rapist, that guy.
Otherwise, why would this stuff be happening?
Then I have to sort of go, okay, let me talk you through it.
Please do.
Firstly, it's like so bleeding, exhausting.
It's exhausting.
In the end, you think, well, hopefully there is a justice system because, you know, if there is, then people's false claims will be proven to be exactly that.
Truth will out, man.
The truth will out.
Let's hope so, because the weight of even just the publicly available evidence against Russell in that Dispatch's documentary is pretty substantial and pretty damning.
I dread to think what they've got for a criminal case against him.
Nonetheless, in spinning it this way and saying, well, hopefully there is a justice system, because if there is a justice system, then that means I'll get off free.
In spinning it that way, it just means that in the event that he's found guilty, he can claim that, well, there is no justice system in the UK, and it's all a fit-up.
It's a frame job, because he's too important and speaking too much truth to too much power.
What that truth is, I would love to know.
I would love for him to illustrate what he thinks that truth is that everyone else hasn't also been saying.
I don't think even he knows.
But it sounds good, doesn't it?
It's, again, it's good rhetoric.
Anywho.
That's the show, everybody!
I hope to see you all either on the YouTube or Twitch at 10pm BST this Saturday, May 17th for the On Brand Book Club livestream.
But if not, you lovely patrons will have access to the recording on the Patreon at patreon.com slash onbrand.
I will see you all there.
But in the meantime, take care of yourselves and each other.
Thank you very much.
I love you.
Bye!
Alright.
I'm going to finish now because I'm hungry and I want to eat something.
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