Download Rumble Wallet now and step away from the big banks — for good! https://rumblewallet.onelink.me/bJsX/russellShow more ⏰ BE HERE AT 12PM PT / 3PM EST / 8PM GMT ⏰
We open with the Amelia saga — an attempt at messaging that backfired spectacularly, mutating into a meme, a game, and a rolling act of cultural resistance as people remixed it into everything from British comedy to blockbuster cinema. After that, the show moves into Crack On — our recovery segment — where we step away from spectacle and into the quieter work of sobriety, shared experience, and getting on with life one honest day at a time.
See me LIVE at Florida Fish House, February 16, 17th and March 1 and 2nd - https://oldfloridafishhouse.ticketspice.com/russell-brand-
If you want to support the show and take care of yourself properly—without turning your bathroom into a laboratory—go to tryreborn.com.
It’s the Reborn store: supplements, skincare, daily essentials… simple, effective, and made for people who are trying to stay strong while the world does whatever this is.
Go check out tryreborn.com and grab what you need Show less
Ladies and gentlemen, Russell Brand trying to bring real journalism to the American people.
Hello there, you awakening wonders.
Thanks for joining me today for Stay Free with Russell Brand.
It's a new week, it's a new world, it's a new glory.
There's nothing to be afraid of, nothing.
We're already dead.
Remember, Rumble are taking bold stands, accepting Bitcoin, doing a new shorts program.
If you're watching this anywhere other than Rumble, get on over here.
And if you haven't subscribed to Reborn, the sweet elixir of life, that is Reborn Rehydrating Electrolytes.
You better believe that every time I say this, I think about idiocracy.
It's got electrolytes, baby.
It's got electrolytes.
But if you work out like I work out, if you sweat out there when you're doing the hot yoga, if you pound those pavements training like Apollo Creed himself, see them, there's me rocky pants, there's me rocky ones, my rocky twos, my rocky threes, and me rocky fours.
Then you are going to need to keep yourself double fit.
Get yourself some reborn right down.
You, Gregory Peck.
That's what you need, your poor sods.
Especially if you're in a global holy war with old Russ.
Not against old Russ, with old Russ.
It's the powers of evil against whom we fight, whether it's in legal trials or ideological quarrels.
And the British state is as fine an example of evil as you'll ever meet.
And they're even trying to use counterfeit simulacrum models to fight against the people.
Yes, that's right.
The Home Office launched a video game in an attempt to get young people on side.
Hello there, fellow young people.
And they created this character, Amelia, that's been delightfully turned against them.
I'll be discussing that as well as our podcast, Crack On, where we talk about recovery with the friend of the show, Jake Smith, producer, here as always.
Hello.
What's the matter?
Couldn't find a Christian rock star recorded.
And then there's Dave Fields here, entrepreneur and Wonder Man.
Thanks.
It's good to see you.
But he grew up in care in a foster home.
He's Dave.
Over there in the UK.
There he is.
The man himself talks with his fists and speaks with a lisp.
Joe McCann, the great supple.
You're right, Joe.
I'm all right, mate.
How you doing?
I feel quite good.
Sometimes I feel a feeling in my stomach.
I don't know.
It's probably fear or something, but generally, I'm okay.
I'm generally okay.
Let's do this Amelia thing.
Then we'll do our podcast, Crack On.
We've been joined by Preston, who's our mate.
Our train down East Jim.
He's double R'd.
He's come out of, I don't know, what is he?
A Marine or something.
Who knows him?
You mates who are.
We should find that out.
Some kind of special forces.
He's special forces.
Awesome guy.
Look, I'm not gay, but I'm gay for these are my two people I go a bit gay for gangsters and special forces.
I'm I like when someone's in special forces.
I'm like brilliant.
Is it hard in here?
What did you?
Oh, I suppose you did a lot of operations behind enemy lines, did you?
Did you have to get into an embassy siege, did you?
Did you get involved in Iran Contra?
Oh, have you got some nice hostages in there ever?
Do you remember when Kier Starmer said sausages instead of hostages at a press conference as well?
He went like, we'll get the release of these sausages.
Hostages?
See, like you said, sausages now.
There's no coming back from that.
Forget it.
You might as well kill them.
But if I sis we're watching that, I just go, fuck it.
Because what's the point?
Their lives are meaningless.
You've just accidentally described them as sausages.
Like, you can't be taken seriously if you say sausage instead of hostage.
Can you?
I don't know.
Let me know in the comments and chat.
If you haven't got Rumble Premium yet, get Rumble Premium now.
So that you can arm yourself, not necessarily with the facts, but certainly a perspective that's honest, open and good-hearted to oppose the endless, senseless propaganda that constitutes what I want to call it, the substance of the mainstream.
The Home Office, that's the British State Department, say, they launched this video game to sort of get young kids to think a certain way about immigration.
Now, you might even think that an open-hearted and compassionate approach to migration is the way to go.
Certainly, I know that ultimately we must love and take care of one another.
But what I hate even more than sort of racism, bigotry, and even violent race wars is sanctimony and sentimentality.
And the British government have got nothing left to offer.
They say that sentimentality is unearned emotion.
And certainly the British government are running on unearned power.
And that's why they make blunders and mistakes like this, making video games to reach out to the kids that somehow completely miss the mark.
Like an anti-drug campaign when you're at school.
Like when they bring the police to your schools, go, okay, a police officer going to talk to you today, kids, about why not to do drugs.
And then the police officer shows you all the different types of drugs.
And you're just sitting there thinking, them drugs look pretty fucking good to me, man.
They never ever get it right because they're fundamentally wrong.
Here's a British media organisation, a radio station in this instance, commenting on it.
Oh, actually, let's start with the original game.
This is how the character of Amelia was intended to be used.
Charlie has been chilling out all afternoon.
They have been scrolling on social media.
This is part of a video that seems to be getting...
That fucking working class accent they're using.
They're trying to reach out.
They spot a video.
We took your language.
We're the government.
We're just like, seems to be getting a lot of attention.
Charlie watches the video and learns from the video that Muslim men are stealing the places of British war veterans in emergency accommodation.
In the video, they explain that the government is betraying white British people and we need to take back control of our country.
Charlie couldn't believe what they were seeing.
Do we ever see Amelia in the video?
Or no, look.
Charlie immediately began typing comments and sharing the video with their friends and family, wondering what they could do to stop this.
As the likes, comments and shares came in, they felt that they had performed a patriotic service by standing up for veterans and white people's rights.
Unfortunately, Charlie didn't realize that some of the groups they were engaging with online were actually illegal.
Charlie thought about all the difficult choices that there used to be an advert called Charlie Says when I was a kid that was meant to be protecting you from paedophiles as a matter of fact.
It was like a cat called Charlie.
They would regularly trot this cat out actually to tell us, you know, don't get in a van with a geezer offering up puppies and candy, which frankly we already knew would be an unwise action.
And they're still using the same sort of timbre, that bureaucratic emptiness, that sort of sense of counterfeit mimicry that always accompanies any government endeavour because their power is fake power and their motives are fake motives.
Well, their stated motives are fake.
Their motive is to control you and make that control look like care.
Oh, it didn't mean to be racist.
you, but you've accidentally pulled a whole chalet.
You've got to join the Nazi organization because you've got a couple of likes.
It's simultaneously patronising and inaccurate and incorrect.
And they always make the same assumption.
You are too stupid to understand.
We need to control your information.
The opposite is true.
They are too stupid to understand.
They should be transparent.
We ought to be allowed privacy.
That is your right.
Intimacy with God, unimpeded by any brokerage or secondary agency, is your birthright and in fact the purpose of your book.
All the difficult choices they had needed to make in the last few weeks.
Charlie was seeing their dad at the weekend.
He lives in all, so their weekends look very different to th- He lives in all.
We're so fucking working class, we don't even say H. We're working class from t-fifties.
We say things like thee and thou.
Ooh, alright there.
Ooh, have you accidentally become racist because of t-misinformation?
Oh, t misinformation's got a god made me feel all racist.
Charlie's friend Amelia immediately looked interested and told them about a protest she wished she could go to herself, but was not allowed.
Amelia spoke of a gathering that had been organised by a small political group.
They would come together and protest the changes that Britain has been through in the last few years.
It was Tommy Robinson.
Tommy Robinson, he's a chippy little bastard from Luton.
You cannot trust him.
He's unreliable.
Why don't they just come out and say that it's Tommy Robinson?
They worry about Tommy Robinson.
The reason that Tommy Robinson's had such traction and impact is because whatever he is or isn't, he is plainly authentic and he's bold.
He's brave.
I bet there's a hundred things I'd disagree with Tommy Robinson on.
But what I agree with him on fundamentally is telling the truth, boldness, bravery, being willing to confront your opponents openly.
And it seems he did some pretty valuable investigative work on uncovering rape gangs.
Thousands and thousands of victims reported that they were raped in police stations contemporaneously.
Recent reports to the police that they had been raped.
Let me know in the comments and chat why the Metropolitan Police Force or the relevant boroughs and the Crown Prosecution Service wouldn't be interested in this spate of significant crimes and why such significant endeavors were undertaken to constrict, restrict, control and jail Tommy Robinson.
And of course this kind of government video.
Tommy Robinson, people think he was jailed for no reason.
Often he was jailed for sort of peculiar misdemeanours, mortgage, fraud, not using the correct kind of passport.
Again, this is not advocacy for everything Tommy Robinson's ever said or ever done.
He's a pretty full-on, passionate, full-blooded person.
He's obviously got a history of doing all sorts of stuff.
And hey, I've made some mistakes as well, but I haven't done the things I've been accused of.
And I believe I've been accused of those things because of some of the things I've done that were not mistakes.
And here are those things.
Standing up for what I believe in, opposing establishment narratives, being willing to call out media lies and say how it is.
You can't trust the government.
Let me know in the comments and chat if you agree with that, and let's have a look at some more of their ill-judged, poorly delivered propaganda.
...has been through in the last few years, and the erosion of British values.
Amelia talked about the banners and the pickets that her friends had made for the events, and expressed a real regret that she could not go, begging Charlie to go in her place.
Charlie decided this would be a good use of their time.
Considering all the things they had seen and heard over the last few weeks, it would be good to express their feelings about it with Wake.
Is it like Charlie's going to die, any?
Or get beaten up or arrested or something?
He seems like a pretty sweet lad, this Charlie.
This reminds me of the success of that knife crime drama that occurred a little while ago that had the brilliant British actor in it.
What's his name, that lad from Liverpool?
I can't remember most of the name and all.
Anyway, like there's this knife crime drama that done well, even won Emmys and stuff in your country.
But the reason it was primarily promoted is that the knife crime drama told a story of young people being corrupted by social media.
That young people, all these poor, vulnerable kids, they're all getting manipulated and manoeuvred.
By, you know, Andrew Tate is the one that people primarily point to in such an instance.
But the fact is, is the people that I mean, have you got any idea of the scope and scale and sheer number of children that go missing every year?
Have you looked into it?
Do you know the number?
Jake, have a look at that, mate.
Just do a chat GPT search.
Number of kids that go missing every year in the UK.
Number of kids that go US.
It's like in your country, it's like 100,000.
In mine, it's like 40,000.
It's extraordinary.
So there's something else happening to children that isn't Andrew Tate.
And I don't know what it is, but I think it has to do with trafficking.
I think it's connected to the reluctance of people in high office to address real, actual sex crimes and global sex crimes.
Let me know in the comments and chat what you think.
UK around 75,000 individual children and young people reporting missing.
In terms of incidents, there are more many repeated cases, over 200,000 missing incidents involving children in a single year.
I mean, I wonder if these kids are being found again, but 200,000, that does seem an incredible amount.
Someone just, I just saw it posted somewhere.
And of course, all of us have to be circumspect and judicious about information.
But do you use ChatGPT?
Dangers Of Following Ideology00:15:41
Chat GPT is generally speaking, I'd say, let me know in the comments and chat, inclined towards being somewhat supportive of institutional power.
And it seems to me that it's probably funded, founded, and guided by the establishment interests that currently exist and probably is an amplification of them.
So it's going to have its own biases, but at least its base is formed.
I mean, you know a lot more than me, Dave, about how such things are.
What is ChatGPT?
I mean, I know it's almost inconceivable because it has such vast resources, but what are the differences between Grok and Chat GPT, mate?
Well, it's not necessarily that, I mean, it does fall on OpenAI to how they train their model.
But what it also has to do is where it's getting the information from.
So where's it getting the information from?
The New York Times, the BBC, like, I mean, it's the sources are what's feeding it.
And there's responsibility on their part of how they train it and adjust it and adjust their parameters around it.
Where Grok will not necessarily rank a New York Times article the same way it would rank, you know, it'll more aggregate lots of articles.
These attempts to create hierarchies of information are ultimately about control.
And even for someone like me who suffered at the hands of the media establishment, I still feel a kind of pang when I see the logos of the New York Times or The Guardian or the BBC or CNN.
And by that, I mean the pang of authoritative branding.
I don't mean I loathe and detest them and see them as liars, although in my heart and my spirit, I know that that's the case, that that's their fundamental function and essential role in the culture is to lie to you and deceive you.
I know there's really good people that work there.
I've actually worked in some of those places.
But the point of them is to lie to you and deceive you.
And what I mean by that is if lying to you and deceiving you was removed, you would remove them also.
Whereas something like, no, no, this show, we've, of course, you know, buy these products or buy that product.
I'm aware that Peter Thiel is involved and I'm aware of Larry Ellison and Oracle and Palantir and the power of these enormous organizations.
But I'm telling you now, no one has ever told me you can't say this or you can say that.
And presumably it's because they're aware of limitations of reach and the fact that the kind of content I make currently, particularly while these trials are taking place, shadow banned and controlled to such a degree that doesn't really represent a significant threat.
But you always represent a significant threat.
Your attention, your consciousness and your decisions are important.
And that's why the government's gone to the trouble of making for the population of the UK this extraordinary piece of propaganda.
But what's delightful and heartening is what began as an attempt to control has, of course, as is often the case with the internet, been mobilized and metabolised into a weapon.
She's kind of Amelia is like the white working class's N-word.
It was used as a slur and an attack and as a derogatory term, but it has now been turned into a weapon against those very forces.
Let's watch the rest of this bit of propaganda.
Like-minded individuals.
They went home and made a banner to take with them to the protest.
Charlie arrived at the protest and was swept up by the atmosphere.
It was great to see so many people there.
Everything was going well until Charlie almost became involved in a fight by accident.
I've almost nearly become involved in a fight by accident.
Get stuck in, Charlie, little book.
The police saw they were part of a group and took their details.
Charlie was frightened by this, not knowing if their parents would be informed.
Well, given his dad's clearly Adolf Hitler, he's got bigger fish to fry.
If their parents would be informed, some of their choices had led to changes in friendship, and Charlie was feeling low, as they weren't sure if they had made the right decisions.
The teacher had noticed this and decided to reach out.
The teacher sat with them and talked openly and frankly about the ideology that Charlie had discovered.
The teacher reassured that Charlie had made the right decisions.
Charlie realized that if they had them, they are still doing that.
Respect and love everybody.
Someone wants to be called doctor, call them doctor.
Someone wants to be called she, call them she.
That's government propaganda, so it shows you what it really believes, huh?
Had chosen to engage with these harmful ideas, the consequences would have been very different.
Charlie was referred to Prevent and Channel.
Charlie was assigned a mentor to help them one-to-one.
Do you want to mentor?
Do you want a mentor from Chewbacca?
To help them one-to-one.
Someone who had been in their shoes.
They were reluctant at first, but gradually warmed to their mentor, forming trust with them, having heard and understood the similarities between them.
What?
You play computer games?
I play computer games.
You hate immigrants?
I hate immigrants.
You nearly accidentally almost got in a fight at a riot.
I nearly almost accidentally got into a fight.
Your dad's a dead ringer for Adolf Hitler.
My dad looks like Benito Mussolini.
What the fuck's going on in this school, in this world?
What are they depicting?
In their attempt to emulate modernity, they show how antiquated they are.
Similarities between them.
The mentor was honest about the dick.
Those two boys don't kiss.
They've lost their touch.
Dangers of following a harmful ideology.
And the message resonated with Charlie.
Charlie had been informed of the support they would receive from Prevent, including skills support and family sessions.
With all these gentler interventions, Charlie was able to rebuild their confidence, find their identity, and continue their college course successfully.
Oh god, it was saying their identity.
Oh my god, what do they think they're dealing with?
I'm so delighted by the emergence of a punk spirit.
Remember, punk when it emerged in our great country was a response to deception, hypocrisy, and a pop culture that had become infatuated with glamour and progressivism, certainly in terms of its musical style.
And punks was a true working class return to just pick up a guitar and make your own art.
One of the things that's positive about internet culture, and Lord alone knows there are many things that are negative, is that we can do the same.
You can do the same.
You can make your own shows, you can make your own art.
And indeed, they have done.
They have turned Amelia into a global icon.
Let's have a look at what the internet has done with Amelia.
Amelia is an AI purple-haired goth girl originally created for an anti-extremism computer game generated by the Home Office.
I'll just tell you briefly that that's Andrew Maher, long-time BBC employee, currently, as you can see, working for a radio station called LBC.
And it was to him that Noam Chomsky made the famous remark under these circumstances when Chomsky had written his book, The Manufacturer of Consent, which described how medium institutions and political organisations created a reality for ordinary citizens to operate within and without us ever knowing that we were consenting to being controlled, i.e., the manufacture of consent.
You don't know where the information that you believe in has come from.
You don't know what the goals of the powerful are, and you don't know how to meaningfully change the power bases in your own country or in your own systems of government.
Andrew Ma, then a BBC employee, said, but I'm a journalist.
I work for the BBC and I haven't been told what to say.
And Chomsky said memorably and famously, no, that's not what I'm saying.
That's not it at all.
What I'm saying is, if you didn't amplify their message, you wouldn't be sitting in that chair.
It's been pre-chewed.
You don't even know you're part of the system.
Because if you were a problem to the system, you'd have been thrown out of your school.
You found yourself continually in trouble.
You've already been groomed.
By the Home Office, but now an increasingly outspoken, anti-Muslim, flag-waving so-called English patriot.
She has become very popular.
And here she is in action.
I'm Amelia.
I'm English.
And I love England.
I like having fish and chips and a pint at the local pub.
I like pork sausage and dogs and fashion.
This character has essentially been taken over.
And it's staggering that how quickly this has proliferated across the internet.
The middle of last week from nothing at the start of January, there were...
There was nothing at the start of January.
Look at it now.
Do you know what the internet is?
Do you know what it does to time?
There was nothing there.
And now there's something there.
I pulled the skin bat on my winky and the night time when I got to bed, there was nothing there.
When I woke up in the morning, it felt and smelled most unusual, like a spreadable dairy product.
There was nothing at night.
There's something in the morning.
Why does this keep happening in today?
There were 12,000 posts involving this character in one day.
The other thing that's perhaps most damning about this is Elon Musk himself has now retweeted an account which has created a cry that's no good.
It's funny.
Did a cryptocurrency behind this particular meme.
So you can now get an Amelia coin because, let's face it, right-wingers need another cryptocurrency.
Is that your joke of the week, is it?
Because I've noticed they've already got crypto.
You poor fuckers.
Listen, it's not about right and left anymore.
It's that the constraints that have been previously imposed are bursting and breaking out.
LBC ain't in control no more.
You can't make little cozy government videos telling people to stand back when there's a firework or be careful or you might slip over.
The machine is quaking and breaking.
People are waking up and they're using the system against itself.
And frankly, it's brilliant.
Just so you know, if you care, I'm not anti-Muslim.
I'm not anti-anything.
I believe in Christ Jesus and Christ Jesus has a gospel of love and redemption and forgiveness and resurrection.
And I want to share that with as many people as possible because that's my job like any Christian.
It's the same job for all of us.
None of us are different.
No one cares about what your haircut is or where you come from or what your accent is.
But me as a comedian, oh, that's I love that shit.
I love it when people's attempts to control blow up in their faces.
A cryptocurrency.
Elon Musk is now promoting that.
And this is monetizing hate.
This is one of the clearest examples.
Hate that's being monetized.
It's not hate, it's sarcasm.
There's a real difference there.
That's not hateful.
I think it's hateful to make a patronising cartoon that assumes that working class people aren't capable of making decisions about their own country, their own culture, their own religion.
And that's a trend that's lasted a long, long while.
Long before Amelia or this ridiculous new system of messaging, people were being condemned for having white vans or flags outside their houses.
And if you're a person like me that grew up in streets with white vans and flags outside their houses, you feel this kind of bridling anger growing inside of you.
And while you might know that nations aren't real and there's more important things in life than white vans and fish and chips and anti-establishment politics, you get the sense of something deep that's happening and it's divine control being posited in human hands.
And worst of all, they're lying to you about it.
They're telling you that they're trying to help you.
We're just trying to help you, chill.
You've nearly become an accidentally was it a racism?
They don't care about you.
They don't care about Muslims actually.
They don't care about anything at all except power and control.
If you pull the thread, if you trace the line, it always leads back to the same place.
That's why the only way to fight them, in fact, is through the sarcastic internet brilliance of something like Amelia.
Throw it back in their faces, metastasized, reborn.
It's one of the clearest examples we've ever had of somebody trying to make money out of right-wing money.
Can you imagine trying to make money?
I mean, the government would never do that.
You'd never do that, would you, LBC or Andrew Maher?
All you want to do is make people happy.
These stinking bloody right-wingers.
Have you any idea what white working class people and working class people in Britain of all colours are going through?
There's a cost of living crisis.
There's a rent control housing crisis.
There's a spiritual crisis.
The United Kingdom is falling apart.
Joe's still living there.
He's living in that south.
He's living in this wonderland that that LBC man trying to defend like it's Camelot.
It's falling apart.
It's dreadful.
And the only thing that's worse than the suffering itself is being lied to about it by someone who's gone to some media college somewhere telling you that, well, they're trying to monetize it is what they're trying to do.
It's disgusting.
Last thing you need is another cryptocurrency.
Any currency at all will be welcome.
People are fucking starving to death.
Right-wing hatred.
And okay, we get hatred from all sides on the internet, but this is very clear where this is coming from.
And the AI account, for example, Andrew suggests is English.
How dare they suggest that the counter-campaign is somehow nefarious and constructed?
It is explicitly and overtly a government campaign to change the way you think about subjects like migration or joining protest movements.
What's behind that?
If you pull the thread of this campaign that's on LBC right there, that man saying it's pretty obvious where this is coming from, this Amelia thing.
No, it's coming from thousands of people simultaneously.
That's why you're fucking terrified.
Whereas what they're trying to decry and undermine is that spontaneously across the UK, people have realized that Britain is a country that their grandparents fought and died for.
That Christianity is a serious alternative to the idea of believing in commerce and commodity, essentially nothingness.
There's a mass awakening and revival taking place and they're terrified.
They're terrified.
You can feel it and you should be inspired by their fear.
You should breathe deeply of their fear, because this is our opportunity to meaningfully bring about change.
Paul Andrews suggests it's English.
I'm of high confidence those videos did not originate in England.
They were bloody foreign, foreign videos coming over here, stealing our jobs.
Do you like migrants or not?
Do you like things from other countries or not?
I thought the whole point of this is that we're supposed to like migrants from other countries.
Some of these videos are probably, I don't know, believe in Muhammad, don't they?
They're probably Muslim videos coming all over here.
Pick a perspective, mate.
Pick a perspective.
Here's Amelia appearing with some of the great British comedy characters.
And in the case of Father Ted, I think who's one of them, Irish.
Tonks.
No, I'm Amelia.
We need to talk about Islam in the UK.
Catholic Protestant atheist.
We're all boogered if Islam takes over.
Witches must be burnt, of course, but honour killing your daughters for not wearing hijab is much too far.
But Wallace, dogs are haram.
If the Muslims take over, Gromit is a goner.
Pigs are haram too, Peppa.
Your entire family line ended.
And forget LGBT acceptance.
Muslims will toss them out the window.
Literally.
First, we remove the Islamists from our government and our country, Paddington.
Then marmalade.
What an amazing piece of content.
No Solution Without Respect00:03:55
Now, for what it's worth, my personal perspective is that there will be no solution or peace or real freedom for any of us until we are able to look at one another, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, atheist, Jew, in love and respect and honour.
And for the people of the UK, whether they feel fretful and threatened or happy about current states of migration, they're going to have to come to some terms.
I don't agree with mass repatriation.
I don't agree with moving peaceful people from their homes.
Who does?
I mean, I don't know.
I don't know anymore.
But what I do believe in, as a British person, is having a laugh and speaking freely and letting the tension out.
My prayer is, my literal prayer in fact, is that the people of the United Kingdom can find a peaceful way of communicating, of expressing themselves without falling into the traps laid before them to tar them as racists and therefore silence their voices.
British people and Christians in the United Kingdom, albeit I practice their religious freedoms without fear.
I've seen a spate of stories about banning Christian events and Christian marches.
Shouldn't happen.
And neither should Muslims feel afraid to practice their faith either.
If there are concerns in the UK about the demographic balance between Muslims and Christians and any other concerns, then I suppose if you live in a democracy, you should ask the British people what they want and allow them to vote on it.
And where possible, regionalize that voting to the maximum.
I.e. if people in some particular region want to run it according to Sharia law, would you be open to that possibility if you could run your own community according to your own principles?
Without difficult compromises, it's very easy to see that we're set for 5, 10, 15, 20 years of compromise and conflict.
Unless we're willing to look at different solutions, then we're going to live within the same old problems.
But that's just why I think, why don't you let me know what you think in the comments and the chat?
We can't make this content without the support of our partners.
Here's a quick message from one now.
After that, we'll be back with our new show, our recovery-oriented show and base show, Crack On, with Dave, Joe and Russell.
And we're joined by a guest this time, beloved dear Preston.
We'll be talking about recovery issues and recovery matters.
So join us for that.
If you're on YouTube, we're leaving you now, but we'll be on Rumble.
And if you ain't got Rumble Premium yet, get Rumble Premium now.
You get additional content from Crowder, Tim Paul, Glenn Greenwald, and me and a whole host of others.
More important than any of that, stay free.
See you in a few minutes.
They can freeze your accounts.
They can shut off your cards, lock you out of your own money overnight.
Whether you're Canadian truckers or mouthy motherfuckers, you know the system's got ways of curtailing and controlling you.
Banks don't protect you.
They control you.
That's why we are introducing and are proud to introduce the Rumble Wallet.
You can freely trade, you can freely transact, and centralized systems of banking government can't control you.
That's not a euphemism.
I'm saying literally, because I know a lot of you are like, Nate, you'll try and make that about the Jews, won't you?
With Rumble Wallet, you don't just buy a digital currency like Bitcoin and Tether, you can own Tether Gold, real gold on the blockchain through Tether Gold.
You can get direct ownership of physical gold bars, each one fully allocated, verifiable by a serial number, purity, and weight.
This isn't paper gold, this isn't an IOU.
This is real gold without bank vaults, storage fees, or gatekeepers.
You can buy, sell, or move it 24 hours a day, seven days a week, even when traditional gold markets are closed.
And if you want, Tether Gold can be redeemed for physical gold.
That's power.
And when you support creators on Rumble, you can tip them directly using Rumble Wallet, peer-to-peer, and outside the banking system.
No permissions, no middlemen, no cancel button.
This wallet is yours forever.
Welcome to Freedom.
Welcome to the Revolution.
Welcome to Rumble Wallet.
Connecting Through the Word00:14:12
Now it's time for Crack On with Dave, Joe, and Russell.
This podcast is not allied with nor endorsed by any particular 12-step fellowship.
Although we may reference their literature, we do not represent these organizations.
The primary purpose of this podcast is to provide additional support to men and women who walk the path for recovery.
We share our personal experience of the 12 steps in the hope that others can benefit.
Take what is useful, disregard what isn't.
Apologies in advance for any offense caused.
Any other problems, take them to your gods and to your sponsor.
Thanks very much.
I do enjoy having some except for that bit, live music.
That would be very good.
You should crack home.
We need it at the end.
I think we need to add that.
Crackle.
It was really good.
You're talented.
I know.
I should almost put up music.
Well, you should.
In fact, have a look at the link in the description.
Jake Smith's got a variety of albums out.
He seems to release one every week with anyone he meets on the street.
If you're a Christian pastor that wants to release a record with Jake Smith.
It's a big time.
Don't know how he managed to spruce the show.
It's probably why I press the buttons.
There's no assets on him.
The fucking producers off singing Kumbaya with any closeted fucking Protestant pastor he can get his hands on.
Yeah.
Did you say pastor or pastor?
I don't know.
Someone's saying my accent.
How are you getting on, Joe?
You dear, beloved delinquent.
Yeah, not bad.
Not bad.
See, I don't even like to be mean to you when I'm joking because I think Joe's endured a lot.
Like sometimes when I've heard you talk about some of the violence you've gone through, I think, oh, dear God, this person don't need to take no more.
He doesn't need to take no more.
He just only needs to be talked to gently.
That's what I've done.
He's suffered enough.
He suffered enough.
But then I'll see how he acts in the world.
I think now he needs a good stern talking to the fella.
Have you got anything from this week that you want to talk about?
Oh, from this week, I guess there was a little bit of backlash on a clip that went out from this show.
Did it bother you?
You had some backlash.
It didn't bother me.
It didn't bother me.
It was the backlash was with someone in 12-step recovery who's a friend.
Did you get some lashing on your back?
A little bit of backlash.
A little bit.
A little bit.
What about Jesus and the scourging at the pillar?
He took a little bit of lashing on the elback.
Didn't he?
I meditate on it when I'm praying the sorrowful mysteries, and it's all right.
So, all right, so we'll talk about that.
You've got resentment, like because you've had some backlash.
I think it's from that video where we talked about a fella being a Muslim fella coming there in Brighton, but it's about 20 years ago.
It weren't recent.
Is it that?
And then some geezer, you know, from around where you are, saying to you, you shouldn't say stuff like that.
And you sort of going, oh, I don't know.
I don't think you said anything bad.
Dave, on the other hand, came across a bit racist.
We're talking about travelers.
Yeah, travelers.
Good to hear you use it.
I'm glad you're using the three-syllable rather than two-syllable version.
I'm learning.
Good stuff.
You're having a right week, have you?
Pretty good.
No resentments?
No.
What I had this week, multiple people this week at different times, particularly my wife, multiple times was like, hey, are you okay?
What's wrong?
I hate it when people do that.
That makes me feel like I'm not okay.
And I would come back and say, yeah, I'm good.
But having multiple people over multiple days ask me that just started making me think, hey, am I okay?
You're not out of touch with your emotions, are you?
For sure, always.
But he's out of touch.
He's out of touch with his emotions.
And the good news is we didn't notice.
I thought you were right.
It was notice or care, was it?
Dave seems a bit suicidal.
Yeah, shut up because lending us a studio.
Could you just sign this, Dave?
If you do kill yourself, is it okay if we continue to could I do one of them chocolate protein drinks, please?
Yeah, but I had a guy this morning.
You remember Jesse, who I think you met him.
Maybe not.
He's in Austin.
He's a pastor in Austin.
Yeah, of course I've met him.
He's one of Jake's boyfriends.
He's met him.
Jesse, like, he takes, he takes the risk of passing through this area.
Naturally, Jake Smith's soon on his back, like a rucksack, trying to get a fucking, trying to get a Christian album out of him.
Oh, my God.
Shake him like he's trying to shake him like a tree.
He's like coconuts in Christian.
Good guy.
I know.
It was all over him like a cheap suit.
You were over him like stink on a monkey, like white on rice.
Oh, there's my friend Jesse.
He's a Christian pastor, does some music.
Jake's there.
Dang a long jungle.
Crack on.
Actually, Dave introduced me, so you could blame Dave.
Well done, Dave.
Introducing your Yoko-O-Noing.
This skies are right out of our life.
Come on, Wippen.
What were you going to show him anyway?
He texted me this morning with, he was like, man, I really feel like I need to send you this verse.
Verse.
Imagine if it just said, stop being a cunt.
And the verse was, hey, continue to do good.
It's out of Ephesians.
And was really about, man, if you're feeling depressed or beat down, like renewal.
And so the more I've thought about it today, I did a long meditation today of going, man, maybe I am a little depressed.
And some of me is thinking not too much in that because I can get myself thinking, you know, like psychosomatic into it.
But I was like, man, maybe, maybe there's something there.
When my wife says it multiple days in a row, I'm like, okay.
Sometimes I'm like, no, I'm fine.
I'm just hungry or something.
But when it's multiple days in a row, I'm like, okay, maybe there's something there that I'm not seeing.
Golly, that's very interesting.
I'm so self-obsessed.
If anything, anything changed at all, I've like, hmm, what's that?
I feel a bit different.
What's going on?
It's not often that I'm like, I don't think I'm conscious.
Plus, I talk to a lot of addicts.
What's watching you since, you know, since Christmas, I thought, oh, he wants to get back to work.
I noticed that when it was the Christmas holidays and we were hanging out, I thought he needs to work.
Then when he went on that thing to Colorado, I thought, oh, it's all right.
He's doing good things with his kids and skiing and stuff.
So I didn't.
And also, I feel like I see you as a person that can handle your own portion.
Like you're a person that knows how to.
But I know also you're a recovering heroin addict and you had a difficult life.
So are you all right?
Are you all right?
I don't know now.
I feel pretty just solid.
However, when he texted me that this morning and doing more meditation this morning, I was like, man, I need to journal some.
Like I need to just start writing some stuff out and see.
Sometimes I'll get in a not a good way.
I'll focus on things I need to get done and other people more, and I won't really have a gauge of what's going on with me.
And that's not, I'm not saying that in like a good way.
Some of that's good, but I'll have to deliberately spend some time with myself.
Service as a remedy and salve for self-obsession is pretty fantastic.
You know, me as a person that's quite overtly self-obsessed, it's very good for me to get into active service.
I was thinking like, man, you need to get yourself down a food bank.
My missus works at a food bank or volunteers rather, that works, of course, at a food bank.
And obviously I'm connected to a lot of 12-step things.
So there's always opportunity to go and help out at a treatment center or whatever.
And I guess like I've had such intense things happen that I've felt justified in self-centeredness.
We've moved to a different country.
I'm standing trial for rape.
I've had my son go through heart surgery.
The dog just died.
It just seems like so much was going on that I felt like legitimate in my self-centeredness.
But there is no such thing.
In the same way, there's no such thing as a justified resentment.
There's no such thing as legitimate self-centeredness.
As soon as I start doing it, and I love that in step 10, when it says, firstly, ask God, like this is the sort of order.
But step 10 is continue to take personal inventory.
And when we were wrong, promptly admitted it.
That's the written step.
Of course, the step is just as written there.
It's just a summary of the whole step.
And the whole step seems to me, and let me know in the comments and chat if you agree or disagree, to be about stay conscious and present and notice what's happening to you.
And that's what Dave's describing now is a kind of numbness.
And for me, like numbness is the goal of a lot of my addictive behaviors.
Like when I'm like, I'd rather go and play Assassin's Creed on the PS5 with my kid than sit around and actively play a game with the whole family or talk to someone.
That normally means I'm beginning the process of cutting off.
And that's one of my responses to tiredness.
And like meditation is such a, you know, which is the step that follows step 10, obviously step 11, but that's increased through prayer and meditation, our conscious contact with God.
Like I've been doing Course in Miracles and it's been a very effective and beautiful complement, supplement, and I sometimes think even enhancement of my sort of Christian work in so much as everything it suggests feels completely in line with Christian principles.
Like I sort of can almost, even with the limits of my own knowledge of scripture, sense, ah, resist not evil.
Ah, seek thee first the kingdom of God.
Forgive everyone, like forgive everyone.
And of course, I'm reading the Bible in one year with it.
Now, this idea of, so I mentioned that because when in meditation, you can hear God, you can hear God, you can allow God to work.
See, like then when earlier I made glib remarks about Romans, I feel it in my heart straight away, straight in my heart.
Like I felt when I was in the show that we did last Friday, I made a joke about Romans 13 because it says about submitting to government and human authority.
And I made jokes about it, but I felt immediately in my heart.
So I don't think I suffer too much from that numbness.
Since Bear dies.
Yeah, I overfeel.
I'm overstimulated all the time.
I'm always feeling too much.
That's part of my self-obsession is it seems like there's so much going on.
I have this amazing sort of teacher, Bruce, and he said it's like the death of Bear was like throwing dynamite down a well.
And he goes, It's just disrupted everything, this sludge of filth, madness, disturbance.
And that's how I feel.
I feel very disturbed, and like a lot of things have changed.
And I don't know how it's going to settle or how it's going to be.
But I know he was, he's, I feel Christ in it very strongly, inso much as Bear, as I've said before, Bear's love helps me to understand the idea of a love that might otherwise seem abstract unless I found a way of connecting with it through scripture.
But I am connecting to it through the word.
So when you, someone like Jesse, sends you that bit of scripture from Ephesians, how do you then put out to work in your actual practical spiritual life?
When starting to spend time with God, just taking some time, being silent, reading, writing.
I need to do some more writing.
For me, when I begin to start writing stuff out, I don't know what it is.
I mean, I can tent step something over the phone, but if I sit down and write it out on paper, it makes the difference in it.
And same with just journaling, just writing down stuff and trying to flesh it out.
So it's not like there's nothing bad going on.
Like everything in my life and through the days are good.
They're all good things.
But I'm almost kind of the opposite of you, which where I won't, I'll be more inward, where you'll express it.
Can't help but express it some and work through it, which in some ways I think is healthier, right?
You're gonna express it.
You're gonna go through it.
Where me, I'll need to write, I'll have to get it out in some way, which will be writing, working out, doing something.
Those are some of the best times, though, because those are quiet times with God.
Like that's where it just develops intimacy.
So this intimacy, I think, is very important.
Some of the realizations around the death of Bear helped me to understand that the intimacy that I had with him was something that I would find very difficult to emulate in it or recreate in a human relationship because of fear, control, and trust-based issues.
I also was able to recognize that in promiscuity and carnality, I was seeking a kind of intimacy.
There's something that occurs in particular in my experience in fleeting sexual encounters where you might achieve sudden intimacy with a stranger that gives you a kind of artificial shock almost to the field of your being.
And because it's sexualized and sexuality is in a heightened state, when you receive intimacy there, it's like a type of dark communion, I would say there, Joe.
And I noticed, in fact, that the erotic aspect of Christ's love, I'm reading this book by this nun called Ruth Burrows called With the Living God.
I think it's called.
She talks about that something about asceticism and denial can bring about that intimacy.
And I've always thought that we, those of us that have to walk the spiritual path, have to recreate a secular way of saying it would be our own treatment centers.
You know, where we're going to do all equine therapy.
Oh, we're going to do painting therapy.
Constraining Spirits00:08:02
Oh, we're going to do group.
We're going to do one-on-one therapy.
But actually, it's more like a monastery.
It's more like get the world and its corrupting influences at bay and now work, get God, get God.
Like, you know, every morning now, that hour with God, it's the best part of my day.
I move from waking up feeling like, oh, no, man, like not wanting to get up because I just, you know, what's the point?
To actually feeling, oh, okay, all right, I'm supposed to be here.
Yeah, supposed to be here.
We should, maybe we should do some inventory.
Maybe we should do some inventory.
Maybe that's.
I'd say Dave, too.
Not that you need to hear it, but you do give so much and you are a really awesome dude.
Just everything that we even have here and get to do here.
So it is good to check in on yourself because we always talk about you're really good at it, just being freely open giving to everyone.
This whole place has become a community of open door and it's just proof that you got to be filled up too.
Yeah.
Go to the source.
So it's beautiful, man.
We have to look after Dave.
How?
We need Dave.
Perhaps what Dave needs is to be sexually exploited.
Yes, that's it.
That's what I'm doing.
If you can make an app, that's what you should do.
Make an app for it.
Have you seen the Amelia videos?
That'll help you, Dave.
Why don't you try some delicious hydration?
Hey, look, Jake, I picked up.
That's how you're supposed to do basketball, right?
That's nice.
That's fading.
And then you told me football.
Football, you've got to thumb down.
Thumb down when you throw it.
Thumb down.
Relaces out.
It's always some gay thing you lot are doing with your sports.
Pour the drink out.
Suck the winky.
Tickle the nuts.
It's always something to memorize.
Some gay thing.
CJ, what do you think about that?
Do you think we need to do some inventory?
Yeah, sounds like it, mate.
Sounds like it.
I mean, like I say, I've been all right this week, man.
I'm four days off to sugar.
I've joined a WhatsApp group where you post your days because that got a bit out of hand, right?
And I don't know.
It's kind of man, isn't it?
With inventory stuff, like my one was like someone else was disturbed, right?
I was all right.
I thought I was all right.
But I've caused them a harm.
So when he told me you've caused me harm by what you said, the overview was, it wasn't just what I said, it's what people in a comment section were saying.
But when you're getting told, you're a piece of shit because you've fucking done this, X, Y, like in sobriety, you take it like you're like, oh my God, I really do feel like a piece of shit.
Inactive addiction, when someone calls you a piece of shit, you're like, what?
Fuck off, whack.
You don't care.
Do you know what I mean?
Now, if someone tells me that, I'm like, oh, God, am I?
Oh, my God.
I've upset.
I can't believe it.
No, no, I didn't mean it to be like that.
But then having processed it myself, I think, well, I'm not responsible for other people saying the comment section.
People are a bit, you know.
I'm not saying everyone's mentally ill, just to give context, but a lot of people get into it in comment sections.
A lot of people, not all of, some are mentally ill with extreme views, right?
Joe there doing his own media training, life.
So like, what I know is that we're men of walk that extra mile, huh?
We're men of walk that extra mile.
We're men that offer the other cheek.
And I suppose what that indicates to me is in particular, the updates our Lord offered of, you know, removing the category of neighbor or the limited liability of the category of neighbor to make neighbor absolute all humans and to make love without limitation.
I was thinking today, gosh, what was it I was thinking about when I was reading Job and it's described, really goes in, it's good how it describes Job because he's like, it sounds like he's had a bit of a tough time, I'll say.
There's like maggots eating his skin while he's laying there and all his lips in that.
And it's an image of total desecration.
And it as with that wonder that one discovers when getting into the Old Testament seems to foreshadow the coming of Christ in Job's words, who can go into the dirt and come out again.
How can this ever be resolved?
How can we ever be forgiven?
What have I done?
He's really trying to understand it.
And you feel the kind of The hum of the latent Christ moving like an all-consuming light into the darkness of our condition.
And I reckon a that when you're able see, when someone says to me, I don't like what you said or what you've done, and believe me, I deal with a significant amount of that Like I want to sort of partly want to really fight, I feel like I'm in a fight and I feel a bit like I kind of are in a fight.
Certainly the depiction of the end times in Revelation bears a lot of resemblance to battle.
Do you feel like when someone says that to you, they're trying to control control trying to say, hey, no, I can say whatever I want to say.
Like you're trying to control, destroy, constrain me.
Constrain, great word.
Yeah, I feel like they're trying to do that.
And constrain, that means it's not only controlling you, but they're actually also hurting you a bit.
That's what I think is in the words constrained for me.
But when we're in doubt, check a dictionary.
So my feeling is that how one might be when Christ moves into that space.
And I can almost feel it, Joe.
And that's what I love about being involved in 12 steps and in particular in sponsorship relationships and particularly the sort of great joy, if I may say, publicly of sponsoring someone like Joe, who has like a fierce intelligence and wild emotion.
Like it's like, oh my God, what are we going to do about this?
Like what I like is that I have to go, all right, my mind will not be sufficient for the, or at least I could describe it perhaps, but I can't resolve it.
So in the program, I will can even now literally can see that what's required in your situation with your man there is a proactive call or even a meeting.
Like that thing that I learned from Alfie there, my second sponsor, right?
I always, if someone's telling me what to do, I think, I'm not fucking doing that.
Fuck off.
Like, you know, like, just like, it's almost a defense mechanism, like early on.
No.
Like, before I've had time to think.
And Jake's getting very good at handling me with that, of like sort of showing me, you know, like I'm a dog or something that's come from a bad home.
Like, so, like, it's all right, you're okay.
That's not happening now.
You know, like, like, so, like, you know, but like, so with, I don't have time to feel properly because the instinct kicks in so hard to like, oh, this is that thing where people fuck me off.
And like, and so with you, though, there, I know you have a similar thing.
So I think it's, um, you've got to be with that person, actually take it to Christ and sort of like you're not on your own.
And actually, our Lord, he's so gracious and so generous, he gives us ones where it's not that hard, actually.
Like, say, sort of with me at the moment, it's like, oh, my in-laws are over, so I have to be an in-laws person that's, you know, that level of politeness and everything.
You know, and you can't just sort of civilized.
Yeah, I can't do all my farts that I need to do.
I've got quite a strong fart commitment that I've had to put on hold for a couple of days.
And like, I'll catch up when I go.
I'm sorry, I've backlogged all them farts in a jar.
I've saved them all up like Howard Hughes.
But like, but like, see, with your thing there, mate, what you've got to do is with him, the fella that's, he's copped a grievance.
Muslim Mayor's Dilemma00:06:47
Because what I can understand how I think the fella is not like, he's non-white British, isn't he?
The geezer.
And he's maybe probably, is he even probably Muslim?
No, no, I don't think so.
I think he's Christian, actually.
But he's Indian heritage.
Then I reckon you've got us, not that that should really matter.
I don't even know why I asked acceptors to sort of try to point out that the clip is offended by, we were wrong.
See that when we used that clip of a mare, it was me that found it on X.
That geezer, he was made mayor 20 years ago and it turns out that he was a- two years ago, 2024.
Well, that's not that.
That's not that bad.
It's not that long ago.
It's not that long ago.
It's not that long.
Right, fucking hell.
Well, anyway, apparently he's all right and everything.
But I'm sure he is all right.
No one was saying he weren't all right.
What people were saying is, is my word, this is what's actually being said.
In a culture that seems prohibitive towards Christianity, note the indulgence granted to a inverted commas non-native religion.
Now, you could, of course, argue, geo-historically, that both Christianity and Islam come from the Middle East.
But in terms of actual the history of Britain, Britain and King Arthur and all that stuff, it became a Christian country some time ago.
And yet, Christianity and the British flag and all these ciphers and sigils of Britishness are being reduced, curtailed, constrained.
And the reason for that is, I'll tell you plainly, is because these sigils and symbols are activating power in the native people.
Since a little old guy called Adolf Hitler, people have been scared when political movements rise up that engage what I might call the sort of land power of the folk.
Like the folk have this kind of, we're from here.
We're from here.
We're from here.
Like people can get a bit riled up.
And like people don't like it when that stuff starts happening.
Unless they want to use it themselves to send you to a war to die for their fucking money and their interests.
Then they'll stir it up a bit and then go, that never happened.
What are you talking about?
Your granddad's in a coffin draped in that fucking flag.
So what you have to do is we are Christian.
We are Christian.
That means we acknowledge our brokenness.
We acknowledge the hopelessness of our condition.
And therefore, in him, we are able to go, mate, what I'm saying is, well, no, actually, no, step nine, man.
You don't say fuck all about that.
Well, it's hard though, isn't it?
Because my initial response was defensive, right?
So when I made the comment I said was, well, well, look, maybe you should be from there, I think.
I don't know.
And now I'm not attached to that fucking stance.
I don't really give a shit.
No, I might change my mind tomorrow.
Do you know what I mean?
I'm not.
I don't care either.
But the way I was processed it was Brighton, right, was once the gay capital of Europe.
Yeah, it's very bohemian, new age, spiritual.
The Green Party were founded there.
Muslim mayor.
I just thought this don't line up.
What about if he's got to make a speech for gay pride or something like that?
These two worlds don't coexist.
Do you know what I mean?
Puts him in a bit of a predicament and all.
So I didn't say that.
I just thought, don't make sense.
Don't line up.
And I thought that was the, you know, most sensible way to comment on it.
But it sounds like he's a lovely fella.
He's done a lot for people during COVID and people voting in.
Fair enough.
I mean, I don't mean to, that sounded too aggressive.
But what did he do, Judy?
I mean, that's not like, because when I heard that bit, I was a bit concerned about Alex.
It's like COVID was a massive psyop.
You whisper it, psyop.
Like, so, like, when, like, it was lovely.
Say David Moyes, West Ham manager at the time, now Everton manager.
He's driving around, dropping off shopping for old people.
Some people remarked, he should have kept some of that shopping for himself.
He looks about 80.
But like, you know, that's nice when you hear people doing kind acts of charity.
It's lovely to hear that.
But a lot of them kind acts, I do.
Well, what I fundamentally think is the church has to be the centre of the community, not the government.
And for it to really be the centre of the community, that can't be just, it's the centre of the community.
It means power in the end.
That power is not the church's.
It's God's.
Are the bride to Christ and therefore he determines the direction we look in and the way that we go.
We follow him.
And when the state is the center or state subsidiaries, then you end up with a lot of old bullshit everywhere, whether it's the Amelia game or complex systems of conflicting ideology, Islam versus identification with your personal sexuality.
All of these complicated ideas come from deification of the culture, which is a form of paganism, and pantheonism, which is what's been described throughout the Old Testament as being the fall of the various nations and the fall of individual souls, and Christ came to absolve us of that and has done that, if we will, but accept him, but from a 12-step perspective, which I think lines up pretty nicely with Christianity anyway.
Same kind of thing.
If you ask me, let me know in the comments and chat if you agree with that.
You've got to go like this.
You don't defend.
Now I I can only say this is the beauty of our program.
When it's me and it's like you know the stuff we were talking about with the dog, my beloved bear, you know, I found it very hard not to be defensive, impossible in fact.
But when it's you, I don't have to pay no price for it.
So it's easy for me to say, you've just got to go.
Hey, do you want to go for a coffee?
Take for a coffee and go tell me how I have hurt you.
I hurt you.
I shouldn't have said that.
Yes, I should have said that.
Yeah, I shouldn't have said that.
I should have said that and you will mean it in a way because, like you said, you don't even actually really care, and neither do I.
I don't care.
I think if people want a Muslim mayor, they should have a Muslim mayor.
If they want a gay mayor, they should have a gay mayor.
If they want a Christian mayor, they should have a Christian mayor.
I think people should be free.
I believe in freedom.
I believe God wants us to be free me.
You know my position, I know your position but, like you know, we should shut, and this is the Bonhoffer territory.
Our Christianity should make them doubt their own unbelief.
They should think, fucking hell, people are going around acting like this.
Maybe god is real and really.
What I think that takes is martyrdom ultimately, is what it ultimately takes is like, oh my god, they're not scared.
They're not scared, they're willing to die.
Holy shit, holy shit.
That's the one, you know, and that's what he did, and that's what they did the first followers.
And that's what we have to do if we're serious about it and lord alone knows, we'll get the opportunity.
Um okay, it's time now for us to bring our guest in, because we've kept him waiting and not only is he double h, he's like former special ops, so it's like we're asking for a good chin in, please.
Recovery's Journey00:10:29
Um, welcome.
After this short break, we'll know.
After the short break, we'll bring in our guest, Preston.
Uh, but that's after these messages.
Do you want to support me?
No, I don't.
Yes, you do support me and support Rumble premium.
You won't only be supporting me.
You'll get additional access to MUG CLUB that's Crowder's gig, Tim Cast that's Tim Pool's racket and Glenn Greenworld's additional content.
Join us on Rumble premium.
We make content every single week through Rumble because Rumbles support free speech.
When I was under attack from the British government and the British media, Rumble stood firm, yes, of course, there's crazy people on Rumble.
There's crazy people everywhere.
There's a crazy person living under this hat.
That doesn't mean we shouldn't have the right to speak freely together.
By supporting Rumble premium, you're supporting me and content creators like me.
You get additional content and, what I will say, even more.
Drink down deep on the delicious Desiring.
In this one, you get an ad-free experience.
If you want an ad-free experience of Rumble, get Rumble Premium.
In the meantime, stay free.
You're watching Crack On with Joe, Dave, and Russell.
And Jake, who after that note, we're not even including in the credits.
Crack on.
Look at that.
Just when I think he can't win me back, he comes up with that falsetto.
Please welcome our guest for Crack On today, Preston Brace.
Yeah, Dave Contribute.
Control you.
You're fucking, you're numb.
You're like a war vet sat in a chair.
You're like a war vet.
Look at those arms.
Look at this guy.
It seems impossible that I'd beat him in a fight.
And yet, that is what I must do.
Preston, thank you so much for joining us today for Crack On.
How long have you been in recovery?
So fairly new.
I completely stopped drinking in March of 25.
It's almost a year.
Almost a year.
You're new in recovery.
And when do you think you're going to finally get around to doing some work on your arms, which come across as a bit weak and thin from where I'm sitting?
Thanks for joining us.
And I've had a good time at your gym so far.
What's it called, your gym?
Miramar Beach Strength and Conditioning.
When the comments come, remember: 90% of them are bots.
Don't be afraid.
Don't be afraid of the comments.
Russell Brandon.
Recovery is a pretty amazing thing.
Tell us before, well, we've brought you here to share your experience, strength, and hope with us.
On the line there, maybe you can see him on the screen.
That's Joe is the fella in the middle, Celtic, crazy Joe McCann.
You know Dave already, I think.
And of course, you know Jake Massey there.
That's just a steal that we've not took off the Zoom call.
He's actually long gone.
I don't know if that's still on your screen, but he's on mine.
So, hey, mate, tell us a little bit about your recovery.
Like, what happened?
Why did you get into recovery?
You know, and what it was like now.
Tell us a bit about yourself for about 10 minutes.
Yeah.
So I was in the military for 10 years.
And it was within the culture that as long as you could perform, it didn't matter what you did.
And how we coped as a society with in the culture, it was predominantly drinking.
And I found myself just doing it: hey, if a little bit is good, a lot more is better.
Yeah.
And it took me down a path that I didn't really know what was doing to me until it was too late.
Where I needed to drink in order to sleep at night.
And then I needed something to get me going in the morning to get over the hangover.
And then it was a rinse and repeat process.
But as long as I performed and I did well at my job, I thought I was okay.
So it was a false sense of security.
It wasn't until that I had become married and had kids that it became a very serious issue.
And there's an incident one night where my wife had said, I don't know if I can do this anymore.
And it was a very hard thing to say because you never want to hear your loved one or someone that you care about be put in so much pain that they have to say it.
What happened?
Just went out drinking one night and came home.
And she said, Have you been drinking?
And I was in denial.
I said, not that much.
And I progressively just became more and more belligerent.
The alcohol had taken a lot more of an effect once I got home.
And I wasn't able to accept that I had a problem.
So that night, as a team, we made the decision to completely stop drinking.
And it turned out to be the best decision that we could have possibly made because it allow us to grieve, to feel pain, and not mask it through the use of alcohol or by any other means.
And it allowed us to feel what we needed to feel in order to grieve, to be upset, to be happy, and not have that purely just be a byproduct of a foreign substance.
It allowed us to find a way to cope with life because life is very difficult and to not cope with alcohol or other substances,
but it allowed us to do it as a unit, do it together, do it collectively through faith, through communication, and to set the example for our kids leading up.
So your wife stopped drinking at the same time.
Why did she stop drinking?
Because we have an unwritten agreement that I would never ask something of you that I wouldn't do myself.
And she did, that was the example or the standard that we set for one another.
So she said, I'm going to do this with you.
Are you familiar with 12 steps?
I'm familiar with the steps of grieving for loss of a loved one, not for recovery.
What was the loss of the loved one?
Well, I lost my mother unexpectedly one night through overdose.
And I was able to get through it with drinking.
So in my mind, that is how I got through difficult moments in life.
This happened when you were a kid?
No.
This was in 2022.
When you're talking about it now, you feel it still.
Yes.
And I still feel it because I haven't allowed myself to relive that event and to grieve properly.
I have taken a lot of past trauma as kids as a kid with the loss of my mother and my father.
And I bottled it all up.
Yeah.
One, because that's how I was raised.
As men, you're not supposed to cry.
You're not supposed to have emotion.
You're supposed to be like a rock.
You're supposed to be unshakable.
And through the discovery of finding myself and through this process, I've found that to be the farthest thing from the truth.
So when I lost my mother, I dealt with it the only way that I knew how.
I gave myself a night to grieve, and then I was over it.
I didn't allow myself to grieve as long as I probably needed to.
Two years later, lost my dad.
That was a little more difficult because he stayed with us for about a month or two before he passed.
And to see his cognitive and physical decline during that time and to be his full-time caregiver was just a difficult thing to see to see your hero in such a weakened state.
It's just a very harsh reality that no one is invincible.
And it was difficult to accept that, which ultimately led to me just trying to bury everything, cover everything, and ultimately just not deal with any of it.
And you reach a certain point where when you avoid things and you allow things to bottle up, it eventually expresses itself outwardly, whether you know it or not.
Yeah.
Choosing Happiness Amid Harsh Realities00:02:20
And it affects your surroundings.
And then when your surroundings are affected, you think everybody else is the problem.
Since we made the decision to stop drinking and focus more on our mental well-being, our spiritual well-being, our physical well-being, life has become fun again.
You get to see the joy and the light that life can be if you choose it to be that for you.
It's a choice.
And I remember as an adolescent hearing the statement or the phrase that happiness is a choice.
You get to choose your happiness.
Circumstances may be different.
It may be more harsh growing up.
It may be very privileged or you may be given certain opportunities that others may not.
But your perspective and how you see these things is completely up to you.
What do you suppose, Preston, is the price of having happiness be a choice rather than something that is dictated by external and sometimes arbitrary circumstance?
What do you think is the cost of that freedom?
A lot of times, loneliness.
When you, like, say, It sounds like you've had like some serious trauma and some difficulties and you've gone through like what kind of what kind of military, if you don't mind me asking, were you in?
So I was in the Army and I was a Green Beret.
So the Navy has Navy SEALs, Army has Green Berets, and then which is just below Delta Force, SEAL Team 6, things of that nature.
So we're pretty specialized in the things that we do.
What we do lack, in my personal opinion, not speaking in absolutes, is How we deal with loss, how we deal with the experiences that we see and deal with overseas.
Step Three: Finding Guidance00:16:07
A lot of that is shake it off, have a drink, get over it.
Because you have to have a certain type of mental state being in that profession to be effective.
You cannot allow those things to alter your mental state or your decision making.
You have to be very hardened in a way where in the moment it can't affect you.
But behind closed doors, no one's invincible.
No.
You just never see it.
No.
You know, I find it very interesting to hear someone new to and new in recovery taking on board principles like in a 12-step model, which is, I think, the first effective and successful model for bringing about abstinence, forces bringing about sustained abstinence.
The idea that we have, like Joe and Dave are equally and in some instances more qualified than me to describe this information that was freely given by other people, is like starts with crisis, starts with, I have to honestly admit, there's a problem, there's a problem.
Some people can't get to that point.
You know them, we all know them.
The second portion is to recognize the hopelessness of your condition with and without alcohol and then to recognize that things can improve, but they won't improve using your own power and your own will and your own ideas.
That you're fundamentally, I learned recovery in a very secular environment, like from a treatment center I went to was run by an atheist.
So they'd done that very elegant trick, I'd have to call it, of like removing God from a process that's entirely about God, entirely about sort of like removing, I don't know, like sort of red from Liverpool with all respect to Everton fans.
I don't know.
Like it's a hard thing to take out.
So like what I felt was, and what I feel is that what's useful from a secularized version of a 12-step program is anyone, whether you believe in God or not, can recognize when their life's in total chaos.
Some people are able to say, I suppose it's possible.
I mean, Dave was a heroin addict and he doesn't use drugs anymore.
That's, you know, even if it's only that, even if it's only that I believe that Dave used to take drugs and doesn't now, even that is a demonstration of the possibility of change.
The third step, making the decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God, is an interesting and pivotal moment, beautifully collapsed by Tim M, who we often cite on this podcast, into the idea that step three, made a decision to turn our will and our life over to the care of God as we understood God, simply means now do step four.
That means the inventory steps of writing down every resentment you've ever had.
Well, firstly, write down all the people and then you'll understand who are the major players.
You know, your mum, your dad, people that broke your heart, people that beat you up, people that, you know, we all know the my sponsor calls it the museum of resentments that all of us, I can show you around and go, she broke my heart.
He kicked my head in when I was 13.
These people lied to me.
This happened to me.
This happened to me.
We all sort of know what that museum is and what the exhibits are in that museum.
And once you've shared that with another person, you've got a better understanding of who you are and what went wrong.
But there are several points where explicitly God's intervention becomes necessary and essential, in fact.
Two, a power greater than ourselves.
Three, a decision to turn it over to God who understood God, God.
And then again at seven, when it says, humbly asked him to remove these shortcomings, humbly ask God to remove these shortcomings, it becomes like necessary for me to understand.
And when I ask you that question about what do you think is necessary to make a choice to have it, because I do know that's true.
I do know that we are the participants in the creation of our own reality, that God didn't create us for no reason.
We are co-participants.
We do have a volition and power.
We're not, you know, we have power there.
But I think the price is you die unto yourself.
You die unto yourself.
You die unto yourself.
Pretty much from step two on is all about God, right?
I mean, from it, have you ever heard, like, if you're struggling with the conception of God, you don't have a second-step problem or a third-step problem, you have a first-step problem.
And it's about the fact that, man, you haven't been broken enough.
You know, you don't haven't really conceded.
You don't really see your powerless.
And it's like, and they use the analogy, I mean, do you complain when you get thrown a life raft, whether it was red or blue, or what kind of, no, you're drowning.
The book even uses that, the desperation of a drowning man.
And we would always used to say, hey, give me desperation over willingness any day.
Wow.
Why?
Because desperation, I mean, you're okay, whatever it is.
I'm dying.
I'm drowning here.
You know, and so if you're sitting there trying to do second, third step God collages and stuff like that, trying to define your God and all that stuff, it's like, man, do you really understand your condition?
You know, because if you really do and you're drowning, then you're going to be desperate for a solution.
And so if there's a chance that whatever Joe believes or there's a possibility, and it's not even saying that you define God, honestly, in the steps, it just says that you are willing to believe that it's something greater than yourself.
Joe, starting where Dave has taken us with regard to desperation there, and in particular, desperation versus willingness, can you give us some of your first thoughts about Preston's share?
Yeah, I mean, what springs to mind for me, right?
It's like 12 step, the 12 step program assumes you've already exhausted all other resources.
So in likes of the treatment center, you're saying where they've removed God and that, it's like, you know, if through traumatic events and everything else, I've learned to self-medicate with alcohol, it's even been encouraged or whatever.
And then with sufficient reason, realize, fuck, this is coming with consequences.
Now it's come to the forefront.
I have to stop, right?
Then maybe with the use of a treatment center like that, one you was talking about there, you sober up and you learn a bit of your condition about your traumas and all whatnot and how to process things moving forward.
If then after that you still drink again, that's hopeless.
You're hopeless.
You've tried everything.
You'd be insane to do it again.
So then it's like, right, I have to, this is going to take something more.
I don't know what else to do.
I don't know what else to do.
And then it's like, you know, what Dave was saying there.
I was thinking of the A, B's and C's before the step three prayer there, right?
So A, we admit we were powerless over alcohol and could not manage our own life.
B, no human power could have relieved our alcoholism.
You have to, I think you have to experience that.
Because someone's saying that to you, you're like, I don't know.
I don't know.
Do you know what I mean?
That one, you got to be like, yes, yes.
There's no other way for me.
See, God could and would if he was sought.
Then you're willing to take step three, I think.
And after step three, you'll do whatever you're told, really, wouldn't you?
Because, you know, you understand the hopelessness of the condition and the fatality if you carry on.
There's actually illuminated an aspect of my own recovery that I've not seen as clearly before that I went into treatment only wanting to get clean temporarily.
Like, oh, my career, I'm not going to, I didn't have a career.
I wasn't famous or anything when I stopped taking drugs.
I was like, oh, you're not going to have a career if you don't get clean.
So I went in and got clean.
Then quite quickly, I did get, within three years, I was famous in the UK.
And I knew God was real.
And I knew something unusual and spiritual had taken place deep within me.
But when it came to monitoring my sex conduct being the obvious example, I felt like, I'm famous, man.
I'm going to have sex with anyone who wants to.
There ain't nothing about that in this book.
I mean, I conveniently avoided the bit where there is stuff about that.
And like just went cracked on as, you know, to celebrate the title of this podcast.
And I can see that's because I was still in human power.
Mine, in fact, and the cultures, mine and the cultures.
Maybe this can relieve me of my dilemma.
Maybe if I have sex with loads of people five at the same time, one after the other continually, maybe.
And like the thing is with any jolt like that, you know, you think about like what you say, Preston, about the drinking.
For a long time, you were in a culture where no one, people aren't going, what earth are you doing drinking?
Like you're in the green berets.
People are not like, ah, you know, so like until it actually comes to the point where you're confronted with the difficult death of your parents, you've not got no motivation to confront deep, deep, unaddressed pain.
And then from that point in, you become willing to remove the anesthesia and obstacle which alcohol represented.
But so it's a year of living in that recovery.
And I suppose I'm still kind of, because I'm so 12-step devout.
Whenever someone's not 12-step, Dave, I always feel like, oh my God, are they going to be all right?
Do you feel that?
I do.
I know that that's not right, right?
Even by the 12-steps.
Like, they don't have monopoly on recovery or God or any of that.
So like, I know it's not right, but it's just so a part of my life that it's hard to think of not doing the 12 steps and being in recovery, even though I know, hey, people can just go to church.
And I know tons of people that just do church and do other things and they're living a spiritual life.
I think the difference for me, though, is going, I don't really consider it recovery unless it's a spiritual means of the part of it is at least spiritual.
A path is spiritual.
What do you mean?
Otherwise, I consider it like lifestyle change, abstinence, you know, just like health wellness.
That's how I would consider it, unless it's a spiritual, if there's part of it that's a spiritual path, then I'm like, okay, that's really recovery.
What do you mean, spiritual path?
I mean, like, that there is a relationship with God that they're growing in.
And whether that means it doesn't have to look traditional, but if they're not committed to spiritual, to having a relationship with God and growing in it, then I don't, in my mind, not saying this is the right definition, but in my mind, I'm like, okay, that's a separate category than recovery.
What do you think about that, Preston?
Do you note in this year of transition and abstinence undertaken with your wife that your relationship with God has changed?
Has God begun to occupy the place once occupied by alcohol?
It has absolutely grown stronger.
The reason for that is because the majority of us Two things that you touched upon is that it usually takes a very serious incident of happening to someone close to you to shake you awake, or you have to hit rock bottom or something happening to you personally that has you make that decision.
God is going to allow these things to happen to you.
Yeah.
He will help guide you and he will guide you to the right path, but you have to make that decision.
He's not going to force you to do it.
And forgive me, it's still new to me.
So me saying I'm in recovery or I am sober is still very formed for me to say.
So when I do say that, it's just very new, right?
So he has led me down a path and I have accepted it that he is guiding me down a path that is better than I could have ever imagined or planned for myself.
And I wasn't able to see that before because for me, through alcohol, I was able to be numb to everything.
Good, bad, and different.
It all felt the same to me and it was all very short-lived.
The bad stayed.
The good short spike came right back down and then it was just comfortably numb.
Now I'm able to feel everything.
And through my faith and through my trust in him, good, bad, and different, I'm able to be confident that this season or this chapter of life, how difficult it may be, it's for a specific purpose.
And he is challenging us, just like in the gym, you challenge yourself in order to grow stronger, in this sense, stronger in your faith.
And he will test your faith through trials and saying, just like when he had Peter walk on water, he says, if you trust in me, you will be able to do this.
And I said, okay, let's see what this whole thing is about that people love so much.
And through this whole process, it has just been an amazing season of peace and happiness and knowing good, bad, and different, he's going to look after us and trust that whatever we go through, it's going to be amazing.
We just have to trust him.
It's awesome.
Have you had the desire to drink at all over the last little while?
Like, has it cropped up for you?
Very interesting question.
In the beginning, yes.
In the beginning, it was a natural habit and a natural go-to when I had a bad day.
I had an argument with my spouse.
It was still at my house.
I didn't completely empty everything.
And I said, it would be so easy to do this right now.
But it is not worth losing her trust and her respect over a glass that is going to do nothing but make me feel bad.
So through that promise that I made with her, myself, and with God, it has gotten significantly easier with time.
Through lifestyle changes, through my faith, I still have resources, I guess you could say, at my house that if I wanted to drink, I could.
Painful Costly Choices00:02:51
But it's so empowering to know that I can walk by it each and every day and it has no power over me.
It doesn't do anything for me.
Yeah.
Dave Sharp, man.
Like, hey, so like, what we have to think about, I think, I might as well say it because I would say it in real life recovery is my concern would be the fact that it's commenced in conjunction with your partner would be where God's going to give you some lessons.
That would be my prediction.
Like, because I know that any time that I, because of the B in the ABCs, there, any human power thing, that like me, all of us in a marriage, you know, one flesh and all, we're going to depend and rely on our partner.
It's natural, it's necessary, it's ordained.
I've, in my senses, that I'm shown a lot of ways where I depend on her and I'm not allowed to.
It's weird.
For me, it can be as easily understandable as there's things I can talk to Dave about that I cannot take to her, that I can't take to her.
And I've also just again and again in my own recovery been shown that when I rely on anything at all, I get so the thing that happened to me is, of course, I'm 23 years into this, less time than Dave, but it's still a big chunk of time.
And like what happened in my life is my identity just again, just broke.
And when that happened, I was like, oh man, there's another level to this.
I was reliant on that, even though I'm clever.
So I know don't worship your own identity as a famous person because that's stupid and made up.
I kind of understood it theoretically.
But then when it changed from Russell Brand, womanizer, great star, to Russell Brand rapist, I was like, whoa, hold on.
It turns out I've got a preference.
I've got a preference.
I didn't know I had unexpressed, unrealized preference there.
I'd prefer that this wasn't happening.
And the journey of, I'm not allowed to care about that anymore.
That's none of my business.
What other people say about me and think about me is none of my business.
They can say whatever they want.
Like, I'll go to trial and all that for the criminal side.
It's somewhat, somewhat separate.
But so, like, for me, for anyone in early recovery, it's to observe, I believe, what you're doing.
That's not God.
Anything you're relying on, that is not God.
The Lord will show you that.
And like, you know, hopefully it won't be in a way that causes painful, painful, costly consequences.
But in the end, there are no painful, costly consequences because it seems like anything in tour can happen and you'll be like, all right with it.
Painful Unexpressed Preferences00:02:21
It's got, okay, we're doing this now.
Why are we, God?
Like when Sandy Beach says that, when Sandy Beach goes, if you're in the woods and your car breaks down and there's no one around for miles and you don't have a phone, you get to the point where you're like, oh, how are we getting out of this one, God?
You know, like sort of a cheerful, oh, this will be interesting.
You know, and that is how I felt.
You know, both Dave and Joe there, they came to court with me for my pre-hearings for some of the matters related to my criminal case.
And I've got to tell you, we felt like there was like, it felt holy.
It felt holy.
Like as we're walking through like the paparazzi, like and into the courtroom, it felt like, oh, God is here.
It's strange.
It was very strange.
I probably struggled with it more than you did.
Walking on water.
I mean.
Yeah.
Well, and there was, it was, it was like this is supposed to happen.
Like this is supposed to go through God has a plan and all this.
It was, it was weird.
Yeah, it was.
The paparazzi or that experience is weird, man.
It's almost like people are possessed or something.
It just seemed demon.
I don't know.
Yeah, anyway, well, I guess we'll get into more of that.
Well, actually, we're going to like, Jake's got to take my potential future son-in-law, Josiah, to baseball and his actual son.
And we're going to do some feats of strength, which anyone with eyes to see, let them see, are going to be interesting to observe.
Because look at Preston, who his former job that he gave up because he considered it too gay, was the same job as Rambo.
Rambo's job he considered to be like sitting around crocheting cushions.
I can't do this.
This ain't challenging enough for me.
I need a new job rather than being Rambo.
And now, now we're going to have to reap the crazy consequences of that.
Excuse me, that was just an alarm going off in my soul before me and Preston have what's going to be a bench press competition or whatever.
What should we do out there?
You know, Dave's got some good kit out there.
What should we do?
Just a bare knuckle boxing in the nude.
We're going to strip down to naked fighting.
Me and Preston are going to fight in the nude out there on a concrete floor.