Actor and comedian Russell Brand warned of creeping “authoritarianism” as he discussed the censorship he has faced with Tucker Carlson.
Episode 70 of Carlson’s program on X featured a lengthy interview with Brand, the 48-year-old British activist and talk show host who elaborated on his view of impending and “radically escalating” authoritarianism.
“Governments colluded to shut down and destroy Russell Brand. This is his first interview since that happened. Watch it when you get a minute. It’s one of the most brilliant explanations of the modern world you’ll ever hear,” Carlson wrote on X.
Recapping how Brand was labeled a “sex criminal” after allegations of misconduct arose late last year, with media outlets rushing with damning headlines but never naming accusers. Carlson noted that this was just the “final scene in a long movie that had been playing out…outisde the public view” in efforts to make Brand “shut up.”
Ep. 70 Governments colluded to shut down and destroy Russell Brand. This is his first interview since that happened. Watch it when you get a minute. It’s one of the most brilliant explanations of the modern world you’ll ever hear. pic.twitter.com/bCZDTYfZAZ
— Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson) January 30, 2024
Carlson explained that this was mainly becuase Brand was a “man of the left” and could had the “power to persuade” people, especially those on “the other side” of the political aisle.He went on to talk with Brand about how he began to be maligned and censored for his political and cultural views, noting his previous podcast episodes focused on the war in Ukraine and COVID-19.
Brand elaborated on the smear campaign against him and the “globalization” and attempt to “control the information space” that has been unfolding as coordinated efforts play out by governments, think tanks and major media outlets to shut down any dissent.
“This seems totalitarian. To control what people are allowed to think – I think that’s the definition of it,” Carlson said as he covered the censorship and pushback Brand experienced.
“I suppose that’s what in essence what I’ve started to feel and report on consistently,” Brand said.
“But it seems to me that authoritarianism now is being deliberately veiled in the insidious language of care, concern, safety, and convenience. It seems to me that we’re in a time where we lurch from one crisis to another. The crisis is always used to legitimize certain solutions and a docile or terrified public is willingly to participate in this proposed solutions that usually involve giving up their freedom,” he told Carlson.
“We’re continually being invited to give up our freedom in exchange for safety or convenience and it seems that this process is radically escalating,” he continued. “And I feel that this is something that we will see more of in the coming year. I feel like you’ve spoken publicly about this – that we’re potentially on the precipice of serious, and to use your term ‘a hot war with Russia.’ And that’s being reported on in my country right now – it’s like we’re being prepped, groomed, primed for ‘war is coming.’”
As related to the pandemic, he contended that the public is “being kept in a state of constant anxiety in order to induce compliance.”
“That the ongoing stoking of cultural tension is to ensure that people don’t begin to recognize that actually we have far more in common with one another than we do with these curious sets of the establishment interests that seems to be transcendent of national democracy,” he said.
“So what I suppose I’m sensing is that totalitarianism now will not bear the inflections or aesthetics of the 20th century militarism guys in medals with mustaches thumping their fists on a desk,” he continued, adding that anyone who is able to push back on the narratives “will be identified and destroyed.”
