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His decent into outrage-bait, alt-right friendly nonsense struck me as abrupt. One minute his channel was reasonable enough, the next it was totally nuts. Part
by jmfldn 3y ago
His decent into outrage-bait, alt-right friendly nonsense struck me as abrupt. One minute his channel was reasonable enough, the next it was totally nuts.
Part of me wonders whether this was calculated once he knew that a major expose was circling. I have zero evidence for this, but you can see the logic. Court a following that is sceptical of everything, and that will see an investigation by the 'mainstream media' as obvious evidence of some deep state conspiracy. You now have an army of cheerleaders, and an alternative renevue source, ready to wage war with.
- 0xDEF 3y agoHe pulled an Elon. Elon Musk also came out as an alt-right troll when he was tipped that an expose about sexual harassment of a flight attendant was coming his way.
- Danjoe4 3y agoElon Musk has greatly accelerated green energy innovation through EVs, battery technology, and solar. Are these actions appropriately described as "alt-right"?
- 0xDEF 3y agoWhen people today talk about Elon Musk's political views they mean his sudden right-wing radicalization in 2022 that happened exactly when he was tipped off about sexual harassment allegations coming his way.
- mft_ 3y agoMaybe reality is more nuanced than the binary choice you’re asking it to be reduced to. e.g. Musk’s companies have done great things in the areas of EVs, batteries, and (most of all) space launches. …and… Some of his public-facing behaviour (especially on Twitter) is disturbing, and may be described as ‘alt-right’. - (It’s also disturbing that this has to be spelt out; yet here we are.)
- carlosjobim 3y agoFuturistic technology has certainly been right wing for as long as that has been a concept. Looking to history, some of the most incredible technological breakthroughs any of us can think of, came from what is considered the most extremely right wing society to have existed.
- MisterBastahrd 3y agoElon Musk is, first and foremost, a government leech and will follow the free money.
- jonny_eh 3y agoIt's a point of no return. They know they'll never be accepted in polite company again, so they go rude.
- serf 3y agothat's an incredibly concise way to put the phenomenon, thanks for wording it so well. there should probably be a name for it.
- ifyoubuildit 3y agoWhether the allegations are true or not, I'm curious: how much of Brands content have you watched?
- Dig1t 3y agoThe Twitter Files revealed pretty definitively that government censorship was taking place. Caring about free speech does not make you alt-right, despite mainstream media’s attempts to paint him as such. Elon and co’s have done more for progressive causes than basically all other companies combined.
- QuantumG 3y agoHow's that?
- WWLink 3y agoI think Elon was always what I'd call "silicon valley libertarian" at best. Nothing he's said or done is really all that surprising, if you go back and look at the things he said and did 10 years ago.
- pstuart 3y agoAgreed. EVs and solar are generally considered "lefty" (unfortunately), and I can't think of anything he espoused outside of that which could be considered "liberal".
- c7DJTLrn 3y agoInteresting idea. It's possible Andrew Tate played this card as well.
- cgio 3y agoI cannot see how the army would be of any use in the eventuality of the major expose. There was this other person with huge following among scepticals of everything (sorry I don't remember the name exactly) who got a huge fine recently. I don't believe justice would look the other way, if anything, it may be attracting scrutiny with attention.
- jmfldn 3y agoSure, it just a theory. I had thought several times in recent months how odd his transformation had been though, and this is one possible cause of it.
- serf 3y agoplaying devil's advocate here for a moment : having that 'army' would eventually be useful if say you knew an exposé was on the way because they may become an exploitable market once the mainstream throws you to the wayside over the allegations. the 'army' can be fed some insider-flavored tripe : "THEY are using this to get me.", "Of course this comes out when i'm trying to expose the truth", etc etc. So, in other words, the 'army' isn't directly useful against the allegations necessarily, but as a fall cushion once those allegations and possible criminal charges land and alienate the rest of the 'normal' public from you. Alex Jones/Sandy Hook comes to mind. In some warped sense, the criminal allegations and justice pursuit towards Alex Jones with regards to his comments regarding the Sandy Hook shootings cemented him as a 'victim of the system' for a lot of his adherents; much to the dismay of everyone else.
- anigbrowl 3y agoMoney, PR, astroturfed protests, moral support. This can be true even for people in prison in legally non-controversial cases of murder. Quite a few serial/mass killers have fan clubs. I don't mean true crime nerds who happen to be interested in a particular villain, I mean literal fan clubs that write regularly, put money in the prison commissary account, recruit other fans and so on.
- mortureb 3y agoIt’s pretty simple. If you have to be masculine and assertive in any way now you have to cowtow to the insane right because the left is a hostile space for regular men. The right welcomes you with open arms and basically shields you from any consequences for past wrongs. There is no middle. You can get away with just about anything on the right now with no repercussions. You can downvote this all you want but you know there is more than a modicum of truth here.
- CapricornNoble 3y agoI'd argue that Aba & Preach do a good job of staying in the middle, for an example of YT content creators. They tend to shit on red pill extremists and champagne socialists with equal aplomb.
- mortureb 3y agoJust listened to them and it’s not bad. Who else?
- CapricornNoble 3y agoBetter Bachelor? He's a MGTOW guy but pretty mild-mannered in his message. Talks about dystopian big tech and gender relations issues but isn't a foaming-at-the mouth loon. Jimmy Dore? He's a hardcore leftist but spends most of his energy attacking corrupt and/or incompetent Democrats and the eternal-war monoparty fueled by the Military-Industrial Complex. Honestly I've cut down my consumption of sociopolitical commentary a lot in the past year. I feel like most of the channels aren't saying things I don't already know, and having lived outside the US for 10+ years, don't directly affect me much.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- sanderjd 3y agoI'm a regular man and currently feel a lot more comfortable within the milieu of mainstream liberals. I honestly have no idea what people are on about when they say stuff like this about "a hostile space for regular men". Like, I just literally have no clue what you mean, no idea what in the world you might be talking about.
- pydry 3y agoHis channel went from 500k to 20 million viewers when he went off the rails. It could all have been an elaborate 4D chess gambit or alternatively he could just like money and attention.
- QuantumG 3y agoHe discovered who his audience is and, rather than recoil and amend his ways, leaned into it.
- WWLink 3y ago> His decent into outrage-bait, alt-right friendly nonsense struck me as abrupt. One minute his channel was reasonable enough, the next it was totally nuts. An observation of mine going back to the 90s when I was a kid and liked listening to the radio: Talk show hosts would always lure you in with something that sounds reasonable, and use it to segue into a topic that sounded absolutely nuts. That overall trend into insanity sounds like taking the exact same concept and doing it over a much longer timeline lol. That way they've established themselves in the community as a trusted 'podcast' source, and once they have an audience they start blasting crazy shit with hopes that at least some people will listen and consider it "thought provocative"
- sixQuarks 3y agoCan you give an example of what made his videos “totally nuts”?
- jmfldn 3y agoIf you have to ask I don't know what to say. Look at anything from literally the last few years. It's basically Info Wars / Alex Jones.
- sixQuarks 3y agoNo, it just shows you don’t know what you’re talking about. I’ve watched his videos, it is nothing like Alex Jones. I knew you wouldn’t be able to back up your claims.
- jmfldn 3y agoAs I said, if you need to ask why his recent videos are unsound and you've watched them all, then I'm not sure what more I can say. It's going to be hard to have a fruitful discussion and your tone underlines that for me. If it makes you feel better to think I don't know what I'm talking about then I can live with that.
- sixQuarks 3y agoAll I’m asking is for one example of what he’s said that’s “totally nuts”. You’re the one that made the claim, and now you refuse to back it up. Perhaps instead of believing clickbait headlines, you should actually watch his videos and decide for yourself whether they are actually “nuts” or if you’re being lied to.
- jmfldn 3y agoDepressingly for me, I once admired him, so I'm familiar with his output. I went off him a good few years ago as I felt he was becoming incoherent even then. I then watched a few of his recent videos in horror. The shift was quite extreme and I wonder what happened. This article sums it up perfectly. There are many good examples right there and I've (unfortunately) watched a few of the videos alluded to. Graham Hancock, the great reset. Seriously?! You can disagree with me if you want, but I've assessed his recent output, and to me it's a confusing mess of half truths, baseless conspiracies mixed in with the odd insight. He's not a good thinker. He's all over the place. https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/10/russell-brand-politics-public-figures-responsibility https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/mar/10/russel...
- BLKNSLVR 3y agoThe Trump methodology.
- whatwhaaaaat 3y agoI love this one and it was all over Reddit. Russel Brand, at least 3 years ago, started becoming skeptical of the mRNA vaccines, the profit motives of pharma companies during the pandemic, and the concerning drift to authoritarian thought police all to build an “army” to combat allegations from over ten years ago by multiple women who happen to have some a tv interview but haven’t yet gone to the police. Masterful!!! It can’t be the war stuff right? Because he’s always been fervently anti war without much thought other than blowing up people is always bad.