[Closed] This Brand Parklife thing

Fire the self serving c*** into the sun ASAP. The moon would also be acceptable.

Saw this last night and made me chuckle, and wonder why no-one had done it earlier.
Thread on Russell Brand might send STW towers swear filter into overdrive though..... ****!

Edit: ^ Cross post but looks like it's not just me!

Fire the self serving c*** into the sun ASAP. The moon would also be acceptable.....

....PARKLIFE!

Nice

Russel brand also has a new book out called Revolution available from all Capitalistic media outlets, many places selling it at reduced price.

Looks a good read

I love the internet, just when you think the winkers are in control along comes somebody clever and boots them in the arse. Brand is a self serving, egomaniac, dickhead and deserves all the pisstaking we can hand out.
#PARKLIFE

Russel brand also has a new book out called Revolution available from all Capitalistic media outlets, many places selling it at reduced price.

PARKLIFE!

Ai, saw this yesterday. I like Brand fwiw but this made me chuckle, hard.

Popped up on one of my Flipboard feeds, made me laugh, especially at Brand's self-righteous indignation that anyone should be so crass as to take the piss out of one of the age's great thinkers. 😉

Damon Albarn looks about 15 in that video

Brand's self-righteous indignation that anyone should be so crass as to take the piss out of one of the age's great thinkers.

The Sunday Times review of his book was comedy gold. Ended with, and I paraphrase, "If he's the answer, then what the hell is the question?".

Sounds similar to his review in [url= http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/oct/27/revolution-review-russell-brand-beverly-hills-buddhist ]The observer [/url] Flashy, which finished with the line "the sooner he leaves, the better", and was a total demolition of his ego-crazed, deluded, self-serving, sub sixth form waffle!

Quite some achievement to unite those disparate parts of the political spectrum. But then he is a monumental gobshite of truly biblical proportions. The ****!!!

[quote=binners said]
Quite some achievement to unite those disparate parts of the political spectrum. But then he is a monumental gobshite of truly biblical proportions

PARKLIFE.

Review of reviews from the Graun here;

Most reviews of Russell Brand’s Revolution have been equally scornful. “The worst sort of chatterbox is the chatterbox who bores himself,” noted the Mail on Sunday’s Craig Brown. “Brand only seems able to issue a hundred-or-so words of pseudo-revolutionary blather before beginning to bore himself.” In the Observer, Nick Cohen agreed that “his writing is atrocious”, and went on to condemn Brand as “a religious narcissist” misguidedly translating his “Beverly Hills Buddhism” into a political credo. “Derisive laughter”, wrote the Sunday Times’s Christopher Hart, is the only possible response to “a vapid, ill-informed, coke-frazzled, self-adoring and grossly hypocritical celeb” crying that the world is unfair. Only the Independent’s Steve Richards found kinder words, praising Brand’s “compelling and authentic voice” and “refreshingly distinctive analysis”.

To those who denounce him - have you watched any/many of his 'trews' videos on twitter?

The problems he is highlighting and the ideas that he is bringing to the table seem quite reasonable to me, even if they aren't delivered in a very sensible (possibly even coherent) way some of the time.

If you forget your prejudice for a minute, do you not think there is decent amount of truth in the message he conveys?

[url= https://www.youtube.com/user/russellbrand ]Russel Brand's 'The Trews' - Youtube[/url]

Jamz, I've watched and I still think he's a dick that likes to use big words ( regularly out of context ) to sound clever and deliver populist messages.

He's as funny as a colostomy bag, but not quite as useful.

G

In there somewhere, there might be some valid points about society, which we all know about - nothing original. But, he's still a

self serving, egomaniac, dickhead and deserves all the pisstaking we can hand out.

PARKLIFE

The problems he is highlighting and the ideas that he is bringing to the table seem quite reasonable to me,

One of those he is a mixture of stating the bleeding obvious and being a monumental hypocritical egomanical cock of Bono Proportions
PARKLIFE

I like nothing more than being lectured about the terrible iniquities of wealth by millionaire cock wombles

PARKLIFE

The problems he is highlighting and the ideas that he is bringing to the table seem quite reasonable to me, even if they aren't delivered in a very sensible (possibly even coherent) way some of the time.

If you forget your prejudice for a minute, do you not think there is decent amount of truth in the message he conveys?

It's hard to disagree with what he's saying (on the basis of a few bits and pieces I've heard) but at the same time it doesn't seem to me he's really actually saying very much. I didn't get the impression that he made Paxman look daft at all, for instance- it's easy to ask open questions that nobody's got an answer to and then go "Aha, not so clever now eh?"
Sure there's a lot that's wrong with globalisation, the distribution of wealth and power etc. but what is he doing beyond pointing this out- are his ideas basically that everything should be better? Is there more that I'm missing?

we achieve this by not voting apparently and embracing some sort of ill defined spiritual pantheism

Junkyard - lazarus

we achieve this by not voting apparently and embracing some sort of ill defined spiritual pantheism

PARK...

Nah, can't be bothered.

Jamz - Member
To those who denounce him - have you watched any/many of his 'trews' videos on twitter?

The problems he is highlighting and the ideas that he is bringing to the table seem quite reasonable to me, even if they aren't delivered in a very sensible (possibly even coherent) way some of the time.

If you forget your prejudice for a minute, do you not think there is decent amount of truth in the message he conveys?

I quite like him.

So the bloke who told people not to vote in proportional eu elections that then let in more extreme parties. Joined up thinking.

I am amazed at the sensible level headed women that find him attractive. #jealous

So the bloke who told people not to vote in proportional eu elections that then let in more extreme parties. Joined up thinking.

The guy is pretty much a real life troll, we should all just agree to ignore him and hope he goes away. Same goes for Jordan, Paris Hilton and anybody who is "famous" for being on reality TV or for getting their tits out

The thing I just don't get about him is why he thinks he is not represented in the political spectrum. He says 'I don't know who I'm supposed to vote for'.

That's easy Russell.

The Green Party.

I might not agree with them, but they have coherent, well defined policies, that support their political and social view point and they are a party that you can vote for, i.e. they do have candidates that stand.

Better still Russell, why don't you stand as a Green Party candidate?

[i]He's as funny as a colostomy bag[/i]

Not that funny though eh?

What we really need is Brewster:

[img] [/img]

[img] [/img]

[i]What we really need is Brewster[/i]

Er. Thats a bit freaky..

[img] [/img]

Jamz - Member

To those who denounce him - have you watched any/many of his 'trews' videos on twitter?

The problems he is highlighting and the ideas that he is bringing to the table seem quite reasonable to me, even if they aren't delivered in a very sensible (possibly even coherent) way some of the time.

If you forget your prejudice for a minute, do you not think there is decent amount of truth in the message he conveys?

Russel Brand's 'The Trews' - Youtube

I think he alright tbh, he's trews are quite good and his book is a decent read. Though he's unlikely to have much support on here! 😆 But then again all he is doing is stating the obvious.

I guess he's given up the smack in favour of coke, that level of narcissism can only be fuelled by the Bolivian marching powder.

The worst thing is, he's not talking complete nonsense, he just so wrapped up in himself the message gets lost.

I couldn't stand him when he was a wrapped up junkie on MTV, I couldn't stand him when he came back as a Dot Cotton standup and I can't stand him now.

If you forget your prejudice for a minute, do you not think there is decent amount of truth in the message he conveys?

No. Not even remotely. For the simple reason that he is missing the whole point of democracy which is that you can vote to change the system and people with his views are represented by The Green Party, just like the far right is represented by UKIP, as unpalatable as they are.

Brand is arguing for, well it sounds like anarchy but he’s calling it revolution. Revolution to what, where does he want to land? And that’s his problem. He hasn’t got an answer, he’s just angry and has no interest in solving the problem because what would he (and all the other angry people) do then with all that anger.

He's only running up some interest in his latest written dribblings so that he can flog more, and get even richer. then he'll potter off back to his LA home (via his chauffeur driven car, and a first class flight) and make another film.

I'm sure it'll be something really really worthy. A documentary on the plight of oppressed masses around the world, as he donates all his money to them, including those from his latest book.

Only the cynical would assume he'll just do another crap re-make with those champions of equality and social justice, that are represented by the Hollywood studios

[img] ?type=download[/img]

geetee1972 - Member

For the simple reason that he is missing the whole point of democracy which is that you can vote to change the system and people with his views are represented by The Green Party, just like the far right is represented by UKIP, as unpalatable as they are.

How do you know the Greens represent him? He might, frinstance, have strong views about the importance of nuclear power, or similiar. Just being leftwing doesn't automatically make you a Green.

His point is, basically, if none of the parties speak for you, don't valiadte them. Something I'm quite sympathetic to, having voted tactically for the least shit option in the past and then seen her take that as a massive vote of personal confidence rather than the reality of "we like the other **** less"

I'm not sure how effective it is- we seem to have accepted that low turnouts are just how it is, rather than a terrible proof of failure. But it's not a stupid idea in principle, it might just be that things are broken enough that it doesn't work. After all, we have a prime minister now with 36.1% of votes from a 65.1% turnout and essentially no representation in 3 out of the 4 parts of the UK, who's never once acted like he has less than 100% support.

But it's not a stupid idea in principle

Yes it is. Its completely self defeating. If you're given choices, which is what this dnemocracy-wocracy thing is all about, then the least worst option is always better than the worst option. Even if it ends up being this

[img] [/img]

Mind you. I suppose if you're a multimillionaire who lives in Los Angeles, has a driver, and communes with some vague new-agish god type thingy, then its easier to deal with than the people stuck with another bunch of ****ing Tories, who will then gleefully dismantle whats left of the welfare state, and destroy the NHS once and for all, because they listened to some befuddled, listless twonk, with a massive messiah complex, telling them not to vote

Russell bloody Brand. The political ethos for people both impressed and confused by big words in equal measure! 🙄

if none of the parties speak for you, don't valiadte them

Lord above I agree with almost everything everyone is saying on this thread.

Even Binners!

Lord above I agree with almost everything everyone is saying on this thread.

I even find myself agreeing with Junky.

Back in a bit.
[img] [/img]

I may be missing something but wouldnt a more logical approach to the "if non of the parties speak for you" problem be campaign for a change to the voting system to add a "none of the above" box to the ballot card?

If nothing else this would show the establishment how many people would vote if they represented them rather than blame low turn out on apathy/east enders/the weather

I may be missing something but wouldnt a more logical approach to the "if non of the parties speak for you" problem be campaign for a change to the voting system to add a "none of the above" box to the ballot card?

You'd have thought that the better solution would have been to have proportional representation.

Oh hang on a minute, we tried that already!

Funnily enough I was dead against PR when they first announced the referendum on it. I thought it would lead to indecision and infighting among coalition governments, in short we'd end up like Belgium.

The least shit party last time around ended up being better because of the coalition. I think we should be pretty proud of the fact that we've had a functioning, effective coalition government the last four years. You don't have to be proud of their policies, or agree with them, but they have still been an effective government (in my view of course) and that is something to be proud of.

You don't have to be proud of their policies, or agree with them, but they have still been an effective government (in my view of course) and that is something to be proud of.

I agree that they have been effective, but in my view we would be better off if they weren't.

Junkyard - lazarus
if none of the parties speak for you, don't valiadte them

Which means if you dont like it do **** all about it
If he and his supporters cannot see how self defeating they are then they are morons. Why is there a triple lock on pensions? Its not because it is fair it is because they vote
If you dont vote they wont try to win your support. Nothing will change and it will be worse.
As binners note , like he cares, he will be abroad in his lavishly expensive tower.

To be I'm a little over half way through his book, it's interesting, but it's not a political how to manual, all he's doing is promoting other peoples ideas(he openly states this).

So I do find it quite amusing that people are attacking him for being a political alternative. He's clearly aware of what he is. All he is doing is promoting other peoples alternative ideas and giving them a platform, while pointing out the glaring inequalities.

Personally I think that's to be applauded, he's using his fame as a conduit to promote certain ideas, granted they are basically anarchist, and while I wouldn't class myself anywhere close to one, there are some interesting ideas.

Its ironic that Brand is having his rant about the system being 'unrepresentative' when presently democracy in this country looks more unpredictable, and less cut-and-dried than it has done for decades. The Greens polling more than the Lib Dems, the SNP having a huge impact on the labour vote in Scotland, and the massive impact that, like it or not, UKIP are having. The cozy, complacent, 2 party, not-a-cigarette-paper-between-them Westminster system is looking shakier than ever.

I'm sure that the 2 main parties would like nothing more than for a lot of people to listen to the hairy, dim-witted, dictionary-swallowing lothario and not vote, so they can carry on with their 'is it our turn yet?' set up, uninterrupted.

Not that he's got the house to recognise that fact, or even countenence the idea that he's not 100% right about absolutely everything 🙄

Jesus Binners! I'm now starting to have 'feelings' for you 😀

he's using his fame as a conduit to promote certain ideas, granted they are basically anarchist

Brant: now off back to the mansion in the roller will you James I have anarchy to plan and unleash the virgins of anarchy:roll:

Haha, I'm not confused in the slightest. 😆

I understand where he sits in society, as does he, he answers the accusation of sitting in a mansion raking it in! 😆 The anarchist ideas he promotes do have merit. And yes I have read beyond Mr brand. 😆

Essentially the arguement lies somewhere in the middle between the 2 philosophies. Somewhere inbetween bottom up anarchism and top down capitalism. I don't think it can be denied that the latter is far too dominant.

[b]Brant[/b]: now off back to the mansion in the roller will you James I have anarchy to plan and unleash the virgins of anarchy:roll:

So this pact bikes thing is just a cover for world domination - from Calderdale 😯

It's a bad ****ing joke that our current left wing big hitter is Russell Brand and not Hitchens. Brand just makes me miss the Hitch even more.

He genuinely depresses me.

hitchens 😆 he was a dick.

A better class of dick than Brand though, Hitchens was someone you could have an interesting conversation with over a glass of scotch in some dimly lit London pub.

Brand on the other hand would slowly wind me up until I boiled over.

I mean....look....read this ****ing drivel

http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2011/04/richard-dawkins-br-god

He's a complete cockwomble, Joey Barton is a better religious and political philosopher.

binners - Member

Yes it is. Its completely self defeating. If you're given choices, which is what this dnemocracy-wocracy thing is all about, then the least worst option is always better than the worst option.

Tomorrow, maybe. But of all the choices you can make, it's the one that makes it most likely that your kids are also voting for the least worst option.

Now personally, as I say, I think that not voting isn't going to be effective, because we're so accepting of governments being voted in by a shrinking minority then acting like they hit the jackpot- somehow they've already won that argument. I don't know how you make not voting be seen as an act of rejection rather than an act of apathy. But I bloody laud the concept because if they don't speak for you, then you give them the power to speak for you, you've just given up on things ever being better. And maybe they won't be but a forlorn hope's better than none at all

not voting is only ineffective because we don't riot and burn down parliament as an alternative. 😆

I don't think it can be denied that the latter is far too dominant.

I don't know how you make not voting be seen as an act of rejection rather than an act of apathy.

Anarchy is what we had in the wild west and unfortunately an absence of rules and government does not lead to an outbreak of brotherly love and mutual respect. It leads to the law of the jungle
He needs to read Lord of the Files or a history book.

Junkyard - lazarus

Tbh "The man" is delighted that those who most oppose the system dont bother to vote. Its a win win for them.

As is voting for someone you actually don't want to win. We can see all too well that while Labour and the Tories both want to win the next election, they see their first job as making sure nobody else does.

And even you're doing it, "don't bother", why is it you can't see it in any other terms? Clearly what we're talking about isn't "not bothering" Whether you agree or not, it's stupid to dismiss it in such wrongheaded terms.

I don't advocate promoting non voting.

But I can can understand brands point, which you seem incapable of understanding, as I've said, he advocates not voting, but not doing nothing. His hole enter ethos can be summed up in the phrase - organize locally and demand better.

Is not participating in elections a better phrase then NW?

If you demand better that must also include the same demand of politicians?
Its treating the symptoms not the cause IMHO

Riposte

Oh **** you

If my ipad would copy/paste I'd have got there first

(And you probably saw it on my FB 😡 )

Self publicist in self publicity shocker

Verbal Dexterity? What a self regarding ****. He cannot stop sucking his own plums, he isn't dexterous, he is just very flexible.

Haha 🙂

Its quite funny. Good on him for putting his view out imo.

Houns - Member
Oh **** you

If my ipad would copy/paste I'd have got there first

'Count the spoils' or a 'none of the above ' box would be brilliant; if the None option was the biggest vote in a constituency, give all the candidates 50% of their deposit back and rerun the byelection but with a new set of candidates. Simple way of encouraging a new breed of candidates because the big3 have to go and find another body at short notice who qualifies, who will probably be a local not an Oxbridge-intern-researcher type

spoiled ballots are counted

Its all shit lets do nothing at all and let others decide for us that will teach them.

neither is he suggesting the only way to precipitate political change is by trudging down to the polling station once every five years (as your many posts on this thread suggest). in fact, quite the opposite. people who only vote aren't really engaged in politics at all.

also - to those saying "oh, it's all very easy to ask open ended questions about how awful global capitalism is and not provide any answers", Id say this: I don't think it is very easy to get onto the idiot lantern and ask those questions - because how many other people in the mainstream media do you see doing it? and does that ratio reflect the awesomeness/awfulness ratio of capitalism's effect on the world? and how many ads for masterfoods and Johnson & Johnson were there during the same time? equally - I don't think Brand has ever suggested that he has the answers or that it would be a good idea for him (or any other person) to dictate them - the whole point is that you can't jut sit around waiting for someone to give you an answer, you have to participate and come up with your own!

however IMHO his trews things are a bit awful and I wish he'd STFU and let his guests finish their goddamn sentences.

I'm really starting to violently loathe Brand...

and I'm sympathetic to the left whilst not really being a proper leftie.

what makes Brand a leftie? scruffy facial hair?

Good question. He's an Anarcho syndicalist isn't he, so I'd say he's left. Just more towards the bonkers spectrum of left wing thought.

Also he ****ing bores me and at the same time pisses me off, I think it's the fact that he bores me to death in such an animated fashion that I get wound up. Like when he starts banging out about anarcho syndicalism.....so Brand...you want me to choose de-centralized oligarch/clan based corruption over centralized corruption.....and you think you're a ****ing genius for having this idea.

Great.

[img] [/img]

I hadn't seen the original till today, most excellent parody of a hugely self important t0sser.

Junkyard - lazarus

we achieve this by not voting apparently and embracing some sort of ill defined spiritual pantheism

It's what John Lennon would have wanted.

impact... ...UKIP are having.

What's more concerning and troubling. The media savvy and sometimes annoying antics of a man with wild hair and too tight trousers or a party who is having the massive impact that UKIP is having holding a basically racist, sexist agenda?

I know which one bothers me the most. All Brand is doing is mixing a little self promotion with the promotion of some other people's ideas.

is UKIP actually having a big impact?

[img] [/img]