Trial By Media

When character assassination is the motive, it’s guilty until proven innocent in the court of public opinion.

When you’re in the business of creating, you’re ultimately going to do or say something that somebody else doesn’t like. I’ve experienced that first hand right here on this blog. Many times actually. But the first time it happened probably bothered me for longer than it should have. I’ve learned to shrug this stuff off a bit more since then. Fun fact; the very first unsubscribe I had from a paid reader of Heretic Speculator was because I agreed with something Russell Brand said a little over 2 years ago. I know this because Russell Brand was literally mentioned in the unsubscribe details.

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Let’s get this out of the way right now. If this blog occasionally makes you uncomfortable…

That’s probably the point. It’s called “heretic” for a reason. There’s a chance I’m going to push buttons. If you need to leave because that of that, I understand. But I hope you’re resilient enough not to.

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I’m not going to get into the specifics of the Russell Brand-fueled unsub, but I suspect this former-subscriber didn’t actually listen to what it was that Brand was saying in the video that I shared. Because if he did, he’d probably have seen the messaging was completely in alignment with what this blog is generally about. Here’s where the confusion likely stems; before Russell Brand became a popular anti-establishment voice against the corporate elite, he was probably more well known politically as an anti-capitalist advocate for wealth redistribution (likely provided that wealth wasn’t his own, but that’s maybe a topic for another day). That’s a tough rep to shake even a decade later.

I did not generally care for 2010-era Russell Brand (with the exception of Forgetting Sarah Marshall). But I really became a fan of 2020-era Russell Brand. How’d that happen? Well for one, I was actually willing to listen to somebody who I thought I would likely disagree with. But more importantly, in my view there’s quite a bit of truth to what Russell Brand has been saying more recently and I suspect that might be playing at least some role in why he’s suddenly a serial rapist according to essentially every mainstream media publication that he has been rightfully roasting over the last several years.

What I’m not going to get into is if he did what he is accused of doing or not. He adamantly denies it and is suggesting that his transparent promiscuousness from his old life is now being weaponized against him because it has become convenient to do so. Again, I don’t know. But I think there are some good questions to ask.

First, why now? The accusations are from 4 anonymous women with the most recent alleged incident dating back to 2013. Why are the Brand accusations coming now, from unnamed accusers, and all at the exact same time? At this point, we’re 5 years beyond peak awareness of the me too movement. We are, however, two to three years into Russell Brand publicly taking the military industrial complex, medical industrial complex, and corporate media elites to task.

As of writing, Brand hasn’t actually been charged for any of these alleged misdeeds. Which leads to another question; why is the cancelling of Russell Brand happening through the media rather than in response to court findings? I don’t know the answers to any of these questions, but I’d love to. Maybe the best question we can ask today is in what world is this okay:

we would like to know whether Rumble intends to join YouTube in suspending Mr Brand’s ability to earn money on the platform.

I mean stunning stuff. Brazen. Right to the point. The British government wants to destroy Russell Brand’s business even though he’s yet to actually be even charged with a crime and they’re not really trying to pretend otherwise. So here we are. Doing this again. Fighting the Davos-elite gatekeeper, wannabe gods in the government and in corporate institutions.

I really don’t want to confuse the issue here. If Brand is actually found guilty of these accusations, then there should be justice for those acts from the courts and for the victims. But right now he’s guilty of nothing. And I’ll also reiterate that third party businesses can and should be able to refuse service to anyone they want. That goes for both cake makers and streaming services.

YouTube obviously has a history of demonetizing people so it’s not even slightly surprising that Brand has already been demonetized there. It took an actual conviction for YouTube to boot R. Kelly - a month after the fact - but I digress. I don’t want to get into whataboutisms.

I suspect the answer to the “why now” question is fairly simple. Cancelling Russell Brand just might be more about Russell Brand than about anything else. Is Brand guilty of these accusations? Or are these accusations an attempt to shut him up? When it comes down to it, the most depressing outcome is that the answer to both questions could theoretically be “yes.” And that is a deeply disturbing possibility. Because it means the system that Brand has decried has been quietly digging up dirt against him to punish him financially without anything resembling due process.

Taking a man’s livelihood away from him, is a akin to killing him. - Dave Chappelle

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Support Somebody, Support Substack

This seems like a good time to remind you attentive souls that platforms like Substack need to be protected. We are running out of options, my friends. Twitter/X, or whatever the hell Elon Musk wants to call it, is completely compromised and most of the “free speech” alternatives to X are either dead already or will be in the future.

There are very few companies that are putting principles over principals today and Substack is one of the best at this. Its worth repeating that when you pay a creator on Substack, you are also paying Substack as well. I’m not even saying this to get those of you who read Heretic Speculator for free to go paid. That would be wonderful, but it doesn’t have to be me.

There are a several big Substack publications that I could recommend (and have recommended) that already make a lot in recurring revenue. There are even more much smaller Substack publications that deserve to be supported as well. One such stack is

The Pragmatic Investor

by James Foord.

James recently featured me on his Pragmatic Investor podcast for the third time and we spent about an hour talking about, of all things, conspiracy theories in finance. I’m biased, but I think it’s well worth a listen.

Disclaimer: I’m not an investment advisor, attorney, or expert in anything to be honest.