I finally got around to watching that video of the Jeremy Paxman interview with Russel Brand that has caused so much comment on the Internet. Although I’m not a fan of Russell Brand (I find him annoying), I have to say that I found this interview refreshing. You would never hear anyone say these sorts of things on American TV. Here in the U.S., we seem to get an endless parade of washed-up rock singers, over-the-hill movie actors, and former Saturday Night Live cast members all stupidly babbling about how Obama is a “socialist”. Whatever his faults may be, Brand at least pays attention to what’s going on in the world.
Jeremy Paxman starts out by making the idiotic “if you don’t vote, you can’t talk about politics” argument, and then goes to the inane “you can change the world by voting” argument. These are things that I’ve heard American liberals say. These are just ways of evading discussion of how seriously screwed up our world is. Brand is at least willing to acknowledge this, even if his arguments are sometimes confused.
The Spanish Prisoner 
October 28, 2013 at 4:44 pm |
Brand said that he was an “egalitarian socialist”.
I don’t imagine there are many Americans who get a hearing who say this. Though I think Roseanne Barr used the word
But this is simply what lots of people in Britain think.
Despite all that’s happened over the last thirty years a part of the stupid British and Irish working class believe in socialism.
It’s enough to make Hayek rise from his grave.
October 29, 2013 at 6:46 am |
The media in Britain do seem to be a little more tolerant of left-wing views than the US media. Maybe this is because Britain isn’t locked into a rigid two-party system the way the US is.