Russell Brand: Elites Are Using Liberal Ideas to Justify Inequality
The comedian, actor, and political activist Russell Brand on political polarization and how establishment voices attempt to silence dissent.
Russell Brand speaks onstage during MusiCares Person of the Year honoring Aerosmith at West Hall at Los Angeles Convention Center on January 24, 2020, in Los Angeles, California. (Lester Cohen / Getty Images for The Recording Academy )
Russell Brand has taken a unique path to politics. He made his name as an actor in films like Forgetting Sarah Marshall and as a stand-up comedian. He soon grew disenchanted with the hollowness of Hollywood and started blogging on YouTube about politics and spirituality. For his over six million viewers, Brand has offered unsparing criticism of political elites who he has charged with increasing inequality and weakening democracy.
He has also been criticized giving air to anti-vaccine politics and conspiratorial views. Brand spoke to Jacobin editor-at-large David Sirota about the establishment, conspiracy theories, and whether we should move past the opposition between Left and Right. This transcript has been edited for length and clarity.
David Sirota
You’ve led a really eventful life with a career that has spanned all sorts of mediums. I think most people were probably introduced to you as an actor and a comedian in the early 2000s, in movies like Forgetting Sarah Marshall. Since then you’ve written books and articles, hosted podcasts and TV shows, and evolved into what some describe as kind of a thought leader — a free thinker with an online following of over six million people. What would you say your primary goal is with the work that you’re doing now?
Russell Brand
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