Without negating the observation of timelessness, it jumped out at me how Russell Brand is now on the “conservative” end of the spectrum (both how he is painted by media, as well as revealed by polls of his audience on a variety of topics), all without a drastic change in his own beliefs/philosophy.
It's not surprising that he gets painted as conservative when he promotes Tucker Carlson, Alex Jones and Jordan Peterson while spreading conspiracy theories about Fauci, Obama, Biden etc.
I would classify Brand more as counter-culture liberal than a conservative. He’s still very much a liberal in terms of his views, he just hasnt reduced himself to partisan tribalism. Im sure I disagree with him on many things and from different directions but I think its commendable that he doesnt subscribe to a mold.
I would qualify Russel Brand as a contrarian. And, in my (perhaps personal consistency) defence, I never liked Russel Brand, he always seemed to "hippy" and not at pragmatic enough for my liking.
Perhaps his views haven't changed but he's definitely broadcasting different a different set since 2020. He's not particularly right wing but he's definitely most palatable to the Conservative in the American Republican sense for a reason.
I think it's because his bread and butter content moved from socialist philosophy to rugged individualism and anti-vaxxer rhetoric.
Not that I particularly blame him, it's probably a fairly easy trade-up now in 2023. Why would he retain his smaller collectivist left wing audience, given he's managed a 2700% increase in online viewership by talking about vaccine mandates and how to circumvent them?
Agreed. However I do give Maher a lot of credit for not being afraid to call out his tribe’s occasional ridiculous hypocrisy. Maybe one only feels that confident as they age and have attained wealth. When you have more to lose (your livelihood) you are going to be more careful with your words and objections.
That said I’ve watched Maher for 15 years and look forward to his show coming back after the strike. I say this as someone who probably disagrees with more than half of his hot-takes.
I saw his stand up at DPAC a few months ago and loved it. He is a funny guy and very entertaining.
A north carolina segregationist who graduated college in say 1940 saw their political stance go from moderate & mainstream to fringe in their own lifetime. The fact that social-political culture norms shift isn't a very interesting or useful statement about the people it shifts around.
Maybe not when it shifts in a lifetime, but I beg to differ when it shifts in less than 10 years. It was also not meant to be an interesting statement about the person, rather the shift itself.
The rest of that sentence is important don't cut it out! It's not an interesting observation about the individuals; it certainly is about the cultures though.
Sociologists and historians both spend tremendous amounts of time on this, some devote their enter careers to small facets of this single dynamic.
