Anti-Russell Brand Talking Points

(crossposted at Firedoglake and at VOTS)

Maybe you didn't catch the interview -- anyway here's a copy from YouTube:

And now we have the debate.   From Nafeez Ahmed, at The Guardian:

http://www.theguardian.com/...

   "The planet is being destroyed. We are creating an underclass and exploiting poor people all over the world. And the legitimate problems of the people are not being addressed by our political powers."

Yesterday, Brand published an extended essay in the New Statesman fleshing out in detail his case for a "revolution" - not just a political and economic transformation, but one fundamentally rooted in a shift in consciousness toward a new way of thinking.

Brand's interview and article elicited overwhelming support from the general public in social media, but widespread detraction from journalists and commentators.

I don't really think it's necessary for me to reprint Nafeez Ahmed's piece on Russell Brand here.  You're all grown-ups; you can click on the link and read the piece yourselves.  But I do want to make a fun list of the reasons given by media mouthpieces for why Brand's call for revolution is wrong.

1) Humanity produces a lot of food, therefore there's no world hunger.  People have it better than before, so there's no ecological crisis.  

2) Brand is a slacker, therefore the political class is doing all sorts of great things by bailing out the banksters while life for the public gets worse.

3) Brand doesn't have a perfect blueprint, and we should only agree to have a revolution once we have a perfect blueprint.

4) The disillusioned should get with the program, and vote for politicians who are mediocre at best.

5) Russell Brand said something that was sexist, therefore we should only wait until Russell Brand doesn't say stuff like that before we can have a revolution.

6) People like Russell Brand who advocate revolution should behave like monks, and Russell Brand doesn't behave like a monk.

So never mind the ecological crisis, worsened most notably through increased concentrations of atmospheric carbon dioxide, and don't worry about the political class and its fealty to fossil fuel interests, banksters, and spies -- what's important about the world is that Russell Brand is silly, and that's all you need to know about why we don't need a revolution.