Can we also please pause and talk about the fact that this man openly and admittedly had a 3-month relationship with a 16 year old girl when he was 31?? It doesn’t matter that the age of consent in the UK is 16. Do you remember being 16? You’re a child. Teenagers think they know everything, that’s like the key part of being a teenager. They think they know what they want and how they feel but they lack the context and life experience to truly understand the repercussions of having an intimate “relationship” with someone at a totally different stage of life. It is up to the adult in the situation to do the correct thing. Honestly this man is a menace and a beast and it makes me sick to my stomach that there isn’t more conversation around this one issue alone.
I wonder if women had a biological imperative to eat the heart of their mate post-sex, if these boys would still believe in the inevitability of biology? I’m also struck by the contradiction, surely men can’t be the stronger, more reasonable and intelligent sex, worthy of being in charge of everything, while also being victims of their biology?
The narrative about the all powerful “they” is particularly grating. The narcissism involved to believe oneself to be so important that a “coordinated attack” is required to bring them down, would be laughable if it weren’t so depressingly widely believed. Not to mention the fact that rape allegations rarely take a man of his means and popularity down. If he were so important to warrant neutralising, there would surely be far more effective methods.
I also agree that believing he foresaw this and directed his path accordingly is giving him far too much credit. He has a gaping void within him that only constant attention and adulation can attempt to fill.
"Amazing how quickly men who champion growth mindsets and change to market nootropics and life coaching so quickly revert to “biology” when it suits their unwillingness to actually grow and change."
I will now go back to read the links about the investigation and report. I got diverted and worn out reading about what gish-galloping was! Now I understand though why I struggle to refute crap.
I really appreciate this reporting, Derek. I went to Eisenstein's Substack to see what was being said, and then argued with myself about whether to comment. On the one hand, who needs the drama? On the other, it's SUCH an echo chamber over there, I decided to introduce a dissenting voice. Anyway, I appreciate your clear thinking (and your anger), because I just want to slap them all.
Brand used to joke that he "kinda thinks he's Jesus", so his quoting of Luke 23:34, casting himself in the role of Christ, comes as no surprise. Turns out, he wasn't kidding.
Your coverage of Russell Brand has been stellar... As some who came of age in London back around those years, this all stirs such icky memories, and I'll think we're going to be seeing more similar stories about some of the people Brand was close with back then.
Can we also please pause and talk about the fact that this man openly and admittedly had a 3-month relationship with a 16 year old girl when he was 31?? It doesn’t matter that the age of consent in the UK is 16. Do you remember being 16? You’re a child. Teenagers think they know everything, that’s like the key part of being a teenager. They think they know what they want and how they feel but they lack the context and life experience to truly understand the repercussions of having an intimate “relationship” with someone at a totally different stage of life. It is up to the adult in the situation to do the correct thing. Honestly this man is a menace and a beast and it makes me sick to my stomach that there isn’t more conversation around this one issue alone.
Thanks for this great piece of writing 😊
I wonder if women had a biological imperative to eat the heart of their mate post-sex, if these boys would still believe in the inevitability of biology? I’m also struck by the contradiction, surely men can’t be the stronger, more reasonable and intelligent sex, worthy of being in charge of everything, while also being victims of their biology?
The narrative about the all powerful “they” is particularly grating. The narcissism involved to believe oneself to be so important that a “coordinated attack” is required to bring them down, would be laughable if it weren’t so depressingly widely believed. Not to mention the fact that rape allegations rarely take a man of his means and popularity down. If he were so important to warrant neutralising, there would surely be far more effective methods.
I also agree that believing he foresaw this and directed his path accordingly is giving him far too much credit. He has a gaping void within him that only constant attention and adulation can attempt to fill.
Here's your tweetable (or x-able??):
"Amazing how quickly men who champion growth mindsets and change to market nootropics and life coaching so quickly revert to “biology” when it suits their unwillingness to actually grow and change."
I will now go back to read the links about the investigation and report. I got diverted and worn out reading about what gish-galloping was! Now I understand though why I struggle to refute crap.
I really appreciate this reporting, Derek. I went to Eisenstein's Substack to see what was being said, and then argued with myself about whether to comment. On the one hand, who needs the drama? On the other, it's SUCH an echo chamber over there, I decided to introduce a dissenting voice. Anyway, I appreciate your clear thinking (and your anger), because I just want to slap them all.
Brand used to joke that he "kinda thinks he's Jesus", so his quoting of Luke 23:34, casting himself in the role of Christ, comes as no surprise. Turns out, he wasn't kidding.
Your coverage of Russell Brand has been stellar... As some who came of age in London back around those years, this all stirs such icky memories, and I'll think we're going to be seeing more similar stories about some of the people Brand was close with back then.