SARAH VINE: Russell Brand’s online empire of the deluded and deranged shows the old world order is at breaking point

There is a certain irony in the predicament in which Russell Brand, former ‘comedian’ and now self-appointed bare-chested guardian of ‘truth’ (a highly controversial concept of late), finds himself.

On the one hand, he calls himself a victim of cancel culture, persecuted and vilified on social media for his alleged sex crimes, biased without due process, convicted without due process.

On the other hand, he wields the wild power of the mafia in defense across multiple platforms, demanding that his millions of followers open their minds to the idea that he is not, in fact, a grubby sex pest, but a brave and noble warrior whose actions have made him the target of a nefarious old-fashioned cabal of shady government agents, big pharmaceutical companies, ‘legacy media’ and quite possibly some lizard people as well.

The double standards are impressive. Brand invokes ‘freedom of speech’ as ​​proof of his innocence and as justification for his paranoid talk; and yet tries to deny it in the case of his accusers and alleged victims.

He rails against the “cancel culture” that is endangering his lucrative online revenue streams, seemingly oblivious to the irony that the vast and unregulated power of social media is the very thing that empowers these virtual lynch mobs against him in the first place.

Live by the sword, die by the sword, you might think. But there’s more to it than one man desperately clinging to his magical money tree as the storm engulfs him. This is about a fundamental change in the way society works.

The Internet has created a whole new class of people, defined not by hard work, intelligence, kindness or courage – or any of the qualities by which we used to measure humanity – but by a simple ability to call upon misguided, paranoid people. and the dispossessed.

The Internet was never conceived as an instrument of destruction: it was meant to make life easier, to connect minds, to usher in an age of utopian wonder. And in many ways it has worked: living in the online age has many advantages that those of us who grew up in an analog world could hardly have imagined.

But the deeper the tendrils of digitalization infiltrate all aspects of our existence, the more the dark side begins to emerge. From primary school children being exposed to hardcore porn to all kinds of extremism and abuse, the complete lack of any form of civil, moral or legal boundaries online has allowed the more depraved aspects of the human psyche to flourish.

And as the boundaries between virtual reality and actual reality have become increasingly blurred, the infection has spread. Increasingly, success is no longer sought in philosophy, art, academia, literature and philanthropy: it is measured in the number of followers on social media, or in the degree to which the algorithm approves.

Skills and education seem increasingly meaningless; experience, wisdom, dedication, hard work and loyalty don’t matter. The old world order is slowly but surely collapsing and society in all its forms is being reformed.

We’re caught in a never-ending downward spiral of mindless TikTok-ification, where the more you’re willing to expose yourself — and the more you push the boundaries of what’s decent, moral, honest, and truthful — the more you’ll be rewarded. financial and social.

Why get a real job in the real world that requires real work when you can make good money just by turning on your computer and satisfying the hunger of the billions of people on this planet – for porn, for conspiracy theories, for viral dance trends – or whatever gets the clicks and views?

From Kim Kardashian to Bud Light’s trans poster girl Dylan Mulvaney, through every wannabe sensation in between, the Internet has turned civilization into a grim circus of grotesques, a spectacle of pointlessness with about as much intellectual nourishment as a triangle of processed cheese.

Ultimately, Russell Brand is just Andrew Tate in ripped jeans, a prince in this new empire of the depraved and deranged. He sincerely believes that his virtual power places him above all criticism and makes him immune to the laws and restrictions of the real world.

And the saddest truth of all? He is almost certainly right.

Have you ever done something so spectacularly stupid that you fear you’re going crazy? The other day I stepped out the front door and panicked when I saw my car was gone. I called over my daughter and her long-suffering boyfriend, who searched the immediate area and confirmed it was nowhere to be found. I called the police and reported it stolen.

Some time later, I was limping along on my bike when I suddenly had a flash of realization. I knew exactly where my car was: I had left it in an underground garage near my office. There followed an extremely awkward call to the police to report the theft and an eye-watering amount of money to be paid in the car park.

Now I understand what people mean when they talk about “senior moments.”

A step up with Posh and flex

Remember when Victoria Beckham went through that weird phase a few years ago where she was photographed lying down with one leg in the air?

Is this just an extension of that? Or maybe it’s just what happens as you get older: you can’t cope as well as you used to.

Anyway, it’s a very strange way to advertise perfume.

The other day I was driving through a part of the countryside that has been cleared to make way for HS2.

All I can say is that if the government had come and made such a horrible mess of my neighborhood, I would be outraged to think that it had all been for nothing.

Last week, Iran passed a law allowing women to be jailed for 10 years if they are dressed ‘inappropriately’.

In November she will take up her role as chair of the Social Forum of the UN Human Rights Council.

That’s right: a regime that rapes, tortures and kills women for not wearing headscarves in a leading role in human rights.

No wonder Russia feels it should rejoin after being expelled for invading Ukraine. Why stop there? Kim Jong-un doesn’t have much to do right now…

I don’t understand why Sir Keir Starmer thinks that imposing VAT on private school fees will ‘break the class ceiling’.

It certainly won’t affect the elite, but middle-class parents will be forced to take their children out of private schools and place them in the state system.

So that is the modern Labor Party: protecting the super-rich, punishing the ambitious middle class and expanding public services even further. Keep going Keir, you’re on to a winner!

Avanti is going backwards…

Stand-up comedian James Nokise’s account of a farcical three-and-a-half-hour taxi journey to Edinburgh after his Avanti West Coast train service from London ended at Preston due to a ‘track defect’ was hilarious.

After what sounds like a terrifying journey where his taxi driver “decided to change lanes without signaling and almost crashed into a minivan that was overtaking him,” Nokise concludes, “Maybe. . . Throwing money at taxi drivers and making them drive for several hours in the middle of the night may not be the best contingency plan for train companies.”

Indeed. But at least they tried. The same cannot be said of companies like British Airways, which, when they leave their passengers stranded – as they increasingly seem to be doing – simply dump them outside the airport, often in the middle of the night, without any assistance.

It’s been weeks since they did this to me in Marseille – and still no sign of refund or apology. Maybe lost in the mail?

Isn’t it interesting how, after a few weeks of the Liberal media whining about Rishi Sunak’s so-called ‘swing to the right’ (aka a few tweaks to the government’s green policies), he has extended Labor’s lead in the polls shortened by eight? points?

Could it be that voters want a Tory Prime Minister who does Conservative things?

How do you know if someone has lost the argument? When they start swearing at you.

Namely the leader of the Lib Dems, Sir Ed Davey, who says ‘clown’ is the ‘wrong C-word’ for the Conservatives. Miserable.