Actor, comedian and free thinker Russell Brand has gone through an immense transformation – battling drug addiction and overcoming the pressures of a society that challenges people like him who go against the grain.
He sat down with Fox News' Tucker Carlson in a recent Fox Nation interview in which he recalled a "Newsnight" interview from approximately ten years ago in which English journalist Jeremy Paxman asked him about his disdain for voting.
"I came on his [Paxman's] show, and he was like, 'Well, you've said it's not worth voting, right?' And this was like a heresy… I said, 'Yeah, where I come from, people don't vote because they think whichever party gets into power, ultimately, ordinary people will suffer the same plight because the political system has been co-opted by corporate interests, and if you try to galvanize by saying that these small differences are really valuable, I find that offensive and insulting,'" he told Carlson.
COMEDIAN RUSSELL BRAND: ‘FASCIST,’ ‘NAZI’ JUST CONVENIENT TERMS FOR ‘PEOPLE YOU DON’T AGREE WITH'
The 47-year-old star recalled firing back at Paxman and slamming him for using the same "rhetorical tricks" used by others to shame him for his discontent with the system he claims offered no "real change."
"Let's talk about the one unaddressed area of inequality – class, wealth," he said. "Let's start talking about that because that affects people of all races, and religions, and classes, and persuasions and forms of sexual and identity expression. How come that never ends up in the conversation? How come we're doubling down on division all the time?
"Guess who was most nasty to me as a result of that…? The liberal establishment, ‘The Guardian.’" he added.
Brand, who remains a longstanding opponent of censorship, railed against the outlet for a "lot of sneering and contempt" and for pointing an accusatory finger at him for his responses to Paxman.
"What it amounted to, I think, was a kind of condescension about ‘how dare this person, this entertainer [say these things]… there was a lot of condescension and stuff," he told Carlson, noting that some critics even resorted to mocking his accent.
He pivoted to criticizing the "liberal establishment" at length for, in his words, a "fetishization of small differences" between themselves and their right-wing counterparts, arguing they have become "co-opted by the same financial and military interests" historically associated with the right.
"If anyone points that out, they don't like it, particularly if people point out that there is a different way of organizing reality," he said, adding in criticism between binary thought, including that criticizing modern capitalism means supporting communism instead.
"There is a glorious pantheon of opportunity. There are many ways that systems might be organized… And all I'm trying to talk about is ways of eliminating centralized power, whether it's corporate or state, and having a bit of faith in people to organize their own communities and organize their own lives."
To listen to Tucker Carlson's conversation with Russell Brand, including his inspiring story of overcoming addiction, sign up for Fox Nation and stream the latest episode of "Tucker Carlson Today."
