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<blockquote data-quote="Frank Underwood" data-source="post: 446133" data-attributes="member: 35">Three years in the making, it seems.&nbsp; There was a contentious discussion about the Russell Brand allegations back in 2023:[URL unfurl=&quot;true&quot;]https://tellytalk.net/threads/that-70s-show-star-danny-masterson-sentenced-to-30-years-to-life-for-two-rapes.13794/[/URL]What struck me both then and now is that the four women who got the ball rolling never came forward or went to the police themselves.&nbsp; Instead, journalists sought out anybody connected to Brand and interviewed them.&nbsp; In doing so, they found four women who claimed Brand had raped or sexually assaulted them.&nbsp; The timing of the investigation was suspect to me because it was during Brand&#039;s newfound career as an anti-establishment podcast host.Gone were the days when he was a Hollywood darling married to pop star Katy Perry.&nbsp; It&#039;s blatantly obvious that Brand was a sleazebag (even he says as much), but Hollywood didn&#039;t care when he was &quot;one of them.&quot;&nbsp; And unlike Brand, Cosby and Weinstein still had their supporters in both Hollywood and the political establishment after their accusers came forward.&nbsp; Brand had also been getting attacked for his &quot;dangerous&quot; anti-establishment views before these allegations surfaced.&nbsp; Apparently, the women that Brand was criminally charged for raping and sexually assaulting came forward after watching the documentary about him.&nbsp; The neoliberal establishment can&#039;t stop talking about Brand&#039;s sleazy past, yet the groundwork for his conviction was only set after he spoke out against their politics.&nbsp; If they always thought he was as &quot;problematic&quot; as they claim, why did they wait so long to expose him?It&#039;s well established that Brand was a sleaze, but is he also a rapist?&nbsp; I won&#039;t presume to say.&nbsp; However, the way they &quot;found out&quot; is certainly unconventional, to say the least.&nbsp; It&#039;s clear that the &quot;journalists&quot; who broke the story were on a fishing expedition.&nbsp; To paraphrase JR Ewing, they weren&#039;t looking for merit badges, they were looking for dirt.&nbsp; And also thanks to JR, we know if dirt can&#039;t be found, it can be manufactured.&nbsp; Brand was no saint (even by his own admission), so painting him as a rapist and a sexual abuser wouldn&#039;t be hard to do.&nbsp; To be clear, I&#039;m not saying the accusations of sexual abuse were manufactured or that the women who came forward are lying.&nbsp; All I know is that the establishment wanted Brand to go away, and now they got their wish.Before his conviction, they used the accusations to prevent his ability to monetize his videos on YouTube.&nbsp; Bringing down Brand has always been personal for them.&nbsp; I&#039;m also not a Megyn Kellley fan, but I think she&#039;s right about the judge.&nbsp; His personal commentary about Brand made it clear that he was far from impartial.&nbsp; Some people act like the judicial system isn&#039;t capable of being swayed by personal biases, even though it has been on many occasions.Although Brand&#039;s made a lot of political points I agree with, I still aim to be objective.&nbsp; If he&#039;s guilty, he deserves to be locked up.&nbsp; However, the unusual way these allegations came to light leaves room for skepticism IMO.&nbsp; Writing that skepticism off as a misogynistic conspiracy theory doesn&#039;t make sense to me, considering people have been targeted by false allegations in the past.&nbsp; I try to choose my words carefully because I feel it&#039;s impossible to know the truth in these cases 100%, but I certainly see nothing wrong in pointing out how this benefits the establishment or how they clearly targeted Brand.I also haven&#039;t followed Brand as much lately since his conversion to Christianity.&nbsp; Not that I have a problem with that, but it did feel like his views started to shift towards the right somewhat around that time (I recall him defending Jerry Seinfeld over his mocking &quot;free Palestine&quot; chants as well.)&nbsp; Not that that has anything to do with his conviction, of course, but I thought I would add that in case anybody thinks I&#039;m just some blind, rabid Russell Brand fan.</blockquote>

[QUOTE="Frank Underwood, post: 446133, member: 35"] Three years in the making, it seems. There was a contentious discussion about the Russell Brand allegations back in 2023: [URL unfurl="true"]https://tellytalk.net/threads/that-70s-show-star-danny-masterson-sentenced-to-30-years-to-life-for-two-rapes.13794/[/URL] What struck me both then and now is that the four women who got the ball rolling never came forward or went to the police themselves. Instead, journalists [I]sought out[/I] anybody connected to Brand and interviewed them. In doing so, they found four women who claimed Brand had raped or sexually assaulted them. The timing of the investigation was suspect to me because it was during Brand's newfound career as an anti-establishment podcast host. Gone were the days when he was a Hollywood darling married to pop star Katy Perry. It's blatantly obvious that Brand was a sleazebag (even he says as much), but Hollywood didn't care when he was "one of them." And unlike Brand, Cosby and Weinstein still had their supporters in both Hollywood and the political establishment after their accusers came forward. Brand had also been getting attacked for his "dangerous" anti-establishment views before these allegations surfaced. Apparently, the women that Brand was criminally charged for raping and sexually assaulting came forward after watching the documentary about him. The neoliberal establishment can't stop talking about Brand's sleazy past, yet the groundwork for his conviction was only set after he spoke out against their politics. If they always thought he was as "problematic" as they claim, why did they wait so long to expose him? It's well established that Brand was a sleaze, but is he also a rapist? I won't presume to say. However, the way they "found out" is certainly unconventional, to say the least. It's clear that the "journalists" who broke the story were on a fishing expedition. To paraphrase JR Ewing, they weren't looking for merit badges, they were looking for dirt. And also thanks to JR, we know if dirt can't be found, it can be manufactured. Brand was no saint (even by his own admission), so painting him as a rapist and a sexual abuser wouldn't be hard to do. To be clear, I'm not saying the accusations of sexual abuse [I]were[/I] manufactured or that the women who came forward [I]are[/I] lying. All I know is that the establishment wanted Brand to go away, and now they got their wish. Before his conviction, they used the accusations to prevent his ability to monetize his videos on YouTube. Bringing down Brand has always been personal for them. I'm also not a Megyn Kellley fan, but I think she's right about the judge. His personal commentary about Brand made it clear that he was far from impartial. Some people act like the judicial system isn't capable of being swayed by personal biases, even though it has been on many occasions. Although Brand's made a lot of political points I agree with, I still aim to be objective. If he's guilty, he deserves to be locked up. However, the unusual way these allegations came to light leaves room for skepticism IMO. Writing that skepticism off as a misogynistic conspiracy theory doesn't make sense to me, considering people [I]have[/I] been targeted by false allegations in the past. I try to choose my words carefully because I feel it's impossible to know the truth in these cases 100%, but I certainly see nothing wrong in pointing out how this benefits the establishment or how they clearly targeted Brand. I also haven't followed Brand as much lately since his conversion to Christianity. Not that I have a problem with that, but it did feel like his views started to shift towards the right somewhat around that time (I recall him defending Jerry Seinfeld over his mocking "free Palestine" chants as well.) Not that that has anything to do with his conviction, of course, but I thought I would add that in case anybody thinks I'm just some blind, rabid Russell Brand fan. [/QUOTE]

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