ormer favourite of a LOT of people on the left. Looks like such an obvious grifter in hindsight.
Was he? By my recollection pretty much everyone thought he was a grifter trying to sell self-help books that said leftish stuff and had a bit of following. He was promoted by some media types but, from what I can recall at least, very few people really had anything positive to say. At best he was largely considered as a relatively harmless weirdo who pivoted to the right because he lost his audience on the left and then all these allegations gained prominence.
The threads in LUK from that era are really quite funny, there's like two people who express anything positive about Brand:
Maybe I'm biased because I've always thought he was knob but I don't remember him being anything more than an obvious grifter who caught a few baby-leftists and big name interviews.
I think he was most popular with like, teenagers, particularly teenage girls, who were like, getting interested in politics for the first time. He was very good at dropping soundbites. His whole "When I was poor they said I was bitter now I'm rich they say I'm a hypocrite... I'm starting to think they just don't wanna talk about inequality" used to do significant rounds on tumblr.
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u/Beetlebob1848 Soc Dem 2d ago edited 2d ago
Former favourite of a LOT of people on the left. Looks like such an obvious grifter in hindsight.
Edit: I was wrong about the book quote! It was the other way around, Brand was calling OJ Orwell.