Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
I'm sensing a pattern here:
It'll be interesting to see where some of the Novara crowd end up in a few years, I reckon.
The Culture War
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It'll be interesting to see where some of the Novara crowd end up in a few years, I reckon.
IdleRich
IdleRich
Dunno where to put this, but does anyone know what happened with the Dan Wooten stuff in the end?
As far as I know he was a nasty Sun gossip journalist who spread scurrilous rumours and gleefully moralised as he kicked people when they were down. Then he got a show on GB News and carried on being a full on Glenda Slagg style Grade A cunt, leading a massive vendetta - with the racism barely disguised - against Harry and Megan Markle amongst other things.
Anyhow a few months ago these stories came out about him having a secret identity he used to hire rent boys and also to extort compromising pictures of his intended victims. It was thoroughly researched and led to him bring suspended from some of his columns as he decried a "conspiracy of dark forces" trying to take him down for his fearless gutter reporting.
As well as numerous right-wing nodding dogs sticking up for him he threatened to sue and started a fundraiser for his legal fees - but as more evidence emerged along with the fact he was buying a multimillion pound house while holding out the begging bowl his fundraiser stalled on about 25p, plus as it became increasingly obvious he had done everything he'd been accused of a lot of his support melted away...
And now? Nothing as far as I know. Obviously he didn't sue but was there any cost to him? I'm thinking of this now cos we seem to be going through the exact same thing with Russell Brand - the credible looking accusations, the denial and mutterings about the deep state attacking them just as he was about to bring them down, the support from Laurence Fox and assorted cunts etc etc
As far as I know he was a nasty Sun gossip journalist who spread scurrilous rumours and gleefully moralised as he kicked people when they were down. Then he got a show on GB News and carried on being a full on Glenda Slagg style Grade A cunt, leading a massive vendetta - with the racism barely disguised - against Harry and Megan Markle amongst other things.
Anyhow a few months ago these stories came out about him having a secret identity he used to hire rent boys and also to extort compromising pictures of his intended victims. It was thoroughly researched and led to him bring suspended from some of his columns as he decried a "conspiracy of dark forces" trying to take him down for his fearless gutter reporting.
As well as numerous right-wing nodding dogs sticking up for him he threatened to sue and started a fundraiser for his legal fees - but as more evidence emerged along with the fact he was buying a multimillion pound house while holding out the begging bowl his fundraiser stalled on about 25p, plus as it became increasingly obvious he had done everything he'd been accused of a lot of his support melted away...
And now? Nothing as far as I know. Obviously he didn't sue but was there any cost to him? I'm thinking of this now cos we seem to be going through the exact same thing with Russell Brand - the credible looking accusations, the denial and mutterings about the deep state attacking them just as he was about to bring them down, the support from Laurence Fox and assorted cunts etc etc
Bastani in particular. Lots of people have already joked about his crossover to Spiked Online.
Assuming this is just the slow wheels of the legal process turning. The police will need time to build the case against Wooton, if they've not gone down the terminally incompetent route. Be the same with Brand I assume yet made more complex by the fact he's - I'm assuming - no longer a UK resident.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
Well all it took was the first covid lockdown for Russell Brand to switch from Corbyn-endorsing nu-lefty to Lidl-knockoff Alex Jones alt-right conspiracy theorist. Or maybe the transition was already well underway and that was just the trigger he needed for it to become his new agenda at a public level.
pattycakes_
Can turn naughty
A very 2010s move
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
A classic of the genre!
IdleRich
IdleRich
I was gonna ask if DW actually broke the law though. Sure he's a sleaze and this makes a mockery of his professed moral high-ground, hence the noise about suing, but I'm not sure he's being investigated by police at the moment although I'd love to be wrong.
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
The list of, ahem, 'celebrities' who've rushed to defend Brand is not limited to Andrew Tate and Elon Musk, by the way. It now includes Alex Jones, Lawrence Fox, Tucker Carlson, Katie Hopkins, George Galloway, Piers 'Morgan' Moron, Roger Stone, Tommy Robinson and Michael Barrymore. 
I think this thing with Brand could end up being a watershed moment in terms of the culture war stuff in the UK. We were already well on our way into Fox territory with the usual GB News and TalkTV fare but this could be a real test of the strength of their messaging as having various people going to bat, or at least muddying the waters, for someone credibly accused of multiple sexual assaults is crossing a line in the sand.
It's also interesting to see where their priorities lie as they'd normally jump at anything with which to hammer the BBC and Channel 4 and they'd be totally justified in doing so in this case. They could be running with how corrupt those organisations are for once again turning a blind eye to this sort of thing, but they aren't. They're choosing instead to raise doubts and emphasise his defence of being some sort of smeared truth teller.
It's also interesting to see where their priorities lie as they'd normally jump at anything with which to hammer the BBC and Channel 4 and they'd be totally justified in doing so in this case. They could be running with how corrupt those organisations are for once again turning a blind eye to this sort of thing, but they aren't. They're choosing instead to raise doubts and emphasise his defence of being some sort of smeared truth teller.
pattycakes_
Can turn naughty
IdleRich
IdleRich
It is exactly the Dan Wootten thing all over again. After he did his bit about "sinister dark forces are trying to take me down cos I rocked the establishment to its very core by posing four times to get a suitably reverent picture of me putting flowers on the queen's grave" there were loads of talking heads (basically a list of the very worst 2nd and 3rd division journalists in the UK) rushing to defend him and spewing faux outrage. Something that at the time seemed rash at best while the very credible allegations had yet to be fully investigated. In fact I remember lots of people making a big thing of taking screenshots of those tweets so they couldn't be denied afterwards.
It's exactly the same with Brand but with a bigger, more international, class of scumbag rushing to defend him in keeping with his higher level of fame.
But agreed, this seems to be a new thing with people defending those perceived to be on their side regardless of how serious or credible the accusations. A strange position cos none of them are saying what he's accused of is ok - of course, we're not yet at the stage where they dare say "our guys are allowed to rape people" - but they're not really denying the charges - they're not in a position to, most of them just read it on the news same as us - they just go straight to deflection, claiming that it's the deep state trying to bring down the fearless truth teller.
I know all roads lead to this in my mind, but it is the same as Trump yet again... are they trying to stop him winning the election? It's kinda irrelevant, the main question is "is he guilty?" and we all know he is, cos we saw him do it and that's why a grand jury decided he needed to be indicted.
Is the Deep State trying to silence Wootten/Brand? Again, it's irrelevant, if they did the things they are accused of then they need to go down.
And though in many ways the right and left are no different, the one thing I do see in twitter arguments and so on is that people on the left do say "sure if Clinton/Biden/Obama is a paedo then they should go to jail" which surprises and takes the wind out of the sails of those they're arguing with.
Farage had a clip earlier where he said he wasn't a fan of Brand, but it wasn't for him to say whether or not he was guilty and he'd heard he'd upset some powerful people with what he'd been saying on his YouTube channel. He capped it off with a quote from one of Brand's books which made him sound very guilty, but it was clear he was doing his best to walk the line of not putting his foot in it by supporting Brand whilst pandering to his audience and stoking the fire re: the conspiracy angle.
They know exactly what they're doing running with this title too.
They know exactly what they're doing running with this title too.
IdleRich
IdleRich
One thing he says there does touch on the important thing - but the emphasis is all wrong. Farage says
"if you're gonna offend important people then you've got to make sure there is nothing they can hit you back with".
And all of these people have done things they can be hit with, but of course wording it like that makes it sound as though they are minor transgressions, maybe things that are technically illegal but which we've all done and people only care about when they are dug up by powerful enemies who can make them stick... when in actuality they are rape or stealing classified documents etc
These are crimes that in any sane, normal world would be prosecuted anyway... so his statement could be written more correctly as something like
"If you're gonna offend powerful people - or if you you're not - make sure you don't rape people".
"if you're gonna offend important people then you've got to make sure there is nothing they can hit you back with".
And all of these people have done things they can be hit with, but of course wording it like that makes it sound as though they are minor transgressions, maybe things that are technically illegal but which we've all done and people only care about when they are dug up by powerful enemies who can make them stick... when in actuality they are rape or stealing classified documents etc
These are crimes that in any sane, normal world would be prosecuted anyway... so his statement could be written more correctly as something like
"If you're gonna offend powerful people - or if you you're not - make sure you don't rape people".
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
Victoria Park railings never ever get an upgrade
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
It's all a bit moot if a) the left don't accept any evidence (one can never sniff too many children) and b) if any miscreants magically suddenly belong to the other side the moment they are caught (e.g. Roisin Murphy is perceived as always having been a bad 'un who has only now been unmasked)
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
Democrats as left wing, another Brandian pulling tip
mixed_biscuits
_________________________
Someone's been taking notes
WashYourHands
Cat Malogen
Seen all your moves
Not aroused status - confirmed
Not aroused status - confirmed
Mr. Tea
Let's Talk About Ceps
This is a good example of why the right is so successful. Even when they disagree with each other about some things, they're willing to put these differences aside when there's an opportunity to score points against a common enemy. Yet for all its rhetoric about "solidarity", the left usually does the exact opposite, so you see people on Twitter wishing an agonising death on each other because, while they probably agree about damn near everything else, one of them thinks electric cars are a good thing while the other wants to fully pedestrianise every town and city in the UK, or something like that.