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Comment by 0xDEF | Hacker News Reader

Let's be honest. Do you think Russell Brand would have been cancelled this hard if he was a boring centrist instead of spending the past 18 months talking about Ukrainian "bio-Nazi labs"?

Neurodivergent people are being persecuted for wrongthink.

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He is alleged to have raped and sexually assaulted a number of girls. One as young as 16.

He is alleged to have passed along a girl to a known pedophile.

I actually don't care who the person is. If that is true then they should be in jail. End of story.

> . . . girls. One as young as 16.

16 is the age of consent in the UK.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Age_of_consent_reform_in_the_U...

Hang on a minute. He is accused of having had an "emotionally abusive and controlling relationshp" with a 16-year-old when he was 31. That is not the same as rape. The age of consent in the UK is 16, and 16-year-olds are legally sexually active all the time in the UK.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-66831593

Brand has also not been accused of passing along a girl to a known pedophile. He is accused of having joked about sending his assistant to Jimmy Savile, on a BBC Radio 2 comedy show in 2007. (The BBC did not fire him for that.)

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radio/2023/sep/17/russell...

He is being accused of rape [1] with a seperate girl.

And Saville is a known pedophile.

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/sep/17/a-timeline-o...

You said "He is alleged to have passed along a girl to a known pedophile."

He is not even alleged to have done that. What's been reported is that he joked on a BBC radio show about visiting Savile and bringing along his assistant.

https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/russell-brand-ji...

Five years before the allegations against Savile emerged, the older star told Brand he “doesn’t usually meet fellas but if you’ve got a sister then that’s ok”.

Brand explained he didn’t have a sister but instead named a personal assistant he could meet.

“I’ve got a personal assistant,” Brand told Savile. “And part of her job description is that anyone I demand she greet, meet, massages, she has to do it. She’s very attractive, Jimmy.”

Savile answered: “Well, well that’s a good start. You could send her along to do some research.”

Asked by Brand what she should wear to meet Jimmy, the paedophile presenter replied: “I’d actually prefer her to wear nothing.”

Brand burst into laughter as Savile insisted: “There’s nothing wrong with that.”

There is no suggestion that Brand, Savile or Brand’s personal assistant ever met up following the interview.

Al Franken was required to resign from the Senate for allegations that were never (and never would) rise to the levels of the allegations against Brand.

What do you mean by “required “? Franken voluntary resigned to hold himself to the same standards he’d hold others to. He could have fought calls for his resignation but didn’t.

Sole reason for his political pivot: he knew the centrists and left wing people would let him be thrown under the bus if any of this came to light, but his new audience would think it some deep state lie that if anything proves Brand is even more truthful than they'd previously assumed.

Yes, Elon Musk did the same.

But it's not proof that he is guilty.

Yes it is not proof. But you are the one who came with speculations here.

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