Conspiracy theorists around the world have leapt to the defence of Russell Brand in the wake of serious sexual assault allegations against the comedian, claiming he is being targeted by the “New World Order” for challenging the mainstream narrative on COVID and other issues.
The 48 year old, who in recent years has rebranded himself as a wellness influencer who delivers conspiracist musings to an audience of millions online, was the first to attempt to frame the allegations against him as being the result of “a serious and concerted agenda” to silence him.
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The investigation published on Saturday accused Brand of sexually assaulting four women, including a 16-year-old girl, between 2006 and 2013. Brand denied the allegations and said all relationships he had at the time were “absolutely always consensual”.
Even before UK news outlets The Times, The Sunday Times and Channel 4 published their joint investigation, Brand pre-emptively posted a video refuting the allegations and painting himself as the victim of a “coordinated attack” from the mainstream media.
“It’s been clear to me, or at least it feels to me, like there’s a serious and concerted agenda to control these kind of spaces, and these kind of voices, and I mean my voice along with your voice,” he said.
That line was soon echoed by a raft of high-profile conspiracy-theorist and right-wing figures, who argued that Brand had been “cancelled” by the establishment for challenging orthodox liberal narratives on issues like the pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other culture-war talking points. Brand’s video posts on Rumble have titles like “A Great Reset Will Happen” and “Your Blood is Being Sucked and Sold to China,” while another questions whether a global move towards digital currencies could lead to a “social credit system to control your every move”.
US conspiracy theorist Alex Jones, host of the website Infowars and infamous for a sustained campaign in which he called the Sandy Hook school shooting a hoax, posted in support of Brand, who he said he knew personally.
“No one ever accused him for the last 15 years of assault because they say he’s a big sweetheart,” Jones said in a video.
“And now because he comes out against Big Pharma, he comes out against the globalists, he comes out against the New World Order, suddenly the allegations are happening to him.”
The misogynist influencer Andrew Tate was quick to draw comparisons between Brand’s situation and his own. Tate is facing human trafficking and rape charges in Romania, which he has emphatically denied. He has framed the charges as part of a plot against him by the establishment.
He tweeted to Brand’s account “Welcome to the club,” along with a meme showing a knight and the text: “On my way to fight the crazy bitch allegations.”
He then retweeted posts from other users circulating conspiracy theories around the Brand allegations, suggesting that Brand was being smeared by the liberal media establishment. They claimed he was being treated like other right-wing figures such as Donald Trump or Joe Rogan for having challenged prevailing narratives, or supposedly to distract from other matters such as revealing any VIPs who may have been involved in child sex abuse orchestrated by Jeffrey Epstein, who killed himself in jail after being charged with sex trafficking.
“Russell Brand and Andrew Tate are supposed to distract you from this,” read one post that Tate shared, showing Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell alongside former US president Bill Clinton. “Evil ‘elite’ pedos. Don’t fall for it.”
Right-wing influencer Ian Miles Cheong also leapt to Brand’s defence, comparing him to other heroes of the right who had supposedly been “cancelled” for speaking the truth.
“They came for Tucker Carlson because he spoke the truth. They came for Joe Rogan because he had conversations about the truth. They came for Jordan Peterson because he challenged their lies,” he wrote. “Now they’ve come for Russell Brand because he’s showing others that it’s possible to engage with the truth by asking questions.”
Tate retweeted another right-wing influencer, the poster known as @catturd2, who wrote that “[w]hen you speak truth to power, and your voice gets big enough to change hearts and minds, this is what the New World Order does to you …. Julian Assange … prisoner for years. President Trump … facing 800 years in prison. Andrew Tate … jailed without charges for months. Russell Brand … here we go again.
“These people are pure evil.”
Even the world’s richest man, Elon Musk, suggested that there was an ulterior motive to media outlet’s publishing the allegations, responding to Brand’s video statement: “Of course. They don’t like competition.”
He replied to another tweet defending Brand: “No more canceling. Enough is enough.”
Right-wing, conspiracist media figures in both the US and UK also chimed in in Brand’s defence, with Tucker Carlson suggesting that the allegations were motivated by Brand’s views on issues such as “drug companies… and the war in Ukraine,” and Beverley Turner, a host on right-wing UK news channel GB News, replying to Brand’s video post by hailing him as “a hero.”
“Establishment media don’t know what to do with the fact that you have 6 million subscribers & generate autonomous, knowing and original content,” she wrote.
“Keep going. This proves you are winning. You’re a hero.”
But more suspicious minds within the right-wing conspiracist scene were wary of embracing Brand as a martyr. While discussion of the allegations were widespread on Telegram, the favoured platform for far-right conspiracy theorists, some users were critical of the rush by right-wingers to defend Brand.
Mark Collett, founder of the white nationalist group Patriotic Alternative, lamented the push by “both the truther community and mainstream conservative pundits” to embrace Brand, saying that the comedian had a track record of “pushing all kinds of vile and degenerate madness.” Collett also highlighted the supposed sins of having “cross dressed,” and having dated Jemima Khan, a member of Goldsmith family, known for their prominent role in banking and finance.
“But all of that is waved away as if it never happened by needy so-called ‘truthers’ and ‘conservatives’ because he has recently made a couple of comments about Big Pharma,” he wrote.
Others on Telegram suggested the scandal engulfing the comedian-turned-influencer was itself a kind of psy-op to distract the masses from the “real issues.”
“It… serves as a distraction for the brainwashed,” wrote one user on a UK forum for sovereign citizens. “He’s controlled opposition, that’s for sure.”
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