Several honest leftists have been red-pilled — that is, their eyes have been opened politically — because of the Democrats' tyrannical moves in 2020/2021.  That list includes Glenn Greenwald, Matt Taibbi, Naomi Wolf, Tulsi Gabbard, and Bill Maher.  They're not Republicans, by any means, but their disgust with their party is growing.  The most recent addition to this cavalcade of honest leftists may be British comedian Russell Brand, who just discovered the truth about Russiagate.

Brand started as a stand-up comedian and then moved into TV and movie stints in Britain and America.  Many Americans came to know about him because of his two-year-long marriage to Katy Perry, which ended when his self-admitted drug, pornography, and sex addictions came to the fore.  (If you read about his early life, you can see how he ended up with those problems.)  He's a relatively bright guy and can be very funny.

Politically, Brand is a man of the left.  In 2009, along with every other leftist, he attacked Israel for the Gaza incursion.  By 2013, Brand had pretty much given up comedy in favor of political activism and commentary...always from the left.  He's all about climate change, sought a socialist revolution in England, advocates for decriminalizing drugs, opposed Brexit, and supports just about any other leftist cause du jour.

For seven years now, Brand has done a one-man video podcast that looks at news and social issues from his self-admitted leftist viewpoint.  He's got almost 4 million subscribers, so he has a bully pulpit for his ideas.  The problem for Brand of late is that, while he may be a leftist, in his own way, he's intellectually honest.  In the crazy world of 2021, that's making it difficult for him to maintain a pure leftist attitude.  He's discovering that the people he admired and supported don't just have feet of clay, but are also truly terrible people.

Six days ago, Brand had his mind blown (call it swallowing a red pill) when he discovered that the entire Russiagate scandal that ran for most of Trump's presidency and seriously damaged his ability to govern was a Clinton hoax.  The video is only 15 minutes long.  Brand leads with his conclusion: he's a leftist and no fan of Trump, but he just had his mind blown.  He is "in awe, gobsmacked, flabbergasted, and startled" by what he learned.  Continue to listen to him, and you'll see a man in the beginning stages of disillusionment, long may it continue:

(Incidentally, have you noticed that the leftists' problem isn't that Russia is totalitarian, because it's always been totalitarian?  Their real problem is that Putin is a garden-variety oligarch rather than a communist.  They liked the Soviet Union.)

I've long believed that the only way to change people's minds politically is for them to have a moment when they realize that their political party or team is lying to them.  I had my epiphany when I realized that NPR, in the 1990s, routinely lied about Israel.  My mother, who was very stylish, had her political epiphany when the media tried to tell her that Michelle Obama was, in terms of fashion, a second Jackie Kennedy.  (Remember the banana dress?  Jackie O wouldn't have worn that.)

Everybody has his truth.  Show people they've been tricked, and they will push back.  Russell Brand is going to cling to his leftist values, but he's going to continue to turn on the Biden administration because he'll realize that the American Democrat party, behind the wall of words about diversity, equality, equity, and tolerance, is just another totalitarian movement bent on taking away the freedoms that Brand depends upon for his political activism.

Image: Russell Grand red-pilled about Russiagate.  YouTube screen grab.

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