Russell Brand talks Ottawa shootings, terror, and state-sanctioned propaganda
On the October 23 edition of his online web show, the Trews, comedian Russell Brand offers a critical look at the October 22 shootings on Parliament Hill.
Brand unpacks the presumptive, evocative language used by Prime Minister Stephen Harper in a speech he made after the attack by Michael Zehaf-Bibeau that killed Corporal Nathan Cirillo.
"A lot of what Steve Harper says sounds very reasonable," Brand says in the video. "You think, 'Yeah, there's been an attack on an institution, there's been an attack on military personal, that's wrong that that's happened.' But it's what happens to that information, how that information is used, that is interesting."
Brand compares the Ottawa shooting to the attack perpetrated by Justin Bourque in Moncton, New Brunswick, on June 4. That incident, which left three RCMP officers dead, was not linked to terrorism by the media or politicians at all.
A lone white man who kills police officers, Brand argues, isn't useful to the dominant narrative of terrorism, whereas recent Muslim converts are.
Brand also discusses everything from the Patriot Act, the London bombings, U.S. presidents Barack Obama and George W. Bush, and anti-immigrant sentiment in the U.K.
Watch the video below.
Comments
3 Comments
wanda-lee
Oct 28, 2014 at 5:24pm
I usually agree with Russell, and strongly disagree with Harper, but I think Russell got it very wrong when he said the PM used evocative language when he called the slaying of Cpl. Nathan Cirillo "cold-blooded murder". I think cold-blooded murder is exactly what it was.
wintermutt
Oct 28, 2014 at 9:48pm
I can't think of any murder that isn't cold-blooded. All murder is cold-blooded. That's why they call it murder.
Russell's comments are critical of Harper's use of the phrase "cold-blooded murder" to advance his agenda for foreign war and domestic spying.
The attack in Ottawa was not terrorism and no matter how many times Harper, Obama and their sycophants in the media call it terrorism it will still be simply the last dastardly act of a desperately confused and mentally disturbed murderer.
Daryl Christensen
Oct 30, 2014 at 6:35pm
I often find that Brand has nothing to intelligent to say. But at least he brought up another shooting, and allowed more thoughtful minds to put things in perspective. The recent shooter had not been to a mosque in months. And his alleged drug addiction would not win him any accolades among jihadists. And with this renewed perspective perhaps those among us who want for a police state, hopefully the fearful and the easily manipulated will be in few numbers.