Russell Brand Has Gone Off On A Right-Wing Conspiracy Bender, Leaving People Wondering If He’s ‘Officially Lost His Mind’

Is something amiss with former MTV VJ-turned actor, podcaster, and comedian Russell Brand? He’s long been known for left-leaning points of view (including raging against Fox News), but there’s been a telltale shift lately, like when he hopped aboard with Matthew McConaughey’s recent rant about how people shouldn’t ridicule Trump voters over their continued “denial” of Biden’s presidential win. That was a particularly uncomfortable exchange (since McConaughey won’t really air his own political stances, but he’s regularly reminding everyone that he wants to run for office), but there’s no denying that Russell’s prolific (not to mention persuasive) way with words attracts a millions-strong audience on his podcast, Under the Skin, on various social media platforms, and on YouTube.

While we’re talking about that last platform, let’s take a look at what’s going on with Russell over at his YouTube channel. He’s leaning further and further to the right, and that shift is now growing dramatic and (to put it bluntly) conspiratorial. Headlines like “Vaccine APARTHEID: Don Lemon’s Covid BOMBSHELL,” “THIS Is Why You Can’t Trust Big Pharma,” “Vaccine Mandates: An ASSAULT On Your Bodily,” and “SHOCKING Wuhan Evidence: Did Fauci LIE?” do present a certain perspective.

One video (called “So… Trump was RIGHT”) in particular is attracting a lot of attention because Brand, for whatever reason, went on a wild rant about how the 2016 election was all about collusion with Russia. However, he claims that the collusion was on behalf of the Clinton campaign, which Brand believes is a “conspiracy.” Within the video, he declared that all of the news coverage of Russia collusion by the Trump campaign — and the released emails by Don Jr. and Donald Trump’s own words — was part of some “propaganda, a construct, a confection by the Democratic Party.”

Brand continued to argue that he feels that the situation (Biden, a Democrat, holding the U.S. presidency, and Dems holding Congressional majorities), is “kind of beyond disappointing,” as through he believes that nothing went wrong in the Trump presidency (including the botched pandemic response, which has continued to reverberate) to motivate people to vote Democrat. Still, Brand says that his belief that the Clinton campaign colluded with Russia is enough to make him “begin to question and query what other things may not be true.”

Well. This hot mess has led people to wonder what, exactly, is going on with Russell Brand because he’s essentially spreading Kremlin propaganda.

From there, the jokes and remarks ran wild. Comparisons to Johnny Depp’s imploding career have been drawn (the two do have a similar aesthetic, and Depp’s recent rant on “cancel culture” went off the rails with similar vibes), and people are wondering whether “Russell Brand has officially lost his mind” or whether he’ll start shilling MyPillow soon.

It’s only Tuesday, right? What a week so far.