The telling case of Russell Brand

This chapter focuses on the recent political podcasting activity of British comedian/actor Russell Brand as a telling case of online populist discourse and, specifically, diagonalism. It aims to show how he discursively constructs himself, focusing on the specific discursive features and strategies that he employs. It also examines the relationship between the discourses of diagonalism and discourses in circulation in far-right environments, and how Brand’s diagonalist discourses come to provide support for and even align with far-right causes. In this sense, the chapter examines how Brand has evolved over time, especially since the COVID pandemic began in 2020, and how the move rightward has gone so far that he now seems firmly situated in the world of the far right. Thus, over a period of just a few years, Brand has moved from a clear self-positioning in the universe of the political left in Britain to an explicit support for Donald Trump and the MAGA movement. The chapter closes with a short discussion of two other media celebrities in the United States, Glenn Greenwald and Matt Taibbi, exploring their common ground with Brand while discussing the extent to which they might be classified as diagonalists. There is also a short discussion of the possible reasons why podcasters like Brand and journalists like Greenwald and Taibbi make the ideological journey from left to right.