Former UFC Champion Conor McGregor has expressed confidence in taking up a position of power in his home country of Ireland, but who will he choose as his presidential candidate? And why does he think he has a chance of winning the election? Russell Brand explores this and more in this episode of Stay Free With Russell Brand: A Journey to Truth and Freedom, presented by the Global Conspiracy Theories podcast. Stay Free with Russell Brand is a podcast that aims to educate and elevate our consciousness about current events and the world around them. Once a week, we bring you in-depth conversations with guests like Jordan Peterson, RFK Jr, Sam Harris, Veena Shiva, Vandana Shiva, Gabor Mate and many more. Remember, there's an episode every single day, 7 days, to elevate your consciousness together. Stay Free, and enjoy the episode! To find a list of our sponsors and show-related promo codes, go to gimlet.fm/OurAdvertisers and use the promo code "UPLEVEL" at checkout to receive 10% off your first purchase when you place an ad on our website. We'll be delivering a detailed breakdown of current topics that the mainstream media should be covering, but if they are not covering, they're amplifying establishment messages and not telling you the truth. If they are covering them, they'll be amplifying the truth, they are amplifying it. You'll get to hear the truth and not the lies they should be telling you about it, not the truth about it. This is your chance to help elevate your awareness of the truth in the first place. - stay free, stay free. Stay free, and you'll get a better version of freedom and freedom in the next episode of the journey to truth and freedom, wherever you listen to the truth you can be free, wherever they are listening to it. Stay free! Thank you for listening to Stay Free! - Your Daily dose of consciousness and freedom. . - Russell Brand - The Wanderer Music: "Awakening Wonders" by Glaswegian singer-songwriter, Gav" by The Good Olde Lady (featuring John Singleton and "The Good Oldie" by Fergal O'Donnell (feat. ) (ft. John McDart ( ) ( ) ( ) & The Good Ol' Lady ( ) - "Outro Music: by Ferell ( )
00:00:00.000Hello there you Awakening Wonders on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you download your podcasts.
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00:00:52.000Thanks for joining me on our voyage to truth and freedom and what peculiar permutations there are with Conor McGregor outlining a route to the presidency.
00:01:00.000Something that a month ago would have seemed ridiculous now seems entirely plausible.
00:01:05.000There's a reason we're seeing a populist uprising across the world.
00:01:08.000People don't trust politicians anymore and with good reason.
00:01:12.000People are sick of a legacy media that amplifies an agenda that is antithetical to the interests of people.
00:01:17.000People are sick and tired of an establishment that hates them, so they're looking for leaders that are willing to stand up against the establishment.
00:01:27.000This will mean people that the establishment doesn't like.
00:01:30.000Suddenly being willing to take up a political mantle and oppose the forces that seem to me very interested in limiting individual power and centralizing authority and keeping ordinary people out of the business of running their own lives.
00:01:44.000Let's have a look at this story because it's a very interesting time in Ireland.
00:01:47.000Because the censorship industrial complex are stepping up their plan to control free speech and even, in the case of Ireland, invade people's home, even if they're suspected of being in possession of what is regarded as hate material or hateful material or hate speech material.
00:02:01.000And as Matt Taibbi says, hate speech is not the issue.
00:02:04.000Who decides what hate speech is, is the issue.
00:02:20.000McGregor is reportedly being investigated by Irish police over his social media posts around the Dublin riots in late November.
00:02:26.000He himself is being scrutinised Even prior to this legislation being introduced, what do you think about Conor McGregor's social media posts?
00:02:35.000My interpretation is he's concerned about migration in Ireland.
00:02:39.000He's concerned about the violence that's taken place recently in Ireland.
00:02:42.000He's concerned about the lack of conversation around migration.
00:02:45.000And beneath that, and this is my own analysis, I'm not claiming to speak for Conor McGregor, he's probably concerned about a political class that no longer represents the people they were elected to represent.
00:02:55.000And as we pointed out in an earlier video, in a country like Ireland that is going to be particularly problematic because ethno-nationalism is a real part of Ireland's history, perhaps every nation's history, but Ireland is a country that's been historically oppressed by Britain and their relationship to national pride is more understandable than most nations' relationship to national pride.
00:03:13.000Even though I would say that we're all entitled to have a degree of national pride or tribal instinct, my hope is that is a very inclusive and open-hearted thing, but These are interesting times, but the former UFC champion has expressed confidence in taking up a position of power in his home country.
00:03:28.000Let's have a look at Conor McGregor's post.
00:03:36.000Each with unbreakable ties to their individual party's politics.
00:03:40.000Curious that already Conor McGregor, in my view, has identified one of the dominant themes and problems in contemporary politics.
00:03:48.000It has become institutional and systematic.
00:03:51.000I don't claim to know much about Irish politics full stop or contemporary Irish politics, but what I do know is across the world there's a sense that a form of neoliberalism has captured the heart of democracy.
00:04:00.000And while you hear hysterical rhetoric around This politician is like a tyrant.
00:04:06.000The centralist, neoliberal, kindness, safety, convenience, centrist parties seem more interested in shutting down democracy than any of these apparent tyrants and dictators that we're supposed to be terrified of.
00:04:18.000For example, the government that's in Ireland right now are supporting a bill that would enable the police, or the Garda in the case of Ireland, to enter people's homes, take their laptops and computers, if they are just suspected of having material that is deemed to be hateful.
00:04:32.000If the person proposing that policy was wearing a military uniform and making crazy salutes, you'd say, well, yep, that's good old-fashioned dictatorship.
00:04:40.000Regardless of what the public outside their parties feel, these parties govern themselves versus govern the people.
00:05:09.000Even though this might be regarded as simplistic and naive by the metropolitan media class, this is the type of democracy that's possible now.
00:05:25.000Do you want more expenditure in mRNA vaccines?
00:05:28.000All of these things, you could be asked.
00:05:29.000You could be voting on those issues, issue by issue, individually and independently.
00:05:34.000Do you want more censorship in Ireland?
00:05:36.000Do you want the police to have more power or less power?
00:05:38.000These are all things that could be debated, discussed and voted on.
00:05:41.000It's very curious that when people are accused of being anti-democratic, tyrants and dictators, no one ever mentions the possibility for real democracy that exists right now.
00:05:50.000I'm sure it would be complicated, and I bet it wouldn't be perfect.
00:05:53.000But we're not competing with perfection.
00:05:54.000We're competing with a pretty corrupt system that most people are sick and tired of, and in the case of Ireland, they're rioting in the street out of sheer frustration, anger, Disappointment and disconnection from their country and its leaders and the direction its leaders are taking it in.
00:06:08.000That means someone like Conor McGregor now, I believe, has a reasonable chance of getting elected where he stands.
00:06:13.000Let me know in the chat and the comments if you think new politicians are likely to start standing in all sorts of new positions and roles across the world because people are sick and tired of systemic institutional figures that don't represent ordinary people but represent the interests of the powerful.
00:06:49.000There's a kind of ambiguity about where he may stand politically.
00:06:52.000Remember in his recent interview he said, oh, I might vote for Trump or I'm not sure I'd vote for Trump, I wouldn't vote for Biden.
00:06:57.000Essentially, he's a spokesperson for the disenfranchised.
00:07:01.000Curious though that may be because he's obviously an extremely wealthy individual.
00:07:03.000Most people now are sick and tired of the political class.
00:07:06.000They're sick and tired of institutions that are trying to cling on to power and control our attention, control our consciousness, control the direction of our lives.
00:07:16.000They're trying to maintain institutions that are past their sell-by date.
00:07:20.000Again, in this little post here, just listing these ages and these names, some of them are sort of pretty influential and significant political figures who have dedicated their lives to politics.
00:07:28.000But the fact is now the world is changing and it's changing fast.
00:07:31.000And it has to change fast, because there's a crisis of meaning, there are ecological crises, there are political crises, fuel prices are out of control, food prices are out of control, the culture's out of control, in Ireland people believe there's a migration crisis, and they're well entitled to discuss it, vote on it, and follow someone who wants to talk about it.
00:07:48.000Of course, the liberal legacy media will always support free speech.
00:07:52.000They'll always support someone from a working class background getting involved in politics.
00:07:56.000Because, you know, we're all supposed to vote, aren't we?
00:08:17.000Maybe the legacy media, instead of condemning populist voices as far-right or right-wing or fascist or conspiracy theorists, and believe me, I've been subject to that kind of analysis as well.
00:08:28.000As well as far worse, as you're probably well aware by now.
00:08:31.000Instead of that, What they should do is ask, why are people suddenly open to a new type of politics?
00:08:39.000Why are people sick and tired of unelected globalist bodies imposing regulations on their nations?
00:08:44.000Why are they tired of a political system that doesn't respond to their wants or needs, can't reach them emotionally, doesn't listen to them, hates them and condemns them as racist at every single turn?
00:08:54.000Why would people be interested in systems that have only got that kind of rhetoric to offer?
00:08:59.000And indeed, when people complain, when people try to fight, I mean verbally, and oppose the mainstream dominator narratives, they're called racists, and new legislation is being passed all over the world, not just in Ireland, to censor and control dissent.
00:09:13.000People say it's about Let's have a look at the censorship laws that are being opposed in Ireland.
00:09:24.000And remember, Conor McGregor is under investigation by the police right now because of tweets.
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00:10:38.000I spoke to a detective in Pier Street on Saturday who was actively engaged with the social media companies.
00:10:46.000This is Helen McEntee, an Irish politician, explaining how during the Dublin uprisings, protests, riots, call them whatever word is appropriate for you.
00:10:55.000I think people should use language pretty freely.
00:10:57.000explaining how certain social media platforms cooperated in shutting down
00:11:03.000free speech, I'd call it, hate speech, they'd call it, live while the events were unfolding.
00:11:07.000What she's describing, plainly, openly, in plain sight, as they like to say these days,
00:11:12.000is the process of the government controlling free speech through social media platforms.
00:11:17.000Imagine if they're able to implement legislation that will grant them control,
00:11:22.000but the legal right to shut down any speech they don't like.
00:11:25.000That's happening in the UK, it's happening in the US, it's happening in the EU, it's happening in Canada, it's already happened in Canada, and it's happening in Ireland now.
00:11:31.000Instead of solving the problem of, oh there seems to be a sort of a migrant crisis and unrest and dissatisfaction about the amount of crime that's being committed in Dublin, they shut down the complaining about it.
00:11:43.000And then if someone stands up who's got a bit of a platform and a bit of a voice, and that person's a racist or far-right or even worse, they'll say whatever they need to say to shut down any voices that oppose the establishment.
00:11:54.000Who is actively engaged with TikTok, actively engaged with Meta, so Instagram and Facebook, who is actively engaged with Twitter or X.
00:12:01.000She said very clearly that social media companies, in particular TikTok and Meta, they were responding, they were engaging with Gardaà and they were taking down these vile posts as they came up.
00:12:16.000They did not fulfill their own community standards.
00:12:20.000It's interesting talking about community standards online when the community standards in Ireland have obviously fallen below the expectation of the Irish people.
00:12:33.000In the comments of the last video we made on this subject, many people that were not from Ireland, living in Ireland now, were speaking about what a welcoming, loving place Ireland is for the people that participate in the culture.
00:12:44.000If there is a crisis in Ireland, it's a crisis of democracy, or the lack of democracy.
00:12:48.000It's a crisis brought about by having a political class that doesn't listen to the Irish people.
00:12:53.000It's a crisis that's been brought about by ignorance, avoidance of acknowledging the culture of Ireland, and in some cases, it seems, Out and out crime.
00:13:01.000You can't say that X are disobeying their own community guidelines when Ireland is in disarray and people are totally dissatisfied with their own government.
00:13:17.000And that is why we are moving to a situation where these companies do not get to self-monitor.
00:13:22.000That's why Commission on Man has been established, to make sure that these companies are held responsible.
00:13:28.000Because while some were responsible, others were not.
00:13:31.000A word like responsible in the mouth of the Justice Minister means responding to what we tell them to do, which will very soon in your country, Ireland, be the law.
00:13:39.000And that's a law that's coming to a nation near you.
00:13:41.000So let me reassure you, Gardaà were seized of this.
00:13:45.000They were engaging directly with the social media companies.
00:13:48.000What a terrifying new world we live in.
00:13:49.000A world in which it seems that we're most likely to get hope from populist leaders that are anti-establishment above all else.
00:13:56.000Remember, we keep saying it's no longer left v right, it's periphery versus the centre.
00:14:00.000People that are outside of the establishment have to find new ways of forming alliances.
00:14:05.000Putting aside left and right and all of those kind of arguments, they are there to divide you.
00:14:09.000The Irish police, the Garda, is about to get new wide-ranging powers to spy on people's private online conversations happening via chat apps in order to crack down on crime after recent events in Dublin.
00:14:21.000So whatever you might think the problem is in Ireland, whatever you might think the migration crisis is, the democracy crisis, the standard of living crisis, the spiritual crisis, the solution, they think, is to be able to get into your private messages, spy on you, and shut you down.
00:14:35.000This is not unique to Ireland, but this is what's happening in Ireland right now.
00:14:39.000Justice Minister Helen McEntee last week got the government to agree to give the police thus far unprecedented powers which will also include allowing police inspectors to get mobile phone operators location data of citizens in the interests of protecting a person's safety or life.
00:14:54.000Is that the relationship you want with the state?
00:14:56.000The state are there to protect you and they can spy on you in order to protect you?
00:15:00.000Did the Irish people go through the history they've gone through against British oppression
00:15:04.000to have their own police force turn against them in black and tan, controlling them, spying
00:15:09.000on them, using their own private communications against them?
00:15:13.000If they decide the circumstances are right, it also means the police would be given access
00:15:17.000to private messages on WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger and Signal apps.
00:15:21.000The government in Dublin is introducing extraordinary new legislation to restrict freedom of speech.
00:15:26.000But it's not horrid right-wingers conspiring to suppress nice, decent liberals.
00:15:30.000It's nice, decent liberals scrambling to stamp out the opinions of what they call the far right.
00:15:36.000And far from being alarmed by this assault on basic freedoms, the broad swathe of progressive opinion in Ireland is fully behind it, including most voices in the broadcast print media and every majority party.
00:15:47.000One thing I've learned lately is that the legacy media, thank God, is not the people.
00:15:51.000That people in political power are not the people.
00:15:53.000That they operate on one strata and they've become completely disengaged and disconnected from the people that they're supposed to work for, report to and serve.
00:16:13.000Since riots broke out in Dublin two weeks ago following the stabbing of three children, the cries for action have become ever louder.
00:16:19.000The government, led by Leo Varadkar, has now pledged to have the Criminal Justice, Incitement to Violence or Hatred and Hate Offences Bill on the statute book within a matter of weeks.
00:16:28.000The new law would surely have escaped international attention had those riots not happened, but Dublin's eagerness to regulate hate speech has, as internet parlance puts it, gone viral.
00:16:38.000Now the whole world knows that Ireland is poised to pass one of the most draconian pieces of legislation in modern times, which will see Irish people facing potential jail sentences of up to two years for the possession of literature likely to incite violence or hatred against others on the ground of certain protected characteristics, including race, gender and sexual orientation.
00:16:56.000Personally, I don't think that there should be hateful rhetoric around those subjects or indeed any subject at all.
00:17:02.000That we should all be doing our best to find ways of allying with one another.
00:17:05.000I think the best way to do that is to empower people to run their own communities democratically.
00:17:10.000I think this is going to require a new political class.
00:17:13.000It's going to require unconventional political figures being willing to stand for positions that would have been unthinkable a while ago.
00:17:18.000No one would have thought Yeah, let's have Conor McGregor as president.
00:17:24.000And look at the state power that they're discussing, granting to the Garda in order to further control discourse and dissent.
00:17:31.000The police and courts will not even need to demonstrate that the material in question was intended to be distributed to anyone other than the owner.
00:17:38.000It will be presumed until the contrary is proven that it was.
00:17:42.000That's a reversal of some of the most sacred, shall we say, judicial principles that we've ever known.
00:18:23.000To make matters worse, the Irish government has not actually defined in the bill what hatred is, saying that to
00:18:29.000do so could "risk prosecutions collapsing".
00:18:31.000Oh my god. They're not defining what hatred is.
00:18:34.000This is not only Soviet Union KGB stuff, this is literally Kafka-esque.
00:18:39.000They're not defining what hatred is, because then you'd be like, well, according to your definition of hatred in your bill, this is not hatred, because look, we didn't do that, we did this.
00:18:51.000Someone must have been telling lies about Joseph K, because he was arrested, all of a sudden, no one telling what it was for.
00:18:56.000When you are opaque about what you've done wrong, when you're opaque about where the information has come from, when you create this kind of legislation, it's impossible for people to fight against it.
00:19:05.000It's designed to be impossible to fight against because they know that Ireland is a country full of fighters.
00:19:10.000How curious that a fighter has stepped forward in this moment.
00:19:12.000What they want is an unfair fight where the people fighting don't know the rules.
00:19:16.000Minister for Justice Helen McEntee continues to insist citizens will be able to speak freely, but Senator for the Green Party, one of three parties in the governing coalition, let the cat out of the bag.
00:19:26.000We are restricting freedom, Pauline O'Reilly said, but we're doing it for the common good.
00:19:30.000What they're saying is, you don't know what I know, and I haven't got time to explain it to you, so we're just going to limit your freedom.
00:19:37.000We're not going to describe what hatred is.
00:19:39.000We'll tell you whether or not we think it's hatred on a case-by-case basis.
00:19:43.000Which, you know, could seem like what you're trying to do is create the opportunity to persecute and imprison your opponent and allow what could be regarded as hate speech of people that you support and agree with.
00:19:52.000This is how tyranny and dictatorship starts.
00:19:55.000There's a lot of talk of tyranny and dictatorship these days.
00:20:49.000It talks about people's feelings and protecting the vulnerable.
00:20:52.000And in order to do that, it just has to restrict your freedom and come into your house and take your phone.
00:20:59.000And if anyone speaks out against it, then they are part of the problem.
00:21:02.000That's what dictatorships look like in 2023.
00:21:05.000Ireland sadly has a long tradition of censorship.
00:21:08.000There was once a body with a wonderfully evocative name, the Committee on Evil Literature, which recommended banning publications deemed harmful to the newly independent nation's Catholic values.
00:21:19.000The country prides itself on having come through that dark time.
00:21:21.000But all that's actually happened is that the term evil literature has been redefined to suit contemporary values.
00:21:38.000When we talk about orthodoxy, when we talk about fascism, when we talk about systems of control or the Spanish Inquisition, we always imagine the paraphernalia, the robes of an oppressive religious system, or the badges and
00:21:50.000flags of an oppressive military dictatorship, what we've not become yet accustomed to is
00:21:56.000the new technocratic technological dictatorships where a cadre of experts tell you that they know better
00:22:05.000And you might not know that you were doing hate speech, and we're not going to tell you
00:22:08.000what we mean by hate speech, but we're pretty sure that you did some of it.
00:22:11.000The opposite of this, the polar opposite, is democracy and popular uprising.
00:22:16.000It's people saying, this is our country, these are our communities, we'll select our leaders and we'll control our own lives.
00:22:22.000We'll make moral judgements for ourselves.
00:22:25.000No longer willing to outsource power to the state as if it was some kind of god because it doesn't deserve that status and only behaves like the worst kind of gods I've ever heard of.
00:22:49.000I'd much rather take my chances, if I was Irish, with Conor McGregor than any one of those technocratic, bureaucratic, Kafkaesque Enemies of freedom that are right now trying to introduce a censorship bill that would allow them to spy on your private messages and invade your home if they suspect you of hate speech and they ain't willing to tell you even what hate speech is.
00:23:09.000That is the kind of tyranny we must all oppose together and we should support anyone that's willing to stand up and fight against it.