Comedian and commentator Russell Brand roasted Hillary Clinton and other liberals on Tuesday for tarring people they don’t agree with as “Nazis” and “fascists.”
In a new YouTube video posted to his channel, Brand spoke about Hillary Clinton’s appearance at the Texas Tribune Festival in Austin, where she compared a Trump rally in Ohio where his supporters raised index fingers in salute to the Roman salutes at rallies in Nazi Germany.
“Hillary Clinton has called Trump supporters Nazis, but she has declared that she admires that new Italian leader who the left say is a ‘fascist,’ and also, though, aren’t there Nazis fighting for the Ukraine?” Brand exclaimed. “Is ‘fascist’ just a convenient term to bring down people you don’t agree with?”
He suggested that Clinton and many liberal leaders are comparing their opposition to Nazis insincerely, so they can “disparage them rather than having a genuine concern.”
Brand noted that despite the fact there are millions of normal people who support Trump, those on the political left will attempt to marginalize them by claiming they subscribe to an extreme ideology that killed millions in the 20th century, “a pretty serious allegation” and “a really heavy thing to call someone.”
“There are families where there are Trump supporters and Democrats in the same family,” he noted. “Once you say someone’s a Nazi you know you’re saying ‘We don’t have to deal with you, we don’t have to talk to you, you’re out of the conversation.'”
Brand also called out Democrats for funding “MAGA candidates” they tar as extremists because they theorize they would be easier opponents to defeat in elections.
“If you want to prevent extremism, what you have to have is a functional democracy, not a democracy where you highlight Trump in order to ensure that your own party, in this case the Democrat Party, can neglect ordinary blue-collar Americans of all hues, colors, and persuasions,” Brand said.
“I think using the specter of 20th-century fascism in order to avoid confronting the inefficiency of contemporary neoliberalism is the real crime here,” Brand noted. “If you want people not to be drawn to what you regard as extremism then present alternatives and options instead of increasing the social tensions, exacerbating existing cultural conflicts, pretending that Trump is worse than he is.”
Brand slammed the type of liberal leaders and commentators, suggesting they use Trump as a scapegoat to hide their own flaws:
“Whether you like Donald Trump or don’t like Donald Trump, comparing him to a Nazi is illegitimate, it’s wrong, and it’s a way of avoiding your own political shortcomings, and that’s the real problem.”