I've watched with fascination and disgust as Russell Brand has transformed over the years from actor, to spiritual guru and conspirituality grifter (which includes hawking cryptocurrency), to—immediately following rape allegations—right-wing Jesus loving Christian MAGA darling. It should come as no surprise that Brand, no matter what identity he chooses, somehow always finds a way to spread conspiracy theories and sell useless crap. His most recent grift involves selling "magical amulets" that supposedly protect the (oh-so-gullible) wearer from 5G and Wi-Fi signals.
Journalist Will Sommer, who regularly reports on QAnon, conspirituality grifters, and other conspiracy theories and theorists, recently posted a video of Brand hawking the amulets. In the video, a casually-dressed Brand emerges from the woods holding a bright yellow suitcase. I transcribed his cringey pitch:
Hello, I'm just back from Narnia, where I had a holiday–Mr. Tumnus, Aslan, all those guys. And as you know, airports are places full of Wi-Fi and all sorts of evil energies. Think of all of those phones out there, all of the signals, corruptible and corrupting. Luckily, I wear this magical amulet from Aires Tech that keeps me safe from all of the various signals out there. [Brand lifts the obviously empty suitcase high up in the air and tosses it around easily]. And it also means look at this, look how strong I am! I think this is making me more powerful, as a matter of fact! Look at that! This stuff [referring to the suitcase] is absolutely packed with Aires Tech. I didn't even bring any socks or toothbrush or dog meats or anything like that. Just completely full of Aires Tech. You should get one as well, particularly if you're planning to go to an airport anytime soon because the bloody things are full of lethal signals. Aires Tech! A glorious amulet to protect you from corrupting signals.
If for some melted reason you want one of the amulets in question, it will set you back at least $219.99 (and some models are much more) at the Aires Tech website, which describes the amulets as being "designed for personal protection from electromagnetic radiation that you can carry with ease wherever you go."
The company claims that their product represents the "Gold Standard of Scientific EMF Protection," and they state that, "When it comes to EMF protection, Aires stands out with scientific evidence to back its effectiveness. Our solutions have been rigorously tested, published, peer-reviewed, and patented, giving you peace of mind." They also tout their products' ease of use, saying, "Just have them near any source of radiation, and they start working."
This should go without saying, but, sadly, desperate times require me to be absolutely explicit: These amulets do nothing—and in fact several years ago, some items of jewelry (to be clear, *not* the ones Brand is selling) claiming to protect people from 5G were found to be radioactive. Furthermore, 5G health conspiracies have been debunked time and again, and the World Health Organization has clearly stated that 5G mobile networks are safe.
Evan, aka "Backlog Reviewer," wrote a fantastic thread where they dove head first into the amulets and the laughably questionable "science" touted by Aires Tech. One "authority" cited on the Aires Tech website is The Planetary Association for Clean Energy, Inc., which describes itself as: "a non-profit, charitable corporation whose objects are to facilitate the discovery, research, development, demonstration and evaluation of clean energy systems." Sounds like it could be legit, maybe? One glance at the list of dozens of articles that were featured in the PACE newsletter between 1979-1998 tells me this organization is more pseudoscience than anything, as the list features topics as:
- Castor Oil Packs – soft energy medicine (Frederick Gregory)
- Additional method for visualizing acupuncture networks (A. Michrowski)
- Tachyon energy applied (A. Michrowski)
- We are walking antennas! (Eldon Byrd)
"Backlog Reviewer" Evan provides some information about the last author on that list, Eldon Byrd, who they describe as someone who, disturbingly, "thinks disease can be cured by mental intervention." Evan ends their thread with this thoroughly satisfying rant, which truly sums up my own feelings about Russell Brand and all of the other conspirituality grifters making money off of a public desperate for help and answers:
Climbing this chain back out of hell, we're left with Russell Brand, shilling a plastic keyring for a company whose scientific justification is the most obvious woo I have ever read, backed by a foundation who cite a mind control expert in their list of publications.
I don't have a point to make here except that Russell Brand and those he associates with (Jordan Peterson specifically lmao) are obvious, blatant charlatans, hucksters and frauds who prey upon people unwilling to do the modicum of googling I did today.
They target the ill, parents with young children, and the mentally unstable, preying on fears and insecurities about the modern age. They will tell you that an invisible contagion travelling on the air will turn your brain to jelly and transform you into a feminist.
They are gutter-slime, willing to take advantage of frightened, foolish people to make a quick buck, and should never be taken seriously by anybody, ever. A tremendously embarrassing group of people.
Sadly, with Trump back in the White House and conspirituality grifters in charge of United States health agencies, I'm bracing myself for even more pseudoscience masquerading as public health–which is terrible news for all of us.
Previously:
• Comedian Russell Brand accused of rapes
• Dickensian sex pest Russell Brand demonetized on YouTube
• Megyn Kelly is 'pissed' at Russell Brand's defenders
