The banjoist with the British folk rock band, Mumford and Sons, has provoked a wearily-familiar Twitter storm by having the temerity to read a book by American journalist Andy Ngo which exposes the worst behavior of Antifa.
Ngo’s book, Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy has become an Amazon bestseller. It’s a well-researched account of the history and tactics of the violent far-left organisation which caused mayhem on the streets of several large U.S. cities in the summer of 2020, and is known for attacking events and people – including Ngo – it objects too.
Winston Marshall tweeted “congratulations” to Ngo, saying he “finally had time” to read what he called an “important book” and described the writer as a “brave man”.
How very dare he?
Woke Twitter predictably went insane. How could Winston be so incredibly dumb – or was he really incredibly evil? Doesn’t he know that only the right sort of opinions are welcome in the great New Woke society and that the right sort of people are well able to decry and call censorship of a book without having read it?
If they had read it, they might know that Andy Ngo’s beef with Antifa is that they are both violent and vindictive – and appear to have free rein in cities such as Portland. His detractors claim that since Antifa means ‘anti-facist’, opposing them means supporting facism, but that’s like pretending the Nazis were actually socialists, because, you know, it’s in the name.
The truth is that Antifa’s actions – silencing with the threat of violence anyone who opposes them, smashing and breaking businesses, causing mayhem on campus and for ordinary people – bear all the hallmarks of facism. But there are none so blind as those who will not see.
So expect lots of heat and calls for Mumford and Sons to be cancelled everywhere, and for Winston Marshall, in particular, to be hounded and browbeaten and castigated until he issues a grovelling apology, and then retires to live in a garrett from which he will never work again.
Within hours, Marshall’s Wikipedia entry has been edited by some third party with malice in their hearts, who noted that he had been “criticised” for tweeting about Ngo’s book. Criticised by whom, exactly? Idiots and hysterics? Wiki also notes that he likes Jordan Peterson. Is there no end to this man’s perfidy?
Now it could be that Winston Marshall was well aware of the enormous storm in a teacup his perfectly reasonable tweet would ensure, and maybe he doesn’t give a damn. Maybe he reckons that he has a right to his opinion, a right to read whatever he damn wants, and a right to tweet what he thinks.
Maybe he’s proper radical. Good for him. They’ve good songs too.