There is a band you’ve probably heard but don’t know the name of called Mumford & Sons. They’re a kind of ridiculous pop folk band that makes poppy hits in a way that could be described as “folk exploitation.” They’re British, but have had annoying singles played on repeat across the world.
They dress up in old timey clothes for their shows, and I’ve heard they’re okay live. They’ve won some Grammys and so on.
You’ll remember this song from two thousand and whatever.
It’s whatever. Not my thing, but they’re not hurting anyone in the way that most pop music is. Except I think the above song was one of the first ones to have the f-bomb in the chorus and get played in public places (it should have been Kanye’s “Golddigger”).
As far as I know, no one has thought about this band in a decade.
The banjo player from the band, Winston Marshall, posted a tweet this weekend (now deleted) saying he liked Andy Ngo’s book about Antifa.
Andy Ngo is a center-right Vietnamese homosexual. He’s low-key about his low down and dirty behaviors, and I don’t dislike him in general, but it was always a little bit insane to call him a Nazi. His position is this: “rioting and burning down cities is bad for society.”
But they certainly do call him a Nazi.
Privileged posh boy from shit band Mumford & Sons in “turns out to be a bit right wing” shock. https://t.co/5baO80zMtA
— Simon Price (@simon_price01) March 7, 2021
Real folk musicians worked hard and supported Folk Against Fascism. Turns out that fake folk musicians from Mumford & Sons sort of do the opposite. https://t.co/dLruxmfU8G
— John Spiers ? (@squeezyjohn) March 7, 2021
oh crap, a decent band I have to wipe from memory. Mumford and Sons' banjo player fesses up to being a Nazi far-right idiot praising Ngo. https://t.co/At0nOWCJRR
— Jennifer Sage??♀️??⛷ (@vivavelo) March 6, 2021
This is yet another case of “how dare a person think something different than what everyone else is thinking or pretending to think?”
Ngo used to actually go to Antifa events and film them, and then say “see this is bad, they’re just breaking out windows and starting fires for no ascertainable reason.” Then he got really badly beaten, suffering some kind of brain damage, so now he just writes about it and posts other people’s videos on his (I think very good) Twitter feed. It’s basically the only place you can see these videos of Antifa and BLM violence, and once they ban him, no one will really know that it is happening.
“Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy” has debuted at no. 3 on the NYT’s bestseller’s list. Order now on hardcover, digital or audiobook formats. Read the book that #antifa wants banned. https://t.co/LJ1Wt8G7E3 pic.twitter.com/qfXlch5EoU
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) February 11, 2021
Along with the book, he writes regularly on happenings in Portland for the Post Millennial (which I think is also very good).
Arizona Democrat lawmaker @P2Hannley has voted against a bill that seeks to introduce harsher sentencing for convicted child molesters & rapists. Her reasoning? Rep. Hannley says the bill would hurt people of color. Read the report cowritten w/@MiaCathell: https://t.co/vcUjfMH9kl
— Andy Ngô (@MrAndyNgo) March 5, 2021
People went nuts when they saw the banjo player’s tweet. I’m sitting here thinking “how did they even know to check the feed of this banjo player from this band that everyone hates?” Then I realized that someone has an algorithm set up to see if anyone with a blue check mentions any right-wing figure in a positive light, so they can mob him.
I just can’t help thinking of the fact that Keith Ellison, a Congressman who is now the Attorney General of Minnesota, posted a copy of an Antifa handbook, which literally promotes smashing up and burning down cities in 2018. There was no backlash.
I’m sure the fellow band members forced Marshall to delete the tweet, thinking it would hurt sales.
However, when country star Morgan Wallen got caught saying the n-word in a private conversation, his record sales spiked.
Until they totally ban everything, you can actually make money by doing stuff that isn’t woke. People are really getting exhausted, and are ready to shower money, Joe Biden style, on anyone who says “white people aren’t totally and completely metaphysically evil.”