Ex Mumford & Sons Guitarist Explains Lesson Learned from Apologizing to Woke Mob: Don't Do It
Leftist activists work relentlessly to ensure there is no public dissent against their preferred narratives — preferably by shutting down discussions before they even get started.
For years exercising free speech on a social media platform could lead to locust-like horde of leftists demanding censorship and punishment for the perpetrators. This was the scourge of cancel culture, where potential critics could see their lives upended for daring to express an opinion. However, there are signs cancel culture’s rule by fear and intimidation may be coming to an end.
One sign is the meltdown leftists are going through regarding Elon Musk’s Twitter purchase. This Big Tech social network now openly lets non-leftists communicate, even when they say things leftists don’t like. The monopoly is broken, and we are yet to absorb all the ramifications of that.
Another sign of the growing pushback is when former victims of cancel culture double down and keep expressing themselves in defiance of the mob. English musician Winston Marshall is the latest example of resilience after cancel culture carnage.
Marshall was one of the founders of the folk rock group Mumford & Sons. Music site Discogs noted Winston Marshall provided banjo, guitar and vocals in the group.
During the downtime of the pandemic in 2021, Marshall started making social media posts about the interesting books he was reading.
One of the books Marshall commented on was by journalist Andy Ngo. “Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy” was an exposé of antifa’s violent history and methods.
After reading “Unmasked,” Marshall tweeted to Ngo, “Finally had the time to read your important book. You’re a brave man,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
Marshall was right about that. Despite assaults in antifa hotbed Portland, Oregon, Ngo has kept reporting the truth about the group’s thug tactics.
Marshall later deleted the tweet, but the damage was done. Leftist activists launched online attacks against Marshall.
Marshall appeared on a Glenn Beck podcast posted Saturday to describe what happened when cancel culture came for him in 2021.
Former Mumford and Sons banjoist @MrWinMarshall tells me how he went from apologizing to the woke mob for tweeting about Andy Ngo’s book exposing antifa to speaking out against the mob: “I looked deeper and deeper into the topic, and I realized I HADN’T been wrong.” pic.twitter.com/fkrEVIMDCO
— Glenn Beck (@glennbeck) November 21, 2022
“Somehow it just completely exploded in that sort of a Twitter storm, these things happen, and they say Twitter isn’t real life until it’s real life, and that’s true, because initially I was like, it’s just a storm, it will pass. But, but then you get the phone calls, then you get your friends, people you work with, calling you up. Some of them are worried for you. Some of them are worried about what’s going on, they don’t understand what’s going on, and then you slowly see your life unraveling.”
Marshall apologized, explaining it to Beck as kind of a polite reflex, as if he had upset someone at the dinner table. But there is no satisfying the woke mob for the crime of disagreeing. Marshall ended up leaving Mumford & Sons, initially still trying to appease the leftists.
“Over the course of 24 hours it was trending with tens of thousands of angry retweets and comments. I failed to foresee that my commenting on a book critical of the Far-Left could be interpreted as approval of the equally abhorrent Far-Right,” Marshall wrote in a blog post.
Marshall also described concerns about his bandmates and questions about maintaining his own integrity as reasons for leaving.
When Marshall apologized, he also got attacked by pundits like Anne Coulter for capitulating.
Not drugs, child porn or wife beating … He’s stepping away from the band because he likes Andy Ngo’s book, “Unmasked.”
Get it here: ‘Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy’ https://t.co/Ezuxxq028y https://t.co/t0cBDWomF3
— Ann Coulter (@AnnCoulter) March 10, 2021
But now, many months later, Marshall has reconsidered.
“Gradually and gradually, I looked deeper and deeper into the topic, and I realized I hadn’t been wrong” about Ngo, Marshall told Beck.
“My conscience really started to bother me. I was also frustrated that by, I felt like I was in some way excusing the behavior of antifa by apologizing for criticizing it, which then made me feel, well then I’m as I’m as bad as the problem, because I’m, I’m sort of agreeing that it doesn’t exist, which I found very frustrating. Another point by the way, I find it very frustrating that that the left-wing media in this country and in my country don’t even talk about it. We can all see this footage, we see it online. They don’t talk about it, and that’s part of my I think interest initially in tweeting about Andy’s book because I think people need to see what’s going on.”
As reported on Fox News, since leaving Mumford & Sons, Marshall has reinvented himself as a solo performer and free speech advocate.
Marshall hosts a Spectator podcast called “Marshall Matters.” He says his show is about taboo topics leftists treat as sacred, like environmentalism, transgenderism and Black Lives Matters. Marshall observed, people tend to self-censor on these sensitive topics.
Marshall said, “And so I’ve loved now going into that now that I’m liberated, I guess. I should use my voice. It’s stupid not to.”
More celebrities should take advantage of the exposure they have to advance liberty. Stories like Marshall’s show woke cancel culture’s victories do not need to be permanent.
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