Winston Marshall, the former founding member of Mumford & Sons who left the famed English folk rock band after being targeted by the rabid cancel culture mob for complimenting journalist Andy Ngo’s book exposing Antifa, is crediting his faith in God for his ability to stand up in the face of what Winston called the “cancel culture viral mob.”
Marshall discussed his departure from the band which was triggered after he recommended a book from Andy Ngo on Antifa violence, Unmasked, with former New York Times opinion editor Bari Weiss.
“Congratulations @MrAndyNgo. Finally had the time to read your important book. You’re a brave man,” Marshall wrote in the now-delete tweet, which featured an image of Ngo’s book, sparking the woke backlash.
“It began when I tweeted about a book that documents far left behavior in the U.S. And I’d been tweeting about books through the pandemic. But this one sort of seemed to take off,” he told Weiss, saying critics began editing his Wikipedia page and calling him a fascist and Nazi.
“And then there’s a sort of second wave where they come for your friends and your associates and their families. And it’s and it’s very intimidating. It’s a very effective mode of intimidation because it’s one thing when they come for you. But when they come for those you love, you want to defend them,” Marshall said, explaining he was “bloody terrified” announcing his departure from the band he help found at 19.
“Yeah, particularly the last half an hour before I was very nervous, but I feel like it’s gone. I feel like I got my integrity back and I feel like I got my soul back. I feel good now,” he explained, stressing his apology to the band “wasn’t for what I did, it was for how it was interpreted.”
However, Marshall, who played in the band for 14 years, ultimately credited his faith for his ability to stand up to the cancel culture mob.
“Well, if I can quote the great American theologian of all time, Kanye West, he said, fear God and you will fear nothing else. And I love that because for me, I do fear God. And I think it’s true,” he said. “That if you fear God sincerely, then you won’t fear worldly issues, worldly problems. ”
In another interview with BBC Radio 4 this week, Marshall said he left the band to spare them of the “cancel culture viral mob.”
“In the public eye we were a unit and that’s what I suppose these internet mobs do,” he told the outlet, explaining how “troubling” it was to see his friends “get dragged under the bus with me which is not fair on them.”
“It felt like very distracting unwanted attention and possibly damaging for the brand of the band. That’s why I’ve decided I should let them be,” he added, noting his bandmates have been “perfectly honorable” in handling the situation.
In a Medium post announcing his departure, Marshall said he faced backlash after issuing his apology as well, and although he does not consider himself a conservative, he said there is “nothing wrong” with that.
“Though there’s nothing wrong with being conservative, when forced to politically label myself I flutter between ‘centrist,’ ‘liberal’ or the more honest ‘bit this, bit that.’ Being labeled erroneously just goes to show how binary political discourse has become,” he wrote. “I had criticised the ‘Left,’ so I must be the ‘Right,’ or so their logic goes.”
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.