If Rule 101 of writing a book is “Turn your phone off”, then rule 101 of publicising a book is “get it banned”. The rule was once again proven this week as Andy Ngo’s forthcoming work Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s radical plan to destroy America became the Number 1 bestselling book on Amazon US. That is, the number 1 bestselling book in the English-speaking book market. How did it happen? Because as well as being contemptuous of the laws of American society, Antifa turn out to be ignorant of the rules of the publishing industry.
For anyone unaware of him, Andy Ngo is a young American journalist who has spent recent years reporting on Antifa’s activities in Portland, Oregon, among other places. For years he has attended Antifa events (first openly, subsequently undercover) and through video, photography and written reports has testified to a reality which most American journalists either ignored or treated as an unimportant sideshow. As well as appearing in mainstream publications such as the New York Post Ngo’s journalism has caused waves online where he has attracted a huge social media following.
In the summer of 2019, while reporting on an Antifa rally, Ngo was attacked by a mob, who recognising the young journalist, attempted to stop him reporting and seriously assaulted him. The resulting injuries saw Ngo hospitalised with a brain haemorrhage. It was the moment when many people first saw the reality not just of Antifa violence, but of Antifa’s delight in violence.
Ngo is everything the progressive Left should be in favour of. The son of Vietnamese immigrants to America, he was raised in Portland and, while doing a Master’s degree at the local university, began his career at the student newspaper.
It was there that I first noticed him. He showed himself to be one of the insightful people of his age who had seen through the identity politics that were roiling their generation. Ngo had pointed out that as a person of colour, of immigrant heritage who happened to be gay, his politics and outlook on the world should have been ordained for him. The radical left clearly thought they should be able to speak for him, and yet they clearly did not. Ngo asserted the right — whatever his characteristics — to be allowed to think for himself and not to be told that he had to fall in line with some specific political project because of his background.
In subsequent years, as he progressed with his journalistic career, Ngo was consistently not just treated differently but singled out for specific attack. As his reporting from his home town began to get noticed the radical Left tried exceptionally hard to take him out. Online campaigns increasingly influenced mainstream publications to claim that Ngo was in some ways a partisan, political actor, motivated by malice and bigotry. Since it is hard to portray a quiet gay member of an ethnic minority as some kind of alt-right, white nationalist they made the most extreme claims possible about him, following the tactic that if you make the most outlandish and damaging allegations about a person then some of it will stick.
They partly proved the utility of that tactic. Antifa and their fellow travellers spent years claiming that Ngo was in league with the far-Right and that his presence reporting from demonstrations by “the Proud Boys” and other Right-wing groups was in fact proof that he was a member or supporter. Having got away with such claims they pushed further, pretending that the person they were targeting was in fact targeting them.
They claimed that by identifying individuals who had been at protests, or who had been arrested, Ngo was “doxing” (releasing the home address or other personal details) of rioters. In fact, as so often, they were simply accusing an opponent of doing something that they were doing themselves. A campaign of harassment by Antifa activists picked up pace. Forced to get security cameras at his parent’s home, Ngo filmed Antifa activists turning up there. On one occasion they did a pseudo-intelligence service sweep to “affirm” that the address was one Ngo lived at. On another they turned up in masks with Ngo’s own face on them. It was a campaign of harassment that the Portland authorities took no interest in.
Even when Ngo was seriously attacked the same authorities could not rally themselves. When a journalist was assaulted and hospitalised in broad daylight — on camera — the Portland city politicians and police spent no time trying to identify what had happened or who might be culpable. To date, nobody has been charged for the attack. If things continue to go badly wrong in the US one reason will be that so many people were able to see — spelt out in actions as well as words — that elected officials and law enforcement took so little interest in the activities of far-Left militia groups that they allowed them to pick journalists off with impunity.
So it has gone on. Last October, while in Portland ahead of the US election I went on a tour of the Downtown area of the city with Ngo and was disgusted to see graffiti everywhere calling for his murder. “Kill Andy Ngo” was written in huge blood-red letters on the boarding of one of the endless number of buildings boarded up because of riots. The one remaining statue in the centre of town (a World War II memorial) was also plastered in graffiti attacking him. In most of the developed world, having your city daubed in graffiti calling for the murder of a journalist would be regarded as a matter of shame. In Portland the authorities clearly did not care, and none thought it worth acting on.
Last November the ineffectual Mayor of the city, Ted Wheeler, was re-elected over an Antifa-backed candidate. To say that he has lost control of his city is an understatement; the city authorities have allowed rioting for months, even resisting federal requests to assist law enforcement. Wheeler was chased out of his own apartment block and earlier this month was assaulted in a restaurant. None of the placation seems to have worked.
But this week the activists of Antifa returned to one of their favourite targets: the journalist whose factual reporting seems to get under their skin so much. Learning of the imminent publication of Ngo’s book they began a campaign to try to force bookstores in America not to stock Ngo’s book.
Their targets included Powell’s bookstore in Portland, where a group of Antifa protested this week, screaming at management and causing the bookstore to close as a safety precaution. The shop pleaded for mercy, insisting in a published statement that “This book will not be placed on our shelves… We will not promote it. That said, it will remain in our online catalog. We carry a lot of books we find abhorrent, as well as those that we treasure.”
America’s fearless and impartial media covered this as well as can be expected. In a report on the Portland bookstore protest ABC news wrote that “Author Andy Ngo is known for aggressively covering and video-recording demonstrators.” What is this “aggressive” coverage? How does it differ from ABC’s own brand of journalism? Does ABC favour “mild” reporting or “milquetoast” video-recording of rioters? Apparently so.
The “news organisation” continued: “In 2019, Ngo said he was targeted and suffered brain injuries when he was assaulted while covering protests in Portland.” What is this “said he was”? Either Ngo was assaulted and hospitalised or he wasn’t. It should not be hard for ABC to find this out for themselves. But in this and other ways, the effectiveness of Antifa’s tactics over recent years can be seen. Spread enough ordure around a figure, find people in the mainstream media sympathetic to some of your aims and intentions and you can subtly or not so subtly rewrite and reframe actual events and cast a victim as some type of sinister perpetrator.
For now Antifa’s tactics have worked not just in influencing some of the mainstream media but in — among other things — chasing Ngo from his home, and indeed out of his country of birth. Like his parents before him, Ngo has ended up leaving a country in which his life is in danger. That this country is the United States is shaming.
But there is one upside. Attempts to ban books do not go down well in all quarters outside of Oregon, and ahead of its release next month UnMasked shot up the online bestseller lists. And if bookstores do not stock the work then they will simply lose even more business to their online competitors. Amazon will still sell it, and this week UnMasked was selling in droves. Andy Ngo is not a victim, but thanks to Antifa he is now a Number 1 bestselling author. Which is the best reply imaginable.
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SubscribeFormer Powell’s employee here:
This is my first comment here. And I realise this info is unsubstantiated. I signed up because I believe this needs to get out there. Long story short, Powell’s has been censoring books for years. Examples include staff purposefully changing book titles so they would be harder to find on the shelves and in the online catalog, hiding books, over or under pricing books, and changing numbers of sold books so they wouldn’t be reordered. In addition, the groupthink among staff combined with attitudes fostered by the bookstores union (ILWU Local 5), towards anyone who didn’t think like them, made it challenging for moderates, libertarians, conservatives, and christians who worked there.
It is no surprise that Powell’s is doing a partial block on Ngo’s book. And it’s no surprise the store is calling it deplorable.
Antifa regularly spent time in the Leftist Studies section which would have been fine except some felt it was okay to destroy or hide books they didn’t like. They also ripped up or vandalised displays talking about particular (wrongthink) books. They sometimes followed customers, subtly photographing some or even following them. A couple staff also got this treatment but usually just certain ones on their radar. The management wasn’t helpful. Occasionally a staff member would be accused by managers of having “an agenda” for equally selling both controversial and non-controversial books. At times staff would also harass other staff. One moment was over a toxic battle over gendered bathrooms with one person writing “THIS IS NOT A WOMENS BATHROOM” when for decades it had been just that.
I hope Andy can find safety. I hope Powell’s gets a stronger backbone and stops speaking negatively about a book no one there has even read yet. But their Antifa sympathetic management apparently has the final say.
The US has become an example of what we hope we never become.
Civilised Europeans no longer fear their past and that it might return. They do look on in anguish at the USA, with a grim determination that its current malaise will never happen here…
Woke left are the new fascists, worse in some ways, as they hide behind fake social justice. Easy for the disconnected, and lost to find a home around their dangerous ideology.
Antifa originated in Germany.
The author of this article, Douglas Murray, also wrote this https://en.m.wikipedia.org/…
Didn’t Britain and France just have a gunboat standoff over fishing?
I agree with you that the woke left are fascists but the interesting part is that this isn’t an issue all over the US. We don’t have antifa where I live. No riots, no looting. It wouldn’t be allowed. People of all races simply go about their lives. I never even think about antifa until I read about their antics in blue cities and states. Our kids are back in school and have been for months. I feel sorry for people who have to live in cities and states where antifa makes such a mess of everything but then they chose leaders who won’t protect them from it. That’s not my problem, it’s theirs. So let’s be clear, it isn’t the US, it’s only parts of it, and not even a great number of parts at that.
Powell deserves to lose their custom. But perhaps in the SJW enclave it can survive.
Sounds like Powell needs a furnace where you can buy, and then burn, a book. Be good business, and in Portland would have customers lined up. A natural extension of their business model.
I hadn’t heard of Andy Ngo before, but after this article, I felt obliged (and excited) to read his forthcoming book – I have just ordered. Thank you Douglas for continuing to shine a light.
Now on my “buy” list.
I also just ordered it yesterday. Let’s hope it doesn’t somehow disappear before publication. Anything is possible presently
Like you , I’d not heard of him before, just pre-ordered his book.
My shelves are filling with interesting books that have been cancelled.
There are few organisations as evil as Antifa/BLM. Of course, I’ve been following the Andy Ngo story for some time, and he has been interviewed on Triggernometry etc. I didn’t know that he and his family had been forced to leave the US. This really is a shameful indictment of what that country has become.
I like Andy’s work but he was not forced to leave the US. Portland is not the US, it is in the US. The US is rather large. He could have moved lots of places. He still should not have had to though.
If he could move anywhere else in the US then so could his detractors or they could just make a phone call or three.
Judging from the article and some of the comments it
seems that he would get no protection from the
local police.
That would be my conclusion if were him
Oh, there are numerous places in the US where the constabulary would be more than delighted to deal with the beta antifa soy boy crowd.
He would where I live. If you elect people who won’t protect citizens, that’s your fault, not mine. H Cameron is correct, being forced to leave Portland is not the same thing as being forced to leave the US.
I agree. He could have moved to a Republican State. Many good people are now leaving Democrat run states. However, I do think with this stolen election and the agenda of the Democrat party being put in place, there will be a real shift of the population and as with the McCarthy witchhunts I suspect many who have an alternative view to BLM will be leaving America. Unfortunately UK is becoming just as sick. Where will conservatives and free thinkers go in the future.
The last bastions of freedom are being broken up by the very governments who should not have been elected in the first place. Will Russia be our safe haven in the future??
Why are you taken in by this false talk of a ‘stolen’ election? It wasn’t stolen – there is no evidence to say that it was, just the bleating of a deluded, narcissistic man-child who can’t handle being a loser!
How else to explain multiple battleground states suspending counting in the wee hours and then resume hours later with huge Biden vote dumps. Plus prevention of Republican poll watchers from getting close enough to actually see anything. If they weren’t cheating why do this?
The “dumps” were mail in ballots, which sway heavily Democratic.
Oh for crying out loud! This is conspiratorial Alt-Right stuff. Why didn’t any of the court cases succeed then, even with Republican or indeed Trump appointees….?
Are you going to argue the popular vote as well? But if Trump is so brilliant and to be taken at his own estimation, he should have won by an unarguably landslide anyway.
Rather a lot of people vote left of centre – you may not agree with them, but they are part of the ‘people’ too!
David Lammy?
Votes were stolen where they counted, in key precincts that determined what key states went Democrat. California, an unfolding disaster where the smart people who can are getting out, gave old Joe five million votes over Trump. Meaningless votes because the state always votes the same way as the five biggest cities, all of them mismanaged by Democrats for decades. The Electoral College was designed to curb this form of mob rule.
I am anti antifa and Trump equally – think that is a balanced view that most in U.K. take. Is there a link between the fact that Trump is president and all the stuff about a ‘stolen’ election? The Gore/Bush election was far closer, and democrats didn’t act like children. Trump is no more than a narcissistic bully. Just awful. That seems so obvious to most people in U.K.
What about Hillary Clinton’s response to the 2016 election result…..?
Maybe because of the constant hate campaign against him, and constant efforts to get rid of him, people do not believe the opposite, that the election could have been fair.
Any fair minded person could see from the beginning that Trump was not a normal president, or a normal human-being – you really don’t need to be a lefty/liberal to see that, you really don’t. Trumpism is now tuning into an awful cult. Like the members of all cults they love victimhood. Antifa and Trump supporters have so much in common. The US is turning into a banana republic- really not looking good. We used to look up to it, we pity it now.
I spend a good portion of every year in the USA and have spoken to many Trump voters. Most of the ones I’ve spoken to are well educated and well aware of what a despicable human he is. There is a certain amount of embarrassment about his personality and some of his antics. It’s just that a huge number of Americans hate what the Dems have become even more. And who can blame them? If the Dems had spent the last 4 years trying to figure out how a lunatic like DJT could beat them–rather than trying to dispute the result of the 2016 election with disproven Russian conspiracy theories–the whole world might be better off right now.
Yep, which is exactly how BoJo knocked over the impenetrable ‘red wall’ her in the UK – as embarrassing as he might be.
I think you’re right about the Dems lack of analysis, too. There must be a rabbit to catch if a narcissistic fantasist can sit behind the Resolute Desk. And they’re still not trying – just prying the divide further apart.
All the best.
May be just ‘unproven’ Russian conspiracy theories, not ‘disproven’. The Muller investigation was held back on many levels. And hopefully, the Dems have been doing some self-reflection.
Held back? How? Seriously, I haven’t heard that and would like to know.
If the objection to Trump is that he is a narcissist, then why do all broadcasters and most publications give a free pass to Barack Obama these past 13 years: an extreme case of narcissism, if ever there was one?
If the objection to Trump is that he is a coarse, vulgar sexist (I would say an immature schoolboy with his commitment to serial polygamy, marriage to a succession of gorgeous models), then why the happy acceptance in the media, even adulation, of Bill Clinton, a rapist (as Mrs Kathleen Willey’s torn body testified)?
If the objection to Trump is that he is a bully, why did the media go all in for Hillary Clinton, a bully supreme?
If the objection to Trump is that he is corrupt, then why do the media tell so little of Hunter Biden’s corruption which exactly mirrors that of Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law?
I agree that much support of Donald Trump has become a mindless cult, and my own view of the man is that he is corrupt, exceptionally courageous (who else would have tolerated and punched back against so much feral hatred and denunciation these past 5 years, thereby exposing the corrupt DOJ, FBI, CIA and media) and that he is an exceptionally silly creature too. Through his own sheer character flaws he has muffed most of his grand policy-opportunities.
But what is ultra-suspect is the hysteria against Trump on all sides and the quiet pass given to outrages galore from the Ruling Establishment in the western world.
It is almost as if people are keen to do the elites’ dirty work for them.
Good balanced argument.
There is little of it about.
Obama did amusing dances, could cry to order and did the ‘serious’ voice very well.
I am not a Trumper – didn’t vote for him the first or second time. But to pretend our problems are because of a Trump cultism is an illusion. The murder rate is up 25% in LA. In St. Louis businesses are passing on staying in the city or relocating there because of the personal and property crimes. This in turns dries up even more the sources of revenue and jobs desperately needed. Newly appointed prosecutors have redefined how they will prosecute these crimes. All thanks to George Soros https://www.politico.com/st…. You should not only pity us but be concerned that our disease will spread to you. I read that Ireland is experiencing its own ‘white privilege’ movement. I find this amusing as I believe my relatives came over in coffin ships – not cruise ships.
The US has been a center right country for generations–there is now a small minority (5%? 10%) infesting all our institutions that believe in totalitarian Marxism. They have been “educated” to think this is “progressive”, rightthink, but that doesn’t change what it is.
Please don’t think that what that minority puts out as the right views, represents even a majority of those nominally on the Left in America.
Don’t get me wrong, those nominally on the Left are voting for this crap–witness the recent election and not just for POTUS, but in Georgia (the US state). Education is crucial–not clear we can re-take that, but we have to try. Play the long game and educate the next generation of voters.
Perhaps Trump’s personality was less important to some people than his results. Do you believe results matter?
Martin, whilst I agree with you in general about Trump, you have to admit that the Democrats have largely spent the last 4 years refusing to accept the result of the previous election!! Also, I have to chuckle when I hear commentators on our Television Stations and Media, as well as people like Starmer and Lammy, all proclaiming horror at this assault on Democracy!! These are the same people and organisations that have spent 4 years attempting to ‘trash’ the result of the Brexit Referendum, the biggest democratic vote in our history!! Sheer hypocrisy!!!
Don’t think that’s fair. You are allowed to disagree with with policies even if they have democratic backing. Conservatives didn’t suddenly agree with Labour policies when Blair won. But nobody disagreed with the fact that there was a majority to leave the EU. They did argue that the leave campaign was based on misinformation- which is a different point. The argument for a second referendum was based on the fact that unlike general elections the decision to leave was for a generation. Also the decision to leave was ambiguous- it was not clear what kind of Brexit people wanted from v. hard to v soft. So there were all sorts of issues surrounding Brexit that do not apply to ordinary elections. In any case we have Brexit now! But none of this is comparable with the manic Trump – he is in a different league altogether.
‘But nobody disagreed with the fact that there was a majority to leave the EU. They did argue that the leave campaign was based on misinformation- which is a different point.’
I agree there was misinformation disseminated on both sides for example it was an oven ready deal or that the sky would fall in if we left.
But the last 4 years has seen anti democratic forces trying { unsuccessfully} to overturn a democratic process.
The general public are not stupid they could see the misinformation pedalled by both sides but in the end they made the correct choice.
Do have faith in Britain and its populace.
Wm F Buckley once said: “I’d rather be ruled by the first 500 names in the New York City phone book than by the faculty of Harvard or Yale.”
Yes, trust the populace! Although in the US, civics education, history, are all but eradicated so it’s not clear how much longer the populace can be counted on.
Yes and it was a very close thing. No one would have argued about, say, 70/30 but 52/48?
That may be in Londonistan and the home counties – trust me, nobody outside of the limp wristed libtard champagne socialists of a few southern counties sees Mr Trump as anything other than a light in a very dim tunnel. What a whimpish post to make, are you really that removed from what is going on, even in England?
If you don’t think Democrats acted like children after Gore/Bush, you weren’t paying attention. Gore conceded the election and then withdrew his concession and the Democrats tried to find votes in every hanging chad. And afterwards, even after Bush won and was sworn in, many many many Democrats continued to say the election was stolen.
Most people in the UK are being fed the MSM storyline. Some of us can research for ourselves. Not everyone in the UK is an MSM sucker. Actually, quite a lot of us,
And the first narcissist to hold high office? A bully? OK, maybe. I would not want to leave him alone with my daughter or wife, but I like his performance as POTUS: employment, CCP opposition, de-regulation, reducing energy costs (how many third world lives saved by that? Does anyone in the First World care?), etc. Debt? He’s screwing us on that just like all his predecessors. Prosecuting CCP for COVID; he blew that too. Why he didn’t declare China under the CCP as a public health emergency and ban all travel to/from the US forever until they meet First World standards of public health policy and transparency is a mystery to him. Oh, and he did not employ me as an advisor–very dumb! 🙂
Except for refusing to concede you mean? Not to mention taking it all the way to SCOTUS.
I believe that Russia will, in fact, become the country of safe haven. I also believe that, if this barreling to Communism is not stopped, Trump and his family will also be forced to flee for their safety…
Russia has never been safe.
Interesting that Russia and the old Eastern Bloc countries are currently looking like the best hope for the continuance of Western civilization. What a turn-around!
Yes, because countries that outlaw homosexuality are notoriously in favour of free speech.
Quite rightly too. The minorities are the tail wagging the dog. The west becomes Sodom and the Baltic / Russian states now reintroduce family values and the return of the Church. Let the ‘Muricans rot in their self made mire. Kudos to those who flee to Republican states. When Texas becomes the go to place for ex silicon valley entrepreneurs the writing is on the wall. The old hair sniffing numb nuts with Pelosi, Walters and Schumer can preside over the rotten carcass of what is left. BLM, ANTIFA, the rotten left, the sodomites and the LBGTQWNHOIPAKLDZX got all they wanted. Now suck it up – with your own dollars.
Sodomites?!
It’s a shame that we can’t justifiably condemn Antifa without spouting seemingly Alt-Right sentiments – who are by the way as responsible as anyone for America’s current polarisation – the ludicrous but sinister ‘birther’ movement for example.
Please don’t conflate “alt-right” (a catch phrase for anyone too far right for the writers’ tastes, eh?) with normal, mainstream, center-right, liberty loving citizens. The latter views are now portrayed as extreme–we MUST fight that or all is lost.
Unfortunately, decent states are being overrun with the same people who wrecked their own states then moved on. My home town of Denver is now an ugly sprawl, with a totally different demographic. Colorado will never be the same.
Hungary and Poland are good options in Europre.
Conservative but not at all overly so, decent people and decent western culture mostly without the ills of the current one from the West.
“Republican State”? Look at an electoral map of US counties. There are no Republican States (well very few), just Republican counties. Your point is still valid…there are lots of places Ngo could have moved to. See “American Redoubt”.
Neither are an ‘organisation’! They are movements with a noble cause but an extreme few at the end.
Antifa is a cell type of organization much like the Taliban and ISIS…they are anarchists…BLM is a known Marxist organization. There had been some effort to differentiate between #blm and #BLM but I have not seen it…they are one and the same in their tactics and goals…
Oh dear you really have been led astray.
Christ on a bike Tony – the 2nd in command of BLM’s family are multi millionaires. Keep swigging the kool aid. The left love you.
Former Portlander, thank you for the information. I have often wondered about the things you mention in regard to the atmosphere in their stores. I’ve also noticed strange problems with the way they enter book titles. (I’m moving out of the Portland area soon. It has become unlivable). This is my first comment here, and I also signed up to comment about Powell’s.
“pretending that the person they were targeting was in fact targeting them.”
Yes, an age old tactic of the left, and exactly what they have been doing to the President.
ABC really are lower than vermin.
God alone knows where this world will be in 20 years time. Shameful the way these people and organisations are allowed to thrive; all at best ignored, at worst actively encouraged by MSM
It’s incredible, isn’t it?
We live in the freest societies in history, with every citizen enjoying more rights and opportunities than everybody who came before us, and some people are determined to tear these societies down.
But I’m told antifa is just an idea. Were the Dems lying to me about that?
Bwahaha…what did you want them to say? That they are their footsoldiers?
Title added to my books-to-order list.
Don’t be too sure that Amazon won’t pull his book if political exigencies demand it. They withdrew from sale Tommy Robinsons book ‘Mohammeds Koran: Why Muslims kill for Islam’ which he co-wrote with Peter McLoughlin when it shot up the best-seller charts.
Any suggestions as to where to get it? I might not even read it – but banned books deserve to be bought…
He sells it from his website. Google search should show it. I’ve never read my copy but I bought it as soon as they banned it.
I’m confused as I can’t find a reference anywhere to it being banned, and since it hasn’t even been published yet it can’t have been. Try engaging brain, sometimes it helps!
You can buy it here: http://www.mohammeds-koran….
and here is a link to the report of ban by Amazon https://www.independent.co….
Maybe engage your brain before insulting others?
Sorry my bad, I thought that you were referring to the antifa book. Tommy Robinson is a nasty, mendacious racist so I’m not surprised that his book was banned. A bit like Trump having his Twitter account stopped for inciting violence and general falsehoods.
Disagree. See his oxford union address on utube. He explains his history and how he saw his town, Luton, change. It gives his whole being context. He has encountered strong racism and aggression from local muslims growing up. He has reacted with like really.
Now he’s moved onto bigger political ideas as he just cannot get his views out to the world about islam. It is so disgusting for people to label tommy robinson as a racist.
He has a very intelligent view about islam and he shares this view. Yes it can cause division, but not talking about these things is much worse.
Have you seen the head reporter from the Times in his presentation about the grooming gangs ? He said TR should be seen as a hero for having the strength to talk about these issues long before anyone else would dare.
Would you, tony, have had the strength to put your head up and raise this issue ?
It was published nearly 2 years ago.
I just bought from B&N on a pre-order so I question that it was published two years ago. Perhaps on a limited vanity printing.
It was published nearly two years ago and was promptly banned by Amazon. There is an article on the Independent among others which mentions its banning. It wasn’t a limited vanity printing as it was shooting up the Amazon charts when it was banned, so I would many thousands were printed at the very least.
Amazon, the last time I looked, was a private business and not a public service. They can pull any book they want.
Private companies may not owe you anything. That doesn’t mean their actions can’t be bad for free speech. Free speech is more than a legal principle. It needs to be a broadly held social value for it to have any meaning.
Digital book burnings are still book burnings. They used to be something people could universally condemn. That has evidently changed. You do not remove a product that people want to buy from your shelves.
It hasn’t been banned, or ‘burned’ or pulled – it hasn’t even been published yet!
I’m responding to someone who is justifying these actions.
I’m not really justifying it. It’s more that I’m trying to explain how capitalism works. Amazon is a private company and will sell things until the potential profit is worth less than reputational damage. We have allowed Amazon to reach this position of extraordinary power and influence – that’s us, the consumers. The book, when it comes out, will still be available whatever Amazon decides to do. And it’s a long way from “book burning”.
https://www.independent.co….
We are talking about Tommy Robinson’s book, it was published nearly 2 years ago! Are you talking about something else??
And burn them I guess???
Its market share of the book trade is so great that it’s reasonable to consider it a quasi monopoly and therefore worthy of government regulation.
Thanks. Just ordered it.
The best thing we can do in the UK is distance ourselves from US politics & culture wars as far as possible. Large swathes of America’s political elites & media culture are completely incompetent, dim-witted, & beneath contempt. The US seems to be in the process of imploding… Good luck to Andy Ngo
Europe is further down the path. UK is toast.
In my little SJW enclave in Manchester, I delight in going to my little SJW bookstore – I prefer bookshops over Amazon – and ordering anything they of which might disapprove. I’ve got the last two Douglas Murray tomes there, Heather MacDonald’s Diversity Delusion & Pluckrose/Lindsay’s Cynical Theories. I’ll order Andy Ngo’s book next.
It’s shocking he had to leave the US. I had no idea.
Chorlton bookstore?
Thanks for the tip. Order placed, Feb 2 seems to be the release date so hopefully it’ll arrive the next day.
Hopefully not through Amazon. We are all seduced into using the very outlet likely to bring down conservative thinkers in the future.
I agree. Boycott Amazon, per se. Buy directly from online stores or venders using the Amazon marketplace, even if you have to pay shipping. Amazon staff pushed for pulling hosting Parler on their server farm so they are no innocents.
US citizens have sown the seeds of disaster within their own country by electing the democrats and their insane politicians. How anyone with an ounce of common sense can listen to AOC and believe in her drivel is beyond me? So the US will soon reap what they have sown. They will become a shell of the great country they once were and Vhina will be free to take the lead on the World stage. God help us all.
Good article, thanks Douglas. However what you seem to be ignoring and is,obviously, being ignored by the MSM and big tech(because they are in cahoots) is that Antifa were, at the very least, complicit in inciting trouble and violence in DC on the 6th Jan. Also a rather loose coalition of Antifa, democrats, MSM and big tech could well have been responsible for massive irregularities in the US election. At the very least it is worth examining the evidence rather than ignoring it. These are the biggest stories of the decade, possibly since the War but are being ignored. Why?
Perhaps you could point us to this ‘evidence’ of ‘massive irregularities in the US election’ – I have seen not a shred, but maybe I am blind?
You need alternate news sites with real journalists. Try using SafeChat and explore what’s on there. The site uses end-to-end encryption…
There are none, it’s been inarguably proven. The whole idea of the “stolen election” was invented by Trump and his followers believe anything he says, no matter how ridiculous or obviously false. Trump lost every single one of his law suits. Every single one. Including those by judges he’d appointed himself. Trump supporters need to accept that the majority of American’s don’t want a country led by a narcissistic moron who constantly lies.
I’m not sure. Lots of sources pointed to voting irregularities in the 2016 election. Could the same not have happened in the 2020 election? Whatever the outcome, I think any possibility of election fraud is well worth investigating, if not to change this particular election, at least for future ones.
Foe sure you are blind. There are none so blind as those who will not see.
At least 2 have now been arrested. One is the son of a New York Democrat judge.
The Left will stop at nothing and sadly the Right will eventually respond as they have run out of peaceful options. The latter have the most guns.
I wonder who placed the pipe bombs in Washington DC outside the HQs of the 2 main parties?
Inside job with Antifa/BLM as the provokers…me take from everything which I have seen off-MSM. MSM should be tracked only to see what is being fed to the general public, not to be taken as gospel.
There is going to be a reckoning in America between the hard-left Antifa and BLM mob and those on the right. Biden is not the man to bring America together, because it can no longer be brought together whilst the illberal and unDemocratic Party allow Antifa and BLM to riot, loot and burn with impunity
KBO Andy Ngo and may God keep you and your family safe.
Kemala said these “mostly peaceful protests” should continue.
Much to look forward to.
we have become a nation of exes forced to live in the same house
Thank you, Douglas, once again. Order placed.
So, in summary.
1. The extreme Left want to destroy America because they think it’s a right wing hell hole.
2. The extreme Right want to destroy America because they think it’s a left wing hell hole.
3. The Centre Left and Centre Right co-op the extremists in their respective Party’s in order to gain power.
4. Go back to step number 1 but with a bit more outrage than last time.
I think the only answer is zero tolerance for political violence. I fear anything less will be insufficient to stop this negative feedback loop. American’s need to decide. Do they want their state to collapse or not? It really is that simple.
Lets hope the UK authorities can protect him a little better.
ANTIFA = the dregs of the graduate class, angry millennial losers who failed to get the breaks. Thats life.
What do you expect from a group who claim to be anti fascist? After all fascism come from exactly the same place that “anti fascist” now occupy!
”The fascists of the future will call themselves anti-fascists.”
A quote accredited to Winston Churchill.
Please check – according to the Churchill foundation: “We are very confident that Churchill made no pronouncement about fascists of the future. Not only because the quotation or parts of it does not come up in digital searches; but because Churchill didn’t use “fascist” in the generic sense”or as a pejorative against political opponents, as so frequently today. In most of the 97 times he used the word, he referred to specific entities.”
But don’t let you put that off repeating falsehoods,
https://winstonchurchill.hi…
It is an excellent quote. It is attributed to Churchill but I don’t think it was him.
Actually its George Orwell (1903-50) Uk Socialist, Soldier in Spanish republican side in Spanish civil war 1936-39..served with with Burma Police
Anjtifa came from 1930s Germany where they were a Marxist/Fascist party trying to grab power in opposition to the National Socialist party which called themselves Fascists, and so called themselves antifa. They are exactly alike in being Brownshirt, ultra violent, terrorists, and in seeking absolute and brutal control. They have not changed from their days of origin, as their name has not.
It is a great pity that someone as well respected as Douglas couldn’t find it in him to stand by all those journalists who were warning if this ten years ago, who ended up in prison and banned from any media outlet, who for the first time in British history had to seek help from outside UK.
We have now come so far down the road, where even President Trump found the leftwing sickness too deep to remove. Where he even found the Douglas Murrays of this world turning away due their snobbery towards trade and business.
I have great respect for Douglas but until his academic class start standing up together with those of us who have been trying to guard against this very establishment illness, then nothing will be achieved. We had the perfect vehicle in Donald Trump. We have mow taken six steps back with the inauguration of an illegal President Biden.
Who are e these imprisoned journalists? Unless you’re more specific you should not hold Douglas Murray responsible for anything.
Tommy Robinson, the first journalist in British history to be put into solitary confinement for telling the truth. Avi Yemeni, the second journalist to be completely roughed up and then his reputation trashed by those in the globalist press.
There are others including soldier F (name not allowed to be mentioned) whom many are financially supporting at the moment for talking about the terrible treatment of soldiers when they arrive home.
They are numerous stories that got ridiculed and smeared by the press. Douglas new about them but chose to be quiet. He didn’t support David Starkey or Peter Hitchens either. He was brilliant over Sir Roger Scruton. But the fact is many of these commentators need the establishment and their press in order to earn their money. They have to be careful. I am a supporter of Douglas but we have to question why so many commentators and writers refuse to stand together when it comes to the non academic.
No one took any notice of the de platforming of ‘little’ ‘insignificant’ speakers on twitter, then DJT got stung and now, for the very first time this intimidation is being taken seriously. It always only matters when certain groups of people get affected. But the action should have been taken a long time ago before it got this far.
Agreed no journalists stood by Tommy, class snobbery
Tommy Robinson is a not a journalist. He is an activist who was put in prison for contempt of court.
Journalism is performative. If you do journalism, you are ipso facto a journalist. Capisce?
When you describe Tommy Robinsons as a ‘journalist’ and purposefully omit his lengthy history of far-right activism, along with his harassment campaigns against political opponents, you’re doing your own argument a disservice.
These journos are more activists though.
It is so sad the demonisation TR has taken over the last few years. He will be seen as a hero by the establishment, but he will be in his 60/70’s before it happens.
I am a free thinking person am not racist and live and work with muslims – they are decent people. However, i would never be allowed to talk about TR and his views with normal regular people. Even politicians cannot say his name without wincing. This is disgraceful brain washing carried out by the media.
Real debate about the islam issue is just not allowed because i supposed the anger unleashed would be too great. It is such a shame we cannot talk about these things. I supposed the status quo will carry on, we live over here and you lot live over there and we wont integrate much.
It seems big tech is going to censor even more than the MSM and things are going to get much worse going forwards.
I just cannot see how we pull away from left wing ideology.
How is Biden ‘illegal’? He won what all evidence says was a perfectly fair election. There is not a shred of evidence to show otherwise. Just because Trump can’t bear to lose you don’t have to believe his lies!!
There is not a shred of evidence to show otherwise.
Except there is. There are also statistical aberrations that are beyond any normal margin of tolerance. The insistence that all of this be ignored is interesting. And transparent.
When Blair offered devolution to Scotland he intended it to stop the campaign for independence, but it just emboldened the SNP and made them think (possibly correctly) that they had made an advance towards victory. It seems that the mayor of Portland believed that appeasing the Antifa mob would placate them but it has in fact strengthened their resolve in their aims. Most people do not like extremes of views and are happier in the middle ground. The law and the police are our only recourse to stop a drift to extremes and if they will not act then all is, potentially, lost!
Shocking. Well done, Douglas. And we think UK is bad. Not long now.
I have made it my policy over the last several years to buy every book that zealots of any stripe–be it the Catholic Church or the Wokerati of the Twitterverse–attempt to ban or suppress. Just added this one to the list. Good work, Antifa!
The Catholic Church are hardly zealots, and do not burn or ban the sale of books.
When a few can intimidate businesses and people with violence and the government simply ignores the issue, we no longer have a government. The few claim they represent some oppressed group but they simply have hijacked a message to fool those who don’t look behind the curtains. The Orwellian Antifa who are, in fact, quite fascists themselves in their attempts at anarchy have intimidated too many. A natural reaction – Proud Boys, Boogaloo Boys, even something like QAnon arise in opposition. If the public buried in collective phone watching don’t wake up they may find themselves enjoying happiness Chinese style. Where have liberal Democrats gone?
Just ordered the book and look forward to reading it, thanks.
I just visited the Powell’s website and yes they carry the book as Mr. Murray says but their obvious distaste for it hardly warrants hero status.
They do have a Commitment to Free Speech disclaimer which appears to have been cobbled together specifically for this book.
They say the right things and that would seem to be admirable but they couldn’t help but trash the book in the process.
From their FAQs
Why wouldn’t you make an exception to your policy for a book as inflammatory as Unmasked?
Unmasked was written by a provocateur who has made a career of inciting violence over inflammatory and inaccurate ideas that divide people into factions. It is natural that his supporters and detractors have passionate, emotional responses to our carrying his book online.
Interestingly their home page has a dedicated BLM section.
Also among January 2021 Picks of the Month
The Beautiful Struggle (Adapted for Young Adults)
Ta-Nehisi Coates
Kamala’s Way: An American Life
by Dan Morain
You have to enter a search for Mr. Ngo’s book
Here’s the Powell’s fence-sitter disclaimer.
My translation.
“Please don’t blame us, We never would have intentionally ordered this awful book but it was shipped to us by accident so as long as we have a few copies we may as well try to get rid of them”
At Powell’s, a lot of our inventory is hand-selected, and hand-promoted. And a lot of our inventory is not. With several million titles available online at any given moment, complete hand-curation is not possible. Unmasked by Andy Ngo came to us through an automatic data feed via one of our long-term and respected publishers, Hachette Book Group. We list the majority of their catalogue automatically, as do many other independent and larger retailers. We have a similar arrangement with other publishers.
This book will not be on our store shelves, and we will not promote it. That said, it will remain in our online catalogue. We carry books that we find anywhere from simply distasteful or badly written, to execrable, as well as those that we treasure. We believe it is the work of bookselling to do so.
amazon have banned Tommy Robinsons book about the Koran ?
Amazon is a corrupt, monopolistic entity. I do no business with them.
They’re just a private company doing what they want. Welcome to capitalism.
Like the bakery that was sued? Like the churches, gyms, and restaurants across the country forced to close down? And capitalism means engaging in voluntary exchange with willing buyers, not stripping the shelves of a product your consumers might want to buy.
Sorry, but I think removing/not agreeing to stock a product whose presence on your virtual bookshelf might affect your reputation and/or share price is exactly what capitalism is all about. Remember: other outlets are available!
Digital book burnings are still book burnings. No one advocated that Mein Kampf or The Communist Manifesto or Rules for Radicals be erased from circulation. And there is no evidence that stocking this book would harm either Amazon’s stock price or its reputation. On the contrary, spitting on the free principle of freedom of expression harms its reputation far more than banning a book.
Capitalism is about voluntary transactions and providing goods that consumers are willing to purchase, not preventing their purchase in their first place. “The market” would be the book not selling very many copies.
Amazon, Google and Facebook aren’t “in the market”. They are now the unaccountable landlords who own the ground the market stands on.
Depends what you mean by “just”. My local baker’s shop is not de facto as powerful and influential as a major Department of the U.S. State, and does not to the best of my knowledge collude with the CIA’s illegal espionage activities against the American people and innocent citizens worldwide which were thankfully partially exposed by Edward Snowden and Julian Assange.
They banned it only after allowing it to be sold for a considerable period and making lots of money from its very high sales. Win-win for Amazon: make money And virtue signal!
Will this permissive policy towards authoritarian Leftism be tempered under the Harris Administration( sorry, Biden…)?
I hope our journalists temper their distractions and focus on what will surely drive the US from now on?
Although British, I’m familiar with Andy Ngo from his writing in Quillette. The book is coming out over here on 25 Feb on Amazon, so I’ll preorder it now, though I wouldn’t be at all surprised if Amazon pulled it the way things are going in the West.
I had no idea Andy Ngo had been forced to flee the US!!
Be careful what you wish for. Once Trump’s “incitement” becomes precedent, can we count on a few thousand copycat charges of incitement against the Antifa thugs?
I for one will definitely buy his book to reward (in a pathetically small way) his bravery. People tend to over-intellectualise, Antifa are simply a hardcore of revolutionary communists who, gasp, seek revolution, in other words the destruction of the USA which is a constitutional republic. What I find particularly notable about the Portland activists is the extent to which Antifa recruits a periphery of druggies as cannon fodder. When you see the faces and teeth of these people it is clear they have serious addiction issues and are being groomed and preyed upon.
If you’re not inclined to add to Amazon’s hoard, the book can be found at Barnes & Noble and Book Depository.
May the bigoted left wing of antifa, woke etc all rot …
This is a rare moment of a clean and just victory for truth in this critical sociopolitical moment, documented by probably its most incisive commentator.
Andy. Why not appt for asylum in say Canada and make a documentary about the process.
Those progressives who insist on talking up the ‘storming’ of the Captol have nothing at all to say about the carry-on in Portland, except for painting Antifa as butter-wouldn’t-melt heroes. Although I am not a Conservative I have the greatest of respect for freethinkers like Ngo and wish him every success.
Ngo treated vilely. No shred of excuse. His attackers should be in jail.
However, please can we have some mention of context -in Portland and elsewhere – and some proper analysis of Antifa? Also, is it right to conflate Antifa and BLM, both I suspect being disparate groups lumped together as a single menace? Two wrongs never make a right, but it was not Antifa or BLM that violated the Capitol. I have not yet heard Murray reflect on that point, though perhaps he may.
I have a problem with this article. Unless I missed it there is nothing there to say what Mr. Ngo has actually written or what has caused such an upset amongst the citizens of Portland. Could it be that he is a bad journalist? That doesn’t excuse violence against him but it might explain the angst. I won’t spend any more time looking but he seems to have written a dreadfully misleading article in the Wall Street Journal about London, where I have lived for 60 years and worked in the area he looks at. Read this and consider:
https://www.businessinsider.com/wall-street-journals-andy-ngo-writes-cowardly-islamic-england-2018-8?r=US&IR=T
For anyone in Britain thinking Andy Ngo is someone you should listen to, I recommend reading his article in the Wall Street Journal on England. As someone who lives just 10 mins from Whitechapel, NGO’s depiction of east London is a laughable joke. He reveals himself to be a bad faith journalist. He is essentially a grifter.
When you cannot attack the message, attack the messenger.
His message about England was invented nonsense, filled with factual errors and hyperbole. The title of his book further demonstrates that he pedals hyperbole to those who are fearful.
Ironically you are living up to your own comment btw.
The title of his books demonstrates having observed a group whose “work” has been chronicled by numerous others, in both print and video.
No it doesn’t – it’s a title which demonstrates nothing!
show me on the doll where Andy hurt your feelz.
Interesting – if true, that would place him squarely in the same camp as the authors of multiple NYT articles which make errors in capturing the UK.
Interesting to see how much outrage Andy Ngo’s piece “A Visit to Islamic England” stirred up ““ that’s “outrage” by the way NOT measured criticism. Do they, I wonder (to use an old cliche) protest too much?
A typical piece by one Alex Lockie (uncannily similar in tone to the Kenichi odrich remark) is free to read on line. Find it in on Business Insider website. Alex Lockie, it seems is as Happy-as-Larry with multicultural England ““ a nation where we all get along in peace and harmony. It’s just those pesky xenophobic naysayers who spoil things for the rest!
Anyway, the more we know about Antifa the better. You never know, if Andy Ngo’s book sells well enough it might provoke our cowardly MSM into trying their hand at GENUINE investigative journalism. Antifa needs to be dragged out into the light and unmasked.
It is becoming more interesting in a sort of sudoku puzzle sort of way finding out who is playing for which side. Alex Lockie appears to have worked for Fox Business, and is from the US. I read his article quickly and guessed(incorrectly) he was English! Based on what I have read, I won’t be buying the book, so the advert has failed. I will follow Mr Ngo on Twitter though to see what he has to say for himself. Maybe he will persuade me!
I am not so easily dissuaded and will be buying the book. Mainly because there is a dearth of inside information on Antifa.
Interesting. I see some articles refuting the WSJ article, but can’t read the actual article because of paywall. There is also article in Spectator refuting the refutes, by Mr Ngo himself, but again paywall! How many paywalls am I expected to join to form an opinion!
You shouldn’t expect journalists to work for free. Would you work unpaid?
Nothing is free is it. Adverts, they will track me for life, once I visit their site.
Not nothing. One take is free, while another take isn’t. So which take will have the better chance to inform casual readers?
Get a VPN (I love Nord), clean your computer every time you close your browser, do not use Google, or Microsoft browser. If you do not do these simple things you just want to be tracked.
But do you see the problem when the rebuttals are offered up freely, but the thing they are rebutting costs money? It creates an obstacle to ordinary people just trying to weigh both sides to form an opinion, and one many will not bother with. Thus an imbalance in the opinions people form.
A lot more people would probably take Antifa more seriously if they hadn’t been used as a Scapegoat or bogeyman by the Trump administration and his supporters for the last four years, for instance the theory they were responsible for the storming of the Capitol.
Stupid people would have taken Antifa more seriously. I doubt it.
Because if Donald Trump or his supporters say Antifa is bad, then stupid people -including every journalist working for ABC, NBC, the NYT, WaPo – have to believe they are good, even while watching them burning and looting across America.
They don’t simply say he’s ‘bad’ though, do they? They make out they’re the number one domestic terrorist threat to America.
Are they not though.
Not unlike the Red Guards of the Cultural Revolution.
Far right extremists have been responsible for scores more violent attacks in the US in recent years.
Given the number of riots in Portland alone last year I doubt that you can come up the same number of “far right extremist attacks” let alone 40+ more
According to the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Right-wing attacks and plots account for the majority of all terrorist incidents in the United States since 1994. Also right-wing extremists perpetrated two thirds of the attacks and plots in the United States in 2019 and over 90 percent between January 1 and May 8, 2020.
It is ignorant and/or willful enablers that make antifa, blm, occupy, et al think that they can get away with their vile acts. You parrot the laughable meme of “far right…”, as cities burn and innocents are harassed.
I’m pretty sure the victims of the Christchurch or El Paso massacre didn’t find far right violence very laughable.
both of those shooters were extreme environmentalists, not an attitude associated with the right. Same with the guy in New Zealand who also has a fondness for the Chinese. But you were told they’re right wingers, which must make it so.
Good point. Maybe the mosques the Christchurch shooter targeted were very environmentally unfriendly?
From what I’ve read of the Christchurch shooters manifesto his primary motivation is a hatred of humanity in general, a pathological “cancer on the planet” hatred.
Despite what you may have been led to believe he’s not “far right”; eco fascist is a better description. The obsession with Muslims is largely due to their propensity to reproduce.
Talk to some business owners in various cities. Do some research on “far right extremists” violence against innocent passers by, cars, businesses, restaurant patrons…I lived “inside the beltway” in DC, and one cannot dine al fresco without worrying about the possibility of a megaphone in your face, chair throwing group of “peaceful protesters”. But really, I think that you actually know these things, and are disingenuous about this matter
Well, one of theirs has been arrested re: the Capitol fracas, but what does that have to do with years of unfettered violence from this group? The Dems told us antifa is only an idea, despite the mounds of video evidence to the contrary. Deflecting to Trump is weak tea.