A prominent member of the band Mumford & Sons has left the group because of political correctness.
In a newly published post on Medium, Winston Marshall said he “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 said he and his fellow band members received a plethora of ugly accusations in the wake of tweeting that he enjoyed reading journalist Andy Ngo’s book “Unmasked,” which explores the dark underbelly of the Antifa movement.
“The distress brought to them and their families that weekend I regret very much,” he wrote. “I remain sincerely sorry for that. Unfortunately, I had pulled them into a divisive and totemic issue.”
Antifa is a terrorist organization at the center of many violent protests in 2020 and before and regularly physically attacks conservative citizens on the streets and journalists covering it. While it calls itself “anti-Marxist,” it employs violent Marxist tactics in its operations.
Marshall lauded his fellow band members for their courage in inviting him to remain with the group but made the decision to leave, citing the fact that after facing the initial scorn, he was targeted by another viral mob when he apologized for praising Ngo’s book.
“The only way forward for me is to leave the band,” he wrote. “I hope in distancing myself from them I am able to speak my mind without them suffering the consequences. I leave with love in my heart and I wish those three boys nothing but the best. I have no doubt that their stars will shine long into the future.”
He went on to explain he wants to continue to speak out on these issues but knows that doing so while remaining part of Mumford & Sons would “inevitably bring my bandmates more trouble” and his “love, loyalty and accountability to them cannot permit that.”
“I could remain and continue to self-censor, but it will erode my sense of integrity, gnaw my conscience,” Marshall wrote. “I’ve already felt that beginning. The only way forward is for me to leave the band.”
Earlier this year Marshall co-founded Hong Kong Link Up, a charity that works to integrate Hong Kongers settling in Britain because of increasing political repression by Communist China.
–Alan Goforth | Metro Voice
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