Perhaps you've answered this question before, but . . .
It seems to me that you may be the only thinker and writer on your beat in Portland (and perhaps anywhere) whose opinion of Andy Ngô I would trust.
I'll lay my opinions on the table and say Ngô's obsession with "antifa" caused him to miss the real story, namely the anarchists' war on downtown businesses and business real estate in 2020-21. Those well-advertised direct actions took place day in and day out when the Proud Boys were standing down wherever it is they hang out when they are not on one of their infrequent provocations in Portland. Also, Ngô also strikes me as an opportunist who is not above injecting himself into a story to make it about himself. If he is versed in journalistic ethics, he doesn't always observe them.
I was around during his rise to fame/infamy but we've never met. I knew the people behind the milk-shaking. I've called him a "monster of the left's making." I remember him as a young "heterodox" journalist. He got some notoriety commenting on left excess during the height of the anti-SJW reaction/commentary era of the 2010s.
Then radical leftists starting going after him. So he got more support from the anti-SJWs and the far right and it snowballed. There were many such stories from that era. The more of a "brave truth teller" he became, the more they attacked him. He became walking proof of how unhinged the left was. To the left, he was a full-throated Nazi and he needed to be made into an example.
The omnipresent "Kill Andy Ngo" graffiti was horrible. I think everyone involved lost track of reality. Antifa fully lost me when they started the "he provided a kill list to Atomwaffen" nonsense.
Ngo became obsessed with Antifa (understandably) but also with underreported black crime. For every story he "scooped" or shined a light on, there seemed to be two or three where he was sensationalizing.
I read protested books, so I read his. He got some stuff right, but he's trapped in the same false reality as the Antifa activists. This action movie where it can only be liberty vs Antifa or Antifa vs the rise of American Nazis.
He's basically the anti Shane Burley. I don't trust either of them because their brains have been melted by the culture war. Neither one seems to have any desire to get back to sanity.
Trying to take him down was the worst idea Rose City Antifa ever had. He blew up so much of their network and dragged so many things into the light.
I recently heard ex-Mumford and Sons artist Winston Marshall interviewed on the podcast "Gender: A Wider Lens." The conversation focused on the hit he and his career took after he praised Ngô's Antifa book. I see it as an object lesson for anyone who's tempted to take sides in other nations' culture wars. It was an unnecessary own-goal. But as far as the podcast's hosts (two therapists, one of them Irish) were concerned, Ngô is/was a "brave truth teller."
Thankfully Ngô has removed himself from the scene. I hope Trump 2.0 doesn't move him to leave his crypt.
Perhaps you've answered this question before, but . . .
It seems to me that you may be the only thinker and writer on your beat in Portland (and perhaps anywhere) whose opinion of Andy Ngô I would trust.
I'll lay my opinions on the table and say Ngô's obsession with "antifa" caused him to miss the real story, namely the anarchists' war on downtown businesses and business real estate in 2020-21. Those well-advertised direct actions took place day in and day out when the Proud Boys were standing down wherever it is they hang out when they are not on one of their infrequent provocations in Portland. Also, Ngô also strikes me as an opportunist who is not above injecting himself into a story to make it about himself. If he is versed in journalistic ethics, he doesn't always observe them.
What is your take on the guy?
I was around during his rise to fame/infamy but we've never met. I knew the people behind the milk-shaking. I've called him a "monster of the left's making." I remember him as a young "heterodox" journalist. He got some notoriety commenting on left excess during the height of the anti-SJW reaction/commentary era of the 2010s.
Then radical leftists starting going after him. So he got more support from the anti-SJWs and the far right and it snowballed. There were many such stories from that era. The more of a "brave truth teller" he became, the more they attacked him. He became walking proof of how unhinged the left was. To the left, he was a full-throated Nazi and he needed to be made into an example.
The omnipresent "Kill Andy Ngo" graffiti was horrible. I think everyone involved lost track of reality. Antifa fully lost me when they started the "he provided a kill list to Atomwaffen" nonsense.
Ngo became obsessed with Antifa (understandably) but also with underreported black crime. For every story he "scooped" or shined a light on, there seemed to be two or three where he was sensationalizing.
I read protested books, so I read his. He got some stuff right, but he's trapped in the same false reality as the Antifa activists. This action movie where it can only be liberty vs Antifa or Antifa vs the rise of American Nazis.
He's basically the anti Shane Burley. I don't trust either of them because their brains have been melted by the culture war. Neither one seems to have any desire to get back to sanity.
Trying to take him down was the worst idea Rose City Antifa ever had. He blew up so much of their network and dragged so many things into the light.
Thank you!
I recently heard ex-Mumford and Sons artist Winston Marshall interviewed on the podcast "Gender: A Wider Lens." The conversation focused on the hit he and his career took after he praised Ngô's Antifa book. I see it as an object lesson for anyone who's tempted to take sides in other nations' culture wars. It was an unnecessary own-goal. But as far as the podcast's hosts (two therapists, one of them Irish) were concerned, Ngô is/was a "brave truth teller."
Thankfully Ngô has removed himself from the scene. I hope Trump 2.0 doesn't move him to leave his crypt.