Ex-Mumford & Sons Banjoist Finds Even More Insufferable Gig as Conservative Blogger
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The post Ex-Mumford & Sons Banjoist Finds Even More Insufferable Gig as Conservative Blogger appeared first on Consequence.
It’s a big day for people who mistake criticism for censorship: Ex-Mumford & Sons banjoist Winston Marshall has started a new career as an insufferable conservative columnist, and in a piece for Bari Weiss’ Substack, he’s all in a tizzy over Neil Young and Joe Rogan.
Marshall had previously tweeted his way out of one of the most bankable bands in the world when he supported a dishonest book by right-wing provocateur Andy Ngo. The multi-instrumentalist was especially anxious about Antifa’s violence and “radical plan to destroy democracy,” despite the fact that this loose collection of protesters is overwhelmingly non-violent according to internal FBI assessments and protest-related court documents.
But now that the Antifa boogeyman has faded from the headlines — a development that coincides with former President Trump getting booted off Twitter — Marshall finds himself reaching for the fainting couch after music legend Neil Young declined to share a platform with The Joe Rogan Experience, the episodes of which were recently described by hundreds of scientists and healthcare professionals as COVID-19 “mass-misinformation events.”
Marshall’s new editorial is called “When Artists Become the Censors,” despite the fact that no censorship has taken place. Are Rogan’s rights being infringed? No; as Marshall himself admits, “Spotify is a private company; they’re under no obligation to platform anybody.” He adds that Young’s “campaign doesn’t breach Rogan’s First Amendment rights,” but instead insists, “it is a clear stand against the cultural norm of free speech.”
To further his argument, Marshall identifies other wildly successful figures who have very obviously not been cancelled. “Those brave enough to peep over the parapet —think of Kanye on Trump or J.K. Rowling on the trans debate — are attacked viciously,” he writes.
Ye’s last album, Donda, was the No. 1 album in the country, and not only is Rowling about to put out the final film in her Fantastic Beasts trilogy, but her last novel was shortlisted for a number of awards, despite the villain being a male serial killer who wears dresses. Marshall’s suggestion that some of the most popular artists of today are suffering under liberal censorship isn’t just weak, it’s disingenuous.
There’s a lot more of these word pretzels. Left-leaning artists are giving way to “groupthink” and behaving like “Soviet drones,” as “bottom-up authoritarianism has become the norm.” And as for the Spotify protests, “Perhaps a healthier response from Neil Young would’ve been for him to start his own Spotify podcast.” Here he’s falling back on the old conservative trope that protest isn’t the problem, it’s the way they chose to protest.
And yet, for all the examples of people who have been criticized, he gives no attention to actual censorship; to the Tennessee School Board that prohibited educators from teaching the Holocaust memoir Maus, or to the recent wave of book bannings that targeted Black authors. Just this week a pastor held a literal book burning, but Marshall can’t be stirred to notice, so busy is he defending Spotify’s $100 million man.
Marshall is hardly the only entertainer to weigh in on the debate. Many artists have followed Young’s lead in leaving Spotify, including Joni Mitchell, Nils Lofgren, India.Arie, Failure, and all three of his former bandmates in Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young. Others have offered support to Rogan, such as Dwayne Johnson, Kevin James, and David Draiman of Disturbed. Check out our roundup of who is siding with whom here.
Ex-Mumford & Sons Banjoist Finds Even More Insufferable Gig as Conservative Blogger
Wren Graves
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