Book Review
Unmasked by Andy Ngo
Center Street. 2021
Andy Ngo is a real journalist in an age when the twenty four news cycle has transformed reporting into entertainment. “Unmasked” is a masterful piece of journalism written by the foremost expert on the Marxist organization known as “Antifa”. Andy Ngo spent several years covering Antifa and sought to warn America about its nefarious revolutionary agenda and its propensity for violence.
Andy Ngo was even beaten by members of Antifa while covering one of their public demonstrations in 2019. The best chapters in this book are the first two which recount last summers riots in Seattle and Portland. In Seattle, militants seized control of a small portion of territory and occupied it for several weeks.
During the period when a part of Seattle was in effect occupied territory, Anifa militants imposed their own form of rule over unwitting citizens who were effectively trapped. The Seattle Police Department which sought to impose the rule of law was blocked from doing so by the orders of Mayor Jenny Durkan. Similarly, when Antifa and Black Lives Matter rioters engaged in the destruction of private and public property in Portland, Mayor Ted Wheeler ordered the Police to stand down.
Not only did these Mayors order the Police to stand down, they engaged in public denunciations of the Police. Appallingly, the Mayors refused to impose order and permitted violence to go unchecked because of their perceptions that the rioters were politically progressive. As such, these two Democratic Mayors abandoned individual rights and the right to safety for individuals caught in the middle of the riots for ideological reasons.
True democrats (as in democracy, not the Democratic Party) understand that tolerance for violence and pogroms are immoral and barbaric. Medieval Europe and Tsarist Russia saw the sponsorship of anti semetic pogroms. Nazi Germany in 1938 instigated the anti semetic pogrom known as “Krystaalnacht”. The Turkish Republic in September 1955 organized a pogrom against the Greek minority that included Armenians and Jews as targets.
Andy Ngo has done an outstanding job not only as a journalis in recounting the horrors of the summer of 1920 and the years preceding it, he has done the work of a historian by recounting the history of the entire movement that took the name of “Antifa”. The name “Antifa” stands for anti fascist and the movement originally began in Germany during the 1920’s. At least in those days, it was a legitimate anti fascist movement that fought Hitler’s stormtroopers.
Between the German Antifa and the Nazi Party, there is no question that the Nazis were by far the greater evil. The present version of Antifa however cannot legitimately claim to be anti fascist. As Andy Ngo recounts, Antifa calls everyone a fascist or a racist.
Andy Ngo points out that the mainstream media have ignored and downplayed the violence and extremism of Antifa. This review is written over a month after the assault on the capital by extremist supporters of Donald Trump. The media loses its credibility to criticize Trump extremists when it refuses to condemn extremists from the left such as Antifa.
“Unmasked” is a superb book about political extremism and radicalism. It is an excellent and absorbing account of what has transpired in America during the years that preceded the summer of 2020 and after. Andy Ngo who is a Vietnamese American has distinguished himself as one of the most important journalists in America.
“Unmasked” is a well researched book and a truly shocking expose.
3 replies on “Rise of the Left”
The cities of some of these democrat dominated areas have become inhabitable to law-abiding people. The mob runs the show and the police are afraid to enforce the law. When it gets bad enough, when the tax base disappears as more and more folks leave, maybe it will change. Not before then. All you can do is vote with your feet and take your Dollars elsewhere.
It is an utter disgrace that the Democrats refused to take action to restore order. The rioters were permitted to destroy property and attack people in Seattle, Portland, and a few other cities. The Democrats have been taken over by Marxist radicals.
Like I said, take your Dollars elsewhere and block any Federal money that the Biden Administration is trying to slide to these cities and states as part of his ‘Stimulus’ package. They need to feel the pain of their bad decisions or things will never improve. Tough love, but it’s what’s needed. I’m fed up with the Democrats acquiescing to the Leftist mob and getting away with it. Not one penny more of bailout funding.