Mumford & Sons are in some very hot water thanks to a recent tweet made by their banjo player, Winston Marshall.
The tweet has now been deleted from the face of the internet, however, as reported by Billboard, the tweet supposedly read, “Congratulations @MrAndyNgo. Finally had to time read your important book. You’re a brave man.” He also posted a photo of the cover of the book, Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy.
The book, written by author and journalist Andy Ngo, has been accused by Stereogum as a “right-wing troll and disinformation superspreader” and naturally the realm of Twitter was (and is) absolutely not here for any of it.
One user said, “A dumbfounding endorsement of fascism. Shame, I really liked that one song a while ago.”
A dumbfounding endorsement of fascism. Shame, I really liked that one song a while ago.
— Dr Meenal Viz (@drmeenalviz) March 7, 2021
“I may be naive, but ‘Banjo player from Mumford & Sons Comes Out As Nazi’ was not a headline I foresaw…” This tweet has also since been deleted.
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Another user tweeted, “This is so damn disappointing and really reinforces all the bad stereotypes about what it means when you hear ‘the sound of banjos.’ Supporting fascism ain’t a good look.”
This is so damn disappointing and really reinforces all the bad stereotypes about what it means when you hear "the sound of banjos." Supporting fascism ain't a good look.
— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) March 6, 2021
Right now all you need to do is trawl the comments of their social accounts to see that the situation is particularly inflammatory. Not that you even needed to check social media to confirm that…
A fan on Instagram said, “Unless you kick @winstonmarshall out of the band, I’m done with ya’ll,” and “So Fascism aye? Oh dear.”
And the tweets follow suit.
“Mumford and sons is about to see a lot of lost revenue bc of Winston’s insane right-wing conspiracy views. Americans don’t want to hear the views of a uneducated conspiracy theorist and we won’t support it.”
https://twitter.com/Christalabby/status/1368600825698914309