A large number of verified users ("blue checkmarks") on Twitter have weighed in to voice their approval of AntiFa and its brutal assault of journalist Andy Ngo in Portland this weekend.
Left-wing social commentators and journalists expressed glee after Ngo was “milkshaked” and punched — injuries that hospitalized him with brain bleed.
Ngo’s tweets about the attack were met with a mixture of sympathy, shock, and – shockingly – glee as thousands of users shared their views about the violence.
The attack, captured in multiple videos, showed Ngo being assaulted by multiple masked people.
Ngo’s tweets about the attack were met with a mixture of sympathy, shock, and... glee, as thousands of users shared their views about the violence.
Leftist social commentators and Antifa-adjacent journalists, some of whom were previously identified as collaborators of the militant movement, cheered on the attack by first calling Ngo’s status as a journalist into doubt, as if the assault was therefore justified.
Charlotte Clymer, who works for pro-LGBT Human Rights Campaign said the attack was “the greatest thing that could have happened to his career.”
In a tweet akin to claiming a rape victim was wearing too short a skirt, Clymer commented: "Ngo intentionally provokes people on the left to drive his content".
Sarah Gailey, a Hugo Award-winning children's author offered Ngo's brutal beating as a preferable alternative to a time when "workers [dragged] the factory owner out of his house in the night and beat him to death in front of his family."
Nathan Bernard, a left-wing satirist who masquerades as a journalist, says Ngo for “finally got his wish”.
Formerly “militant atheist” and current “activist against Islamophobia” C.J. Werleman compared AntiFa blackshirts with World War 2 veterans and justified his attack “because he’s a Muslim hating fascist who panders to and promotes white supremacists.”
Dan O’Sullivan, a VICE and Rolling Stone contributor said “he was asking for it.”
Aymann Ismail, a staff writer at Slate, argues Ngo “helped create an atmosphere of violence that vulnerable people all have to live through just for being who they are.”
Following CNN anchor Jake Tapper’s tweet decrying AntiFa violence, several journalists and public personalities voiced their disagreement with him, including Erica K. Landau, senior producer at Versa; Brooke Binkowski, former Snopes managing editor, Robyn Pennacchia, Wonkette contributor; Keith Buckley, vocalist of Every Time I Die; Vic Berger IV, political commentator; Idrees Ahmad, an editor for the L.A. Review of Books; and Rob Rousseau, VICE contributor.
Daniel Hoffman-Gill, an actor with smaller TV credits to his name, joined the chorus when comedian Ricky Gervais denounced the attack in a separate tweet.
Katie Shepherd, of Portland-based publication Willamette Week, accused journalists covering Ngo’s assault of producing “bad coverage of a mostly unremarkable protest” by referring to him as a journalist and questioned police reports of cement-laced milkshakes.
Charlie Warzel, writer-at-large for the New York Times blamed Ngo for putting himself in a volatile situation and claims that the violence “should” be unacceptable.
Even as left-leaning blue checkmarks on Twitter seemed overwhelming in their justification of the attack, Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang and Aquaman actress Amber Heard were a fresh breath of sanity with their tweets condemning the violence.
Ian Miles Cheong is the managing editor of Human Events
