Transcript for #1323 - Andy Ngo
SPEAKER_00
00:02 - 00:06
Okay. Hello, Andy. Hi, Mr. Rogan. Thanks for having me all.
SPEAKER_02
00:06 - 00:10
My pleasure. How you doing, man? You're all healed up.
SPEAKER_00
00:10 - 00:19
The bruising and swelling has gone down, as you can see, but the most serious injury was to the brain. You have a serious injury to your brain? Yeah, brain, humbridge.
SPEAKER_02
00:19 - 00:20
What happened from what?
SPEAKER_00
00:21 - 00:21
The mob beating.
SPEAKER_02
00:21 - 00:26
So from getting hit in the head, you got a brain hemorrhage multiple times.
SPEAKER_00
00:26 - 00:32
Yeah, so bashing me on the back of my head and to my eyes.
SPEAKER_02
00:32 - 00:36
But so how do you know you had brain hemorrhage in how you will just walk around?
SPEAKER_00
00:37 - 01:12
Well, I was taken to, I started losing my balance after the beating. There was no police, I made it to the courthouse sat down on the ground. And Balanced was called, I had to walk back to the ambulance, because streets were walked back to the police precinct in the direction of the mob, the medics that were associated with the Portland Police. Let me know that they, that I needed to walk in that direction. It was quite shocking because it was, I had just been a victim of this mob beating and then now they're telling me to walk back in the direction of the center precinct where the beating had happened.
SPEAKER_02
01:12 - 01:51
Did they not know that you had been beaten up? Well, let's let's let's set this up for people who are new to this and don't understand what happened. I've been aware of you because of you had written for Quillette, right? And you had become one of these for whatever reason, controversial online journalists, and you covered Antifa quite a bit, and you covered a lot of the radical left. You were in Portland. And what was the exact rally that was going on? What was it called? Did it have a name?
SPEAKER_00
01:51 - 02:06
It was something like Protect Portland. So it was organized by Rose City Antifa and its allies. And by its allies, I'm referring to the local chapter of the Democratic Socialists America. It came out to support them in numbers.
SPEAKER_02
02:06 - 02:08
And what are the protecting Portland from?
SPEAKER_00
02:09 - 02:12
They alleged fascists.
SPEAKER_02
02:12 - 02:17
Fascists. But just in general, I mean, is there a particular thing they're worried about?
SPEAKER_00
02:17 - 02:57
There were two right wing events happening that day that they were counter-doministrating against. There was a one part around town. The proud boys were holding a flag waving event. That was completely peaceful. There was no actually flag waving American flag waving. Correct. Okay. And a lot of Portland has found that provocative and a manifestation of fascistic violence. And in another part of downtown there was a men's rights activist who was holding a rally. It was titled for victims of domestic terrorism. It was an anti-antifa event.
SPEAKER_02
03:00 - 05:51
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SPEAKER_00
05:51 - 07:22
what boy seems like a whole lot of do about nothing flag waving and anti antifa okay yeah can I set the context for please for the city of Portland it's a mess you have listeners and viewers all over the world so Portland or again is a extremely progressive city in the Pacific Northwest of the US and I call it a political monoculture because really it's um not just, you're more likely to find socialist, open socialist there than you would find like a regular Republican or conservative. And within the sort of echo chamber of just leftist politics, it's become also a hotbed for file of militancy. So Rose City Antifa is, you could call it like the local chapter movement of Antifa. It's one of the oldest in the country. It's very large and important. And they hold what you could call protests, but their protests that always devolved into riots, where they essentially take over parts of downtown and attack people, attack their hydrological opponents. And do it frequently with impunity. I mean, I wasn't the only one to talk that day. There were two other people who were bashing on the head, very, and have very severe laceration to the face on head. and you may recall the footage from October of last year when there was elderly driver who was attacked on the streets.
SPEAKER_02
07:22 - 07:32
Yeah, they were directing traffic, exactly. And somehow or another, the mayor thought it was a good idea to let this take place is that the case and they told the police to stand down, is that true?
SPEAKER_00
07:33 - 08:17
So, I mean, the next part of this journey for me will be the legal aspect of it. And it seems like something stinks in Portland. The issue is really not with the rank and file officers. They're following orders to not intervene. So I had been assaulted and criminally harassed, before the mob-beating people were throwing milkshakes at my face and head, Within I site of police who were watching in downtown and both of these were reported and the answer that I heard that day as I've heard many times before when I've been assaulted by antifa is that we will not question a approach or detain the suspect because this couldn't like the crowd.
SPEAKER_02
08:18 - 08:40
Okay, so this is why this has exacerbated or this is why this is becomes such a big deal in Portland because of this attitude because Portland seems to be the hotbed right now for this kind of stuff. Is that is that fair to say? I think it is. So is this the mayor who is who's the one who's giving the orders to the police to tell them to allow this stuff to take place?
SPEAKER_00
08:41 - 09:08
Well, I'm crowdfunding for the legal fund right now, and we are going to hold accountable whoever is responsible for their election of duty where the evidence leads us. So Portland has an odd governance system in that the mayor who is up for reelection, by the way, is also the police commissioner. So. Oh, wow.
SPEAKER_02
09:08 - 09:11
Yeah. How does that work?
SPEAKER_00
09:12 - 09:26
It's an old system that I inherited and it just another change from the Wild West. Like, that sounds ridiculous. Yeah. It is ridiculous. You can see all the political conflicts and in conflicts of interest that that would arise, right?
SPEAKER_02
09:26 - 09:32
Yeah. Yeah, shitload. How did you get involved in this? Like, why, first of all, why would they angry you?
SPEAKER_00
09:35 - 14:51
I work as a journalist, I'll name like places that I've been published before I write and I do video and I do podcasts. So my written work has been published in the Wall Street Journal, the National Reviews, Spectator, New York Post, I'm also on the editorial team of Collette Magazine. And one of my beats among several is about far less militancy, particularly in Portland. To me, what I was noticing was that the national and local media coverage had a particular blind spot when it came to their coverage on Antifa. There was all this sensitivity to the quote and unquote far right, and white nationalism or white identity extremism. But they could not or would not recognize the militancy that was on the left. Importance seemed to be one of the places for ground zero, particularly after 2016. We had very violent writing in downtown. A segment of the population could not accept the election results in November, and so they did a million dollars in damage, setting fires, destroying properties and businesses, and at that time I was a graduate student working at the student paper, and I did a story on that, and I came out to witness, and it, you know, this was a major American city, but it felt like I was in Afghanistan or Iraq, just with all these fires and explosions, and people running around with bats while I'm masked up. And that was first time I really became familiar with anti-fine. It took an interest in it. And I saw over and over that the media coverage was basically really sort of whitewashing them, kind of like referring to them as anti-fascists, giving them that propaganda victory. And anti-fascism movement, their masters of double-speak and disinformation. So it starts with the name, anti-fascist for anti-fascists, but I never refer to them as that because that's seeding the ground to them. When they say that they are defending a community self-defense, it actually is referring to premeditated violence in offensive violence. I started going to covering this more and more, you know, after I left the student paper, I started writing for some national, international publications. And there, internationally there was a, you know, a set of readers who interested in what the hell is going on in Portland, why are there these continued scenes of street brawls and anarchy over and over, what are the variables that are causing this? And I thought that I could try to shine a light on it. And by doing so, Antifa became enraged with my work. And particularly things they've hated me since last year. But they started really escalating on the first and May, May day. So this year was when I was physically assaulted by them for the first time. They were very upset that I wrote a story for the New York Post where there was a series of, and this is one of the other beats that I work on is hate crime hoaxes. Portland earlier this year had this huge panic over series allegations of LGBT people claiming that they were marauding, right wing gangs, driving around, trying to kill people with bats, with hammers, trying to kidnap them. And these were all rumours that were reported on social media. It caused a huge frenzy even the mayor had to come out and, you know, issue statement about how he was concerned. There was an emergency town hall with the local queer center. And so I started looking into all these allegations. It was 15 of them. And I found that of the 15, only one was reported to police and what was reported to police. and documented in the report was entirely different from the GoFundMe where over $10,000 was raised for this trans activist. She had alleged that one night walking home transphobic people had beat her with the bat and knocked her unconscious. Police reports said that she was extremely intoxicated and likely fell and there was no evidence that anybody had assaulted her. So when this story came out, because Antifa was really Antifa and the Democratic Socialists in America, importantly, we're really involved in pedaling this hate crime fear, importantly, and I just kind of, you know, threw water on this panic that they had been flaming. And so on the first of May, there was a riot that I was covering in one of the massive, I don't see people went up. and sprayed me with, I think it was bear maced, some type of chemical that blinds you and burns you.
SPEAKER_02
14:51 - 14:53
Yeah, I saw that video.
SPEAKER_00
14:53 - 15:20
Yeah. so there was no police that that was there that I mean that antifa event was publicly advertised on Facebook and all that so over and over like antifa is very transparent about their calls for people to come to the stuff into engage in this physical confrontation that they call self defense and the police either stay away or on purpose or are told to stay away so
SPEAKER_02
15:21 - 18:24
It's very confusing because when you watch the videos, they're just amazing people. They're amazing people who disagree with them like they're yelling at each other and then someone will come along and make people. And for the police to not step in and do something, I don't think there's another city in the country that would allow something like that. It just doesn't seem like it makes any sense at all because you're not talking about people that are being physically attacked and that are facing someone to protect themselves or even a threat of being physically attacked. They're just disagreeing with each other and yelling at each other and then someone will come along and start facing people. And I've seen in many times And I think there's also a real problem with people wearing masks. Whether their ideology makes sense or not, when you put people in masks and then you have a bunch of people yelling and escalating and then there's teams, there's team and team versus team, anybody opposing them, they feel is a white supremacist or a Nazi. And this is just how they've chosen to frame it to dehumanize people. And then you see them attack people. I'm sure you're aware of the girl who got maced in the face because she had a hat on that said make Bitcoin great again. But it was the same color hat as the make America great again hat and she got amazed in the face and she got hit with something too, right? Didn't she get hit in the face with something? Anyway, this kind of shit is really weird It's really weird and disturbing to see these young people with these idealistic versions of what they're doing. I think a lot of the people that are involved in that really think they are fighting fascism. They really do. They really think that Donald Trump and the proud boys and white supremacists from Charlottesville, carrying teaky torches that these people represent something horrible that's sweeping across the country and the young people today need to stand up and fight against this and they're putting on masks and carrying backpacks and whacking people in the head with crowbars is really fucking weird to see and it's really weird that the city of Portland or all cities in fact haven't made some sort of a law where you can't walk around in public with a fucking mask on because that is one of the things that helps these people. It's the same thing that you see on social media when people are anonymous and they say the most horrible, hateful shit. They're saying that because they're not in front of you, you can't recognize them. They don't have to take responsibility for what they're saying. This is a lot of the same characteristics that a person has when they're wearing a costume. You're dressed in all black gloves on in a face mask and you're hitting people with a bike lock. Like what is that about? Well, what that's about is you're getting away with being anonymous and you're getting support from all these other people around you. There's this mob mentality that takes place. It's well documented with humans, where when you get a group of people together and there's another group and it's like it's a tribal warfare type situation. And that's what you're seeing with Antifa and the fact that The Portland police have, I don't know what's going on with them, whether they've been told to not handle that, but the fact they haven't done anything to mitigate this is fucking, it's embarrassing. It's a shame. It's terrible. It really is. It's a travesty.
SPEAKER_00
18:26 - 18:49
You asked about the mayor earlier, and if he issued any stand-on orders, there's a statement that was put out after I was attacked by the Padel Turner, who's a president of the police union. And he said very clearly, he called from the mayor to remove the handcuffs, handcuffs of law enforcement so they can enforce the law. And he accused the mayor politicizing the police department.
SPEAKER_02
18:49 - 18:50
Is this mayor popular?
SPEAKER_00
18:52 - 19:03
No, he's not. He's hated, well, by moderates, because of the things that he allows to happen to city, but the file I hate him as well. They view him as not radical enough.
SPEAKER_02
19:07 - 19:15
Why, why are they mad at you? Is it just the articles you've written? Because somebody told me that you had been accused of doxing people. Is that true?
SPEAKER_00
19:15 - 20:00
Absolutely not true. So this is such an outrageous defundatory claim. So what happened was on May day at that riot, there was one of the antifa women her charge into participating in the fight during the rock brawl and one of the right-wing person he was wearing a mask I don't know who he was allegedly had hit her on her head near her head on her neck somewhere like that she was knocked out I recognize this woman from her activism that day as the person who sabotaged the sound equipment when James Tamor came to Portland State in February of last year. That was an event that I was involved in organizing Portland State University.
SPEAKER_02
20:00 - 21:26
We should just explain to people James Tamor's the author of the Google memo that was talking about women in tech that was wildly misrepresented what he had said and people had claimed that he was this awful sexist even the CEO of YouTube said that he enforced harmful gender stereotypes where while he was citing evolutionary psychology and the citing all these different studies on why women gravitate towards particular fields and even a page and a half encouraging or strategy strategies to encourage more women to get an attack. But it was basically in response to things that Google had written about dealing with the lack of women in tech. What is the problem here? For a very particular answer, which was sexism, and he was saying, well, it actually has more to do with the choices that women sort of naturally tend to gravitate towards. And he was saying that there was a way to possibly encourage women to get into technology. And he devised these strategies to do so. But was wildly misrepresented. And if you meet the guy and I've had him on the podcast, he is a soft spoken. Sweetheart of a guy is not a misogynist, not a mean-spirited person. He was merely looking at the results of studies and he was looking at real raw data and this real tendency that certain people have to gravitate towards certain positions in life.
SPEAKER_00
21:27 - 22:32
Yeah, so there was so many misconceptions about James somewhere, which was why the student group I was involved in was invited him to come. But Antifa and their allies just could not take that. They tried to shut down the event, they tried to get it cancelled. At that event, this one woman, she damaged the sound equipment as she was trying to shut it down. She pulled all these cords out and pushed the sound board on the ground at broke. So I recognize her from that day. She was named in the media. And then on May day, I recognize her. So I named her. I said, this is the name of the woman who was knocked out. I recognize her from the James Demoy event, a protest, where she had down in her equipment. And Antifa had spun that around as me doxing her. That's not doxing. Doxing is where you release people's personal details such as where they work, where they live, their phone numbers, with the so that people... You identify her. I named her. Yes. But she had been identified in the media before. She was a big local activist.
SPEAKER_02
22:32 - 25:56
So that's basically it. Other than you writing these stories criticizing their behavior, what's disturbing to me, beyond disturbing, was legitimate journalists that were making excuses for why you got beat up. And people saying things like, play stupid games, win stupid prizes. I saw stuff like that. That pick up better hobby. I saw a guy write that. You know, anti-fascists will rule, you know, Portland's not your place. I saw all this crazy shit from people with blue check marks that we're saying that this is what happens when you support fascism. And I was so baffled by this. Like, I read some of your stuff. I haven't read all of it admittedly. But I've read some of your stuff. None of it came off as you supporting fascism. It came off as you maybe at the worst case in Arabian and contrarian and not wanting to go with this sort of left-wing ideology that is so widespread throughout the Pacific Northwest. But I didn't see any, I mean, first of all. You're not a white guy, which should be explained to people. You are Vietnamese, and you know, you're what they would consider a member of a protected class. You're not just a minority. You're openly gay. You're what do you consider yourself politically? This episode is brought to you by Crash Champions. There's nothing worse than being overwhelmed by an unexpected car accident and not knowing what to do next. But as bad as a situation like that might be, Crash Champions is here to answer the call turning your bad day around with trusted collision repair. They'll save the day by getting your vehicle back on the road quickly, safely, and looking like the accident never happened. Next time, a wreck ruins your life, remember to trust Crash Champions. They will answer the call and make it right. Ask your auto insurance company about Crash Champions, visit CrashChampions.com to find a location near you. This episode is brought to you by Moan. Homes are a big investment. You want to protect them from fires, break-ins, and especially water. Water damage is a lot more frequent. And something is small as a leaky pipe can lead to big problems down the road. And it can also be hard to detect. since you know most pipes are hidden behind a wall. That's why you guys need the mowing smart water monitor and shut off. It's a device that can automatically shut down your home's water when a leak is detected and it also works 24-7 monitoring and tracking your home even when you're not there. It'll alert you through the app at the first sign of a leak, providing ultimate peace of mind and security. Learn more and buy the moan smart water monitor and shut off at moan.com slash flow. And right now, use the code Rogan to get 5% off free shipping and a free leak detector. That's code Rogan at m-o-e-n.com slash f-l-o. Automatic shut off in real time alert capabilities will operate when the device is configured with the proper settings.
SPEAKER_00
25:57 - 26:10
I've been avoiding labels for a while. I think it's interesting that a lot of the coverage on what happened to me always qualified who I am as like a conservative journalist.
SPEAKER_02
26:10 - 26:20
Well, the worst thing is the way they're labeled quillette. They were said, you work for far right of newspaper magazine quillette, which is not the case at all.
SPEAKER_00
26:20 - 26:40
That's not true. I think the subtle I mean, the dog whistles that they're trying to say that this person deserved it. And of course, these are the same people who always talk about, believe the victim. They were the ones who jumped on to believe Justice Molet. But I guess I was a wrong type of victim.
SPEAKER_02
26:40 - 27:54
Well, exactly. Because even though you see like a very nice person, you won't do anything violent. you you're supporting the wrong thing or not supporting them not supporting not just blindly supporting what antifism involved with which is what I mean that is what fascism is mean if you you can't even question some of the more heinous things that make clearly heinous things they're doing just fucking mason people in the audience Macing people in the crowd, just pointing it out people, yelling and screaming, hitting each other with things when you're wearing masks, getting involved in these brawls. It's so fucking stupid. It's so stupid to watch. It's like this is base human behavior and it's worst example. And the fact that this dumbass fucking mayor thinks that this is a good idea, to let this play itself out. This is how people get shot. This is how people die. When you allow a certain amount of violence and when you can don't or don't do anything with violence that you can't defend like violence against a person like yourself, I saw those guys hitting you in the back of the head, throwing milk shakes you with your truck, just trying to walk away. You weren't doing anything.
SPEAKER_00
27:55 - 28:23
Yeah, you asked me at the beginning, how did I get the brain hemorrhage? So the video that's gone viral out there, as much as a second half of the beating. I don't know if there's video the first half, hopefully there's DCC TV or something. But the first, there were more hits to my face on my head. And so when I went to the hospital because of the nature of the conclusions on my head, they did a CT scan in the ER, in that confirmed the sub-rackenoid hemorrhage.
SPEAKER_02
28:24 - 28:29
So, what started it? What was the, why did you get hit?
SPEAKER_00
28:29 - 29:23
Okay. 29th of June. Okay. That would be 10, 11 days ago from that. And so there was that demonstration happening. Antifa was rallying to oppose the far right. They claim of post-fascists. I came, was excited to use my new GoPro. I was a bit nervous, speaking, I going to the event I was nervous because I've been targeted just two months earlier, right? I left my house with the helmet, got in my car, saw briefly where you were at helmet. I had to help, I did have one, solve reflection on myself, took it off, decided, I don't want anybody there to get the impression that I can't, because they already accused me of being a not seeing fall right and white supremacists. I didn't want any of them to then perceive me by the fact that I came to the helmet, I think possibly combat it.
SPEAKER_02
29:23 - 29:26
So, the Vietnamese white supremacists is that possible.
SPEAKER_00
29:26 - 30:15
in their eyes, yes. Who are you? I mean, this goes to the bigger issue that I'll take in issue with how flippant people use these accusations of not just racist or being Nazi or far right, but it's like what part of what makes antifosso dangerous is that they feel that they are morally justified in their brutality. Yes. And they get actually a lot of morale from progressive and left-wing media. So after talking about what the attacker would like to talk about, how the actual militant anti-phos is very small. Those who are going out and doing the violence, the larger group in those that I find more concerning, actually, are the non-violent need to feel anti-phos.
SPEAKER_02
30:15 - 30:17
You find those more concerning or more.
SPEAKER_00
30:18 - 31:07
because they work to mainstream antifers tactics and ideas. Like now, doxing by antifers not even is kind of seen as, well, these people deserve it. Like, do people not realize like, when you're doxing people's, you know, releasing your address has happened to me, your family's address. out. It puts this constant state of fear in you, even when you're in your own home. Like, I don't know if they realized that. So the doxing, and then of course, you know, the punch the Nazi meme was meant to be cute and funny. But when they label such a large segment of the population as Nazis, it's It's going after a lot of people who are innocent and law-abiding such as myself.
SPEAKER_02
31:07 - 31:09
Well, they're also calling Jewish people Nazis.
SPEAKER_00
31:09 - 32:17
It's actually insane. And then now more recently that the milkshikking was seen as this cute non-violent form of political descent. As you saw in the video, after I was getting beaten, I was trying to get away then they were pelting all these liquids out my head and in my face and that blinded me. I couldn't even see really which way to leave. So to backtrack a little bit, sorry, I'm jumping all over. Okay. The march was right in the heart of downtown. Just the files attacked. They were chanting no hate, no fear. This is irony of it. I remember that very clearly. The crowd was chanting that. I was walking towards the front of the demonstration, thought I would get a wide angle shot on my GoPro. Before I could get there, somebody bashes me really hard in the back of the head. And I've never been in a fight Mr. Rogan. So I didn't even realize what had happened to me. I was knocked forward. But as soon as I caught my footing, the punches kept coming from every direction. And all I could see was like, people are just in black with masks. And most of them that were hitting me had on these gloves that have the hardened knuckles.
SPEAKER_02
32:17 - 32:20
I think it's like, uh, top gloves or tactical gloves. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00
32:21 - 32:46
It was just endless and I could see in the background like this was in front of the Justice Center. This is the other sad irony. So in broad daylight, in the heart of downtown, steps away from the central police precinct, from the sheriff's office, this beating happened. No police intervene at any point. I don't police see it. I don't know. Nobody came to my aid at any point.
SPEAKER_02
32:46 - 32:55
before doing after. So this happens out of nowhere. You get blinds out of the back of the head. A bunch of people punch you. How many times do you think you got hit?
SPEAKER_00
32:55 - 32:58
Maybe six or more.
SPEAKER_02
32:58 - 37:51
The fact that people dismissed this is not being a big deal is really horrific to me. The fact that the people that are in Antifa that are nonviolent folks, which I think I'm glad you brought that up because I was going to bring that up, that it's the extreme of the extremists, right? It's the people that think that that there's a call for violence and that there's a reason to do it and even someone like yourself that is a nonviolent person that's just there as a journalist that there is a justification for just just for whatever reason you want just go up to that person and start hitting them even though they're not a threat even though they're not doing anything to harm anybody even though they're not putting anybody in danger they're they're just being a journalist and you feel like you could justify hitting them it's really disgusting and it's disgusting I mean there was this thing with vox where Carlos Mesa was minimizing the the impact of antifa and kind of joking around about it and making it seem like it's just no big deal and He got really upset because Stephen Crowder was making fun of the fact that he's gay and the fact that he talks with a lisp and that Crowder mentioned that along with mocking his stance on antifa and then it became this gigantic thing that Stephen Crowder's gay basher But what didn't become a big deal is that this guy is minimizing violent fascists. And that's what I mean, that's how I feel about this. When you're trying to enforce your own ideology on other people and you have no tolerance for anybody with a different opinion, particularly journalists, that is fascism. It's so ironic to call yourself an antifascist when you're literally enforcing your own particular ideology to the point of violence and you're wearing masks and you're running around hitting people and pretending that you're being inundated with Nazis and white supremacists and that this is all necessary. Like that old man that was just driving and they're directing traffic and forcing him to obey them. And then when he doesn't want to, they chase after him and assault him. It's fucking bananas. And the fact that this city has not stepped in and recognized that they have a real problem because this has got momentum behind it. And the people that are involved that are non-violent, you gotta speak up. They've gotta speak up. If you're a person that really believes that there shouldn't be homophobia and there shouldn't be violence and there shouldn't be white supremacy, good for you. You probably got involved in this for all the right reasons. But if you don't recognize that someone like you, yourself, Who is? a person of a different ethnicity, you're not a white person, you're Vietnamese, you're a gay man, and you got assaulted for no reason, you didn't do anything. It's almost like a test of where do your values truly lie? And if you think it's okay for a person like you to just get assaulted for no reason, you are the problem. You're the problem. Your mindset is the problem. It's not whether or not there should be white supremacy, of course there should be. It's not whether or not there shouldn't be people be able to freely express themselves. Of course there should be. That is not what the issue is. What the issue is is group mob mentality. When you get people together and you let them wear masks and you tell them that they're fighting against some evil and then they feel justified in hitting a person like you. It is really sickening, and there's this diffusion of responsibility thing that happens when one person hits you, and everybody feels like it's okay to hit you. It's a mob mentality thing, and it's extremely common with human beings. I've been in mob situations, it's terrifying, because you feel it in the air. You feel the chaos in the air when you're in some sort of a large-scale, brawl type situation like anything can happen. People just run up on people and start punching them. It's not like two people alone in an open area where they can talk and work things out. No, it's chaos. And there's some weird animal activity. There's some weird animal instinct aspect to it that is very unique to humans. And when you see something like this and see a guy like you just getting pepper with milkshakes and punched in the head and it's fucking disturbing. And for these people to dismiss that and not stand out, not stand up and say, hey, this is not what we're supposed to be about. This is not what I signed up for. They become a part of the problem. I'm sure these people listen to this that are upset at this. because maybe you support Antifa. You support their ideology. Think about what you actually support. Think about what this is really all about. What you shouldn't be supporting is people wearing masks, running around fucking hitting people. You ain't changing shit with that. All you're gonna do is call for more people with masks from the other side. If people feel like right-wing people or being attacked, and I don't think you're even right-wing, are you? I mean, what are you? If you got a gun to your head or a mace to your face, What would you, do you see a centrist?
SPEAKER_00
37:51 - 37:54
What would you say? I think it's fair to describe me as centaurate.
SPEAKER_02
37:54 - 38:26
Centaurate, okay. Which is fine. It should be okay. I mean, we should be allowed to have disagreements of ideologies and of political persuasions. Political but this is it's twisted and it's twisted the way it's being depicted in the media it's very strange how it's being dismissed it's very strange and that there's really people in 2019 debating whether or not it's okay to assault journalists It's fucking madness.
SPEAKER_00
38:26 - 39:06
Well, we've been seeing the build up to this for years. People political violence coming from the left is seen as moral. And unfortunately, even those working in mainstream media have at times excused or found that type of violence good. I'm thinking of Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon at CNN. And I wanted that played a role in why they were the only center left broadcast news station news network to invite me on to speak. No other left to center media hasn't invited me on to any other show.
SPEAKER_02
39:06 - 39:10
When they had you on to speak, what was their attitude about all this?
SPEAKER_00
39:10 - 39:18
I think the host was very respectful and fair. Who was it? John Brennan, I think.
SPEAKER_02
39:20 - 39:29
So you think they were respectful and fair? Did it bother you that people at Chris Cuomo and Don Lemon had openly supported Antifa?
SPEAKER_00
39:30 - 41:12
It did. I mean, this was kind of encouraged me to continue doing my work months ago, even last year when I was getting threatened. Because it seemed like I don't think Chris or Don actually, I think they're ignorant about Antifa. I think you're right. They believe the propaganda about them. That's just an anti-fascist movement. Well, the name itself. I'm hoping that even with my injuries and some you can see some you can't. I'm continuing to force myself to do all these media engagements because I want the needle on the conversations about antifa to move to change. not just a movement of people masking up and starting random violence on the streets. Like, the violence isn't just, it is not arbitrary. It's working towards their goal. It's a movement of violent radical anarchists and communists. And they're agitating for political revolution. And violence is part of the modest operandi. It's not a bug. It's the feature of what they do. So I don't know if people recognize how dangerous this is, this movement. In the DHS since 2016, has described some of antifuzz activities as domestic terrorist violence. So the fact that they're able to openly organize and recruit on social media is it's a baffling to me. I'm wondering like, There's such a huge blind spot for far left emergency, not just in mainstream media, but also in big tech.
SPEAKER_02
41:12 - 45:49
Do you think this is because Trump is president? Because so many people oppose Trump as president. The idea of far left militancy is in opposition to what they oppose. So they feel like the enemy of my enemy is my friend. It's exactly what it is, I think. it what Eric Weinstein had a great point about this and he said the one of the real issues is the cowards of the left and the cowards of the right that are allowing the extremists to do the work for them so when people see someone like the proud boys running around attacking people even the proud boys you have to realize that they started off as a joke like when Gavin McGinn has first came up with the idea of the proud boys it was it was literally a joke And it became an actual organization for fun. And then people joined it that didn't think it was a joke. And then people joined it and started taking it in a deeper and deeper direction, and eventually disavowed himself and abandon the group. You see the same thing with Antifa. I bet the idea initially was, hey, we see these Torch carrying assholes in Charlottesville. We see that guy with a car ran over the girl who was a protester and killed her. Like, this fucking shit has got to stop. So we have to organize. We have to do something. And then what happens? You get people in masks and you get people justified. And then you get people that support those people and then you get the extremists. And the extremists who are not disavowed, who are not There's no one speaking out against them from the left. There's no one saying, hey, this shit has got to stop because they want them to do their dirty work for them. They want them to push the envelope and push the agenda and get their ideology moving in the right direction. Even if it's done through methods that they don't agree with. And that's where it gets horrible because I see these people that are involved in this and I know for a fact just by watching them move and interact with each other. They don't understand violence. They don't. They're not good at it. They don't understand it. This is like role play. It's like cosplay. And you're going to call for, you're going to get real violence in return. And from people who actually know how to do it. And if you look at violence from the left and violence for the right, violence from the right scares me a whole lot more. They're a lot more armed. It's their more dangerous human beings in general. And I think that if this keeps happening and people from the right feel threatened and their lifestyle feels threatened and their ideologies feel threatened, you're going to get people meeting at these things and it's going to be more than just people throwing mace and milkshake said each other. It's going to be people showing up ready for actual combat. That's fucking terrifying. It's fucking terrifying. And this idea that you could just run around hitting people and not have any consequences. This is like the way a child looks at violence. This is what bothers me so much. If you are, if you looked at their core tenants of what they want to do and if they wanted to accomplish that through political negotiation and through conversation and rallies and speeches, fine, that's fine. But we have people wearing masks hitting and masing people. You've crossed the line into the land of no return and you've called out to people who oppose you. You've challenged them to come and do the same. And this is how violence begots greater violence. It's fucking dangerous. It's really dangerous. Violence does not exist in a vacuum. You can't just have a little bit of violence and then there's no repercussions. People react to that. There's people that watch those videos and watch you get punched and there is no justification for that. When you see someone like yourself who's a small person, slight and stature, not violent in any way, and you're not even swinging back, you're just taking it and trying to protect yourself. people get infuriated by that. And there's people right now, I guarantee you who saw that video who were thinking, what I would do if I was there, I'd fucking shoot off. Or I'd beat them all the deathwood baseball bats, or I'd run them over with my car, or I'd do things. And the unhinged amongst the right who feel like this is an opposition of their ideology, they're going to show up some debt. And when that happens, people are going to die. This is a fucking terrible, and this is where the mayor and the police, and they have not done their job. And I believe the police, when they say that they've been handcuffed, and maybe the mayor just didn't have an idea of where this was all go. But now you do. I'm going to let you in on a secret. If you want to be more confident, you have to start taking care of yourself. And a great way to do that is use Dr. Squatch, especially with their new private hygiene products. They were designed to help you look and feel fresh all over.
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SPEAKER_00
47:34 - 48:06
This is, the mayor has been in office now for three years, and he finally did a press conference two days ago, nine days after my talk to address this controversy, right? And what was so frustrating is that the police chief had publicly stated that she thinks the city or the state should adopt a law that makes it illegal to wear a mask while committing a crime. That should be a no-brainer. It's shocking that important.
SPEAKER_02
48:06 - 48:23
I got a better idea. How about not you can't wear a mask in public at these events? Because you can't say you can't wear a mask while committing a crime. You're wearing a mask. How do you who the fuck do you know committed the crime? Unless you take the mask off then you can't even identify him. It's stupid. Do you can't wear a mask?
SPEAKER_00
48:23 - 48:35
Yeah, so this, you know, sounds like a baseline, somebody, a policy that you should start advocating for, right? Don't kick babies. Yeah. Well, the mayor said he hasn't decided if he supported it.
SPEAKER_02
48:35 - 48:41
He hasn't decided if he supported whether or not should be illegal to wear a mask or your committing a crime. Correct. That's hilarious.
SPEAKER_00
48:41 - 49:08
And he had no policy proposals. And he spoke as if like it was his first day in office when this was like, this is becoming routine now, it's almost but now, in Portland, in Portland, is a harbinger and a warning to what can happen in other cities when you have a government, those and upper echelons of governance turning a blind eye to far left militancy and just letting
SPEAKER_02
49:10 - 51:12
these thoughts go on the street and imagine it was the case if they were doing that we are about far right militancy imagine there are far right people who were doing this and committing violence and the government was just like well you know i'm not sure if they shouldn't be allowed to wear masks while they commit crimes people would be freaking the fuck out It's the weird justification of this stuff that's so disturbing. I just don't, and I fucking love Portland. It's one of my favorite places. It's great. The city's great. I mean, it's fucking cool people. It's not all of them that are involved in this. It is a very small number, and even amongst the small number, it's the very small number of them that are radical that are violent. When you look at the people that are attacking you, not to minimize it, but it's very few. You look at that video. It's a couple people out of thousands of people that are in that group. There's a few people that are attacking. There's about a dozen. Was it really? Yes. Okay. If you count throwing milkshakes, but actually hitting you, how many people you think hit you? Not sure. Three, four, maybe? Something like that? Okay. That's the problem. The problem is these fucking assholes. It's not the people that disagree with you. It's the people that think you should be able to throw milkshakes at people. And guys like Carlos Mesa who don't think it's a big deal to throw milkshakes at people. It's a fucking big deal. It's a big deal because it calls for a response. This is why it's a big deal. And people don't understand a salt. They don't understand violence. You can't just do that. You live in some comic book world. There's some fucking Disney show world where you can just throw a milkshake at someone they don't do anything. They're gonna turn around and punch you in your fucking face and then what happens? Well, you might fall and hit your head and die because that's real. That's the real world we live in. Or you might cause a giant brawl because people don't want to be hit with milkshakes. or there's enough of you where you think you can get away with it. So you're an awful bully and you're throwing milkshakes at someone because you don't like what they stand for. And you're meeting in a public place and you're disagreeing about something. So to write this disagreement, you're insulting people.
SPEAKER_00
51:12 - 51:44
Well, for that very reason, Antifa never engages in, like, a quote unquote, fair fight one-on-one. They are what they do usually as a group while master up one or several of them will distract the person either by speaking to them perhaps or blinding them with the chemicals spray and then they take turns the beating. So, there's even no opportunity to, like, No, you don't even know how many people hitting you at that point. So that's what they do. Blind you and then attack.
SPEAKER_02
51:45 - 52:33
It's so scary because it's so dumb. It's not just scary because like you watching what happened to you, scary because, you know, and watching that old man going to hit in the head with a crowbar, it's fucking horrific. All that stuff's horrific. And apparently that guy had pulled out some sort of a rod and was swinging at people before. He got hit with a crowbar. I do not know. But I do know when you start hitting people in the head with crowbar, that is the beginning of the end. horrible, horrible shit happens in response to that and it hasn't yet but this is 10 days ago who knows what's going to happen if there's another one of these rallies and you get people from the far right who organized this is when the proud boys really radicalize they radicalize to go against antifa they were attacked they attacked them and then it became this fucking shit show that you're seeing right now
SPEAKER_00
52:33 - 52:54
Yeah, I want to stay for the record, though, the violence that happened after I was beat up was involving the men's rights activist group and antifa. Power boys was holding, they held this operative out in a different part of the city. As far as I know, they did not, there was no conflict within this, in this particular. Yeah, in this particular.
SPEAKER_02
52:54 - 53:16
Who was the men's rights guy? It was actually a woman. A woman who's a men's rights person? Yes. That's hilarious. She must love Dick. All right, if you had a guess, he'll call me. Sorry, I'm a comedian. Yeah, I can help, but you don't even have to say our name. So she, she, she organized this thing.
SPEAKER_00
53:16 - 53:36
Yeah, I would say, here's the other thing. You know, like, I might, what needs to be stated as well about, I guess, the right wing movements that are important or come to Portland to do these events. There's an element of being provocative as well, but that should never, ever justify the violence.
SPEAKER_02
53:36 - 53:40
Because I mean, what, what, what, the, the, the explain what you mean by being a provocative.
SPEAKER_00
53:41 - 54:32
Well, for example, holding an event in the middle of downtown, titleing it like any event, justice for victims of domestic terrorism and then having picture of Antifa, like that is, you know, it's an affair. Yes. It's an inflate, you know, it causes a reaction. So there's a, you know, there's an element of coming in and seeing, let's enrage these lunatics on the file after whatever. But at the same time, I want to make sure I state that just because somebody's quote unquote provocative to a word in the words of the writing that it's unfortunate that people now find that that's justification for you to react violently.
SPEAKER_02
54:32 - 54:42
Well I think again it's a small percentage of people that find it this justification and you look at the number of people that were there what is it thousands thousands of people how many people actually engage in violence
SPEAKER_00
54:43 - 54:51
Small number, but small number. That's the problem. It's important to note that they called Moral from the crowd who are cheering them on.
SPEAKER_02
54:51 - 54:55
The cowards, the cowards who don't disavow this horrific action.
SPEAKER_00
54:55 - 55:19
They tear them on, laughed and clapped. As I was getting beaten. And then the other thing about the people showing up in numbers who don't engage in the violence is they prefer they are like literal human shields. They dress the same. So they make it easy for the few violent militants to not control the crowd exactly. And these people also watch the cops and they keep an eye out on potential outsiders as well.
SPEAKER_02
55:19 - 55:44
Yeah, it's become a game. It's become a game, it's become a gigantic team war. There's our team versus their team. It's literally like playing a childhood game. It's really disturbing, man. And so since this has anyone from Antifa apologized about what happened to you or disavow the actions of these few extreme violent people?
SPEAKER_00
55:44 - 56:08
Of course not. Antifa has an iron fist on the people who support its movements. They don't allow any type of design. Actually, in their like press releases, you can call them. They explicitly state that Even basically, even if you disagree as I talk to you, you will not publicly state it. It's to create, I guess, this image of unity, right?
SPEAKER_02
56:08 - 56:12
For a quote, I'm quoting if you disagree inside the organization. Yes. So how organized are this?
SPEAKER_00
56:15 - 58:26
They are a leader. They're, in terms of the antifiers we understand today, really crystallize only after 2016. There's been very little academic research until how they actually organize. But basically, as a movement, they have essentially cells across the country that are semi-autonomous, united by an ideology of Anarchy and alcohol communism and their support for violence. It's not so much a group itself. It's the people who are part of that movement are drawn from other actual groups. They draw from the DSA. They draw from various workers unions, other anarchist groups. And like other terrorist entities, they have processes to radicalize sympathizers, essentially. They have their own literature as well. And so it's much more organized than people give them credit for. They think of them as just, you know, people showing up to fight on the street. It's just, just meaning to that to that violence and this literature to back it up and they have, you know, they actively recruit people to join the movement. So I then asked like do you think the federal authorities just stepped in my my responses? I think it's come to the point that they do because with antifa It's not it's beyond what local authorities can do because a lot of these people A lot of them are in Portland, from Portland, but a lot of them come from, for example, from Eugene, from Seattle, from neighboring areas that have other antifa people come in to participate in the violence for that day or to help out. And then they go back to where they're from. So they're coming in and out of jurisdictions makes it hard for one local body of authorities to dress it, I think. The DOJ needs to stop then. I think it's gotten to that point. And with 2020 coming up soon, there could be potential for a lot more political violence if the results don't. If the elections results don't go as you wish.
SPEAKER_02
58:26 - 58:59
Well, that's an obvious one. Considering the fact that this all became a thing after Trump was elected. Yes. With the DOJ did step in, what do you think they could do? So that's, well, I mean, do you believe in the ability to meet up and express yourself publicly and the ability to protest and the ability to just get together and have groups and express yourself?
SPEAKER_00
59:01 - 59:11
Yes. However, that's not just what Antifa does. Right. Like I said, the violence is a feature of the movement. So what federal authorities do?
SPEAKER_02
59:11 - 59:19
When you say the violence is a feature of their movement. Is there, is there, does they have anything written like the tenants of their movement where they say that violence is acceptable?
SPEAKER_00
59:22 - 01:00:37
There's a book called The Anti-Fascist Handbook is written by Mark Bray. He's an academic dot myth. He is, I would call him, when a anti-fascist chief, I do a log. So not only does he explain what antifa does, and in his writings he makes it very clear that the quote unquote self-defense is what justifies the offensive violence. He actually argues why that's ethical. So because he's an academic, well spoken, he's invited on to mainstream media to explain to basically, like I said, or mainstream antifa, what can you explain what he says? Yes, I highly recommend that people take a look at his book. The Attorney General of Minnesota Keith Ellison was photographed a year ago holding up that book of the anti-phobic and that kind of went, he's been criticised a bit for that and he deleted that image after my beating. Was holding it up in support? Yeah, he said something about this book or anti-first strikes fear into the heart of Donald Trump. Yeah, so there's people in government who are sympathetic to antifuzz.
SPEAKER_02
01:00:37 - 01:00:43
This professor can explain what he says.
SPEAKER_00
01:00:43 - 01:01:04
He outlines and explains essentially why antifuzz violence is ethical. That it's Because they're opposing fascism and fascism is a violent movement, this is sort of a pre-entative move. Like we have to- This word fascism.
SPEAKER_02
01:01:04 - 01:02:36
Yeah. It is a problem, right? Yes. Because it seems like that's definitely something you should oppose. But what is the actual definition of fascism? Fascism as a far-right political ideology from what I understand is close to definition, Jamie, so we can just read what fascism, what the actual word fascism means. Here, form of radical right-wing authoritarian, authoritarian, ultra-nationalism characterized by dictatorial power, forceable suppression of opposition, and strong regimentation of society, end of the economy, which came to prominence in early 20th century Europe. Forcible suppression of, put it back up please, forcible suppression of opposition is what they're doing. Yes, strong regimentation of society. I mean, they're literally telling people how to behave and what they will tolerate. I know it's not right wing ideology, but it's almost like fascism. And I'm sure there's other definitions of fascism. The idea of supporting someone who opposes fascism sounds wonderful. Sounds great. Let's stop fascism. But are we really experiencing authoritarian, ultra-nationalism characterized by dictatorial power in this country? I mean, is that fair thing to say? I know people don't like Donald Trump. I know people don't like right-wing ideologies running this country. I understand that. But this is not what's happening.
SPEAKER_00
01:02:38 - 01:03:56
Yeah, they issue fascism as defined by political theorists who have been researching this for decades. It has a particular definition and meaning. And that's, I think that summarizes it pretty well. I'm very concerned that people use it so flippantly to just refer to the right or to even authoritarianism. There's much more to it than just being authoritarian. There's all those other components. And it's important to state that Antifa is not just supposed to the far right or the right. They're also against liberal democracy. There's a reason why they hate the police so much hate, boredom, forcement, and hate the rule of law. Against the concept of the nation state, as we understand it, and they're working to dismantle that, to delegitimize it, So, this is what I mean when I say it's a dangerous ideology that for now, you know, enemy of my enemy is your friend. But at some point, if this movement becomes bigger, more mainstream and more people are sympathetic, at some point it's going to come back against the moderate left because these people, they want to see the destruction of the nation.
SPEAKER_02
01:03:58 - 01:04:01
They want to see destruction of the nation state for what purpose? They want anarchy?
SPEAKER_00
01:04:01 - 01:04:03
Yes.
SPEAKER_02
01:04:03 - 01:04:20
So there are political anarchists, social anarchists. They don't want borders. They don't want nations. They don't want police. What do they want? I mean, what do they expect? What's the ultimate goal?
SPEAKER_00
01:04:20 - 01:05:52
They seem to believe in a utopian moxus ideas of this redistribution of wealth where we can only be truly equal in egalitarian when we dismantle. everything about the country so not just you know it's institutions rule of law but the state itself like everything just has to be broken down and start over because it's iridiumable I'm not quite sure I if I mean they you know antifa I can't think of whether they have, if there's any somewhat comparable examples around the world of what it looks like for them to do state building, right? So we don't know what it would actually look like, but I mean, the examples we see from these smaller anecdotes is chaos and anarchy, like absolute chaos and violent suppression of opposing views. indiscriminate violence at times. And I wonder, and what I've been asking over and over is how many more people have to be drawn into have to be victims of this violence before something changes. And I put in Portland now, we've had three years of this. And literally, no policy changes have happened. No even proposals have even been accepted by the mayor.
SPEAKER_02
01:05:53 - 01:05:58
The previous mayor was, what was his political persuasion? Or her? I don't even know.
SPEAKER_00
01:05:58 - 01:07:06
These are all, the people who become elected mayor importance are typically establishment Democrats, right? So they themselves are moderate, very much in the vein of a Hillary Clinton type of thing. But there's a constituency in Portland that they have to play to for votes, which is the radical people who are sympathetic to very, very progressive causes. And so, there's a reason why today, the mayor has never named out to for one time in any of his press conferences. He has no problem blaming proud boys or patriopera the right for issues. Patriot prayer? What's that? The another group. Petri Paris, one of the other right-wing movements in and around Portland that have held pro-Trump events in town that Antifa comes to fight and oppose. And how those turn out? They devolve into riots in the police allowed us. They allow it through their inaction.
SPEAKER_02
01:07:11 - 01:07:33
It's just, it's interesting to see a city that's gone so far off the rails like Portland in this regard with this issue. Now when you see this in action and what the consequences are and how it happens and particularly for a person like you, you physically see it, you personally see it. Are you going to continue to do these things?
SPEAKER_00
01:07:35 - 01:09:14
Because it seems like you're obviously a target now. When I was asked this in my interviews this week last week, the response that I that comes to my mind right away is, of course I'm going to continue doing it. I, these people have tried to me before. I've been attacked before. I'm not going to be cowed. I'm going to continue. I won't be intimidated. But with the brain injury that they gave me, it's like, I can't continue doing it the same way as I do before, and being naive to think that police would actually uphold the rule of law. They gave me a brain injury, and I never had one before, but I'm dealing with some cognitive and neurological issues. memory issues I have issues so I have upcoming physical therapy as well as speech therapy so as much as like on the surface I have improved a lot since the beating there are some long-term consequences that I'm going to have to work through and You know, I have, to be honest, I have certain fears and anxieties of being important. And I've continued to receive threats violent threats and they've been reported to police and just people are promising to make sure next time that I won't even be able to walk away that they will repeat what happens to me when they see me on the streets. So like have they caught the people that did this to you? So it's been 10 days now more than 10 days since my beating there have been no arrests. I don't know where the police are in the investigation. They haven't been keeping me informed.
SPEAKER_02
01:09:14 - 01:09:17
There was a photograph of someone they released.
SPEAKER_00
01:09:18 - 01:09:43
Yeah, so the Portland Police release photos of potential suspects in asking for help in identifying one was on mouse to two of them were mouse. And I forgot to say earlier that in addition to the beating, the robbs me of my camera equipment. So that was my, my evidence for that day. And I tried so hard to hold on to it, but I couldn't.
SPEAKER_02
01:09:43 - 01:09:46
What about you attending this with security? Have you thought about doing that?
SPEAKER_00
01:09:47 - 01:10:02
Yeah, so moving forward, once I feel well enough and once I'm cleared by the doctors, it may be worth it to cover these events but with professional security.
SPEAKER_02
01:10:02 - 01:10:10
Gorillas, big giant dudes, would they wear like armor? Like what would you have? How far would you take this?
SPEAKER_00
01:10:12 - 01:10:14
I don't know how far do you think I should take care.
SPEAKER_02
01:10:14 - 01:10:39
I don't think you should go to those things anymore. I mean, it seems like you've been, I mean, it is part of your job, your journalist. But it seems like you've been singled out and targeted and it seems like they don't have any problem justifying attacking you and assaulting you. If I was going to go, I'd bring the biggest baddest dudes that I could find. And a bunch of them have them surround you and have them protect you.
SPEAKER_00
01:10:40 - 01:10:43
What's that tell you about America in 2019?
SPEAKER_02
01:10:43 - 01:11:43
I think it's America. It's this one particular area and this one particular group and not even the group. I think it's the most ridiculous people in that group. I don't think it's most, I think most of these people that probably are a part of this really don't want fascists. and they really don't want some awful right ring to Tyler Terian regime running this country and in marginalized people of color gay people and immigrants and all those things that I support 100% I'm left wing I mean I would be on their side ideologically about a lot of things It's the implementation of it that I have the biggest problem with. It's the group mentality. It's the wearing the masks, the salts. It's the not understanding the consequences of violence, all these things. This is what I have a problem with. The way the mayor allows this to take place, the way handcuffs the police. That is what I have a problem with. It's not that they don't want horrible people running the government and running the world. I understand that. That makes sense.
SPEAKER_00
01:11:43 - 01:11:52
But you're not for the dismantling of the nation's data, right? Nope. No. No, I'm not. Or the breakdown of democracy. No. Yeah, so these are the points that I'm trying to get on. Right.
SPEAKER_02
01:11:52 - 01:11:54
Those are the points that are hidden. Right.
SPEAKER_00
01:11:54 - 01:12:10
These are important things that make up the ideology of Antifa and that the larger those who are sympathetic because of the anti-fascist aspect or the anti-right wing, they are ignorant of it. And I hope to become aware of that.
SPEAKER_02
01:12:10 - 01:13:11
I think that's what's important about your work. That's what's important about these discussions. That's what's important about people getting the word understanding what this really means. not what it seems on paper. It's like we're the anti-nazi movement. Well, who the fuck could go against that? Of course you're anti-nazi. That's no, everybody should be. That's what it seems like. Well, we're anti-fascist. Good. We don't want fascists. I think that's what Chris Cuomo was saying. I think that's what Don Lemon was saying. I think they're too busy. I don't think they're really investigating this. I don't think they're deep diving and understanding the ideology at its core the way you're describing it. And whoever that professor wasn't, you were discussing that is somehow another condoning violence that is ridiculous. Anyone who considers themselves an intellectual, who condones violence, all this punch and Nazi stuff, God dammit, you don't understand violence. You don't know what you're talking about. You don't understand the human condition because if you if you understood violence, it's the last thing you would ever be calling for.
SPEAKER_00
01:13:12 - 01:14:43
Can I talk about the next step of what's next for sure? So a lot of people listening and are frustrated and have expressed support are asking, well, what can I do? I'm just one person. And this is the power and we live in time where there's crowdfunding. And with all the points that we brought up earlier, it seems to show a lot of evidence to suggest that there's something seriously wrong in the professional ones of policing and governing import land. And that's what the legal fund is. So I'm working with Harney Dillon. She represented James DeMora. She's taken me on as the first client for the non-profit that she started, called if you go to PubliusLaxPUBLIUSLEX.com. You'll see information for how you can donate and anything helps and we're trying we, you know, lawsuits if they happen against the city or mayor or police department costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time takes you know there's a lot of overhead costs and amount of people you know you have to take into do all the investigations so there's an opportunity for the public to get involved you know I don't want the story to pass just about Andy got beat up so what let's move on but rather There's systemic issues happening in Portland and there are implications for the rest of the country.
SPEAKER_02
01:14:45 - 01:15:09
What do you think is going on with media that is supporting this attack on you? Because I've seen so many journalists dismiss this as being not a big deal. Why do you think that anybody would look at something like that or someone's being beaten publicly and not think it's a big deal? What do you think is behind that?
SPEAKER_00
01:15:13 - 01:16:40
Extreme this ideologies are very good at dehumanizing their opposition. And that's what Antifa does. So there's been a lot of disinformation misinformation put out about me, you know. I'm not, they say, for example, or not really journalists. I'm just far right provocative. I'm somebody who sympathetic to Nazis. And so when you put these ideas out that not only are lies, but I meant to Remove one's humanity they just become like Andy's no longer Andy Andy is the face of far right ideology and it makes people feel comfortable with violence against that and it was so disheartening to see so many writers come out and say things like You know, I don't really support what happened Andy, but he's done far worse, or he was a provocateur, his writings, like he came and he got exactly what he was looking for. What happened to me should happen to nobody, much less a journalist, right? Like, this is an American, an American city, where not, you know, this is not an Afghanistan or Iraq, where the state is weak. We have a strong state, we have police force. Why are the laws not being enforced? Why are citizens having to suffer? Why are they no arrests? Why are they no arrests?
SPEAKER_02
01:16:40 - 01:16:51
It's really absurd. And it's obscene. When is the next one of these things supposed to take place?
SPEAKER_00
01:16:53 - 01:17:19
On the 17th of August is supposedly the next event. I think the proud boys have announced that they're encouraging all of their members across the country to fly into Portland and it's always fucking Portland. Yeah, they're kind of reacting, I think, to the 29th of June. So we'll see what happens. I'm concerned.
SPEAKER_02
01:17:19 - 01:17:22
Are you gonna go?
SPEAKER_00
01:17:22 - 01:17:22
I don't know.
SPEAKER_02
01:17:23 - 01:17:39
You should go and get a potmobile. Let them throw milkshakes at the potmobile. Get a big old fish tank put some wheels on it. How's some giant dude to push you around? I'm joking around about it, obviously, to try to make light. But do you really think you're going to go?
SPEAKER_00
01:17:40 - 01:17:56
I don't know if I feel safe. And I hate what you shouldn't feel safe. Well, I hate using the language of the identitarian left, you know, like I feel unsafe and all that. I'm trying to remain rational. Okay, but you were assaulted twice. And I continue to receive threats. You were assaulted what?
SPEAKER_02
01:17:56 - 01:18:25
May? Yes. And then you were assaulted again in June. Yeah. Yeah. So, and you can continue to receive threats. Um, is this necessary to go to these things to cover them? Do you think that is part of the problem with people that like Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo who were talking about this? We haven't actually been there. They really don't understand it and maybe you do because you're covering it with boots on the ground.
SPEAKER_00
01:18:25 - 01:18:59
You got it, you know, when you're all the way New York City and you hopefully lead media and you always, even when you travel to protests, you have a very large crew of security around you. It does, it removes you a bit from the reality of the situation. I don't think any of these people who are opining on these mainstream media television shows have actually embedded themselves to covering these violent riots that are happening in Portland or in Berkeley.
SPEAKER_02
01:18:59 - 01:19:09
How many of the people that are involved in antifa do you think really understand that they're trying to dismantle the government. Really understand that they want the state to absolve.
SPEAKER_00
01:19:11 - 01:20:23
I don't have a number for that. It's definitely small. It's the same people who engage. It would probably be around those who engage in violence and those who are eating in that violence. For example, creating shields or whatever, allowing them to hide among them. Those people, I think, understand very much what the ideology is. Those people who come unmasked, you know, in just read the Facebook event page, oppose fascist, Competac Putin. Those people, I think, are ignorant of the ideology behind the movement and groups that are organizing these events. I can't put a number on that. This is where they need to be researched by academics and think tanks to look into, and this is where federal authorities need to be looking into as well. How are they organized? Where are the businesses that are helping them fund some of their costs? Because when some of them members get arrested, they have money for bail. who's involved in funneling that money, who's helping to disperse their literature that they use to radicalize people. Like these are, this requires research and intelligence gathering, and as far as I know it's not being done.
SPEAKER_02
01:20:23 - 01:20:49
There's a real concern amongst some people that were entering a phase of this country where there's a real possibility of having some sort of a civil unrest civil war. When you see something like these Portland events, when you see this kind of chaos, do you think that that's a valid concern?
SPEAKER_00
01:20:49 - 01:21:45
Not for something that is across the country, but perhaps very regional, or to the city itself, and not so much like civil war, but the violence that is done and planned by Antifa is meant to make the wider public, not just polarizing here each other, but also began to distrust institutions that are in place that are meant to uphold democracy. So, the police in Portland have come under fire, for example, not just from the radical left, but a lot of people who are normally very pro police are finding like, what is wrong with the police? We can't even trust them. If things just continue, I think the violence will continue to escalate, leading to aid death or death. That's my real concern.
SPEAKER_02
01:21:45 - 01:21:51
It's my real concern as well. And you think this is particularly unique to Portland in the way they're treating and addressing it.
SPEAKER_00
01:21:52 - 01:23:10
I'm trying to think of comparable other cities that have had some of these issues. So, for example, in San Jose in 2016, Trump supporters when they were leaving a Trump rally were brutally assaulted by mobs of people. And then there was a lawsuit that was launched against the city for basically putting citizens in the way of danger the way they were funneled outside of this event led them directly in front of these violent protesters who attacked them you know and those footage that went viral that year since then policing tactics have changed in San Jose as far as I know and you know involved the lawsuit so like sometimes it takes lawsuits for the local government to start protecting the people civil rights. So right now, as it does seem confined to Portland, we haven't seen that, for example, in Berkeley, the type of violence as in 2017 when Milo came. That hasn't been repeated for a year and a half now. But it takes the political will of those in power to
SPEAKER_02
01:23:11 - 01:23:17
and force the law, right? So you mentioned lawsuits. What lawsuits are you pursuing?
SPEAKER_00
01:23:17 - 01:23:59
Well, immediately right now, what I would like to see is the city of Portland, carry out a full investigation and hold accountable all those who were involved in attacking me or aid it in that as well. And then as the evidence, whether evidence leads, if this shows that there was, was a direction of duty from those in power, then You know, I reserve my judgment, my lawyer reserves judgment for, you know, who, if anyone gets sued at that point. But right now, I'm very focused on seeing that in putting pressure on the city to arrest people who are responsible and charged on and get convictions as well.
SPEAKER_02
01:24:00 - 01:24:29
All right, and in closing, because I know you're going to go that here. Is there a silver lining to any of this? I mean, do you think that perhaps your assault and the fact that the police didn't intervene is actually allowing people to understand the real significance of this, the real problem of this, that this is a real issue, a gigantic one in fact that goes against the core tenants, the value of a free expression and the ability to gather and communicate safely in public.
SPEAKER_00
01:24:30 - 01:25:38
Yeah, as hard as it was for me to see you sort of a lining when I was laying in hospital with so much pain. There's one. And that is that everybody paid attention to what happened to me. It was a big story, even the mainstream liberal press cannot ignore it. And I'm hoping that from that it goes beyond just being a headline, but forcing the national discourse to change on how it views and talks about Antifa. We'll see if that happens. I feel encouraged that we're beginning to see some cracks in the way that Antifa has been protected by sympathetic writers in journalists in those mainstream media. I mean, the fact that Keith Ellison deleted that photo that he shared a year ago, right after I was attacked, I think indicates that there's even he faces a certain pressure that it may not be good for a mainstream politician to so actively promote this movement. And I hope it continues to move in that direction.
SPEAKER_02
01:25:38 - 01:25:42
If you had a crystal ball and you were looking at the future, what do you think you'd say?
SPEAKER_00
01:25:46 - 01:25:59
Well, based on the press conference that the mayor did two days ago, not having any proposals, it seems like more violence has to happen.
SPEAKER_02
01:25:59 - 01:26:45
All right, Andy, I hope you're wrong. Me too. But thank you for being here. My pleasure. All right. Take it easy. Thank you. Stay safe out there with you. Thank you. Smile too. This episode is brought to you by Dr. Squatch. I'm going to let you in on a secret. If you want to be more confident, you have to start taking care of yourself. And a great way to do that is use Dr. Squatch, especially with their new private hygiene products. They were designed to help you look and feel fresh all over.
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