What do you think?
Rate this book
Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy
In this #1 national bestseller, a journalist who's been attacked by Antifa writes a deeply researched and reported account of the group's history and tactics.
When Andy Ngo was attacked in the streets by Antifa in the summer of 2019, most people assumed it was an isolated incident. But those who'd been following Ngo's reporting in outlets like the New York Post and Quillette knew that the attack was only the latest in a long line of crimes perpetrated by Antifa.
In Unmasked, Andy Ngo tells the story of this violent extremist movement from the very beginning. He includes interviews with former followers of the group, people who've been attacked by them, and incorporates stories from his own life. This book contains a trove of documents obtained by the author, published for the first time ever.
324 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 2, 2021
1163 people are currently reading
3980 people want to read
About the author
Andy Ngo
1 book155 followersAndy Ngo is an independent journalist and photographer. He lives under threat for his reporting and expertise on American antifa and the militant far-left. He has testified before the U.S. Congress, appeared on countless television shows, radio programs, and podcasts, and his journalism has appeared in the Wall Street Journal, New York Post, Newsweek, Fox News, National Review, and more. Andy is currently the editor-at-large at The Post Millennial.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 477 reviews
October 17, 2020
The losers that give this book 1 star ratings are the radical left that this book exposes. Antifa are the actual fascists and this book will be an ultimate expose.
Read
November 4, 2024See highlights and notes for thoughts on this book.
Probably would never have given this book more than a glance, but the fact that protestors tried to shut down Powell’s for carrying it convinced me to give it a try.
Don’t mess with Powell’s.
Probably would never have given this book more than a glance, but the fact that protestors tried to shut down Powell’s for carrying it convinced me to give it a try.
Don’t mess with Powell’s.
November 5, 2025
Even with politics aside (which they shouldn't be,) Andy Ngo has been caught falsifying sources and data, lying about having a brain injury, lying to get donations, computer engineering fake author avatars and bios for his tabloid rag, switching back and forth between his American and abysmally concocted fake british accent, organizing with fascists at multiple events including the one where he claims he was first attacked as a innocent jouwnawist, organizing with fascists before and during the cider riot attack on antifascists, and regularly defending Nazis and other fascists with all his might all to continue getting the attention he craves from the gullible public that follow him.
Also, he has possibly the worst facial hair I've ever seen.
Edit: if you're more into listening than reading, this podcast about Ngo is pretty good https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-be...
Note that it is from 9/2019, so it does not include his more recent terrible scamming of the public.
Edit 11-2022: Ngo uploaded a new Goodreads photo where he photoshopped his missing beard on one side to the other side 😂 just shave it dude, come on) he's now comparing antifa to ISIS even though antifa groups have literally fought ISIS. Good times.
Edit 11-2025: My how far we have come. Seeing this review get the occasional like while watching this country descend further into fascism that manages to be both equally horrifying and absurdly embarrassing is an interesting glimpse into how propagandists like Ngo play such a huge part in fascist takeovers. After someone in my apartment building- a public housing unit for senior and disabled low income people- essentially called me a terrorist out of nowhere- I wanted to know what had happened recently to allow people of our demographics to be easily distracted from losing everything we rely on to instead blame a bogeyman. I saw the roundtable at the whitehouse with right wing influencers and had to add another link here.
This does not do the topic justice though. To catalogue the lies and manipulations of Ngo would take a book several times as long as the one he wrote. The low-budget propagandist no one asked for but that the far right desperately needed. I wonder if all of his work will save him when ICE comes knocking or simply sees his face on the street during a sweep.
One of the most heart breaking things about all of this is watching people literally lift up powers who seek to destroy them. To be so easily distracted from inequality, collapse, and authoritarianism in styles that we've never encountered, simply because there is a villain the right pointed them to instead. Oppression does not end, it only changes shape. And now we have AI. But, I digress.
Also, he has possibly the worst facial hair I've ever seen.
Edit: if you're more into listening than reading, this podcast about Ngo is pretty good https://www.iheart.com/podcast/105-be...
Note that it is from 9/2019, so it does not include his more recent terrible scamming of the public.
Edit 11-2022: Ngo uploaded a new Goodreads photo where he photoshopped his missing beard on one side to the other side 😂 just shave it dude, come on) he's now comparing antifa to ISIS even though antifa groups have literally fought ISIS. Good times.
Edit 11-2025: My how far we have come. Seeing this review get the occasional like while watching this country descend further into fascism that manages to be both equally horrifying and absurdly embarrassing is an interesting glimpse into how propagandists like Ngo play such a huge part in fascist takeovers. After someone in my apartment building- a public housing unit for senior and disabled low income people- essentially called me a terrorist out of nowhere- I wanted to know what had happened recently to allow people of our demographics to be easily distracted from losing everything we rely on to instead blame a bogeyman. I saw the roundtable at the whitehouse with right wing influencers and had to add another link here.
This does not do the topic justice though. To catalogue the lies and manipulations of Ngo would take a book several times as long as the one he wrote. The low-budget propagandist no one asked for but that the far right desperately needed. I wonder if all of his work will save him when ICE comes knocking or simply sees his face on the street during a sweep.
One of the most heart breaking things about all of this is watching people literally lift up powers who seek to destroy them. To be so easily distracted from inequality, collapse, and authoritarianism in styles that we've never encountered, simply because there is a villain the right pointed them to instead. Oppression does not end, it only changes shape. And now we have AI. But, I digress.
January 12, 2021
a must read. The Truth for a change.
Want to read
January 17, 2021To the 1-book/1-review trolls giving this only 1 star even before it's released, jig's up. You're too transparent. You don't ban books and intimidate bookshops and think you and your ilk are going to get a warm welcome here, in Goodreads of all places. A little self-awareness would go a long way for you and your kind, fascist.
You want to be taken seriously? Here's an idea: why don't you actually read the book and give an honest-to-goodness review. Point out actual false accounts, inconsistencies, lies, statistical inaccuracies, etc. in the text and then provide links to verified sources that would corroborate your claims.
Nope, attacks on the author's person won't cut it either. There's a reason why ad hominems are frowned upon in debates. Disprove the arguments in the book itself.
And yes you will have to work doubly hard to prove your good faith. For some reason, people here don't take kindly to book censorship. I wonder why.
Lastly, if your aim is to limit the breadth of the book's reach, well I've been looking at Amazon and it's the Number 1 Bestseller in Books right now. Many people who would have gone blithely through their lives not even knowing that this book existed have now ordered it. Way to go shooting yourselves in the foot. Here's to hoping that later on you won't do so literally.
You want to be taken seriously? Here's an idea: why don't you actually read the book and give an honest-to-goodness review. Point out actual false accounts, inconsistencies, lies, statistical inaccuracies, etc. in the text and then provide links to verified sources that would corroborate your claims.
Nope, attacks on the author's person won't cut it either. There's a reason why ad hominems are frowned upon in debates. Disprove the arguments in the book itself.
And yes you will have to work doubly hard to prove your good faith. For some reason, people here don't take kindly to book censorship. I wonder why.
Lastly, if your aim is to limit the breadth of the book's reach, well I've been looking at Amazon and it's the Number 1 Bestseller in Books right now. Many people who would have gone blithely through their lives not even knowing that this book existed have now ordered it. Way to go shooting yourselves in the foot. Here's to hoping that later on you won't do so literally.
June 17, 2021
Great example of journalism. I wouldn’t have read this book had it not been for the violent thugs that tried to get this book pulled from book stores in Portland. The riots in Portland by so-called “anti-fascists” have been particularly egregious, and Andy Ngo dives deep into how they operate and how sympathetic journalists cover up for them. Ngo also presents court documents not seen before as to how they have used abandoned buildings and social media to gather support and operate. The addition of screenshots of the rioting was a nice touch
January 13, 2021
Just leaving this review to offset the one star rating people who have not read this book have given. Thanks to the little protests in Portland, I am so going to buy a copy.
July 8, 2024
Kudos for Andy Ngo. Someone who is willing to walk the hard yards to speak truth to power.
That said, I find myself inspired to write a letter...
An open letter to Antifa.
From, the Establishment Status Quo.
Dear Antifa,
I thought I'd take a few moments out of my busy schedule to pen a few words of appreciation for the good work you've been doing over the last few years.
My very-good friends and I at the top of society have been spending quite a few decades putting together a little hybrid system. It's fascism for the rich and Marxism for the poor. The way our ingenious system works, is that we co-opt the machinery of the state, such as the legislature, the judiciary, the executive, and all the associated monetary, military and law enforcement powers for our own benefit. Given we have controlling stakes in all the important corporations on the planet, we simply use the co-opted powers of the state to regulate our competition out of business, and create monopoly markets to guarantee a steady stream of profits. If something goes wrong and we make a loss, the state deems our privately owned businesses 'too big to fail,' and bails us out thereby socialising (the Marxist bit) our risks onto the little people.
You may have noticed the trial run we conducted with great success during the GFC in 2007/08 where the US government kindly bailed out our banking businesses to the tune of more than $700 billion. I must say my friends and I did chortle when we saw the cheques.
Or more recently, with universal lockdowns eviscerating small-to-medium enterprises in favour of the large politically-connected incumbent corporations such that we own controlling portions of ... sorry, haven't you noticed our swelling coffers during the pandemic? We have made out, well ... like bandits ... If I wasn't on the receiving end of all this largess, I'd be scandalised (Ha ha!).
But despite such successes, we have a very substantial problem, and we're really glad you're around to help us out. This hybrid Fascist/Marxist system is like a hungry little caterpillar stuck inside a cocoon. The big bad world isn't ready for our system to come fully out into the open. It isn't ready for a system where ultra-wealthy chaps like my good friends and I own everything and people just like yourself own nothing (a bit more of that Marxism thing - we're going to get rid of private property for everyone else by consolidating all ownership into our own hands through a debt for equity swap. Yep, we'll write off everyone's debt and take complete ownership of everything in perpetuity. You think it couldn't happen? Do you really believe that private property will be eliminated for the rich and powerful? That we aren't already 100% across the plan? We invented the plan!) Of course, we will rent some of what we own back to you, so you will at least have that, which is far better than nothing at all don't you think?
But getting back to the devilishly difficult problem that we have. It's quite a pesky thing, and we think that you chaps are just the ones to help us out, as it's a very-pesky problem for you too. I'm speaking about the US constitution and the associated Bill of Rights. Now, my very-good friends and I have noticed with a certain amount of mutual excitement that you are all very keen on the idea of getting rid of the very-pesky US constitution.
Well, as it happens, so are we.
I can't tell you enough how tiresome it is to have to travel all the way to a privately owned island to have the sorts of parties that my very-good friends and I like to enjoy. Of course some of the delightful shenanigans that we get up to are frowned upon in certain circles of society, especially those staffed by over-eager law enforcement busy bodies. I'm sure you can relate to how tiresome it would be to have to keep hiding your perfectly natural predilections from general view.
But without the very-pesky US constitution, and its thoroughly outdated views of 'constrained,' government and the separation of powers, we would be free to exercise our natural impulses in public without fear of ever being held accountable by some law-enforcement busy body. In fact they will all be on our side enforcing our rights to do as we please with all of you. Without the US constitution and the Bill of Rights there is nothing to stop us implementing the most rigorous police state ever seen in human history.
Now, this is where you Antifa chappies come in. There are a large number of Americans who are rather attached to the dusty old papers, and given they are really quite well armed, we need them to voluntarily give the US constitution and the Bill of Rights up. Now my very-good friends and I have noticed that you Antifa chappies are not shy about using the old fisticuffs, and we applaud your penchant for violence. We ourselves understand the urge to get bloody from time to time; of course we do it in private and our personal security teams clean up the mess afterwards, but you need to be very public in what you do. You see, we need to bring society to the brink of revolution. We need the general population to be absolutely terrified to step out their front door. We need them begging to be saved from you. We need you to conduct atrocities, to terrorise and to intimidate to your heart's content. So be sure to keep believing in the 'Revolution.' Believe in it good and hard. We need you breaking windows, lighting fires, and cracking skulls. We can't win without your help - you're essential to our plans you see - it's why you have so much top cover. You know about that don't you. Politicians that try and side with you or call you a myth, DAs that won't prosecute you, and dollars, lots of dollars, to pay for fines and bail. We really do find you useful, very useful indeed.
You will help us manufacture consent (we do admire Noam Chomsky, a very smart man that one if perhaps a little too insightful at times) within the general populace to suspend the US constitution and the Bill of Rights to restore public safety. We will use your violence to create a truly epic backlash that allows us to declare martial law. We will bring the marvellous US military machine home to US soil. A war machine conditioned by three decades of counterinsurgency warfare in far away places. Given the NSA (thanks to the Patriot act and despite your petty efforts to protect yourselves) has been surveiling all of you, rounding you up and putting you up against a wall will be done quite quickly, humanely and with a minimum of fuss and bother.
Of course, once the very-pesky US constitution and Bill of Rights has been suspended, it will never be restored. We'll see to that. If you happen to make it through the initial stages of our faux-revolutionary process, and find yourself backed up against a wall and staring down the rifle barrels of a military firing squad. Please comfort yourself with the memory of this letter, and the certain knowledge that we, the establishment status quo, could not have entrenched our plutocratic rule over the planet without your noble sacrifice.
Just remember, we need you to take a bullet for our cause.
Yours sincerely,
A Ruler.
The Establishment Status Quo.
P.S. Antifa, if you weren't so available to be co-opted, we'd have to invent you.
P.P.S. Look up next time you're rioting. If you happen to see a private jet flying overhead in the general direction of Davos, give me a wave. I probably wont see you, as I will be snorting the finest Columbian products while cavorting with a pair of wonderfully nubile super-models, but giving a wave will help you remember just who you're making a sacrifice for.
P.P.P.S. My very-good friends and I have landed on a name for our hybrid system. We like to call it neo-fascist corporate statism. What do you think? It has quite a nice ring to it we think.
Here ends the letter...
A final note: For a very long time now, I've really struggled to tell the difference between the following things.
A Fascist jackboot and a Marxist jackboot.
A Fascist 9mm automatic and a Marxist 9mm automatic.
A Fascist snitch and a Marxist snitch.
A Fascist secret policeman and a Marxist secret policeman.
A Fascist phone tap and a Marxist phone tap.
A Fascist abduction from the street and a Marxist abduction from the street.
A Fascist presumption of guilt and a Marxist presumption of guilt.
A Fascist kangaroo court and a Marxist show trial.
A Fascist labour camp and a Marxist re-education camp.
A Fascist death camp and a Marxist death camp.
An "I only follow orders." Fascist bureaucrat and an "I only follow orders." Marxist apparatchik.
A Fascist death camp guard and a Marxist death camp guard.
A Fascist Supreme Leader and a Marxist Supreme Leader.
A Fascist Utopia and a Marxist Utopia.
A Fascist sycophant and a Marxist sycophant.
A Fascist 'Race Traitor,' and a Marxist 'Class Enemy.'
A Fascist scapegoat target and a Marxist scapegoat target.
A Fascist Indoctrinator of the young and a Marxist Indoctrinator of the young.
A Fascist propagandist and a Marxist propagandist.
A Fascist Book Burner and a Marxist Book Burner.
A Fascist hatred of Marxists, and a Marxist hatred of Fascists.
A Fascist ministry of state security and a Marxist ministry of state security.
A Fascist retrospective law and a Marxist retrospective law.
A Fascist predetermined vote count and a Marxist predetermined vote count.
A Fascist one-party state and a Marxist one-party state.
A Fascist execution without trial and a Marxist execution without trial.
A Fascist firing squad and a Marxist firing squad.
A prisoner of conscience standing up against a Fascist wall and a prisoner of conscience standing up against a Marxist wall.
A Fascist rifle and a Marxist rifle.
A Fascist bullet and a Marxist bullet.
A victim of Fascism and a victim of Marxism.
Geez, it's really hard to tell Fascists from Marxists - they look just like mirror images of each other. I wonder, is that a feature or a bug? (Of course they'll deny it - no one who is a genuine fascist or Marxist can admit the deep similarity of their methods and outcomes.)
So when someone calls themselves Antifa, are they also Anti-Marxist? - Because both ideologies have murdered millions of people in their mutual search for an unattainable and never to be realized utopia.
Of course the greatest threat to a ravenous wolf (Fascists) stalking its prey, is another ravenous wolf (Marxists) stalking the same prey (As opposed to all us normal people who are not besotted by the quest for power over others).
When someone has their jackboot on your throat and a 9mm automatic pointed at your face, do you really care if their shoulder patch is a swastika, or a hammer & sickle? When an armed thug shoves a gun barrel to an inch of your face, are you going to care about the ideology that he has embraced as 'the ultimate truth,' or surviving the next few moments?
You be the judge.
Recommended. 5 'Speaking Truth to Power,' stars.
That said, I find myself inspired to write a letter...
An open letter to Antifa.
From, the Establishment Status Quo.
Dear Antifa,
I thought I'd take a few moments out of my busy schedule to pen a few words of appreciation for the good work you've been doing over the last few years.
My very-good friends and I at the top of society have been spending quite a few decades putting together a little hybrid system. It's fascism for the rich and Marxism for the poor. The way our ingenious system works, is that we co-opt the machinery of the state, such as the legislature, the judiciary, the executive, and all the associated monetary, military and law enforcement powers for our own benefit. Given we have controlling stakes in all the important corporations on the planet, we simply use the co-opted powers of the state to regulate our competition out of business, and create monopoly markets to guarantee a steady stream of profits. If something goes wrong and we make a loss, the state deems our privately owned businesses 'too big to fail,' and bails us out thereby socialising (the Marxist bit) our risks onto the little people.
You may have noticed the trial run we conducted with great success during the GFC in 2007/08 where the US government kindly bailed out our banking businesses to the tune of more than $700 billion. I must say my friends and I did chortle when we saw the cheques.
Or more recently, with universal lockdowns eviscerating small-to-medium enterprises in favour of the large politically-connected incumbent corporations such that we own controlling portions of ... sorry, haven't you noticed our swelling coffers during the pandemic? We have made out, well ... like bandits ... If I wasn't on the receiving end of all this largess, I'd be scandalised (Ha ha!).
But despite such successes, we have a very substantial problem, and we're really glad you're around to help us out. This hybrid Fascist/Marxist system is like a hungry little caterpillar stuck inside a cocoon. The big bad world isn't ready for our system to come fully out into the open. It isn't ready for a system where ultra-wealthy chaps like my good friends and I own everything and people just like yourself own nothing (a bit more of that Marxism thing - we're going to get rid of private property for everyone else by consolidating all ownership into our own hands through a debt for equity swap. Yep, we'll write off everyone's debt and take complete ownership of everything in perpetuity. You think it couldn't happen? Do you really believe that private property will be eliminated for the rich and powerful? That we aren't already 100% across the plan? We invented the plan!) Of course, we will rent some of what we own back to you, so you will at least have that, which is far better than nothing at all don't you think?
But getting back to the devilishly difficult problem that we have. It's quite a pesky thing, and we think that you chaps are just the ones to help us out, as it's a very-pesky problem for you too. I'm speaking about the US constitution and the associated Bill of Rights. Now, my very-good friends and I have noticed with a certain amount of mutual excitement that you are all very keen on the idea of getting rid of the very-pesky US constitution.
Well, as it happens, so are we.
I can't tell you enough how tiresome it is to have to travel all the way to a privately owned island to have the sorts of parties that my very-good friends and I like to enjoy. Of course some of the delightful shenanigans that we get up to are frowned upon in certain circles of society, especially those staffed by over-eager law enforcement busy bodies. I'm sure you can relate to how tiresome it would be to have to keep hiding your perfectly natural predilections from general view.
But without the very-pesky US constitution, and its thoroughly outdated views of 'constrained,' government and the separation of powers, we would be free to exercise our natural impulses in public without fear of ever being held accountable by some law-enforcement busy body. In fact they will all be on our side enforcing our rights to do as we please with all of you. Without the US constitution and the Bill of Rights there is nothing to stop us implementing the most rigorous police state ever seen in human history.
Now, this is where you Antifa chappies come in. There are a large number of Americans who are rather attached to the dusty old papers, and given they are really quite well armed, we need them to voluntarily give the US constitution and the Bill of Rights up. Now my very-good friends and I have noticed that you Antifa chappies are not shy about using the old fisticuffs, and we applaud your penchant for violence. We ourselves understand the urge to get bloody from time to time; of course we do it in private and our personal security teams clean up the mess afterwards, but you need to be very public in what you do. You see, we need to bring society to the brink of revolution. We need the general population to be absolutely terrified to step out their front door. We need them begging to be saved from you. We need you to conduct atrocities, to terrorise and to intimidate to your heart's content. So be sure to keep believing in the 'Revolution.' Believe in it good and hard. We need you breaking windows, lighting fires, and cracking skulls. We can't win without your help - you're essential to our plans you see - it's why you have so much top cover. You know about that don't you. Politicians that try and side with you or call you a myth, DAs that won't prosecute you, and dollars, lots of dollars, to pay for fines and bail. We really do find you useful, very useful indeed.
You will help us manufacture consent (we do admire Noam Chomsky, a very smart man that one if perhaps a little too insightful at times) within the general populace to suspend the US constitution and the Bill of Rights to restore public safety. We will use your violence to create a truly epic backlash that allows us to declare martial law. We will bring the marvellous US military machine home to US soil. A war machine conditioned by three decades of counterinsurgency warfare in far away places. Given the NSA (thanks to the Patriot act and despite your petty efforts to protect yourselves) has been surveiling all of you, rounding you up and putting you up against a wall will be done quite quickly, humanely and with a minimum of fuss and bother.
Of course, once the very-pesky US constitution and Bill of Rights has been suspended, it will never be restored. We'll see to that. If you happen to make it through the initial stages of our faux-revolutionary process, and find yourself backed up against a wall and staring down the rifle barrels of a military firing squad. Please comfort yourself with the memory of this letter, and the certain knowledge that we, the establishment status quo, could not have entrenched our plutocratic rule over the planet without your noble sacrifice.
Just remember, we need you to take a bullet for our cause.
Yours sincerely,
A Ruler.
The Establishment Status Quo.
P.S. Antifa, if you weren't so available to be co-opted, we'd have to invent you.
P.P.S. Look up next time you're rioting. If you happen to see a private jet flying overhead in the general direction of Davos, give me a wave. I probably wont see you, as I will be snorting the finest Columbian products while cavorting with a pair of wonderfully nubile super-models, but giving a wave will help you remember just who you're making a sacrifice for.
P.P.P.S. My very-good friends and I have landed on a name for our hybrid system. We like to call it neo-fascist corporate statism. What do you think? It has quite a nice ring to it we think.
Here ends the letter...
A final note: For a very long time now, I've really struggled to tell the difference between the following things.
A Fascist jackboot and a Marxist jackboot.
A Fascist 9mm automatic and a Marxist 9mm automatic.
A Fascist snitch and a Marxist snitch.
A Fascist secret policeman and a Marxist secret policeman.
A Fascist phone tap and a Marxist phone tap.
A Fascist abduction from the street and a Marxist abduction from the street.
A Fascist presumption of guilt and a Marxist presumption of guilt.
A Fascist kangaroo court and a Marxist show trial.
A Fascist labour camp and a Marxist re-education camp.
A Fascist death camp and a Marxist death camp.
An "I only follow orders." Fascist bureaucrat and an "I only follow orders." Marxist apparatchik.
A Fascist death camp guard and a Marxist death camp guard.
A Fascist Supreme Leader and a Marxist Supreme Leader.
A Fascist Utopia and a Marxist Utopia.
A Fascist sycophant and a Marxist sycophant.
A Fascist 'Race Traitor,' and a Marxist 'Class Enemy.'
A Fascist scapegoat target and a Marxist scapegoat target.
A Fascist Indoctrinator of the young and a Marxist Indoctrinator of the young.
A Fascist propagandist and a Marxist propagandist.
A Fascist Book Burner and a Marxist Book Burner.
A Fascist hatred of Marxists, and a Marxist hatred of Fascists.
A Fascist ministry of state security and a Marxist ministry of state security.
A Fascist retrospective law and a Marxist retrospective law.
A Fascist predetermined vote count and a Marxist predetermined vote count.
A Fascist one-party state and a Marxist one-party state.
A Fascist execution without trial and a Marxist execution without trial.
A Fascist firing squad and a Marxist firing squad.
A prisoner of conscience standing up against a Fascist wall and a prisoner of conscience standing up against a Marxist wall.
A Fascist rifle and a Marxist rifle.
A Fascist bullet and a Marxist bullet.
A victim of Fascism and a victim of Marxism.
Geez, it's really hard to tell Fascists from Marxists - they look just like mirror images of each other. I wonder, is that a feature or a bug? (Of course they'll deny it - no one who is a genuine fascist or Marxist can admit the deep similarity of their methods and outcomes.)
So when someone calls themselves Antifa, are they also Anti-Marxist? - Because both ideologies have murdered millions of people in their mutual search for an unattainable and never to be realized utopia.
Of course the greatest threat to a ravenous wolf (Fascists) stalking its prey, is another ravenous wolf (Marxists) stalking the same prey (As opposed to all us normal people who are not besotted by the quest for power over others).
When someone has their jackboot on your throat and a 9mm automatic pointed at your face, do you really care if their shoulder patch is a swastika, or a hammer & sickle? When an armed thug shoves a gun barrel to an inch of your face, are you going to care about the ideology that he has embraced as 'the ultimate truth,' or surviving the next few moments?
You be the judge.
Recommended. 5 'Speaking Truth to Power,' stars.
January 11, 2021
This fraudster of a journalist is capitalizing on fear propaganda during our current time there are enough things to legitimately be concerned about without fear mongering on top of it.
January 12, 2021
One mans fictional account of the people who stand up to his violent thug friends. Andy NGO is a grifter and a fraud.
January 12, 2021
Excellent book
February 3, 2021
This may be a good book to buy if you want to learn about about Andy Ngo's anti-antifascism activism and involvement with groups like the Proud Boys (who he describes in the book merely as a "pro-Trump fraternity," which is interesting because the Wall Street Journal describes as "key instigators" in the 1/6 attack on the Capitol, and the Canadian government describes them as an officially designated terrorist entity), Patriot Prayer, and other far-right groups, but it is predictably filled with falsehoods resulting from poor fact-checking and probably also dishonesty.
When writing about the Covid-19 lockdowns and the protests prompted by the killing of George Floyd, Ngo says: "The American public was now primed for mass resistance and violence against law enforcement. Glued to social media due to lockdown orders, all they needed was a reason to get out. That reason came in the death of George Floyd Jr. on May 25, 2020." This is weird because most states, including Minnesota, didn't have stay-at-home orders that extended to or through May 25th, so Ngo's statement obviously reflects very poor fact-checking, plus his analysis is just stupid. If people were "primed for mass resistance and violence against law enforcement," why would they wait for stay-at-home orders to end to do it? Also, most people obviously were not thinking about police killings of black people during the lockdown, because that stuff happens all the time anyway (which is why BLM is so important) and everyone was focused on the coronavirus pandemic. (Anyone who disagrees with me about this can find out that they are wrong by checking Google Trends and comparing the results for "Black Lives Matter" and "coronavirus" for the past year.) George Floyd's death was different from most deaths because it was caught on video and anyone who watched it could see for themselves that the cops were very clearly in the wrong (although Ngo denies this, because Floyd was "a 46-year-old black man with an extensive criminal history" whose blood "contained a fatal level of fentanyl").
Andy Ngo says that in 2020, "mainstream left-wing commentators began criticizing the very notion of property rights," which is a bit odd because property rights have actually been "criticized" for centuries; Jean-Jacques Rousseau (who wasn't really "left-wing" and kinda slightly predated the concept of a left-right political spectrum anyway, but still) wrote the Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men, which was published in 1755, which is way before 2020. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Karl Marx, and a bunch of other people criticized private property in the 19th century. It's just ridiculous to say mainstream left-wing commentators began criticizing it in 2020, as though that were some type of new development and the idea of property rights was just accepted without question before that. Obviously Ngo is clueless about leftism and this, on top of the fact that he frequently bends the truth, is just another reason why anything he says should be taken with a grain of salt.
Another problem with the book is that it is extremely transphobic. Ngo mentions being yelled at by "a local transsexual antifa militant and a member of the Satanic Portland Antifascists," which is weird because what does the fact that they were trans have to do with anything? Nothing, but he probably included that in there because he knows his largely right-wing readers don't like trans people or really any LGBT people at all (except him obviously). He also deadnames trans people in the book, which is very unethical but not surprising because this is Andy Ngo we're talking about. I'm cis, but like most gay men, I support trans rights, equality, etc., and I guess Ngo just doesn't because he's a right-wing e-celeb and his fans like it when he does transphobia.
Also he doesn't explain the incident where he got caught lying about who was initially wielding a hammer in a fight between Patriot Prayer and some anti-fascists. (It was a Patriot Prayer guy.) Ngo doesn't mention how much he's been owned on Twitter by people like Respectable Lawyer, etc., and that seems like a very disappointing omission to me. He does talk about the fact that he was with Patriot Prayer when they attacked Cider Riot but he tries to very unconvincingly make it seem like he did nothing wrong! He doesn't even explain why he got pushed out of Quillette (a web magazine that is ostensibly about classical liberalism and phrenology or whatever—Ngo was once an editor for it, but now he works for The Post Millennial, which is a bit like a Canadian version of Breitbart).
Another problem with this book is that it's just one of those very boring books that doesn't even need to exist, because the main people who are going to want to read it are Andy Ngo's fans who already follow him on social media and will not learn anything new from this lousy book. (That is not to say someone unfamiliar with Ngo would learn anything from this book; they probably wouldn't, because there is just so much misinformation in it.)
I definitely regret reading this whole terrible book, and I would not recommend it to anyone!
When writing about the Covid-19 lockdowns and the protests prompted by the killing of George Floyd, Ngo says: "The American public was now primed for mass resistance and violence against law enforcement. Glued to social media due to lockdown orders, all they needed was a reason to get out. That reason came in the death of George Floyd Jr. on May 25, 2020." This is weird because most states, including Minnesota, didn't have stay-at-home orders that extended to or through May 25th, so Ngo's statement obviously reflects very poor fact-checking, plus his analysis is just stupid. If people were "primed for mass resistance and violence against law enforcement," why would they wait for stay-at-home orders to end to do it? Also, most people obviously were not thinking about police killings of black people during the lockdown, because that stuff happens all the time anyway (which is why BLM is so important) and everyone was focused on the coronavirus pandemic. (Anyone who disagrees with me about this can find out that they are wrong by checking Google Trends and comparing the results for "Black Lives Matter" and "coronavirus" for the past year.) George Floyd's death was different from most deaths because it was caught on video and anyone who watched it could see for themselves that the cops were very clearly in the wrong (although Ngo denies this, because Floyd was "a 46-year-old black man with an extensive criminal history" whose blood "contained a fatal level of fentanyl").
Andy Ngo says that in 2020, "mainstream left-wing commentators began criticizing the very notion of property rights," which is a bit odd because property rights have actually been "criticized" for centuries; Jean-Jacques Rousseau (who wasn't really "left-wing" and kinda slightly predated the concept of a left-right political spectrum anyway, but still) wrote the Discourse on the Origin and Basis of Inequality Among Men, which was published in 1755, which is way before 2020. Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, Karl Marx, and a bunch of other people criticized private property in the 19th century. It's just ridiculous to say mainstream left-wing commentators began criticizing it in 2020, as though that were some type of new development and the idea of property rights was just accepted without question before that. Obviously Ngo is clueless about leftism and this, on top of the fact that he frequently bends the truth, is just another reason why anything he says should be taken with a grain of salt.
Another problem with the book is that it is extremely transphobic. Ngo mentions being yelled at by "a local transsexual antifa militant and a member of the Satanic Portland Antifascists," which is weird because what does the fact that they were trans have to do with anything? Nothing, but he probably included that in there because he knows his largely right-wing readers don't like trans people or really any LGBT people at all (except him obviously). He also deadnames trans people in the book, which is very unethical but not surprising because this is Andy Ngo we're talking about. I'm cis, but like most gay men, I support trans rights, equality, etc., and I guess Ngo just doesn't because he's a right-wing e-celeb and his fans like it when he does transphobia.
Also he doesn't explain the incident where he got caught lying about who was initially wielding a hammer in a fight between Patriot Prayer and some anti-fascists. (It was a Patriot Prayer guy.) Ngo doesn't mention how much he's been owned on Twitter by people like Respectable Lawyer, etc., and that seems like a very disappointing omission to me. He does talk about the fact that he was with Patriot Prayer when they attacked Cider Riot but he tries to very unconvincingly make it seem like he did nothing wrong! He doesn't even explain why he got pushed out of Quillette (a web magazine that is ostensibly about classical liberalism and phrenology or whatever—Ngo was once an editor for it, but now he works for The Post Millennial, which is a bit like a Canadian version of Breitbart).
Another problem with this book is that it's just one of those very boring books that doesn't even need to exist, because the main people who are going to want to read it are Andy Ngo's fans who already follow him on social media and will not learn anything new from this lousy book. (That is not to say someone unfamiliar with Ngo would learn anything from this book; they probably wouldn't, because there is just so much misinformation in it.)
I definitely regret reading this whole terrible book, and I would not recommend it to anyone!
January 13, 2021
Rating 5 for the antifa kids, thanks for bringing this book to my attention due to your protests.
January 13, 2021
Great insight to what the radicals are really up to.
February 2, 2021
Unlike some other reviewers I’ve actually bought and read this book and found it very much lacking. Ngo’s book is filled with misrepresentations, poor writing, contradictory messages, and poor development of argument and thoughts.
Following the Capitol attack much of Ngo’s rhetoric is shown to be empty, misinformed, and just plain wrong. In the book he calls antifa the biggest threat to American democracy however these recent events show he bet on the wrong horse. Now it’s only a question of how much longer he can beat it.
Following the Capitol attack much of Ngo’s rhetoric is shown to be empty, misinformed, and just plain wrong. In the book he calls antifa the biggest threat to American democracy however these recent events show he bet on the wrong horse. Now it’s only a question of how much longer he can beat it.
February 4, 2021
A must read for anyone of any sensible political persuasion, right or left (Why Biden doesn't admit Antifa are domestic terrorists amazes me!). This excellent insight reveals Antifa not to be the 'anti facists' they claim to be, but the true (fanatical, brainwashed, far left) facists of our time. Their quisling name 'antifa' suggesting the exact opposite of what the stand for. Well done Andy! Looking forward to the next book!
November 30, 2020
It's obvious that this author is not a journalist. Very disappointed as most of the book is not based on fact, just here say.
January 13, 2021
At least, there are some people who have the courage to speak against the narration of multi-million news corporations.
February 4, 2021
Andy Ngo spent four years trying to shine a light on the realities of Antifa. It nearly cost him his life on more than one occasion. His first hand accounts in the pages of this book are chilling. Altho’ the single incident from the summer of 2019 brought him to National and International prominence, there’s so much more to his story.
Ngo provides the history behind Antifa; it’s roots from Europe, how it’s mutated in England and the US. His focus has been the Pacific Northwest, especially Portland and Seattle. He knows the players and they know him; a fact that is highly evidenced in the stunning photography he’s included.
His research also includes a syllabus for new members to the Portland chapter. You’ll find this in chapter 4 of the book; it’s offered after months of vetting, 6, I believe, and has quite a bit of mandatory requirements. There are also numerous concessions for inabilities. It’s purposeful...
Andy supports all his writing with extensive notes and references. The last 25% of this volume is devoted to it. He also takes a brief chapter to share a quick biographical sketch of his parents and their journey from Viet Nam. For me, this inclusion added an element of urgency and sobriety for a life already too visible to sleep peacefully.
Well written and lives up to its name - people, places & actions, (or lack thereof), are all “Unmasked”📚
Ngo provides the history behind Antifa; it’s roots from Europe, how it’s mutated in England and the US. His focus has been the Pacific Northwest, especially Portland and Seattle. He knows the players and they know him; a fact that is highly evidenced in the stunning photography he’s included.
His research also includes a syllabus for new members to the Portland chapter. You’ll find this in chapter 4 of the book; it’s offered after months of vetting, 6, I believe, and has quite a bit of mandatory requirements. There are also numerous concessions for inabilities. It’s purposeful...
Andy supports all his writing with extensive notes and references. The last 25% of this volume is devoted to it. He also takes a brief chapter to share a quick biographical sketch of his parents and their journey from Viet Nam. For me, this inclusion added an element of urgency and sobriety for a life already too visible to sleep peacefully.
Well written and lives up to its name - people, places & actions, (or lack thereof), are all “Unmasked”📚
December 11, 2021
I bought this book because I saw that a Portland bookstore had caved to a mob and decided not to stock the book because of their protests. That angered me. I do not believe in book burning. I do not believe in censorship. I do not believe in decreasing the amount of information available to people. Even when I come across a book that contains things that I deeply despise I do not then pick it up and take it to the front desk and say ‘how dare you sell this?’ I don’t go to the library and demand that they get rid of “Inventing Memory” because of its sick sexual exploitation of women under the guise of female empowerment. I will stop reading it and tell other people why I stopped reading it, I will even write reviews recommending that people not read it, but I leave it up to them to decide. I’m not going to go steal the copies of the book and burn them. I’m not going to demand it be removed from shelves. I’m not going to call publishers and demand they stop printing it. I don’t think that’s morally correct, let alone politically or socially correct. So, it angers me when other people try to censor others. That’s the sole reason I bought this book. I had never heard of Andy Ngo before that escapade.
I knew, vaguely, that this book was going to be about Antifa. After all, it’s in the title. But I went in knowing nothing more than what I had seen in the news over the past couple of years and with the knowledge that people I know and respected said that Mr. Ngo was a troll and that Antifa was not a group.
Well. A couple of things about those. One. He’s not a troll. How do I know? Trolls are rarely eloquent, courageous or detail oriented. They usually rely on broadly annoying narratives, fail to make nuanced points, and resort to ad hominem attacks or insults rather than engaging in carefully annotated journalism. In this entire book I didn’t see any evidence of Ngo doing any of the former things and plenty of instances of the latter. Two. I don’t even understand what people who say that antifa is not a group mean. I don’t think they understand what they mean either. I don’t think that they’ve ever thought about what they are saying. Is it since there is not a concrete oath that all antifa people must swear to therefore they are not a group? Well, in that case most churches don’t constitute groups either. Christianity itself couldn’t be considered a group under a definition like that and I doubt that anyone would make such an absurd claim as to say that Christians don’t form a group. When people agree on a set of beliefs they form a group, or, alternatively, when people share a set of characteristics they form a group. Christians all agree that Christ is the Son of God, ergo they form the group of Christianity. Young white violent men who believe that Jews and blacks are inferior and evil and that violence towards these groups is a mission from the universe are what we know as Neo-Nazis. They form a group. We identify them as such because of the similarity of characteristics, beliefs, or actions that they share that causes them to be put in a group. The same is true of antifa, those who identify themselves as antifa share characteristics, beliefs and actions. How could anyone who thinks about what they are saying still contend that antifa is not a group?
The book is not the best book that I have read. Occasionally, Ngo makes overly broad claims or conflates ideas together. However, I can’t really blame him because everyone thinks holistically to a degree and has trouble teasing apart the different motivations and world views of political movements that are so closely intertwined. Just because this is not a scholarly work does not detract from its value. Ngo does a good job of tracing the birth, growth and evolution of the anti fascist movement in Europe to the United States and how it has merged, or at least partnered with, other movements such as Black Lives Matter, anarchists, and communists and the tactics that these groups use in order to further their ideologies.
He does a good job of tracing the last five years of antifa activity and the sheer lists of assaults, threats, arrests, riots, arsons and attacks is sobering. Even if a reader is of the opinion that antifa is not a big threat to democracy, they are left with the conclusion that it is a big threat to the safety of individuals. If individuals cannot safely live in their neighborhoods and go about their business, then that is a problem that needs to be addressed. It made me think about how terribly we are handling social ills in this country. Downtown Portland is now nearly as dangerous to limb as Chicago is to life and limb. Why isn’t more being done to decrease crime in these areas? Why are we ignoring them? Why have we given up on fixing them? The people in these areas live under a similar sense of apathy. They have gotten used to the continuing violence and unrest to the point where it has become normal. That is a problem. In the richest country in the world, there should not be ghettos of violence and unrest.
Perhaps the most sobering fact found in this book is how even though there have been many arrests of antifa rioters, there has not been much prosecution. Even in instances where the same person has been arrested four or five times for assault, they are immediately put back out in the street because the District attorneys decide not to prosecute because of the political viewpoint of the criminal. That’s corruption. It’s just as much corruption as District attorneys choosing to prosecute because of the color of one’s skin. Such things should have no bearing on whether or not prosecution occurs. If a citizen or a citizen’s property is harmed, the perpetrator should be prosecuted. We have kangaroo courts set up on college campuses kicking people off of sports teams for refusing to kneel for the national anthem, or for refusing to stand for the national anthem, but we can’t manage to prosecute people who set buildings on fire? This is a pervasive problem, in my own town we have a serial arsonist. He’s set more than five fires that we know of and has been arrested at least twice, but nothing ever comes of it. When does such behavior become worthy of being punished? When someone dies?
On a personal level the part of this book that I found must horrifying was how antifa has and continues to purposefully shine lasers at people’s eyes. It makes my blood boil. Having been nearly blind for most of my life I cannot imagine the sheer diabolical lack of empathy it would take to purposefully blind another human being. Anyone who shines a laser at other people’s eyes deserves to be jailed for life. They have destroyed another person’s life. The person whose eyes have been burned will no longer ever be able to see their loved one’s faces, they can never have that deep connection that happens when you gaze into the eyes of another human, they will never enjoy the beauty of a painting, or a sunset, and they can’t read! Pause to consider the sheer horror of that. It’s one of my personal nightmares. We have way more books in braille now than we ever did before, but it still pales in comparison to the availability of books in print. How can anyone so cavalierly take away someone’s ability to easily educate themselves? I can only conclude that people who would do this don’t care about knowledge or wisdom, they must not value the experience of seeing beauty or reading if they are willing to take that ability away from others.
I knew, vaguely, that this book was going to be about Antifa. After all, it’s in the title. But I went in knowing nothing more than what I had seen in the news over the past couple of years and with the knowledge that people I know and respected said that Mr. Ngo was a troll and that Antifa was not a group.
Well. A couple of things about those. One. He’s not a troll. How do I know? Trolls are rarely eloquent, courageous or detail oriented. They usually rely on broadly annoying narratives, fail to make nuanced points, and resort to ad hominem attacks or insults rather than engaging in carefully annotated journalism. In this entire book I didn’t see any evidence of Ngo doing any of the former things and plenty of instances of the latter. Two. I don’t even understand what people who say that antifa is not a group mean. I don’t think they understand what they mean either. I don’t think that they’ve ever thought about what they are saying. Is it since there is not a concrete oath that all antifa people must swear to therefore they are not a group? Well, in that case most churches don’t constitute groups either. Christianity itself couldn’t be considered a group under a definition like that and I doubt that anyone would make such an absurd claim as to say that Christians don’t form a group. When people agree on a set of beliefs they form a group, or, alternatively, when people share a set of characteristics they form a group. Christians all agree that Christ is the Son of God, ergo they form the group of Christianity. Young white violent men who believe that Jews and blacks are inferior and evil and that violence towards these groups is a mission from the universe are what we know as Neo-Nazis. They form a group. We identify them as such because of the similarity of characteristics, beliefs, or actions that they share that causes them to be put in a group. The same is true of antifa, those who identify themselves as antifa share characteristics, beliefs and actions. How could anyone who thinks about what they are saying still contend that antifa is not a group?
The book is not the best book that I have read. Occasionally, Ngo makes overly broad claims or conflates ideas together. However, I can’t really blame him because everyone thinks holistically to a degree and has trouble teasing apart the different motivations and world views of political movements that are so closely intertwined. Just because this is not a scholarly work does not detract from its value. Ngo does a good job of tracing the birth, growth and evolution of the anti fascist movement in Europe to the United States and how it has merged, or at least partnered with, other movements such as Black Lives Matter, anarchists, and communists and the tactics that these groups use in order to further their ideologies.
He does a good job of tracing the last five years of antifa activity and the sheer lists of assaults, threats, arrests, riots, arsons and attacks is sobering. Even if a reader is of the opinion that antifa is not a big threat to democracy, they are left with the conclusion that it is a big threat to the safety of individuals. If individuals cannot safely live in their neighborhoods and go about their business, then that is a problem that needs to be addressed. It made me think about how terribly we are handling social ills in this country. Downtown Portland is now nearly as dangerous to limb as Chicago is to life and limb. Why isn’t more being done to decrease crime in these areas? Why are we ignoring them? Why have we given up on fixing them? The people in these areas live under a similar sense of apathy. They have gotten used to the continuing violence and unrest to the point where it has become normal. That is a problem. In the richest country in the world, there should not be ghettos of violence and unrest.
Perhaps the most sobering fact found in this book is how even though there have been many arrests of antifa rioters, there has not been much prosecution. Even in instances where the same person has been arrested four or five times for assault, they are immediately put back out in the street because the District attorneys decide not to prosecute because of the political viewpoint of the criminal. That’s corruption. It’s just as much corruption as District attorneys choosing to prosecute because of the color of one’s skin. Such things should have no bearing on whether or not prosecution occurs. If a citizen or a citizen’s property is harmed, the perpetrator should be prosecuted. We have kangaroo courts set up on college campuses kicking people off of sports teams for refusing to kneel for the national anthem, or for refusing to stand for the national anthem, but we can’t manage to prosecute people who set buildings on fire? This is a pervasive problem, in my own town we have a serial arsonist. He’s set more than five fires that we know of and has been arrested at least twice, but nothing ever comes of it. When does such behavior become worthy of being punished? When someone dies?
On a personal level the part of this book that I found must horrifying was how antifa has and continues to purposefully shine lasers at people’s eyes. It makes my blood boil. Having been nearly blind for most of my life I cannot imagine the sheer diabolical lack of empathy it would take to purposefully blind another human being. Anyone who shines a laser at other people’s eyes deserves to be jailed for life. They have destroyed another person’s life. The person whose eyes have been burned will no longer ever be able to see their loved one’s faces, they can never have that deep connection that happens when you gaze into the eyes of another human, they will never enjoy the beauty of a painting, or a sunset, and they can’t read! Pause to consider the sheer horror of that. It’s one of my personal nightmares. We have way more books in braille now than we ever did before, but it still pales in comparison to the availability of books in print. How can anyone so cavalierly take away someone’s ability to easily educate themselves? I can only conclude that people who would do this don’t care about knowledge or wisdom, they must not value the experience of seeing beauty or reading if they are willing to take that ability away from others.
February 26, 2021
“We are on the verge of a global revolution that can finally rid the world of police, along with the systems of anti-blackness and capitalism they uphold,” tweeted the New York chapter of the Revolutionary Abolitionist Movement (RAM) on June 2, 2020. The group identifies as a revolutionary anarchist organization “fighting for a stateless, anti-capitalist, and prison free world...”
Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy reads like a work of fiction. That is; if you were to take this book back in a time machine and give it to someone as recently as 5 or 10 years ago, they might find that the climate it describes here is more suited to the realm of dystopian fiction.
Overthrowing the government and doing away with capitalism. Opening borders and abolishing ICE. Abolishing the police and the prison system. Installing a communist state in the United States...
These are among the many aims of the radical leftist organization known as Antifa.
The stories covered here are absolutely appalling, although likely to be familiar to those who have been closely following the culture war in the last few years. This book should be a wake-up call to the many apathetic and naive people who dismiss Antifa as "just an idea."
Author Andy Ngo is is an American conservative journalist and social media personality from Portland, Oregon known for covering and video-recording demonstrators. He is the editor-at-large of The Post Millennial, a Canadian conservative news website.
Andy Ngo:
This one has garnered some extremely polarized reviews. The book has been targeted by Antifa members, who have protested it being sold in a Portland store. Partially caving to the mob, Powell's Books has limited its sale to online-only.
Author Andy Ngo has also been targeted by Antifa, as he covered their activities. The book describes the many attacks on him; including being milkshaked numerous times, having groups of people show up at his home, as well an assault where he was beaten over the head; an attack that left him with a traumatic brain injury.
Goodreads members can also read many outraged reviews here, likely from those either ideologically aligned with Antifa, or those who are "fellow travellers" of varying degrees.
This is a timely book; after months of violent protesting and rioting engulfed large swathes of many American cities, following the death of George Floyd, Jr.
It's incredibly tragic that Western Civilization fought a Cold War against Communism via The United States of America for ~50 or so years, only to now see a communist insurgency being played out on the streets of large American cities. Even more tragically; this uprising is being supported by many leftist academics, and has been downplayed or outrightly ignored by many politicians and much of the mainstream media. Ngo writes:
Unmasked covers many topics related to Antifa. It also features many photos. Among the topics covered here:
* The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle.
* The Project Veritas investigation into Antifa.
* The history of "Anti-Fascism"; including the Weimar Republic, and Antifa in Europe.
* The Marxist underpinnings of Antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM).
* Many violent attacks by Antifa, including murders.
* The usage of propaganda by Antifa.
Ngo takes a shot at the central narrative of organizations like Antifa and BLM here:
Although I was already familiar with most of the content covered in these pages, those who have not been closely following the culture war will likely find much valuable information here. This book would make for great reference material for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of, and make sense of much of the recent violence.
The writing here was also very well done. Ngo writes with an easy and engaging style that holds the reader's attention effectively.
I would definitely recommend this one to anyone interested.
4.5 stars.
Unmasked: Inside Antifa's Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy reads like a work of fiction. That is; if you were to take this book back in a time machine and give it to someone as recently as 5 or 10 years ago, they might find that the climate it describes here is more suited to the realm of dystopian fiction.
Overthrowing the government and doing away with capitalism. Opening borders and abolishing ICE. Abolishing the police and the prison system. Installing a communist state in the United States...
These are among the many aims of the radical leftist organization known as Antifa.
The stories covered here are absolutely appalling, although likely to be familiar to those who have been closely following the culture war in the last few years. This book should be a wake-up call to the many apathetic and naive people who dismiss Antifa as "just an idea."
Author Andy Ngo is is an American conservative journalist and social media personality from Portland, Oregon known for covering and video-recording demonstrators. He is the editor-at-large of The Post Millennial, a Canadian conservative news website.
Andy Ngo:
This one has garnered some extremely polarized reviews. The book has been targeted by Antifa members, who have protested it being sold in a Portland store. Partially caving to the mob, Powell's Books has limited its sale to online-only.
Author Andy Ngo has also been targeted by Antifa, as he covered their activities. The book describes the many attacks on him; including being milkshaked numerous times, having groups of people show up at his home, as well an assault where he was beaten over the head; an attack that left him with a traumatic brain injury.
Goodreads members can also read many outraged reviews here, likely from those either ideologically aligned with Antifa, or those who are "fellow travellers" of varying degrees.
This is a timely book; after months of violent protesting and rioting engulfed large swathes of many American cities, following the death of George Floyd, Jr.
It's incredibly tragic that Western Civilization fought a Cold War against Communism via The United States of America for ~50 or so years, only to now see a communist insurgency being played out on the streets of large American cities. Even more tragically; this uprising is being supported by many leftist academics, and has been downplayed or outrightly ignored by many politicians and much of the mainstream media. Ngo writes:
"At the moment, the threat of the far right is understood by the American public and actively countered by government, academia, media, and civil society. No comparable resolve or mass organization exists to counter the far left. Why? One explanation is the cultural dominance of the left. The political homogeneity in popular culture, academe, and urban centers of influence (e.g., New York, Washington, DC, Los Angeles, etc.) has produced a populace with severe blind spots..."
Unmasked covers many topics related to Antifa. It also features many photos. Among the topics covered here:
* The Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone, or CHAZ/CHOP in Seattle.
* The Project Veritas investigation into Antifa.
* The history of "Anti-Fascism"; including the Weimar Republic, and Antifa in Europe.
* The Marxist underpinnings of Antifa and Black Lives Matter (BLM).
* Many violent attacks by Antifa, including murders.
* The usage of propaganda by Antifa.
Ngo takes a shot at the central narrative of organizations like Antifa and BLM here:
"The BLM-antifa narrative that police are murdering black and brown people in epidemic proportions needs to be thoroughly debunked. It is not supported by the evidence or data. This should be the job of the media, but it has been they who fan the flames of racial division through one-sided wall-to-wall coverage. The unending distraction from real issues that can otherwise be addressed through evidence-based policy making has us chasing shadows..."
Although I was already familiar with most of the content covered in these pages, those who have not been closely following the culture war will likely find much valuable information here. This book would make for great reference material for anyone looking to expand their knowledge of, and make sense of much of the recent violence.
The writing here was also very well done. Ngo writes with an easy and engaging style that holds the reader's attention effectively.
I would definitely recommend this one to anyone interested.
4.5 stars.
April 22, 2021
Why did Andy Ngo write this book? Here is an explanation in his own words from the Afterward:
Antifa, its far-left allies, and useful idiots have convinced the public that patriotism is synonymous with racism and fascism. I reject that and call for all decent people to do the same. As much as this book is about antifa, it's also a letter of gratitude to the nation that welcomed my parents, penniless refugees from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, to become equal citizens.
As Ngo points out in his book, Antifa and its allies (BLM, complicit media outlets) are giving new definitions to words like violence, racism, fascism, tolerance, reactionary, patriotism, and more. . . It should not incite violence to carry an American flag or sing or national anthem. Yet, those very things have become objects of hatred in the world of the far left. The name antifa itself defies logic. We have never had a prominent fascist party in our country. Yet, they would have us believe that to disagree with their tactics makes one fascist. The truth is that were we to follow them down the path to their vision of Utopia, do you know where we would be? Living in a modern version of East Germany. Read this book if you want to know how organized these groups have become and what their end game is.
Antifa, its far-left allies, and useful idiots have convinced the public that patriotism is synonymous with racism and fascism. I reject that and call for all decent people to do the same. As much as this book is about antifa, it's also a letter of gratitude to the nation that welcomed my parents, penniless refugees from the Socialist Republic of Vietnam, to become equal citizens.
As Ngo points out in his book, Antifa and its allies (BLM, complicit media outlets) are giving new definitions to words like violence, racism, fascism, tolerance, reactionary, patriotism, and more. . . It should not incite violence to carry an American flag or sing or national anthem. Yet, those very things have become objects of hatred in the world of the far left. The name antifa itself defies logic. We have never had a prominent fascist party in our country. Yet, they would have us believe that to disagree with their tactics makes one fascist. The truth is that were we to follow them down the path to their vision of Utopia, do you know where we would be? Living in a modern version of East Germany. Read this book if you want to know how organized these groups have become and what their end game is.
February 3, 2021
All you need to do is read the reviews of the lying fraudulent left(they all rated the book 1 star of course-all lying leftists) to know that everything Andy Ngo has to say in his book is fact and truth. In fact, how could you believe anything a leftist has to say about anything in this world when they believe in aborting living babies and believe in 'gender fluidity'. Antifa are in fact not ANTI-fascism, they are fascists. The left always use the ploy to play the victim or that they are for some cause, when patently the opposite is true.
February 3, 2021
Ngo isn't a journalist in the sense that he covers events for people to be aware and understand. He is a journalist more like how Tucker Carlson is a journalist, meaning he's not really. In fact he has been a regular guest on Fox News. He is obviously extremely biased in his criticism of antifascism and his support for fascist groups such as Patriot Prayer and the Proud Boys. If you also share his views that you will love this book. If you don't support racist, misogynistic and Fascist ideas and behavior then it will make you angry. If you want to read a actual scholarly look at the Antifa movement in the US then your much better off reading
American Antifa: The Tactics, Culture, and Practice of Militant Antifascism
by Stanislav Vysotsky, 2020
American Antifa: The Tactics, Culture, and Practice of Militant Antifascism
by Stanislav Vysotsky, 2020
January 26, 2021
the book is being attacked for revealing the truth about Antifa's
February 4, 2021
Great read and a total eye opener.
PS. Ironically i must thank the Antifa protestors trying to stop the selling of this book, if it wasnt for yo guys i wouldn't never have know about it.
PS. Ironically i must thank the Antifa protestors trying to stop the selling of this book, if it wasnt for yo guys i wouldn't never have know about it.
February 24, 2021
I write fantasy. This is no fantasy. Antifa is real! And unless we average, common, middle class conservatives open our eyes and take a good look at what is going on, we will lose our freedoms and our country to the far-left. I am a middle class grandmother. I am a Christian. I am a conservative. I am white. Now I'm being told that I am a racist, a fascist, and a Nazi. I do not accept this.
I applaud Andy Ngo for his courage in exposing this all too ignored threat. Though I believe this book was rushed to press and necessarily so, I still would have liked to see it edited more closely.
I applaud Andy Ngo for his courage in exposing this all too ignored threat. Though I believe this book was rushed to press and necessarily so, I still would have liked to see it edited more closely.
January 22, 2021
I live in Portland, OR. This book is propaganda. All it takes is a little digging to see Andy Ngo’s connection to the Proud Boys. If you’re not familiar with this group, they represent the modern day Klu Klux Klan. Andy Ngo is a puppet for this white supremacist group. Do not support him. He represents hate, racism, and police brutality. I wish I could give less than 1 star for this Mein Kampf!
January 11, 2021
Hard to believe a person with such a convincing British accent could write such an unconvincing book.
October 8, 2021
The fact that this organization is defended by elements of the press and operates with near impunity is troubling. I appreciate Ngo’s work culminating in this book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 477 reviews