Musician Winston Marshall is speaking out against cancel culture.
In 2021, he left the folk-rock band Mumford & Sons after being “cancelled” for expressing social media support for conservative author Andy Ngo’s book, “Unmasked: Inside Antifa’s Radical Plan to Destroy Democracy,” according to Fox News.
He expressed support for other musicians facing similar issues and also noted admiration for Oliver Anthony, who is now a best-selling musician, but has also faced media criticism for his rustic sound that focuses on American struggles instead of party politics.
Marshall said, “Oliver Anthony, for example, working-class guy, has this song which resonates with millions upon millions – not just in America, but across the world, people – the left-behind working classes. And they just can’t even process it.”
“So they sort of embarrassed themselves,” he said, referencing the mainstream media response, per Fox News.
He also noted, “You’re certainly seeing a massive gap between the media and the people.”
Marshall defended rock star Alice Cooper and Irish singer Róisín Murphy, who have also been singled out by cancel culture for their personal views.
“There still remains professional punishment for saying things that are true but are not correct, according to progressive orthodoxies,” he told Fox News.
He also expressed hope for freedom of expression noting, “It’s exciting to me that artists and comedians and films are – ‘I’m not getting held back by the gatekeepers.’ That has happened over the last five, 10 years.”
“I’m very excited that there are artists who are now writing freely, singing freely about these things,” he added.
Marshall went on to explain how Christianity was silenced by the industry.
He stated, “Ten years ago, 15 years ago, no one told – even Christians didn’t really talk about being Christian publicly or very few did.
“Now the culture is really changing where it’s cool to be Christian. And that is so exciting,” he added.
“And it’s kind of the Christianity is the counterculture and there’s a lot of Christianity in the ‘Sound of Freedom’ movie as well. And for me that’s signaling a really big shift in the creative industries,” Marshall concluded.