Thread by @econbrkfst

The backstory of an "anti-antifascist" grifter...#andyngo

Andy Ngo (April 30, 2013) on Reddit: "I'm a UCLA Graduate. I've Applied to More than 100 Jobs and Am Still Unemployed."

(1/?)

(2) Ngo's had a thing about Islam for a while. He says there's an "Islamification of the UK going on. Most people are too scared to look at it for what it is in fears of being labeled as 'bigoted.'" Also says "Islam needs to be neutered like Christianity."

(3) Ngo struggled with his weight, binge eating, "very low self esteem," his family. I honestly feel for him here; it's hard to read. He seemed to be trying hard to improve himself for a while, but he ended up going down a strange road.

These are all archived on Reddit.

(4) Ngo here talks about "visiting...family in rural SE Asia," says "they are so cruel to me about my weight." It sounds like they really were. Commenters agreed. Ngo: "I'm a very sensitive person but surprisingly, I haven't given up on making lifestyle changes to be healthy."

(5) Here, Ngo sympathizes with another person's weight loss story, saying, "You and I have a similar experience of having hard-earned degrees but having to move back in with parents. That has been so shameful for me...Everyone thinks I'm a fat loser."

(6) I can't help but be reminded of Steven Crowder, who was bullied &, instead of turning around & becoming a better person because of it, chose to become a bully himself: theblaze.com/louder-with-cr…

(7) Ngo was (is?) VERY insecure. He describes being laughed at while running: "The teens kept laughing at me and when I went home, I felt hideous and didn't want to be seen in public again."

Hey all, don't bully people for their size, especially not while they're exercising 😬

(8) This was ~6 years ago, before he'd made a name for himself. I want to make it clear I'm not defending Andy Ngo here; I just don't condone the kind of bullying it sounds like he experienced for much of his life.

(9) Some resentment starts to show. Here, Ngo says he "doesn't have much sympathy for stories" like what OP shared; "Maybe I'm just a lonely bitter obese person who gets jealous...I sure wouldn't be complaining if someone loved me enough to commit the rest of his life with me."

(10) Ngo: "I've been meaning to make a thread on people's experiences in the world as an obese person and as a fit person. There's a lot of privilege that goes with looking good or better and not many can experience both in a relatively short time frame except for obese people."

(11) So Ngo definitely understands the concept of privilege and lack thereof, at least from a size/attractiveness standpoint.

(12) Ngo: "I notice that obesity can make many young guys look angrogenous...A lot of people have confused me for female because of how I look and my relatively high voice. It is very emasculating."

I wonder if this plays into his apparent negative fixation on trans women.

(13) Ngo: "As an adult, I've only been obese so I haven't seen how adult life could be different if I looked better. Being gay, I face a lot of weight bias and exclusion in the gay male community."

No one responded to his Q about how the world treats fat people differently.

(14) He talks a LOT about weight loss, struggling with emotional eating. I don't want to post all of that. In the midst, here's a random comment from Ngo on how "China is disgusting."

(15) Ngo: "China and its various cultural beliefs are quite disgusting. Their traditional medicine uses a lot of animal products and some require them to suffer quite terribly (i.e. keeping bears alive in cages so that their bile can be continuous drained)."

(16) More Ngo on China: "What is the deal with Chinese people and missing flights?"

Is that a "Chinese people" thing, Andy? 🤨

(17) More Ngo on China: "China has also been destroying the ocean in all of Asia. That country is so selfish and greedy that it is trying to claim ownership of various islands nearby Vietnam and Singapore since they are in the 'South China Sea.'"

(18) Andy was a "gamer."

Ngo: "I game and use my computer quite obsessively. You'll also notice that a lot of video gamers are overweight or obese. For those who have lost weight and maintained it, has your relationship with gaming changed? Do you play less now?"

(19) Ngo: "I'm obese right now but there was a time in my past that I lost a lot of weight and noticed that my peers in school treated me better and were willing to befriend me."

Truly sorry he was treated this way when he was younger. Not an excuse to be hateful toward others.

(20) Ngo on "why did you get fat?": "Junk food tastes good and everything else in my life was terrible."

This just makes me sad. Again, I'm not posting this to try to excuse anything he's done. I wish no one felt like this, was treated like this.

(21) More backstory: "My parents were barely in the home because they worked so much. They did reward my sister and I with food all the time though. My dad didn't know how unhealthful McDonalds was so from a young age, I was dealing with emotional eating and obesity."

I'm sorry.

(22) On a different note, here's Ngo on the Trayvon Martin case: "It was sick how the media tried to racialize the case. Even worse is that some of the far left really wanted it to be a case of white on black crime even though the truth is that Zimmerman is half Latino."

(23) So he already resented "the media" and "the far left" in July of 2013.

(24) Ngo also thought Freedom From Religion Foundation
attorney Andrew Seidel was "so hot friendly, and intelligent." Interesting that Andy's now cozy with the Heritage Foundation: heritage.org/progressivism/…

(25) On a Korean woman who underwent "intense plastic surgery": "She looks quite Western in the after photo. Her nose was augmented and her jaw was shaved down and realigned. The healing time would be really long."

I wonder if this reflects insecurity about Ngo's own race.

(26) Ngo: "I hope I can dress like a douche bag sometime in the near future. I haven't gone clothes shopping in more than five years because of my obesity."

Goals: being able to dress like a douchebag 🤷‍♂️

(27) Ngo's comment recommending gastric bypass surgery for someone "given the amount of weight [they] still have to lose" didn't go over well.

(28) More Ngo on China: "China is gross. It's sad that the Chinese people have polluted the Yantze river so much that the rare river dolphin has been killed off."

Also a random "That Chinese-American food looks nasty." 🤷‍♂️

(29) Ngo on these signs in the mountains of northern Georgia (the US state): "Bible Belt Christian morality." Unsure whether he was a fan of their message or not.

(30) Ngo, responding to "TIL that Iceland gets 100% of its energy from renewable sources": "I heart Scandinavia so much. Wish I was born there."

Not sure if that's Andy approving of their renewable energy usage or wishing he was Scandinavian.

(31) Interesting one on "not just...gay folks, but straight ones" having kids.

Ngo: "Happy to read this. There are a lot of overpopulation deniers even on Reddit. I hate seeing all the front page posts of people posting stupid pictures of all their (biological) children."

(32): Ngo seemed to disapprove of evangelicals back in the day, was on r/atheism. Now he pals around with them: heritage.org/progressivism/…

(33) On a more personal note, Ngo says "I suffer from depression that resulted in me not leaving my house for two years and gaining 50lbs. I know how it is."

He had (has?) some empathy.

(34) On "favorite trick to make it through the evening cravings for food: "Pussy juice, smoking and weed are suggested so far? What a joke." Says he self-reflects. "That self honesty has been more helpful than trying to make myself forget it by doing some other activity."

(35) Where'd that "self honesty" go, Andy?

I'm going to interrupt this look back with a brief reminder of what Ngo's been up to recently. If anyone else has good threads or articles they want to link, please do so!

First:

https://twitter.com/RespectableLaw/status/1163895246213779458

(36) Second:

https://twitter.com/miniver/status/1145439245030400001?s=20

(37) This isn't a joke:

https://twitter.com/_Anunnery/status/1189079374852575232?s=20

(38) This actually happened: independent.co.uk/voices/alt-rig…

(39) Anyway, back to ~6 years ago. I take this to mean Ngo was in support of same-sex marriage being legalized, which would...make sense. But again, now he's rolling with homophobic right-wingers, groups like the Heritage Foundation.

(40) Another weird one on China. In response to "TIL The number of Chinese killed by the Japanese during WW2 is greater than the number of Jews killed in the Holocaust," Ngo commented that "China's population seem to recover within a generation."

Read into that what you will.

(41) Just posting this to establish that Andy Ngo is, by his own account, 5'8", which isn't all that short (around 4" taller than me 😉).

I'm thinking a lot about all the Ngo sock/troll comments I've seen about him being tiny, "diminutive."

(42) This post of Andy's in response to "Bumped into a deaf prostitute in Vegas" got 379 points: "I don't see how this is WTF. I thought it was a kind and sweet gesture to talk to her as a person but then you go and post this online as if she's some freak? That's mean."

(43) Ngo: "Yes, [saying no to food] does feel good. To actually have some control over eating makes me feel empowered."

Andy, you can still find other ways to be empowered. It's not too late 🙏

(44) As of July 17, 2013, Andy Ngo had never been stung by a jellyfish or talked to anyone who had. I thought this was important to include.

(45) Ngo: "What are your thoughts on the Fat Acceptance movement?

Should society be more accepting and welcoming of fat people? Stigmatizing fat people is wrong but should we embrace lifestyles that lead to obesity?"

Seemed open to "combat[ing] the weight bias in society."

(46) Ngo: "European royalty has a sick history."

I'd be interested to know what he was referring to, but he didn't elaborate.

Someone asked, "Are you even British bro?" 😂

(47) Ngo: "Cruel to take a picture of someone with an illness. Anyway his leg looks swollen rather than fat."

His views on the ethics of photography seem to have evolved over the last six years.

(48) I'm sorry. I can't not post this. Not kink-shaming.

Andy Ngo: "Yum... cooking with cum sounds hot."

(49) Interesting one here. OP says pic is "How British students are taught about the atlantic slave trade." Ngo: "What's wrong with having white Americans or white Brits understand what their ancestors did to make money?"

🤷‍♂️

(50) In response to a video on "Dudes pick a fight with the wrong skinny white kid," Ngo asks, "Did that head stomp kill that guy? The internet will turn this video into a white vs. Mexican thing."

(51) Oh hey, remember that one time when a Ngo sock/troll was telling me off for owning corgis, saying I'm a terrible person for owning dogs that have allegedly been bred into a life of misery (not true)? I do. Hmm.

(I didn't get them from a pet store)

https://twitter.com/MarcusGreeno/status/1177574986682441734?s=20

(52) Ngo: "Nice to see some Norwegians actually speak Norwegian for once... but then they switch to English for the counting. I wish I lived in Norway."

See also:

https://twitter.com/econbrkfst/status/1191589446832967680?s=20

(53) Ngo again on how to "go about not weighing 450lbs": "You may want to consider gastric bypass surgery."

See also:

https://twitter.com/econbrkfst/status/1191587939299409920?s=20

(54) This is painful. He's very insecure over his apparent gynecomastia. I can't know what's going through his mind but am again reminded of Ngo's targeting of trans women.

It's not cool to mock men for having gynecomastia. It's also not cool to mock trans women for being trans.

(55) Ngo: "Is Anyone Here Gay? What Are Your Experiences Being Both Gay and Fat?

I would like to start a discussion on being obese/fat/overweight and gay. What was it like for you? Do you think your experiences are unique from a heterosexual?"

(56) Ngo (con't): "For me, being obese and gay let me experience what a fat woman might feel like among young men. I thought it would be liberating to come out but I've struggled with building a gay support community. I feel written off as soon as someone sees my picture."

(57) Ngo (con't): "Gay men are typically very concerned about physical appearances so this may be one of the hardest sub-cultures to belong to while fat."

I'm NOT apologizing for/excusing any of his actions, but damn. Andy, you could have found acceptance right here in PDX 😢😭

(58) Ngo: "Depression comes & goes in waves. Sometimes it's really hard but don't let those moments make you forget [good times]. I also deal with depression & at its worse, I felt physically pained because of how sad I was. All I could do was lie in bed with the blinds closed."

(59) Ngo: "Do you ever experience discrimination based on yr size&race? I do not live in a city w/ a lot of Asians & when I was walking around downtown last yr, a group of young guys looked at me & then started singing Gangnam Style. It made me feel ashamed to look East Asian."

(60) Just want to drive that home: Ngo is well aware of what it's like to be discriminated against. He's not ignorant of privilege, racial dynamics, etc. He could have chosen to help fight against these things instead of helping (or helping others to) reinforce them.

(61) Another r/atheism post from Ngo, linking to a video: "Pastor Has Sex w/ Young Girls During Private Prayer Sessions to Heal Same-Sex Attractions"

(62) Ngo: "Perks of being gay? You mean being marginalized in society and your own family?"

Again, he understands marginalization. He's experienced it. He's now helping marginalize others.

I also understand not wanting "to be someone's fetish."

(63) Bit of an incel turn here?

Ngo: "I've been single my entire life (as well as obese) and I'm 26...I find that I'm starting to become bitter and jealous at people who date a lot...I even dislike the front page reddits of people posting pictures of their 'happy families.'"

(64) Ngo: "You aren't concerned about your health at 370lbs? Beauty at every size is a good thing to believe but what about when it affects your health? Obesity puts you at severe risk of type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure and many other diseases."

(65) Ngo: "I've noticed that most 'butch' lesbians seem to be fat. Don't you think that's true? It's almost the norm for 'butch' lesbians from what I've seen."

(66) July 19, 2013: Ngo responds to "98% of murders in Mexico last year went unsolved" with "That's why immigration from Mexico needs to be harder."

(67) Ngo: "White expats in Asia are quite liked. Everyone wants to be your friend or (girl)friend."

Reminder that Andy wishes he was Scandinavian:

https://twitter.com/econbrkfst/status/1191589446832967680?s=20

(68) Again, sorry, but I'm obligated to post this.

Ngo on this tattoo that's said to be worse "than a penis swastika": "Pretty sexy. I've always liked mermen."

No kink-shaming. That tattoo, though...😂

(69) Ngo: "Islam means no drugs, no alcohol, no music and no dancing. It's a horrible religion that refuses to modernize."

(70) Ngo: "That's why British people need to start installing air-conditioning. I hated how most places did not have it while I lived there."

Did he start to acquire a British accent, then decide to play it up?

(71) Again...Ngo: "Jeg elsker Danmark! Wish I was Scandinavian."

(72) Ngo to a bisexual man: "Let me convert you to gay..."

The guy agreed 🤷‍♂️ I wonder if it worked out.

(73) Ngo: "The Christian Republican didn't think that sodomy included oral sex too. He was just trying to target gay men."

Do you know what the Heritage Foundation thinks about gay men, Andy? I do: heritage.org/marriage-and-f…

(74) "A lesbian couple in my city received these in the mail recently. I didn't think there were still people out there like this." (see pics 2-4)

Ngo's response: "Christians."

Like, I don't know, the Heritage Foundation?
heritage.org/progressivism/…

(75) Ngo: "Comic Con let this woman wear this costume? That top piece is too gratuitous."

🤷‍♂️

(76) Ngo: "Ew, you live in Colorado Springs? That's like Evangelical and Mormon town."

Evangelical like many of the people you're now working with, Andy?

(77) Ngo (-16 points): "You let him die because you wrote him off as 'just another bum.' Clearly something is wrong if a person is laying on the bushes outside some building."

Other person: "No, OP tried to save their life. You should read the story before you talk."

🤷‍♂️

(78) Some empathy shining through again...at least, for overweight people.

Ngo: "I've been single all my life so I may be a bit pessimistic but I think that comment ['husband told me I was fat and dumpy'] was uncalled for. A partner should not try to tear the other person down."

(79) More acknowledgment of social issues from Ngo: "On Youtube, please watch the HBO documentary on Weight Bias. It's short & to the point. It's the only documentary I know of to address the social aspects of being obese in America."

Guessing it's this:

(80) Ngo was still down on his luck: "You work at Subways after graduating with a bachelors or is this your part-time job? I'm asking because I have had a really hard time finding decent employment after earning my expensive ungrad degree."

(81) This is a remarkable one. Ngo: "Fat shaming, or more formally known as weight bias and weight stigma is wrong but it's probably the most accepted discrimination in western society."

(82) Ngo: "Not too long ago I would have said that being anti-gay was most accepted but now the US has a very important ally in Barack Obama that brings visibility to that community. Unfortunately victims of weight bias really don't have any public...or even legal support." 😶

(83) Andy was traumatized by bullying. Again, I'm not apologizing for his actions or condoning them; this is just really sad. No one should be treated like this.

(84): Ngo on someone getting called "Jabba the Hut": "Reminds me that recently lots of anonymous people online are calling Rachel Jeantel that (the star witness of the Trayvon case)."

(85) Ngo: "Kids are cruel and many of them do intend to be that way. Kids are usually the ones who are most likely to make fun of someone. Not always but usually."

Definitely not always.

(86) Ngo: "I notice that ugly hetero male gamers are the most judgmental to overweight or fat female gamers...I'm not really a fan of most female depictions in games. They've made many male gamers think that the standard for a woman is to be very think & have huge breasts."

👍

(87) Still struggling. Ngo: "I am also a university graduate who hasn't found any meaningful employment. I am very sad. My BA degree was expensive and I struggle to make the monthly minimum payments. Oh and this is on top of being obese."

(88) OP: "When it gets hot in Arkansas, we improvise."

Ngo: "Bible Belt trash."

(89) Ngo: "People here have some weird "best friends." I couldn't imagine being close to someone who tried to demean me constantly."

Wow, that's exactly what I've been thinking about some of the folks I've interacted with recently!

(90) Getting sloppy with my punctuation. Gotta finish this. Almost done.

Here's Ngo offering advice on gynecomastia. He thinks an open-incision technique "gets better results" than liposuction.

(91) Ngo's response to this "Rolling Stone bomber cover (Revised) -- NSFW": "Is that the brother that was killed? He's quite handsome. Why is his face all black though?" 😬

I blacked out the mutilated corpse.

(92) Ngo asks someone who had surgery, "How come I can't see your penis?" in their X-ray (I didn't include the full pic; no genitals are visible, though).

🤷‍♂️

(93) Ngo: "I like dicks and six pack abs."

I guess we can agree on some things.

(94) The last posts he made on Reddit (or the last ones that are archived; he may have deleted others) are about porn. NO KINK-SHAMING. Just awkward that these ended up at the top of the list on Reddit.

(95) Fin.

reddit.com/user/AndyNGO/

(96) Addendum:

(97) I'm going to drop some more links to what Andy Ngo's been up to recently.

On June 26, 2019, Ngo published this piece, "Inventing Victimhood," about hate crime hoaxes, which is one of his beats when he's not covering "violent antifa": city-journal.org/campus-hate-cr…

(98) "W/ their preoccupation w/ identity, privilege, & oppression, our institutions of higher ed. increasingly promote a paranoid climate of perpetual crisis. Is it surprising...that [people]...would respond to an incentive structure that rewards victimhood by manufacturing it?"

(99) Ngo's Muck Rack page, with links to the articles he's published: muckrack.com/andy-ngo/artic…

(100) One of Ngo's early articles was "Students protest gay conservative speaker as he defends free speech at Portland State" for The College Fix: thecollegefix.com/students-prote…

(101) Ngo writes about "gay journalist Chadwick Moore, who recently came out as a conservative."

"'If you dare to question liberal stances or make an effort toward understanding why conservatives think the way they do, you are a traitor,' Moore wrote in his coming out piece."

(102) Ngo writes, "On the day of the speech, messages plastered on the group’s display case called Moore a 'fascist defender.'"

Sound familiar?

(103) Ngo quotes Chadwick Moore: "Here I am, a public gay person who was working for the two largest gay magazines in the world as their top investigative journalist, and they can’t put that up there because they don't like my politics."

Sound familiar?

(104) Ngo's been involved in a number of controversies recently, but one that's ongoing is the Cider Riot case. Lot to explain here to people outside Portland who haven't been following it, but here's an article on the May Day clash outside the cidery: oregonlive.com/news/g66l-2019…

(105) This involves Patriot Prayer & Joey Gibson as well. I've been tweeting about their group a lot recently. Here's a thread with more on what went down outside Cider Riot:

https://twitter.com/alex_zee/status/1164406638519803905?s=20

(106) With regards to Ngo's involvement in the Cider Riot fight:

https://twitter.com/alex_zee/status/1164406641187442689?s=20

(107) Then there was the hammer incident on August 17, 2019:

https://twitter.com/drmistercody/status/1162888934898069504?s=20

(108) An article on this incident and Ngo's involvement: wweek.com/news/courts/20…

(109) Ngo & his defenders claim he's being targeted by "Antifa" for being a small gay Asian journalist, which always makes me reflect upon my experience showing up for the first time in a long time at a protest: 6/29/19, when Ngo was milkshook.

Thread:

https://twitter.com/econbrkfst/status/1178499016327172096

(110) Sorry I haven't kept this in chronological order 😅

I unintentionally filmed Ngo walking around on 6/29. The only times I saw him he was filming unmolested, ignored by protesters, incl. black bloc. I left before there was any fighting that day.

(111) Andy & others also claim the Portland police &/or city leaders allow "Antifa thugs" to run wild in the streets, assaulting people without facing consequences. This is hardly the case. Activists & antifascist demonstrators are regularly arrested here. Some are on trial now.

(112) I put this together to show the kind of militarized force the Portland police brought to the protest here on August 17, 2019:

(113) I linked it before, but I'm going to link this thread again because it's so comprehensive and well done:

https://twitter.com/RespectableLaw/status/1163895249430831107?s=20

(114) Now all that remains of Ngo's Reddit page are these screenshots (unless others took any) and the few most recent posts that were archived: web.archive.org/web/*/https://…

I didn't have the time or will to archive them all myself last night.

(115)

https://twitter.com/econbrkfst/status/1191884020923039745?s=21

(116) I saw Andy Ngo and CK Ferrache tonight. Didn’t get the chance to say hi. Anyway, this happened:

https://twitter.com/jamesonjaymie/status/1191939864763207680?s=21

(117) I've never dealt with this many notifications before, but I'd like to be able to respond to comments like this to clarify my intent. I'm learning, though, that I can try my absolute hardest to act in good faith & at least one person will manage to find a way to twist it.

(118) Aside from a few funny throwaways (see: mermen), I only included posts from Ngo I thought there was some value in sharing. I didn't include many of the ones that were solely about his weight, diet, attempts at finding love.

My thoughts on all of this are still evolving.

(119) But 2019 Andy & those he associates with hardly treat others with kid gloves. I could have presented this all in a very different manner. I suspect if Ngo had found similar info on an "Antifa member," he wouldn't have hesitated to smear them as a fat, whiny, pathetic loser.

(120) This is how Ngo's fans reacted to him posting a picture of someone who came out to protest the Dinesh D'Souza "WalkAway" event Andy showed up at (dineshdsouza.com/news/join-dsou…): by viciously mocking his appearance.

(121) But Ngo himself didn't say those things! He just posted pictures!

True, but he's done this enough before (posting pics of, IDing those he deems "violent Antifa") to know what kind of reaction he'll get from his audience when doing so. To start, they're eager to body-shame.