And his brain bleed was just from a few punches? Think about what you're actually justifying here - all because he walked among the protesters.
Nah.
Andy didn't just walk among the protestors. Andy used to write articles about leftist activity on college campuses. He then started to take video of these things from a safe distance and got a decent amount of publicity.
Then Andy created a Patreon and started getting up close to these events--the most explosive form of these events, not on colleges but in the community and involving known violent groups--for, as far as anyone can tell, no reason. The police always establish safety lines for these things that people are not supposed to cross because violence breaks out. Andy regularly crosses these lines. At first, Antifa would just shout at him. Then, as he became more familiar to them, they began to bully him, pushing him, spraying him with silly string, pepper spraying him, etc. As these events escalated, Andy continued to promote his Patreon.
He also started branching away from leftist politics in his region and began writing all kinds of articles that echoed right wing talking points, attacking Islam, covering illegal immigration, all the hot button issues, but no longer with the observe and report role he normally had. Instead, he was editorializing, all the while promoting his Patreon. It was at this point that he was no longer a journalist to me. He had stopped reporting the news and was now trying to create the news. His followers waited to see what violent thing Antifa would do to him next or what provocative take he would put out to inflame social media. All the while, he insisted he was a journalist, which granted him access to events and earned him leniency--he wasn't explicitly against Antifa like the Proud Boys or other groups, he was a "journalist" who just happened to be very inconvenient for their side, but he should be left alone. If you watch the video, some Antifa members actually try to escort him to safety while he is under attack. Many don't participate in the attack.
This doesn't absolve Antifa; they're scum. But there's a reason he doesn't get mobbed by everyone. Andy has been deliberate about finding and provoking Antifa's most violent members. He is not the only journalist covering these thigs, he's just the only one who inserts himself into the conflict. Antifa has threatened him over and over and he has only moved more and more into their midst during these events and increased his inflammatory editorials and increased the promotion of his Patreon. Dude is a classic victimhood hustler and has used the shroud of journalism to protect him. The Proud Boys go in and throw down. If they get hit, they deal with the consequences. Andy says "don't hurt me" while standing inches from someone who has been telling him for months to fuck off.
I wish his brain wasn't bleeding (though I haven't seen any official sources say that, I'll take internet rumor's word for it), but I do think he deserved what he got.
If you've seen the video of what Antifa did to those two old men, I think you'll see that Andy was treated with restraint (as crazy as that sounds) despite his provocation. For the record, the two old men who had their heads split open said that they weren't afraid. Neither of them turned to Twitter and cried because neither of them are provocateurs--they're two genuinely innocent dudes who got mobbed by thugs.
So, no, I don't think his brain should bleed for walking among protestors. I think he should get slapped for being a coward and a fake journalist and deliberately trying to get himself beat up for over a year.
