(A redacted version of this went out on X and has 1.5m views at the time of writing)
—
My Indian Restaurant Man
I went to an Indian restaurant alone after recording in London the other night. The Indian owner, a lovely young man of Hindu background, knew me from YouTube. He's a big fan.
He was one of those Indian guys who is so humble that he doesn't stop apologising. He got the chef to come out, and they took a photo with me. He wanted to go to Tommy Robinson Unite the Kingdom rally, but had to work.
🚨 We’re Hiring an Editor for Heretics 🚨
(Article about Indian man continues below!)
Heretics is looking for a new skilled video editor to join the team. This is a hybrid role, so you’ll need to be based near our North London studio. We want someone creative, reliable and fast - with a strong sense of storytelling and social-media friendly edits.
Take a look at our trailers at the start of episodes and see how they compare with other big YouTubers such as Steven Bartlett’s Diary of a CEO. Because of the nature of the show, you’ll need to be comfortable editing conversations around politics, culture and controversial topics (free speech, anti-woke, gender, religion, etc.).
If that’s your world - or at least something you can handle professionally - this could be a great fit. A key part of the role will be taking hour-long episodes and crafting compelling trailers that hook new viewers.
📧 To apply: send your CV + portfolio/showreel, along with a short paragraph introducing yourself, your availability, and how you’d improve our trailers, to jobs@andrewgoldheretics.com.
📍 Selected applicants will first be shortlisted, and a smaller group will be invited to take part in a paid trial task.
Indian Man Continues…
And he also wants to put British and English flags on the windows of his restaurant; something his Western wife has advised him against. It's a crying shame that an Indian who loves the United Kingdom would be in danger of having his windows smashed.
When I asked for the bill, he refused to let me pay. I insisted, of course - this is the first time this has happened to me. While flattered by the gesture, I've long considered it utterly mental that the people who least need freebies are the ones most likely to be offered them.
But my host would not have it, waving my card away. I wanted to take a photo of him and feature his restaurant on social media. He loved the idea. But then I imagined that some woke pacifist would throw a rock and a breast binder through his windows. He jokingly said that'd be fine because he has insurance!
But I can't do it.
Still, this is a point I have long wanted to make.
There are so many patriotic Indians in the UK. They love this country. I love them.
When I walked through my local shopping centre the other day with my dog - a tiny little cream long-haired dachshund - Muslims dived out of the way, bared their teeth and made spitting noises at us.
Hindus and Sikhs went out of their way to approach us and pet the dog. They joked - either with British accents or foreign ones - that they'd love to take her home with them. These felt like utterly Western interactions, regardless of their places of origin.
And the interesting thing is that most of the supposedly racist "Far-Right" recognise this and feel the same. For most of us, this has never been about race or otherness... It's about people respecting the country that welcomes them. Hindus, Sikhs, Jews and other ethnicities - for the most part - do this well. Others absolutely do not.
That said, upon posting my message, the majority of replies came from those on the far right who hate Tommy Robinson and his message. These people want the deportation of all migrants. They also willfully misunderstood my words.
The overall gist of their message went something like:
"You're a Jew"
"Fine to import the third world to the UK but not Israel?"
"You met a nice Indian, so what? Mass immigration will destroy this country."
But much meaner.
Of course, others said that my story didn't happen. That is a fair enough accusation because it's the kind of story that people make up on socials, concluding with:
"And then the whole restaurant clapped".
However, I need my audience to really engage their imaginations and consider whether an encounter such as: "Indian restaurant owner is a big fan of Heretics" is really that unlikely. Or why I'd go out of my way to make up such a story, having seldom made this point before.
Yet, in response to the above posts from anon X users, I'd firstly say that it is correct that I am a Jew, although my entire family's presence in this country dates back at least 125 years. Jews - in large numbers - have lived and contributed to this society since 1066.
Secondly, Israel does have a 20% Muslim population and is one of the most multicultural countries on Earth. It does a much better job, however, of instilling national pride in its citizens - something Far-Right Brits should seek to emulate rather than bitterly moan about.
Thirdly, I never suggested in my anecdote that mass immigration is a good thing. While Islam has proved the trickiest of the non-Western cultures or religions to join our wondrous isles, the fact is that any ethnicity with values different from our own that joins our country at a high velocity en masse will fracture the culture.
That’s just maths.
And British culture has been as successful historically as any on the planet. So perhaps it’s not a good idea to dilute it with less successful and less liberal ones that are based not on the Protestantism and Greco-Roman values on which ours was built.
I hope that many of us can hold two nuanced thoughts in our minds at once.
The mass immigration experiment has been an abject failure and must be stopped yesterday.
Credit to the many Indians who have made an effort to assimilate and show pride and respect to their new home.
Sign up as a paid member to read what I have heard about Bob Vylan behind the scenes and how I lost 7kg in 6 weeks.
Keep reading with a 7-day free trial
Subscribe to Heretics with Andrew Gold to keep reading this post and get 7 days of free access to the full post archives.