Below are some excerpts from the beginning of an essay about Linh Dinh, a self-described “canceled” and “anthologized poet and fairly prolific author…” It’s a sad but important story that I took no great pleasure in writing. I thought of the many acquaintances, friends, colleagues, and the millions I will never meet who are targets of hate because of their race, religion, sexual orientation, etc.
Someone who hates one group will end up hating everyone – and, ultimately, hating himself or herself. -Elie Wiesel
Linh Dinh (LD), whom I have long admired for his insightful, brutally honest, and superbly written essays about important issues of the day, including his relentless and merciless chronicling of the decline of the USA, and whose work I have shared with many and cited in my own essays, is a hater of Jews, among others. Read on for the sad and incontrovertible evidence.
In early August 2023, I sent LD an email after reading a post entitled Marx Laughs in Hell. A contact emailed me saying that he follows LD closely, noted his ‘strange hatred of Jews,’ referring to him as ‘repulsive’ and adding, for good measure, it’s ‘odd that someone who has such insights can also slide into such a deep ugliness.’ Not exactly a feather in the cap of an otherwise distinguished career as a societal critic and global gadfly. The man who has so skillfully documented the plight of victims has become a full-on victimizer.
If you’d like to read my essay in its entirety, all 2,700+ words of it, nine (9) minutes for the average reader, follow this link. I welcome your comments here or via email: markashwill[AT]hotmail.com. Some reader comments are already beginning to trickle in. I’ll share them here if I receive their blessing.
Shalom (שלום), MAA
An International Educator in Vietnam 
Here’s the first of several reader comments. “He (Linh Dinh) has always acknowledged, generally gloried in, being a drunk. That does not improve one’s marbles, nor enable one to keep track of them! I consider addiction to alcohol much like addiction to other painkillers. As Gabor Mate points out, people turn to painkillers because they’re in pain, physically or emotionally. Often much such pain dates back to early childhood situations that no one was really to blame for.”
Just finished reading your CP piece about Linh Dinh. It was both sad and validating. I used to be a tremendous fan of his work, which I first discovered on CP back in the early/mid ’00s—to the point that I once e-mailed him and offered to buy him a beer the next time he was in ___. We never made it happen, but he did respond, and we carried on a brief correspondence.
Then at some point around 2015ish I read a whole rant he made about the evils of “violent blacks,” and that was a wrap for me. I was so disappointed and angry. I thought about responding with a scathing piece of my own, but I realized that people who think that way are largely unreachable. They need scapegoats and they find them.
Then, just a few years ago, I looked him up online to check out what he’d written lately, and I came across a whole bunch of his “IT’S THE JEWS!!!!!” pieces, along with the covid-denial stuff, etc… I was like, this dude has gone totally off the deep end. He didn’t “get cancelled,” he cancelled himself.
I’m glad you wrote this piece; it helped me come to terms with having abandoned the work of someone who was once one of my favorite authors.
A comment from Dan Duffy, whom I mentioned in the article, on Facebook: “‘Old Viet Nam hand.’ Cool. Mark Ashwill has written up my friend the Jew-hating poet more thoroughly than I can stand to. I get a cameo.”
Here’s another comment in response to a reader’s email: “Some people have asked me: what happened to Linh Dinh? I can speculate but only he can answer that question – maybe. Taking him to task was the harvest of low-hanging fruit. It makes me sad that people turn to hate. They have nothing more to offer. That becomes their legacy.”
I like this comment in response to Dan Duffy’s Facebook post about the article: “A sad story all round. The proverbial ‘drinking poison and expecting those you hate to die.'” -Otto Steinmayer
Another comment via email: “How very strange this ugly sentiment is. Where do you think it comes from? What have Jews ever done to him? Weird.”
A reader shared this excerpt from a September 2022 LeafBox interview with LD. His take: “I get the impression from this interview that he doesn’t think too highly of himself.”
LeafBox: …what is your advice to other young artists or just people in general? Or what can they take from your writing necessarily? What’s the most important thing you want them taking…
Linh Dinh:
“My advice would be to use your work experience to feed your writing. Let’s say you are a waiter, Uber driver, go-go dancer or whatever. Though you may not love your job, use that to feed your writing. Use whatever you have to do to feed your writing, and be curious about everybody. Imagine yourself in their position. It’s astounding what people must do just to get by, so pay attention to everybody and, again, pay close attention to how they talk. Many of them, if not most, might be more adept at language than you!
Don’t gravitate toward people with power, glamor, or fame. Since that’s the general inclination, check it, at least. Hang out with losers because you’re already a loser, and if you’re not, you’ll be one soon enough.
I’m constantly reminded by how stupid I am. Walking down the street, I might mutter, “Shut the fuck up! You’re just a mentally ill piece of shit!” As long as there’s no bloodshed, it’s healthy to argue with yourself. Sometimes I forget there are people nearby, so they’re looking at me like, “What’s wrong with this asshole?”
It’s OK, everybody is a loser. Failure, losing, and collapse constitute our destiny. Like societies, each man will collapse. That’s how you die, but you don’t just die instantly, but rather slowly. On the way up, you make a bunch of mistakes, and on the way down, you make more mistakes, but hopefully in between, you can say a few things that are memorable. You might even make someone feel a lot less lonely. If not, then fuck it, at least you tried!”
LeafBox.com (17 Sep 2022): https://www.leafbox.com/interview-linh-dinh/