Welcome to the Purim edition of Pueri Superbi, a monthly rant composed of the following four topics: 

I) the Roman Mithraists who referred to one another as ‘Syndexioi’, as well as Mithraic antecedents and affiliated tendencies in Europe, Asia and North Africa

II) the self-described Western Chauvinist Proud Boys, the militia group with the most specific premeditated plan to attack the Capitol on January 6, 2021, who I've referred to as the ‘Pueri Superbi’, their name in Latin: language of the Roman Empire which defined “the West”

III) the MAGA regime which emancipated the Proud Boy rank & file and leadership and still appears headed on a horrible trajectory towards funding the group to the tune of $100 million and turning it into the paramilitary force referred to as “Trump's army”

IV) the tragic and petra genetrix-like emergence of fascism from the history and culture of “the West” along with its dangerous modern-day perseverance, which unites all of these elements

Hey That Head Looks Familiar 

The Winter Olympics opening ceremonies at Milan’s San Siro stadium featured a performance by the Accademia del Teatro alla Scala under the motto armonia (harmony).  This spectacle utilized a number of large sculptures: giant versions of the kind you'd see in one of Italy’s many museums and art galleries.  One of the sculptures was a giant reproduction of Antonio Canova’s neoclassical Bust of Paris from 1809, capturing the moment when that poor doomed schmuck Paris had to pick between Aphrodite, Hera and Athena in a beauty contest cooked up by Eris and presided over by that old scamp Zeus.  I’ve been in that boat before and trust me, it’s super awkward and not a spot that you want to find yourself in.

Anyhow, Canova’s sculpture (reproduced above at the opening ceremonies) was perhaps inspired by prior classical sculptures of Attis, perhaps by sculptures of some other deity with curly hair and wearing a phrygian cap, perhaps specifically by sculptures of Mithras; certainly the influence did travel in the other direction in the 1700’s, and the Phrygian cap was used two years back in Paris as an Olympic symbol when they hosted the summer version of the games; I enjoyed their opening ceremonies as well.  France, of course, has a long history of reverence for the liberatory qualities of the Phrygian cap.

As far as Milan itself goes, the city features a Mithraic plaque, a Mithreum discovered in 1955 beneath the San Giovanni (St. John) church in Conca now located at the Banco di Sardegna at the intersection of Via Manfredo Camperio and Via Giorgio Giulini (near to the Segway tour place), the stele inscribed by Acilius Pisonianus commemorating the restoration of a Mithraeum in Mediolanum (ancient Milan), the astrologer Maximus of Milan’s slab, and several other Milanesi / Mediolana items.  So yes, Milan was significant to the Syndexioi / Mithraists, as was much of what now comprises the Italian Republic, not that I want to put the historically fascist Olympics competition and celebration up on a pedestal.

Speaking of pedestals, a striking pair of Mithraic stone altars from the Edinburgh region are to remain on public display for a National Museums of Scotland exhibit until the end of April 2027.  In further archaeological news there’s been a significant Mithraeum discovered in Bavaria, that region’s oldest so far dated at 80-171 CE, based on coin specimens from the Emperor Hadrian’s reign.

“Proud Boys In ICE” Claims Continue

While Proud Boys On Ice would be quite the parody musical and come full circle with the group’s origin story, former FBI Special Agent, lawyer, legal and national security analyst Asha Rangappa has argued that “the indictment of the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers revealed that they had a cache of weapons, entered the Capitol in military formation, and were prepared to harm lawmakers. They were all pardoned and no doubt many of them are now in ICE” (bold italics mine).  Author and journalist David Neiwert has similarly asked “how many members of the Proud Boys, the Oath Keepers, and the III% militias are now prowling our streets and invading blue cities (ditto) with guns, as they did between 2017 and 2020?”

Catch This Book

Chapter 5 of the recent Christopher Matthias book To Catch a Fascist mentions Proud Boys a bit, but there's much greater focus on the rise of Patriot Front and opposition to their movement via counter-protests and doxxing.  For example, from chapter 18:

Patriot Front is the group that the Proud Boys would like to be: trained in fighting skills, enmeshed with the Active Club network, physically fit, and less likely to be addicted to drugs and alcohol than the Proud Boys.  One in five Patriot Front members has a military background, and the U.S. Agriculture Department has hired their senior member Ian Michael Elliott thereby awarding him millions of dollars.

On Red Necks and About Faces

First Things journal’s Matthew Schmitz’s How Hipsters Gave Us Trump made some similar arguments to my piece illustrating the trajectory from The Redneck Manifesto’s Jim Goad to Gavin McInnes & VICE to the Proud Boys to MAGA and Trump.  Of course before the term was misappropriated, rednecks were Appalachian coal miners and communist-affiliated labour organizers, quite the opposite of the modern-day far-right association/insinuation.

There's also been a bit of an about face, with Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio coming out in support of the war in Iran after opposition to it by the group this past June.  Of course, this could just be another split between the group’s leadership vs its rank and file membership, or symptomatic of a broader faction.  In mid-November 2024 John Ganz argued that fascist street fighting activities of Proud Boys and Oath Keeper paramilitaries would coincide with “an aggressive, jingoistic war to cover up a domestic failure”, so we’ll have to see whether that pans out.  I generally quite like the guy (that’s Ganz I’m talking about, not Tarrio), at least his writing (I don’t know either of them personally), but I hope he’s wrong.

A State of (Dis)Union

Trump’s State of the Union performance was a full house minus a few dozen Democrats who boycotted, and was a raucous affair for Trump as always.  Texas Democrat Al Green held up a "Black people aren't apes" sign in response to Trump’s depicting the Obamas (and Joe Biden) as apes and then refusing to apologise after the post was deleted; other protesters were quickly escorted out.

Trump expounded on American exceptionalism, bragged that "our police are stacked”, complained about Illegal aliens, suggested that "56%" less fentanyl was crossing into the U.S., and claimed that "we are the hottest country anywhere in the world”, perhaps unintentionally invoking the climate crisis exacerbated by the seizure of "80 million barrels of oil" from Venezuela.

There were slogans like "we ended DEI in America!” and "we're winning too much!”, and after entry of the U.S. Olympic hockey team, chants of “You Ess Ay!”  Trump seemed to be on Adderall or some other stimulant because he's talking faster and more high-pitched than usual.  Various Larry Skutniks were present, there was the ironic exhortation that "government answers to the people and not the powerful", and complaints about the  Supreme Court's "very unfortunate ruling”.

Other choice claims included "they were murderers, 11,888 murderers”, "the price of eggs is down 60%”, Somalis "pillaged $16 billion" in Minnesota, the demonization of "Somali pirates” and claims of "Illegal aliens" viciously killing high school cheerleader, in response to which "we're getting them the hell out of here” in order to "protect American citizens not illegal aliens".  I checked out after an hour of Trump performing “the weave”; that much exposure to his unique form of communication was more than enough for me.

The New MAGA and New MIGA

MAGA has become a hate movement; perhaps this was always the case under an Archie Bunker presidency, it's just become much more overt.  Marjorie Taylor Greene, Tucker Carlson and Alex Jones may have jumped ship in order to criticise the movement from adjacent conspiratorial shores, but they are certainly complicit and still far from being MAGA outsiders.  Like all supporters they believed Stephen Miller‘s 2024 ”Liz wants to invade the whole Middle East. Kamala = WWIII. Trump = Peace” tweet, JD Vance’s 2024 opposition to war with Iran and Trump’s proclamation that “GOING INTO THE MIDDLE EAST IS THE WORST DECISION EVER MADE” (his capitalization, not mine).  Plus, the overwhelming majority of the MAGA base won't mind the transformation to War President; campaign promises are treated differently once their man’s (back) in office.

Ayatollah Khamenei’s death was a long time coming and the pro-Pahlavi Iranian diaspora is celebrating (I happened upon one such celebration yesterday).  As blowback for being the largest financial and military backer of Hamas’ October 7, 2023 invasion, for its 47 years of annihilation threats, and for its attempts at nuclear weapons capacity, I hope regime change in Iran will be quick, stable and low-casualty, resulting in a democratic outcome, but I’m not holding my breath as that doesn’t tend to happen in that part of the world.  Trump’s declaration of war speech mirrored Lord Farquaad’s “Some of you may die” in Shrek given how bone spurs kept him out of the army and how he called soldiers who die in war “losers” and “suckers”.

The West’s Soft Descent into Fascism

Soon Reform will likely take control in the UK as will the National Assembly party in France, joining Italy’s FdI - the direct descendant of Mussolini's PFR.  Hungary’s Fidesz is fighting against a challenge from Péter Magyar’s centre-right TISZA (what FSB-supported dirty tricks they attempt is anyone's guess) while Germany’s AfD will likely remain in opposition.  Back in the US, “the same people who tried to overturn the 2020 election have only grown better organized and are now embedded in the machinery of government”.  

The Republican’s path to reelection will rely on disqualifying some 70 million women who changed their last names upon marriage from voting, declaring a national emergency to control the polls or simply nationalizing voting, or using ICE to intimidate minority voters and remobilizing the Proud Boys / Pueri Superbi or other street paramilitary forces to repeat what John Ganz has described as an “extralegal attempt to seize power”.

The GOP has been inundated with Nazi messaging and action this year (this century, arguably), the alt-right world view has achieved mainstream status, with the U.S. State Department going full-Monty fascist in posting about the "noble legacy” of Greco-Roman derived western civilization and spending $38 billion on warehouses for illegal immigrants, a potential “American gulag archipelago”.

The world’s richest (or perhaps second richest) man Elon Musk promoted white supremacist and anti-immigrant conspiracy content on 26 out of 31 days in January.  The white supremacist and antisemitic Jeremy Carl - who called for the death penalty for American Federation of Teachers president Randi Weingarten - was nominated for a plush State Department posting. Oh, and there will no longer be drivers licenses in Kansas for trans people; no place like home indeed.

Hot Times Ahead 

Trump’s recent revocation of the endangerment finding - the “largest deregulatory action in American history” and undoing “a key scientific finding that has been the cornerstone of United States efforts to fight climate change for more than 16 years” - got me thinking about Seeds of Extremism: Ecofascism and Militant Accelerationism in a Warming World in which Isabela Bernardo refers to Burke, Miguel, Satyanath, Dykema & Lobell’s Warming Increases the Risk of Civil War in Africa in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 106.  Their “analysis of African conflict demonstrates that temperature increases correlate with elevated conflict risk: a 1°C warming is associated with an approximate 4.5% increase in civil war incidence, operating primarily through economic channels as agricultural productivity declines and rural livelihoods become unsustainable.  Resource competition generates the desperation and discontent that extremist movements require for recruitment, providing both material motivation for violence and ideological fodder for narratives of scarcity and existential threat.”  The future looks heated in more ways than one.

Thanks for reading and see y'all again some time in early April.