Mithraism As Proud Boy Prototype: Underground Clubs of the Syndexioi and Pueri Superbi

Corvus sicut in scripto Mensam

Why is a raven like a writing desk[1]? Combining unrelated terms can produce a tapestry interlaced with semantic symmetry because the symbols comprising our letters and words and the constituent metaphors of our sentences and paragraphs are the fibres and threads from which our myths, narratives, customs and laws are woven. A raven or crow (depending on the translation) was also the first initiatory grade of the ancient Roman Mithraic cult, while the writing desk of Nancy Pelosi was a significant bull’s eye for the wrath of the January 6, 2021 coup attempt coordinated by the Proud Boys neofascist group. This article is about what these associations of a raven and a writing desk have in common. Academics studying Roman religion and archaeology are not necessarily familiar with the work of contemporary researchers of far-right anti-extremism, and vice versa, so I hope to synthesize semiotic factors from both fields to reveal some of their common ground.

Maintaining the Roman Empire required a strong and unified army with shared induction ceremonies. Rome’s soldiers took part in initiation rites for Mithras, the god who was “also a soldier”. Known as “the soldier religion of the Roman Empire”, Mithras-worship paralleled the reverence of Michael as leader of God’s army after the Empire’s adoption of Christianity. Like this patron saint of soldiers exemplifying the struggle of good against evil[2], Mithras symbolized a Manichean struggle for Roman soldiers[3].

There was an archetypal quality to the multiple of religious symbols that Mithras worshippers utilized, which primarily consisted of the animals and objects representing the zodiac signs and other “fixed stars” and constellations, the deities associated with the seven classical luminaries (the sun, moon and five visible planets), the animal and objects associated with these deities, Mithras’ cloak, hat and sword, his torch-bearing companions, as well as the leontocephaline: a lion-headed, winged & snake-encoiled figure with its associated symbols.

It’s no surprise that from this panoply of symbols discovered through excavation of Mithraic sacred sites that Mithras-worship bears numerous similarities to other social practices in differing historical and geographic contexts. One such example is that of the modern-day Proud Boys (Pueri Superbi in Latin, the term I’ll use from here on in to describe them), a white supremacist and proscribed neo-fascist group engaged in what they believe to be a Manichean struggle against evil.

Here are some elements common to both groups:

• While Mithraists called one another ‘Syndexioi’ (the term I’ll use from here on in, which means “united in handshake”), Pueri Superbi use the ‘OK’ hand gesture dog-whistle and famously shook the hand of former Maryland State Delegate Dan Cox.
• Both faiths were for men only, placing emphasis on brotherhood.
• Both groups utilized differentiated levels of initiation featuring what is contemporaneously defined as hazing.
• Both groups share the symbolism of the rooster. The Mithraic Ostia leontocephaline (lion-headed figure) was depicted with an accompanying rooster. The Gnostic divinity Abraxas, with whom Mithras was later associated, has a rooster head. The rooster crows for the sun to rise, and Mithras has numerous solar associations[4]. Pueri Superbi tattoos often feature west-facing weathervane roosters. In 2010 Pueri Superbi founder Gavin McInnes[5] co-founded the ad agency Rooster New York; Rooster fired him for his transphobic views in 2014. McInnes strategically separated himself from the group he founded to avoid legal troubles in November of 2018, but time will tell whether this will completely insulate him from the consequences of his actions.
• Both groups have glorified fighting and violence.  The tauroctony (bull sacrifice) was the central Syndexioi icon, soldier members were expected to fight in defense or expansion of the Roman Empire, and most Mithraea were located along the Empire’s frontier. Pueri Superbi have been described as "the Republican Party’s militant arm", and Gavin McInnes’ stated belief was that “violence doesn’t feel good, justified violence feels great, and fighting solves everything”. The Florida Pueri Superbi chapter engaged in voter intimidation, threatening those who voted against Donald Trump in 2020.
• Syndexioi were primarily soldiers of the Roman Empire, which was at its height under the early 2nd century Emperor Trajan who was much-loved by Italian fascist archaeologist and historian Roberto Paribeni.  One of the largest historical empires, Rome’s was the largest in the western world with roughly one in five people in the world falling under its dominion.  Pueri Superbi identify as “Western chauvinists” and use the slogan “the West is Best”[6].
• Just as Mithras and his torch-bearers Cautes and Cautopates wore red Phrygian caps, the Pueri Superbi wear red MAGA caps. Donald Trump is touted as a future red Caesar[7], and his hair is a Phrygian cap unto itself.
• Just as the Romans favoured the victory and immortality symbolism of the laurel, Pueri Superbi wear the laurel symbol on their Fred Perry shirts, despite a disavowal by the clothing label, and both orders wear red hats (whether Phrygian or MAGA).
• Both were underground drinking clubs (either literally or figuratively).
• Both groups conceptualized themselves as waging a Manichaen conflict against an adversary: either Ahriman or Antifa, “barbarians” or Black Lives Matter.
• Both used the ’Legion’ descriptive; San Diego neo-Nazi[8] Robert Bowen Wheldon, leader of a Southern California white supremacist Active Club Legion XIV, was a third-degree Pueri Superbi initiate.
• While alcohol, Adderall and cocaine (one-time favourites of Gavin McInnes) were used by Pueri Superbi, Boston University’s Carl Ruck has argued that ritual use of the red-capped Amanita muscaria psychoactive mushroom - perhaps the original, pre-misogynist form of redpilling - was central to Syndexioi rites.
• Both groups engaged in cultural appropriation; Pueri Superbi stole the Black civil rights term Uhuru - Swahili for solidarity - while Syndexioi Romanized the Persian Mithra along with many of his trappings, and the Romans more broadly appropriated everything Greek and Etruscan.
• The tauroctony twins Cautes and Cautopates stand behind and on either side of Mithras, acting as “very fine people on both sides” of the deity. The twins are depicted as carrying upward-facing and downward-facing torches, symbolizing the two celestial hemispheres. These torch-bearers “stand back and stand by” Mithras[9], just as tiki torches were menacingly carried at the 2017 University of Virginia Unite the Right march by members of the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights (FOAK)[10], the Pueri Superbi “tactical defensive arm” founded by Kyle Chapman (alias Based Stickman) after the 2017 Berkeley protests.
• Syndexioi invoked with “NAMA!” (“hail”, from the Sanskrit “I bow before you”, related to “Namaste”), while Pueri Superbi invoke “MAGA!” (“Make America Great Again”, reminiscent of political theorist Roger Griffin’s “palingenetic ultranationalism” fascism definition). Both are terms of praise.
• Both engaged in private/public situational kayfabe: ritual behaviour by male-only Syndexioi and performative masculinity in the case of the Pueri Superbi.
• Many Syndexioi faced potential violent injury or death as soldiers in Rome’s eternal imperialist conquests against its neighbours. Like all soldiers throughout time and in varying cultures, they undertook rites to prepare them for danger and calm their fears. Pueri Superbi hold irrational fears of refugees taking away their jobs, women taking away their status, or drag queen storybook readers taking away their simplistic Leave It To Beaver binary gender categories. Trump has managed to stoke these fears in his rallies, invoking the divinity to “Make America Great Again”. The process is the same: harden yourself for battle, whether against an external enemy like the Parthian Empire in ancient times, or “enemies from within” for present-day MAGAists.

There are also many similarities between the specific degrees of initiation and traditions of the Pueri Superbi and those of the Syndexioi:

Crowing Their Declarations: The First Grade

The Syndexioi’s seven grades are represented in Ostia’s hopscotch-like Felicissimus Mithraeum mosaic ladder, symbolizing ascent of soul of ritual practitioners out of the material realm and into the refined astral domain[11]. The first grade of Syndexioi initiation was Corax (raven or crow), named after the bird believed to have been sent as a messenger from the sun god to Mithras carrying orders to sacrifice the celestial bull. This messenger symbol was associated with Mercury, planet of the messenger and trickster god; founder Gavin McInnes has always been somewhat of a trickster himself. Pueri Superbi frequently utilize rooster iconography and what does a rooster do but crow?

Pueri Superbi have a fourteen word fraternity creed which they crow out for their 1st degree initiation. Written by Gavin McInnes in 2016, the fourteen words of this declaration are “I’m a proud Western chauvinist. I refuse to apologize for creating the modern world!” Overt and less optics-concerned white supremacists have their own fourteen word declaration: “We must secure the existence of our people and a future for white children!”, a slogan created by neo-Nazi ideologue David Lane, co-founder of the white supremacist terrorist group The Order which assassinated talk show host Alan Berg and committed multiple armed robberies.

Though Gavin McInnes named the group after the Proud of Your Boy song from the Broadway musical version of Disney’s Aladdin, Pueri Superbi are really more like Peter Pan’s Lost Boys. This name was already taken, and it would have been too ironic a choice for irony-master McInnes since a primary character from the 1987 Lost Boys vampire film became an antifascist. Given 18 years for seditious conspiracy as a leader of the January 6th coup attempt in which the Pueri Superbi were found to be “the militia group with the most specific premeditated plan to attack the Capitol”, Ethan Nordean used the moniker “Rufio Panman” named after the grown-up Peter Pan’s successor.

Just as Peter Pan brags in I’ve Gotta Crow, his rooster-referencing Broadway musical number, they have to crow (the verb, not the noun) out their declaration in order to join the group, and on January 6 they crowed about their accomplishment with Pueri Superbi Joe Biggs bragging in a recorded video “we’ve just taken the Capitol.”. Mithras’ Persian prototype Mithra had the epitaph “Guardian of Oaths”; similarly, first level Pueri Superbi adherents are required to swear their fourteen word oath and they conspired with the Oath Keepers. Crows (the actual birds, not the Mithraic grade) are also known to engage in necrophilia, and Pueri Superbi are into unconventional sexual practices, as discussed below in the second grade. Both crows and Pueri Superbi engage in mobbing behaviour. While crows mainly flock to forage and migrate, the Pueri Superbi mainly flock to Parler and Telegram, and they incite vigilante violence right out of the Jim Crow era.

The Corax grade depicted in the Ostia mosaics also features Mercury’s intertwined double-serpent caduceus, symbol of peace and reciprocity. Instead of using a double-serpent flag, Pueri Superbi have used two distinct single-snake flags. The first flag they have used is the Gadsden flag: symbol of violence and mistrust with a uniquely militant pro- and anti-regime double-meaning. This image signifies patriotism due to its origins in the American Revolution and it’s therefore used by U.S. soldiers serving abroad. It’s also an anti-government “symbol of resistance to perceived tyranny” popular with libertarians, the Oath Keepers militia group, the right-populist[12] Tea Party movement that prefigured Trumpism, a wide swath of January 6, 2021 coup participants[13], anti-vaccine conspiracy theorists[14], and the perpetrators of a 2014 neo-Nazi terrorist attack that killed five in Las Vegas.

The Gadsden flag’s duality can be compared to that of Pueri Superbi icon Donald Trump, described by Tim Alberta as “both a convicted felon claiming that the state is persecuting him and an aspiring strongman pledging to use the state against his own enemies”. The flag is a fitting modern symbol of Mercury: messenger of the gods, psychopomp (conductor of souls to the underworld) and god of merchants (weapons dealers included). Despite the flag’s dual nature, its single snake motif makes it more attractive to members of the misogynist far-right by distinguishing it from the caduceus’ original coupling snake pair, transforming ‘make love’ into ‘make war’. Pueri Superbi supporters have even created a modified version of the Gadsden flag, replacing the rattlesnake with an icon of Kyle “Based Stick Man” Chapman - founder of the Pueri Superbi “military division” the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights - beating an anti-Trump counterprotester at a Berkeley rally.

The second serpent flag that the Pueri Superbi have employed is the ‘Join or Die’ flag snake used to promote the 2017 Charlottesville, Virginia “Unite The Right” rally and represent the hardcore nationalist American Guard faction, a group connected to both the Pueri Superbi and their Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights. The remaining Corax icon is the cup/vessel, which Pueri Superbi employ by virtue of their “we’re just a drinking club” pretense.

Pud Boys: The Second Grade

The second grade of Mithraic initiation was Nymphus (male bride), associated with Venus, planet of the goddess of love and fertility. Pueri Superbi of the second degree must limit masturbation to once per month, a practice stemming from the 2016 guest appearance of NoFap’s Alexander Rhodes on a talk show hosted by McInnes, and the influence of pickup artist Dante Nero, once considered the group’s “pope of no-wanks”, who appeared on The Gavin McInnes Show in 2017. While they can’t beat off, they can get beat up by running this grade’s required Gauntlet of Cereal, a mild hazing ritual originating in McInnes’ childhood gang The Monks.

Cereal is named after Ceres, the Roman goddess of agricultural fertility, motherly relationships and the harvest. Ceres was worshipped by celibate priestesses, and was the patroness of the Ludi Ceriales - or Ceres’ games - in ancient times. Ceres’ Greek equivalent Demeter was the Earth Mother, and Pueri Superbi claim that they "venerate the housewife[15] ".  Breakfast cereal was invented by Kellogg out of a moral panic to prevent masturbation, which connects back to the second grade’s masturbation ban.

Pueri Superbi frequently protest trans-friendly events and prevent trans men from becoming members, insisting members are “born with a penis”, unlike the symbolism of the “male bride” Nymphus grade. Gavin McInnes famously sodomized himself with a large black dildo on a live webstream in order to confirm that he is not opposed to homosexuality, as long as it fits a pro-western and traditionally masculine framework, though rank and file Pueri Superbi members might not all fall in line with his sentiment.

The goddess Venus is credited with turning sexual vice - the name of a declining magazine, website and media-empire co-founded by Gavin McInnes - into virtue and denoting the wifely virtues of fertility and decency. As the ancestor of Rome’s founders Romulus and Remus and of Julius Caesar (according to Julius, at least), she was given the epithet Venus Genetrix ("foundress of the family"), reflected in Pueri Superbi “veneration of the housewife” rhetoric (venerātiō is derivative of Venus), and their links with the far-right group Moms for Liberty.

For this grade the Felicissimus mosaics features the symbol of a diadem (crown) which Pueri Superbi so highly resent when they’re worn by drag queens reading storybooks to children at public libraries that it drives them to violently threaten the reading, suggesting a deep-rooted jealousy of the drag queens’ diadems.  The other Ostia Felicissimus mosaic symbol is a lamp. At their meetings, Pueri Superbi sing the Broadway show tune "Proud of Your Boy," an ode to making mom proud from the musical version of Aladdin (that’s the very source of the ‘Proud Boy’ name). The tale’s central icon is the magic lamp from which the djinn (genie) emerges to grant wishes to its master Aladdin.

Natus in Bello: The Third Grade

The third grade of Mithraic initiation was Miles (soldier), associated with the war god Mars. The Syndexioi practiced a faith centered upon armed fealty; likewise far-right groups like the Pueri Superbi encourage recruitment from the military, paramilitary and police, and are frequently assisted by each of these groups. Donald Trump’s former longtime ally and lawyer Michael Cohen stated in an October 1 2020 interview that “if you look at who the Proud Boys really are, they’re an army. They look like an army. They dress like an army. They behave like an army. And what banner, what flag are they carrying? They’re carrying the MAGA flag. So this is now - in Trump’s mind - this is Trump’s army. And he’s going to use them, when he loses, and he’s going to use them in order to try to keep control of power”.

Pueri Superbi are known for fighting for numerous right-wing social causes and acting as “the tip of the spear”, “boots on the ground” and “at the forefront”, “foot soldiers of the right”, a "fighting force for Trump", "Trump’s army", vowing “war”, appropriating Gavin McInnes’ slogan “fighting solves everything”, and in some cases wearing the extremist “Right Wing Death Squad” patch favoured by neo-Nazi mass-shooters. Admitting his fear was “that these ‘lone wolf’ shootings are only the beginning”, Parkland survivor and activist David Hogg stated “I fear that some group like the Proud Boys will find a way to organize all these potential mass shooters to plot some kind of mass terror attack to destabilize our country and start taking over state capitols and Congress”. Pueri Superbi have already obeyed Trump’s exhortation that “if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore”.

Third degree initiates receive a tattoo featuring slogans and/or Proud Boy iconography. The Mithra-worshiping Kurdish Yezidis also wear Mithraic tattoos, and tattoos have a long history within warrior/military culture. Roman soldiers were tattooed with the initials SPQR (Senatus Populusque Romanus). Gavin McInnes has fist and lightning tattoos on his upper right arm, symbols affiliated with the neo-Nazi band Skrewdriver. The laurel wreath featured on Proud Boy third degree tattoos and the black & yellow Fred Perry shirt they wear is also a symbol of the Syndexioi lion grade discussed below.

Both Pueri Superbi and Syndexioi could be described as Manichean. In the case of Syndexioi, the enemy was Ahriman (symbol of evil), while in the case of the Pueri Superbi it’s Antifa (anti-fascists)[16]. As first degree initiate Roger Stone[17] stated at the Rally to Save America the night prior to the January 6th 2021 coup attempt: “this is nothing less than an epic struggle for the future of this country between dark and light, between the godly and the godless, between good and evil”.

Famous for brawling, thirty Pueri Superbi once beat up three counter-protesters following the October 13, 2018 NYC Metropolitan Republican Club Gavin McInnes appearance. New York Young Republican Club president Gavin Wax - a CPAC and Fox News guest and Proud Boy supporter who helped organize McInnes’ talk - declared at a 2022 gala: “We want to cross the Rubicon. We want total war. We must be prepared to do battle in every arena . . . this is the only language the left understands”.  Imitating the extreme-right assassin Otoya Yamaguchi, McInnes brandished a katana, a Japanese curved sword not dissimilar from the harpe hooked sword symbol of the Perses grade or the scythe symbol of the seventh Pater grade.

The Miles grade exemplifies the red planet, comparable to the often red-capped military/paramilitary aesthetic of the Pueri Superbi. The group has been described as “foot soldiers of the right”, with three of four of their members convicted of a plot to attack the U.S. Capitol on January 6th having had military backgrounds, and a disproportionately high percentage of the January 6 protestors who they instigated were veterans and active duty service members. The Felicissimus mosaics for this grade featured the symbol of the helmet which Pueri Superbi frequently wear to demonstrations and fights, and parallels the firefighter helmet of assassination attempt victim Corey Comperatore which was kissed on stage by Trump. It also featured the symbol of a lance - fitting, as the Pueri Superbi have been called “the tip of the spear” for the Jan. 6 assault - and the symbol of a soldier’s bag, which is something that the Pueri Superbi often utilize for carrying their insurrectionary gear.

Proud of your Cub: The Fourth Grade

The fourth and central grade of Syndexioi initiation was Leo or lion[18] (the king of the jungle) associated with Jupiter (the king of the gods) parallel aspects of the Pueri Superbi who gather in groups like a pride of lions to hunt antifascists and children’s storybook readers. Through their Proud Boy Dress Code[19] they attempt to look fierce in their yellow and black Fred Perry shirts and matching hats - mirrored by Trump at his Oct 27 Madison Square Garden rally. Though the colour-scheme is supposed to represent anarcho-capitalism / libertarianism, it’s also reminiscent of a lion’s golden mane. To their credit, Fred Perry pulled the shirt from their clothing line in response to the brand’s popularity among Pueri Superbi.

Immediately after Trump lost power to Joe Biden in 2020 his followers made a short-lived attempt at creating a Patriot Party featuring a lion logo, though Trump instead went to the Republican nomination for a second time around and easily became the party’s candidate. Nonetheless, after the January 6 coup attempt a number of Pueri Superbi rallied in Pennsylvania to advocate a Patriot Party run with the lion logo in a heated event organized by Pueri Superbi Richard "Dick" Schwetz. The lion grade requires getting into a major fight for the cause, and much of the January 6, 2021 violence can be attributed to the Pueri Superbi. Also seen at the coup attempt was the lion logo of the xenophobic and ethnonationalist group VDARE; the Trump campaign using a similar lion graphic for one of their videos in 2019. A lion logo was also featured on a shield next to the slogan “nog är nog” (“enough is enough”) at an April 29, 2017 Nationalist Front rally in Pikeville, Kentucky.

The Pueri Superbi have claimed to not be homophobic (only transphobic), but they are certainly homophonic in terms of the group’s lyin’.  Pueri Superbi internalized the lies that the 2020 election had been stolen; even as he was sentenced to 18 years for his role in the coup, PB Doninic Pezzola raised his fist and yelled out "Trump won!" while leaving the courtroom. Ironic as it may be that their hero, the compulsive liar Trump, is a majority-owner of a social media company called Truth Social, the truth itself is important in a world of misinformation and disinformation. The neologism fake news, originally used to describe lies and misrepresentation, was co-opted by Trump to instead describe anything critical of his policies.

While once roaming free, many of the world’s remaining lions are now kept in cages. Such has certainly been the fate of former Proud Boy Leader and FBI informant Enrique Tarrio[20] as well as other incarcerated Pueri Superbi such as Ethan Nordean, Joseph Biggs, Zachary Rehl, Dominic Pezzola and Kenneth Bonawitz. A combined total of over seventy years of jail time will be served by Pueri Superbi. Though the group appears to be in decline, should Trump get reelected in 2025 with the help of Elon Musk’s financial and communications resources, these convicts will certainly be sprung from prison and granted amnesty, if not cabinet positions. Trump considers those arrested on January 6th to be political prisoners, and has stated “now if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole - that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That will be the least of it”. Using the term as a verb, Pueri Superbi have certainly lionized Donald Trump as their hero.

The grade of Leo is the central of the seven Syndexioi grades and parallels MAGA’s obsession with wild felines, though as powerful as they once were in the wild, lions are frequently portrayed as gullible, not very bright, and easily tricked. It also shows MAGA’s interest in domesticated felines, as when Pueri Superbi protestors appeared in Springfield Ohio in response to the libel that cats are being eaten by Haitians who legally immigrated to meet unfilled labour demands. This lie was spread by the founder of the Blood Tribe neo-Nazi movement and later repeated by Trump and Vice-Presidential candidate JD Vance who also depicted Kamala Harris as a “childless cat lady”.

In the Felicissimus mosaics the Leo grade is represented by a lightning bolt, a symbol Pueri Superbi founder Gavin McInnes has tattooed twice on his upper right arm within tattooed fists, suggesting “affiliation with skinhead white power” movements. The next icon is a fire spade, symbolic in that Enrique Tarrio - who took over Pueri Superbi leadership after McInnes - plead guilty to burning a DC church’s Black Lives Matter banner. Finally there’s a sistrum, an ancient rattle noisemaker supplanted by the modern megaphone favoured by many Pueri Superbi.

More than Four?

While Syndexioi levels of initiation went up to seven, the Pueri Superbi have four hierarchical outer levels along with several additional levels outside of the public sphere; this will be explained further below. Most Mithraic initiates were of the lower ranks and never progressed beyond the third grade of miles (soldier).

Prof. Laurent Bricault of the Jean-Jaurès University in Toulouse has argued that the Syndexioi originally had only three grades (corax, leo and pater), but in several cases in Ostia and Rome this was later expanded to seven with two grades added above and two below the central leo grade. Likewise, one could exclude the first Pueri Superbi grade which is quite non-committal - since anyone can publicly state their creed consequence-free - so arguably there are only three substantial Pueri Superbi outer grades of initiation. However, there were additional inner levels to the hierarchy.

Above their public grades, The Pueri Superbi has an eight-man Elder’s Chapter which included Ethan Nordean (alias: Rufio Panman, the famously aggressive Proud Boy sentenced to 18 years for seditious conspiracy).  There was the Ministry of Self Defense (MOSD) established by Tarrio in 2020 for the January 6 coup attempt, and the Fraternal Order of the Alt-Knights (FOAK), the tactical defense arm established by Kyle Chapman. There have also been a number of higher-ranking leadership figures including founder Gavin McInnes, Enrique Tarrio - leader after McInnes left to avoid jail[21] - and various cultural and political figures that McInnes fetishized such as Jim Goad, Ann Coulter[22], Roger Stone and Pat Buchanan.

However, I suggest that it was the highly admired Donald Trump himself who came to represent the attributes of all three of the upper hierarchical levels analogous to the Mithraic system of initiation, based on the three interrelated but distinct guises that Trump symbolizes to his follower, and due to the mutually supportive relationship that he maintains with the Pueri Superbi. This Triumpverate can be thought of as Trump’s Id, Ego and Superego; Trump as Holy Ghost, Son and Father, Trump as Thesis, Antithesis, and Synthesis, Trump as Lacanian Symbolic Father, Imaginary Father and Real Father; Trump as Corpus Naturalis, Corpus Politicum and Corpus Divinus, or Past-Trump, Present-Trump and Future-Trump[23]. Trump acts as a paragon of particular virtues for his followers to emulate. To the degree that they act out their required roles, Trump provides his followers with emotional support in the form of shout-outs and recognition.  If returned to power through the ballot or the bullet - either democratic or insurrectionary means - he will provide his yellow-clothed minions with political support, amnesty, and positions in the security apparatus and the politburo.

Stranger from the East: The Fifth Grade

The fifth grade of Mithraic initiation was Perses (Persian), associated with the Moon. Gavin McInnes named the group after the song Proud of Your Boy from the Broadway musical Aladdin; the song was pulled from the Disney movie. The Aladdin tale is anchored by the exotic and fictional ruler of the Sassanids (the longest Persian imperial dynasty) the King of Kings Shahryar[24].  Serving as the story’s MacGuffin, Shahryar hears his wife Queen Scheherazade recite the tale of Aladdin and other One Thousand and One Nights. Aladdin’s genie emerges from a lamp, symbol of the Nymphus grade. While Aladdin is a petty thief, Trump the mob boss is a “petty conman, a quasi-gangster, who lives in a world of pornstars and pay offs to tabloids”.

The Parthian and Sasanian Empires were the penultimate rivals of Rome for some seven centuries, exemplifying the othered and exotified “Orient”, mythical birthplace of Perseus: demigod, hero and constellation, who Mithras represented according to David Ulansey.  In parallel, the Persian successor state of Iran has been rivals with the U.S. since the 1953 CIA coup overthrew Prime Minister Mossadeq, resulting in the U.S. receiving “the Great Satan” title with the 1979 revolution, Iran being placed into the “axis of evil” category in 1992, and the 2020 Iranian influence operation featuring U.S. election-related emails purporting to be written by The Pueri Superbi.

Most Trump supporters are centred in the “flyover” / heartland region of the US and Proud Boy activity has shifted west with 51% located in California and Oregon in 2023. For Romans living in the heartland of Latium, Persia was far off to the east; so too for Americans living in Heartland/Flyover Country, Trump’s hometown of Manhattan where he inherited his wealth, lives in an exotic gold-encrusted condominium, planted his towers, and where Texas exiles its refugees, is far off to the east. Likewise, Trump’s exotic Mar-a-Lago compound in Florida is the furthest to the east of the United States that one can go excluding Puerto Rico. Trump is also “the king from afar”: an outsider who was originally a socialite-liberal and a registered Democrat from 2001-2009, adopting conservatism when it became politically expedient for him to do so.

Trump is what cultural anthropologist Marshall Salinas calls a “stranger[25] king”, a divine king who comes from afar to defend locals and restore their property. As David Graeber and David Wengrow described this subtype in The Dawn of Everything: A New History of Humanity, the power of this type of king “often displays his power by violently transgressing law, morality and convention”, set apart from the people “by his dress and manners. He is not just a stranger; he is strange as well. Because he is a god, he is not exactly human”. This explains the violent thug antics of Pueri Superbi attempting to receive Trump’s approval by emulating his behaviour, as well as the viral precision of the “weird” (akin to “alien”, “other” or “foreign”) snub used against Trump by Democratic Party Vice-Presidential candidate Tim Waltz.

Xerxes I, King of Kings of Persia’s Achaemenid Empire and the victor against Sparta in the Battle of Thermopylae, was the supposed target of the apocryphal phrase molon labe (come and take them). When Pueri Superbi, SOCCENT members, Representative Marjorie Taylor Greene or other gun-enthusiasts invoke this term, they are daring some perceived tyrannical force (a re-established British colonial monarchy, a communist dictatorship, or a Democratic party majority-elected government) to take away their weapons.

The Perses (Persian) grade Felicissimus mosaics symbols includes a crescent Moon: appropriate because they are dangerous lunatics: the main organizer of the 2017 Charlottesville Unite the Right rally that killed Heather Heyer was second-degree Pueri Superbi Jason Kessler, the group was found guilty of acting in seditious conspiracy and as key instigators in the January 6 coup attempt, and they aped the rhetorical tropes of Donald Trump, another lunatic and the first U.S. president to get impeached twice. Other symbols include a star, which Pueri Superbi frequently appear in front of during speaking engagements, and a scythe: the central icon of the Cape Fear Pueri Superbi logo. Finally, there is the harpē: the hooked sword forged by Hephaestus and used by Perseus to decapitate Medusa - the enduring feminist icon who survived being “ravished” (raped) by Neptune in Minerva’s temple. Perseus used the harpē to dominantly rescue the naked, helpless, virginal, bound and submissive Andromeda (lit. ‘Ruler of Men’); an exemplary weapon for Pueri Superbi, a cult of men fond of misogyny and idealizing female subservience.

Sun King Trump: The Sixth Grade

The sixth grade of Mithraic initiation was Heliodromos (Sun Runner) associated with Helios, god of the Sun. Jim Goad, a major influence on Gavin McInnes, and a man who brags about having assault records in three states, was the author of The Redneck Manifesto. Rednecks[26] are white rural reactionary subalterns, lumpens or working class people toiling at outdoor manual labour and burned by the sun.

Like the previous grade of Perses, this grade may also be applied to Trump. The former president is an orange-skinned man with golden hair shooting out randomly like solar flares who makes his home in sunny Mar-a-Lago, and was falsely rumoured to enjoy golden showers. Like Trump, the Pueri Superbi are often golden-haired, and when not in insurrection mode, their Fred Perry shirts are piped in a very sunny golden yellow. The Pueri Superbi wore solar orange for the January 6 2021 Capitol Hill insurrection - breaking their Dress Code by wearing blaze orange hats - suggesting a paramilitary concern for making in-theater distinctions between hostiles and friendlies for their coup attempt. Former Trump aide and indicted conservative ratfucker Roger Stone referred to the Pueri Superbi as “the Ancient Order of the Orange Men” for that operation.

New York Magazine Washington correspondent  Olivia Nuzzi described how Donald Trump “photosynthesizes any and all attention to grow bigger and stronger and block out the sun for everyone else around”, in particular any candidates running against him. Globe and Mail opinion columnist Andrew Coyne described him as smiling benevolently “like a kindly orange sun” at the Republican Party convention a few days after Trump’s brush with getting assasinated.

During the April 8, 2024 eclipse, Trump famously posted an ad of his head blocking out the sun and even stared directly into the 2017 eclipse without eye protection. Just as the sun nourishes life on Earth, its energies when unrestrained can also lead to death. In this sense Trump is truly l’anus solaire, boosting sensationalist news revenue with his idiocy and creating lots of employment opportunities for journalists covering his lies, but carrying out policies such as the ineffective response to the Covid Pandemic which resulted in mass death. Just as the Sun King Louis XIV said “L’etat, c’est moi!”, Trump also feels that he is the state. As a follower of the famed Nazi jurist and political theorist Carl Schmitt - who argued that “all significant concepts of the modern theory of the state are secularized theological concepts” - Trump believes that any of his actions are protected by an Ausnahmezustand (state of exception). “They always call the other side ‘the elite’. Why are they elite? I have a much better apartment than they do,” he said. “I’m smarter than they are. I’m richer than they are. I became president and they didn’t. And I’m representing the greatest, smartest, most loyal best people [sic] on Earth – the deplorables, remember that?” Like Japanese Emperor Hirohito who was believed to be an arahitogami (living god) descended from the sun goddess Amaterasu, Trump thinks of himself as a king with divine qualities, as discussed below.

The Heliodromus grade Felicissimus mosaics symbols include a solar crown and a torch, both famously incorporated as symbols of liberty into the Statue of Liberty by sculptor Frédéric Bartholdi his sculpture modeled after the goddess Libertas, traditional depicted with a Phrygian cap or pileus, and spear or rod. Proud boys have appeared in connection with the solar crown and torch symbols of the Statue of Liberty - to them it’s an icon of their particular brand of libertarianism - while the torch is much-loved by the broader far right. The grade’s mosaic symbols also features a whip, which in relation to Dominic Pezzola - defendant in the Pueri Superbi seditious conspiracy case - could be interpreted as a verb, since he lashed out at prosecutors from the witness stand, accusing the trial of being “corrupt” and marred by “fake charges” and Trump has certainly whipped up crowds by denigrating journalists that he disagrees with. Additionally, U.S. Senate Majority whip Dick Durbin tried to get answers from the FBI about how it failed to use its sources in the Pueri Superbi (leader Enrique Tarrio was famously an informant) to develop intelligence about the January 6 attempted coup.

Daddy Trump: The Seventh Grade

The seventh and final grade of Mithraic initiation was Pater (father), associated with the grim planet Saturn, the father of Jupiter, and the god of time and abundance. While Gavin McInnes still retains a mediating Godfather status in the group (Mithras is etymologically “that which binds” or mediator), he did formally retire from leadership of the Pueri Superbi - which he founded during the 2016 presidential election - in order to avoid legal prosecution.  Though the Pater title could also apply to paleoconservative granddaddy Pat Buchanan: quasi-fascist and proto-MAGA author of The Death of the West that Pueri Superbi read from at their gatherings, it ultimately describes Donald Trump in an archetypal god-father guise.

While Trump’s own father set him up with a fortune by conventional standards, many Pueri Superbi come from broken and/or single parent homes and may therefore be looking for the void to be filled by Daddy Trump, America’s toxic pater familias and the Proud Father. Pueri Superbi and much of the far-right have worshiped Trump as a “God Emperor”.  Despite dissonance with the prevalent Christian nationalist ideology, this was an appropriate title for one who called for the Central Park Five to receive the death penalty, had Michael Reinoehl executed, and is responsible for the death of over 400,000 Americans under negligent COVID-19 protection policies.

Following the Supreme Court decision granting him partial immunity from prosecution, Trump is now “a king above the law” able to use his powers "for evil ends". Dissenting Justice Sonia Sotomayor pointed out immunity scenarios such as Trump ordering the assassination of a rival (one of greater significance than Michael Reinoehl, who for all intents and purposes Trump ordered a hit on), attempting another coup, or accepting further bribes in exchange for pardons.  While her dissent pointed out hypothetical dangers, Sotomayor may have unintentionally suggested a course of action to Trump; he told religious Christians at a conference that they wouldn’t have to vote again if they voted for him. Joe Biden’s deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks has said that "they just handed Donald Trump keys to a dictatorship”.

Saturn, the planetary symbol of the Pater grade, was the divine patron of gladiatorial offerings during the Saturnalia festival. This grade features the Felicissimus mosaic symbols of a curved knife, used by Pueri Superbi to stab antifascists, and similar to the wakizashi wielded by founder Gavin McInnes outside the Uptown GOP Club in October 2018 in mimicry of far-right extremist assassin Otoya Yamaguchi who stabbed-to-death Japanese Socialist Party leader Inejirō Asanuma in 1960. The Phrygian cap - typically red - is also a symbol of this grade. Curiously, Pueri Superbi Jan 6 coup attempt participants wore toques which looked very Phrygian cap-like (soft, conical, folded apex), all in orange: midway between Pueri Superbi yellow and Syndexioi red. The grade also features a rabdos (stick), appropriate given how they utilize stick fighters, in particular venerated member Kyle “Based Stickman” Chapman the extremist founder of the Pueri Superbi “tactical defense arm” the Fraternal Order of Alt-Knights. Pater is also symbolized by a patera (libations bowl), which makes sense for what purports to be nothing more than a “fraternal drinking club”.

Making America Proud Again

Pueri Superbi have historically been strong supporters of Donald Trump. Even after his 34 felony guilty verdicts[27] in May 2024, Trump supporters called for jurors, judges and prosecutors to be doxxed and/or killed. After Trump was found guilty on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, Pueri Superbi chapters responded by linking the song “Get ya Gunz up” and posting messages of “war” and “smash commies, Feds & fags…while we storm the gates”.

The affection between Trump and the Pueri Superbi is mutual; the Pueri Superbi not only endorsed Trump and celebrated his wins, they “publicly organized at polls to ensure his victory” and have organized an “election integrity crew” of poll watchers likely to show intimidation towards non-Republican voters. This vigilante interference with the electoral system is mirrored by militia groups such as American Patriots Three Percent who promise that “the next election won’t be decided at a Ballot Box. It’ll be decided at the ammo box.[28] ”

Though Gavin McInnes stated that he modeled them after both the Elks Lodge (which disavowed the connection) and the Knights of Columbus, the group is a listed entity under the Anti-terrorism Act in Canada and were found to be key instigators in the January 6, 2021 U.S. coup attempt.

Vanity Fair’s Adam Leith Gollner - a former colleague of McInnes at VICE - suggested that “of all the pro-Trump outfits that broke into the houses of Congress, more Pueri Superbi have been arrested than those affiliated with other groups, such as the Oath Keepers or Three Percenters”. North Carolina Proud Boy Jeremy Bertino - former friend of former Proud Boy Leader and FBI informant Enrique Tarrio and star witness at his trial - described how the group acted as the “tip of the spear” by confronting police, toppling barricades and breaking into the Capitol building.

During the January 6 2021 attempted coup, the Pueri Superbi played a central role, instigating critical breakthroughs in the attack by targeting access points, riling up the crowd, joining the violence, and reassessing if police resist. According to federal prosecutors, the Proud Boy leaders plotted and led the insurrection of the U.S. Capitol and acted as shock troops for Trump, Proud Boy Dominic Pezzola being the first rioter to breach the Senate near the Capitol refectory using a police shield. As The Baffler’s Brendan O’Connor wrote, “it was a Proud Boy who led a mob through the doors of the U.S. Capitol on January 6, ransacking the building, seeking out political enemies, and disrupting, at least temporarily, the peaceful transition of power from Trump to Joe Biden”.

Mithrump

Roman tauroctony sculptors documented the heroic, iconic and historically significant image of a bull-sacrificing Mithras, divinely ordained to the post-Republic Roman army, an ear of wheat sprouting from the end of the epic bull’s tail or from the bleeding neck wound below the right ear after the god stabbed it in the side. Centuries later, on farm show grounds featuring epic bulls, AP News photographer Evan Vucci documented the heroic, iconic and historically significant image of a bullish and bull-spouting Trump, divinely ordained to the post-Republican MAGA army and champion of bull-riding cowboys but having “sacrificed nothing and no one” to others, bleeding from a wounded right ear but surviving with “God on my side”.

Both Mithras and Trump have had multitudes of worshipers, but only Trump has belittled his. That said, Mithras was a god of contracts; his predecessor Mitra was first mentioned in the 14th century BCE working out the deal between the Hittites and the Mitanni in the Suppiluliuma-Shattiwaza Treaty. Trump is likewise known as a hand-shaking (syndexioi) deal-maker in real estate, reality TV and geopolitics. The press photos of the August 23, 2024 Robert Kennedy Jr.’s campaign deal with Trump bear an uncanny resemblance to Vermaseren’s line drawings of Mithras approaching Sol and of Mithras with Sol at Dura Europos (CIMRM 49).

Imperivm

The Pueri Superbi seem to be preparing for a second Trump term. According to one disillusioned Republican Party operative, “The Trump campaign is well aware of the organized participation of Proud Boy rallies merging into Trump events. They don’t care. Staff are to treat it like a coalition they can’t talk about”. Pueri Superbi organize their members to both vote for Trump and act as “election integrity crews”, monitoring ballots for non-existent discrepancies while intimidating non-Trump voters.

Slightly leading Kamala Harris in the polls, Trump has a significant chance of escaping criminal justice by becoming the 47th president of the United States and can look forward to assurances of presidential immunity from six out of nine Supreme Court judges, three of whom he appointed personally. Should this occur, he’ll reciprocate the “we’ll continue to fight for you” loyalty, free the imprisoned Pueri Superbi, a group he has referred to as “hostages”, enact his “I am your warrior… I am your retribution” promises to his base, and threaten “death and destruction like never before” if criminal charges prevent him from getting elected on November 5th. Utilizing the conventional military to evict refugees from the United States, Trump may allow the Pueri Superbi to return to relevance and “present themselves as auxiliaries to state power” to fulfill a distinctively American paramilitary variation on Mussolini’s fascist Squadristi (action squads) or of Hitler’s Sturmabteilung (modeled on the Squadristi) before initiating a retributional dictatorship, or “a preferred way for the far-right state to repress dissent and attack targets such as immigrants”[29].  Nearly 20% of polled Pueri Superbi supporters disturbingly said they were very or completely willing to kill someone to advance an important political objective[30].

Should Harris scrape by as president, it’s still possible that another coup will be attempted by those who refuse to accept the electoral process[31].  UC Davis emergency medicine professor Garen Wintemute, a pioneer of injury epidemiology and director of the university’s Violence Prevention Research Program, has stated his concern about thousands of Pueri Superbi “using lethal violence to advance the objectives of an authoritarian president, newly deputized as part of federal law enforcement”. Just as the March on Rome was a founding myth for the fascists[32], The Pueri Superbi are pushing for state sanction to enact Sorelian power: political meaning mythically expressed through violence as an “end in itself, a rebellion against reality elevated to the level of a mythical experience”.  Syndexioi soldiers, their prototype, engaged in highly structured imperialist violence throughout Europe, Western Asia and North Africa with the Empire’s full support, in between periodic subterranean gatherings to enact myth-based rituals: "mechanisms to reinforce principles and frame future plans".

Syndexionicity

One framework for the multiple similarities between the Syndexioi and The Pueri Superbi is through Carl Jung’s[33] psychological concepts of archetypes and the collective unconscious. While self-inducing visionary states in December of 1913, Jung[34] either dreamed or actually believed that he had been initiated into the Mithraic Mysteries (depending on which biographer one believes). Though he worked as the anti-Nazi spy codenamed ’Agent 488’ for the OSS, he was also quite chummy with the Argentinian esoteric Nazi and Mithraist Miguel Serrano.

Serrano was not the only far-right neo-Syndexioi; he was preceded by the self-described “super-fascist” Julius Evola: reactionary traditionalist philosopher, author of The Path of Enlightenment in the Mithraic Mysteries and a major influence on Former White House Chief Strategist Steve Bannon. For defying a congressional subpoena, Bannon was incarcerated for four months on July 1st 2024. Prior to his prison release he left his social media accounts to be maintained by the neo-Nazi group Terrorgram, vowing that his ’MAGA army’ was ready to ensure Trump’s electoral “victory or death”, and as such he was not afraid of incarceration. On his War Room podcast Bannon stated that he tried to have former Pueri Superbi leader and FBI informant Enrique Tarrio freed from jail ahead of January 6 after he was arrested in D.C. for burning a historic Black church’s Black Lives Matter flag, and subsequently convicted of seditious conspiracy. Bannon described Trump as a "Man outside of Time", illustrating his familiarity with esoteric Hitlerist Savitri Devi, along with self-described “super-fascist” Julius Evola and traditionalist René Guénon.

The Syndexioi as a topic for historical or spiritual-themed writing has been a tabula rasa for far-right conspiracy theorists. British far-right activist Troy Southgate, founder of the now-disbanded group National Revolutionary Faction took interest in the Syndexioi under the influence of both Evola and Jung. The Iron Pill - the bizarre Nazi Tumblr comic - also references the Syndexioi, as does part 1 of the 2007 covertly antisemitic viral conspiracy theory documentary Zeitgeist: The Movie viewed by tens of millions, so the far-right and its extended audience appears to be taking an interest in Mithraism. More recently, the neo-fascist and Kremlin-supported Center for Syncretic Studies published Flavio Barbiero’s uniquely far-out theory that the Syndexioi were founded by none other than Josephus Flavius, who led conspiracy of Jewish priestly refugees from Rome’s destruction of Judea in order to usurp the Roman Empire by founding the Catholic church. There’s also an interesting theory from architect and archaeoastronomer Reza Assani that the Tauroctony itself is meant to symbolize a bent cross (swastika) formed from stars connected to Zeta Draconis in the constellation Draco, though in Assani’s case there’s no evidence of any neo-Nazi or far-right political connection to his swastika theory.

Another explanation to the similarities between the Syndexioi and Pueri Superbi is the logical fallacy of confirmation bias: reading too much into something of little consequence[35].  Both groups emerged from cultures with a common origin using similar symbol systems and, though some of these symbols are so widespread and pan-cultural as to be ubiquitous.  Other far-right extremist groups have hierarchical systems of initiation; the Order of Nine Angles, for example, has seven distinct initiatory grades, and many violent gangs require their initiates to get special tattoos and carry out violent acts.

Yet another possible explanation is akin to the “And Yet a Trace of the True Self Exists in the False Self” meme of the dinosaur which evolves into a chicken that gets processed as poultry and is then made into a dino-shaped chicken nugget: thereby retaining its original essence. The particular phrasing of the meme derives from the work of Dr. Donald Winnicott, the British pediatrician and psychoanalyst. Winnicott suggested that a false self protects one’s inner, true self, both of which develop via the mother-baby relationship; ironic considering how limited the role of mothers and babies to Syndexioi and Pueri Superbi. Mithras was born from a rock and no women or mothers participated in the faith (by most but not all accounts), while Pueri Superbi exclude women from their group (aside from three short-lived groups: Denise Aguilar’s Mamalitia, MMA fighter Tara LaRosa’s Proud Girls USA Telegram channel, the Facebook group for a women’s auxiliary called the Proud Boys’ Girls), mandate procreation and categorize childrearing as women’s work.

Esotericism author (and former Blondie bassist) Gary Lachman’s Dark Star Rising suggested that efforts to increase the chances of Donald Trump’s election included Trump’s personal charismatic skill-set derived from the New Thought movement (“change your thoughts and you can change the world”), the practice of chaos magick (achieving desired outcomes through applied experimentation as opposed to rituals and symbols of traditional mystic practices) by Evola-influenced geopolitical pundits, and the invocation of Kek - the Egyptian frog-headed chaos-god - incarnated in modern form as the Pepe the Frog meme by alt-right 4-chan users. Pepe, adopted by the alt-right and by the Pueri Superbi, was popularized by Richard Spencer, former director of the white supremacist National Policy Institute and former executive editor of Taki’s Magazine, the pro-neo-Nazi publication in which the Pueri Superbi were launched.

The politically-minded Pueri Superbi have been functioning as a religious group, which dovetails with Nazi jurist Carl Schmitt’s notion that modern politics embodies a secularized theology. Religion and politics can be seen as opposites intertwined: religion as the mythical made literal and politics as the literal made mythical. The Syndexioi in particular fulfilled a political advocacy function by ensuring cohesion among soldiers of an expansionist Imperium. They met in Mithraea to partake in rituals, which - like magic - is all about public relations. There was great propaganda value to the Syndexioi: many of them were soldiers who were potentially to die in battle, so having been persuaded that their souls were immortal encouraged them to show up for roll call. Likewise for the Pueri Superbis who - while mostly LARPing - believe they are in battle with anti-fascists, African-American civil rights activists, feminists, trans people, leftists, liberals and journalists. Their rituals and initiatory stages provide them with focus and meaning, helping them position themselves to serve as the violent tip of the post-Insurrection extreme far-right in the United States.

Extremists such as the Pueri Superbi aren’t only found in decentralized militant groups or militias, they also exist within the state-run armed forces itself, and migration occurs between the military, militias, and decentralized groups. Though armed forces inaction against extremism risks normalizing hatred and creating a state of lawful extremism, most active service members are not members of extremist groups and most accelerationists are neither active service members nor veterans. Though war certainly comes home in bloody and unexpected ways, these terrible examples create the illusion that this issue is a contemporary problem when the link between state-sanctioned violence abroad and domestic extremism was already a factor decades earlier. Dr. Kathleen Belew argues for a causal connection between the post-war return of U.S. soldiers and the rise white power and paramilitary movements, suggesting that returning soldiers replicated the colonial violence they’d carried out overseas by organizing decentralized terrorism against the racialized and socially marginalized domestic population. An examination of the role of extremism in the armed forces is also required; unfortunately, there are many examples from throughout the past century[36]. 

Imperium Nunquam Finivit

Ultimately, the reflection of prototypical Syndexioi symbols and practices by the Pueri Superbi can be explained by the populist right’s roots in fascism, a political form which emerged from European colonialism[37].  Martinican poet Aimé Césare’s observed in his 1950 Discourse on Colonialism that fascism was the logical outcome of a civilization which justified colonial violence.  Italy’s expansionist occupation of Libya, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Somalia and Germany’s brutality towards indigenous Namibians during the Herero and Nama genocide prior to WWII suggest that fascism is "colonialism and imperialism turned inwards". Out-groups living under fascist subjugation in Europe[38] were treated like former colonized subjects by being victims of expropriation, concentration and elimination.

In her analysis of Alberto Toscano’s Late Fascism, Lisa Lowe suggests that the movement is “intimately interconnected with both historical and ongoing Indigenous dispossession, captivity and plantation slavery, and counter-revolution”. The roots of fascism may lie in its invention by veterans of World War I under circumstances of political and economic crisis. The KKK[39] was also founded by veterans: ex-Confederate soldiers of the U. S. Civil War. However, understanding the imperialist and expansionist practices underlying modern fascist movements requires going back even further. It may be difficult to imagine, but there was once a time in which the American Empire was not the world’s largest[40].  The Roman Empire stretched across western Europe, inventing the Roman salute prototype for the fascist and Nazi salutes, creating the fasces - bundled rods often with a protruding ax blade - symbols adopted by Mussolini’s fascists and the United States, and displaying the eagle standard used by fascists, Nazis and the U.S. Though ancient Roman imperialism devastated the peoples it subdued, the resulting western culture is largely derivative of Roman culture[41] : London built atop Roman Londonium[42], and New York has been described as a New Rome.

The English language uses the Roman alphabet and is etymologically infused with Latin and latin-derived languages, and residents of the western world speak Latin-derived languages. Roman architecture - which Trump hoped to mandate with his proposed executive order “Making Federal Buildings Beautiful Again” - is present in our museums, churches, banks, courthouses and government buildings. Roman Catholicism became the official religion and heir to the Roman Empire, and the derivative Protestantism and other Christian schisms still predominate in the western world.

Tallulah Trezevant’s June 2024 Antiquity to Alt-Right investigated how X (formerly Twitter) leads its users down an alt-right pipeline based on their interest in Roman history. She referenced a history of fascist symbolism such as how Mussolini saw fascist rule as an extension of the Roman Empire, how alt-right human punching bag Richard Spencer encouraged white people to “embrace their forgotten Roman identities”, and explained the 2023 meme about men’s fascination with the Roman Empire as a way of hyping Imperium. The X algorithm prompted her to follow the account of Andrew Tate (a manosphere pundit and self-described misogynist accused of rape and human trafficking), along with a variety of far-right accounts such as the transphobic “Libs of TikTok”. X recommended posts suggesting that women are much less interested in ancient Rome than their male partners, whose true aspirations are “to become gladius-wielding legionnaires slashing apart Gauls on campaign with Julius Caesar”, as well as posts which normalized violence and pointed to an idealized association between military conquest and masculinity, opposed “barbarian invasions” (a template for anti-immigrant and anti-multicultural sentiments), and advocated a palingenetic “retvrn” (copying the Roman substitution of ‘u’ with ‘v’).

At the November 18, 2023 Halifax International Security Forum former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak - criticizing the unpopular judicial reform policies of his political opponent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - compared Netanyahu’s cabinet members to the American Pueri Superbi incarcerated criminals. Barak stated “they built a coalition based on extreme right wing, messianic racists. I compare them to these two guys of the Proud Boys who are sent to prison for 20 and 15 years, respectively. Think of an American president nominating one of those Proud Boys to be Secretary of Treasury, or to be Homeland Security secretary”.  Perhaps he should not make hypothetical analogies in case they reach Trump’s ears and inspire him to act.

Founding editor of The Tyee David Beers put it succinctly: “it’s all fun and games until some defeated president dog whistles the brown shirts and the United States is embroiled in bloody civil war.” Telegram references ‘to civil war’ grew 1,244% following the July 13 attempt on Trump’s life. His vengeance against his critics and opponents for the humiliation of his 2020 loss may play out through electoral victory on November 5, 2024 (today) and subsequent seizure of power, at which point he’ll pardon Pueri Superbi and other extremist leaders whose followers will enact something out of The Purge on their long list of enemies.  Alternatively, he may play his “I am your retribution” card following yet another loss in which he refuses to concede by “standing back” behind the vengeance of his devotees who feel cheated by ballot-stuffing immigrant mules and hacked voting machines. Whether state-sanctioned or illegal, the Pueri Superbi will be central to any future far-right seizure of power. Though their actual numbers have shrunk both in influence and number of members since 2021 and they are split into infighting factions: “Standard” and “Traditional” wings, they claim that their recruitment is increasing.

None of this is new; an intrinsic part of American history is the consistent problem of violent white supremacism. The Thirteenth Amendment abolishing slavery only passed because it excluded the pro-slavery states. Nearly 3,500 African-Americans were lynched from 1882 to 1964. Mount Rushmore’s designer Gutzon Borglum was deeply involved in Klan politics. Brett Chapman observed how “the Capitol rotunda is a monument glorifying Native American death” and that “the nation’s most hallowed hall shamefully glorifies white supremacy”. James Whitman argued in his Hitler’s American Model: The United States and the Making of Nazi Race Law that Hitler “took a serious interest in the racist legislation of the United States.

In Mein Kampf, Hitler praised America as nothing less than “the one state” that had made progress toward the creation of a healthy racist order of the kind the Nuremberg Laws were intended to establish”. The U.S. influenced Nazi Germany with eugenics, the prevention of race mixing, and a Lebensraum policy influenced by Manifest Destiny. Blood laws were based on U.S. anti-miscegenation policies, immigration became categorized as either desirable and undesirable, and German residents became split between citizens with full rights and “domestic foreign nationals” with second class citizenship. Ironically, in cases “when the Nazis rejected the American example, it was sometimes because they thought that American practices were overly harsh: for Nazis of the 1930s, even radical ones, American race law sometimes looked too racist.”

Unlike Hitler, Pueri Superbi founder Gavin McInnes completed his academic training; in his case it was a 3-year English literature BA. McInnes never publicly suggested that he has any significant familiarity or interest in Roman religious history even despite hitchhiking through Europe after university. While in Germany, he attended a neo-Nazi skinhead rally and thought that “they look great”, perhaps an early influence on his Proud Boy Dress Code.  McInnes, in his role as co-founder of VICE, wrote the publication’s popular “Fashion Dos and Don’ts” commentary section. In 2003 he illustrated an article chronicling fascist fashion which praised Mussolini’s fascists and insinuated praise towards Hitler and the Nazis. Perhaps he was also the article’s pen-author; if “Gaston Prive” (etymologically: private guest) was a real person, he only wrote a single VICE article, has no public profile and does not appear on Muck Rack.

McInnes was born to Scottish parents in Hitchin, Hertfordshire, a town which at the time had a population of only about 30,000, located in between Oxford, Cambridge and London. Scotland is home to the Mithraeum at Inveresk, several Mithraea along Hadrian’s Wall[43], Wales has the Caernarfon Mithraeum in Gwynedd, and England has a number of significant sites such as the London Mithraeum and the British Museum Tauroctony, but there’s no evidence McInnes ever saw any of these artifacts or took interest in the Syndexioi. Even if he wasn’t renowned for his grifting and general dickishness and could be trusted to provide an honest response, it would be pointless to ask him directly if the group he founded took inspiration from any readings he may have come across documentaries he’d watched, or visits to any museum exhibits or historical sights pertaining to the god Mithras and his followers. Honesty entails being grounded in reality, which is anathema to political actors utilizing persuasion and hyperbole. The “Springfield Haitians are eating people’s cats” libel perpetrated by Trump’s VP candidate JD Vance is abhorrent because it’s racist and because Vance admitted that he was fibbing to generate partisan media attention, stating: ”if I have to create stories so that the American media actually pays attention to the suffering of the American people, then that’s what I’m going to do”.

Though nothing is original, everything is a remix, and history merely rhymes, there’s still no evidentiary direct causal relationship between the Syndexioi and Pueri Superbi, or any proof that the group’s founder was versed in or personally inspired by the Mithraic practice. That said, in his preface of Copernicus’ 1543 De Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres), a document much more fastidiously researched and of far greater scientific and historical significance than this, and at a time when opposing the Pope meant torture and death, Andreas Osiander wrote “these hypotheses need not be true nor even probable. On the contrary, if they provide a calculus consistent with the observations, that alone is enough”.

Comments

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  Dave Fingrut

  My point is not to disrespect your faith but to suggest that both the archangel and the deity have a similar function as patrons of soldiers.
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  St John

  I find this is a convoluted concept in order to lable people and their faiths and twist according to the nature of the occult gods.
  Let me explicitly clear, Jesus was crucified by Roman’s and St Micheal was appointed the Prince and Protector of his Church because he prostrated Satan in the Celestial battle.
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  Dave Fingrut

  Respectfully brother I agree with you, although we may disagree on what that phrase refers to.
•  
  Michael Coetzee

  Trump derangement syndrome is something else.

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