Is ‘QAnon Shaman’ From MAGA Capitol Riot Covered in Neo-Nazi Imagery?

Mere hours after a mob of Trump supporters stormed the Capitol constructing in Washington, D.C., forcing Congress to evacuate and giving each impression of staging an tried coup, the right-wing propaganda machine whirred to life. Republican mouthpiece Sarah Palin, Professional-Trump lawyer Lin Wooden (who has since been banned from Twitter for inciting violence), far-right Florida Consultant Matt Gaetz, and innumerable pro-Trump social media accounts all started spreading an unfounded and utterly bizarre false-flag theory that antifascists, or “antifa,” had somehow infiltrated the group and had been truly behind all of the violence and destruction. Amongst their main items of “proof” had been photographs of Arizona QAnon supporter Jake Angeli, who’s well-known for his outsized, costumed presence at pro-Trump rallies and far-right anti-lockdown protests. Angeli himself was mortified at being mistaken for antifa, tweeting plaintively, “I’m a Qanon & digital soldier. My identify is Jake & I marched with the police & fought towards BLM & ANTIFA in PHX.” 

However there could also be an much more blatant signal that Angeli is not any buddy to antifascists: his much-photographed naked torso is roofed in symbols which have lengthy been utilized by the white supremacist motion. Given his penchant for exhibiting as much as protests shirtless, face-painted, and sporting a horned helmet like some type of racist Social gathering Metropolis Viking who took a mistaken flip and ended up at Burning Man, Angeli’s many tattoos are sometimes on full show, together with his massive trio of Odinist symbols. He has a mjolnir, or Thor’s Hammer, on his abdomen, a picture of Yggdrasil, or Tree of Life, etched round his nipple, and most importantly, positioned proper above his coronary heart, a valknut, or “knot of the slain,” an outdated Norse runic image turned acknowledged hate image that’s well-liked amongst white supremacists. As well as, the mjolnir has turn into an emblem of identification amongst self-proclaimed “heathens” (code for white supremacy-aligned pagans).

The presence of Yggdrasil and even mjolnir on their very own isn’t essentially trigger for alarm, given their reputation amongst trendy pagans and followers of Norse mythology, however there may be far much less ambiguity across the valknut. There may be some debate about its authentic which means, and its three interconnected triangles have appeared on a wide range of archaeological objects from the Viking period; the identify itself is a neologism, a contemporary mixture of the Outdated Norse valr — the slain — and knut, “knot.” Whereas it’s utilized in some European corporate logos, Heathens now use it to indicate that one is able to be taken into the ranks of Odin’s chosen warriors — basically, to die a warrior’s dying for the trigger. When tattooed on a conservative activist who adheres to a blood libel-style conspiracy like QAnon, it wouldn’t even must imply he was a white supremacist, however somewhat that conspiratorial worldviews have a historic context about which their believers needs to be barely self-aware.

Understandably, many precise pagans are horrified on the approach white supremacists have co-opted their spiritual and cultural icons and twisted them into symbols of hate. Talia Lavin, who explores the idea in her latest guide, Culture Warlords, says that neo-Nazis’ Viking fetish harkens again to their obsession with each traditional European conceptions of masculinity and whiteness itself. “Neopagan symbols provide the hypermasculine aesthetic sheen of the Viking,” she explains by way of textual content message. “However we are able to additionally see a need to floor their white supremacist ideology in a purportedly timeless fantasy, a need to succeed in again to an anachronistic, ahistorical ‘excellent’ whiteness, thus grounding their violence in an idealized previous, in white nationalism as in another type of nationalism.”

This type of Norse imagery had a protracted historical past of being co-opted by horrible folks. The unique Nazis famously made heavy use of Norse and Germanic runes (the “SS” bolt is essentially the most well-known instance), as do their modern successors in teams just like the Nordic Resistance Motion, the Troopers of Odin, and the Nationwide Socialist Motion, which has adopted the othala or odal rune as its logo. Members of the Aryan Brotherhood are keen on tattooing runes and Viking symbols alongside their swastikas and Celtic crosses; an explicitly white supremacist department of contemporary paganism known as Odinism or Wotanism is promoted by the Asatru Folks Meeting (whose founder, Stephen McNallen, attended the lethal Unite the Proper rally in Charlottesville)  and continues to proliferate and cross-pollinate with different fascist ideologies (infamous white supremacist and assassin David Lane was a fan); and runes are rampant throughout the neo-Nazi black steel scene (which is the place I first got here throughout the valknut after stumbling on a Nazi black steel band named, nicely, Walknut). It’s just like what occurred to the swastika, by which an historical spiritual image was violently co-opted by Nazis and without end poisoned; movements to “reclaim the swastika” exist, however some issues merely can’t be undone, irrespective of how unfair it’s to the harmless individuals who noticed their sacred image stolen and perverted. 

That is additionally the place it might get sticky, although, as a result of there are many pagans and steel musicians who should not affiliated with white supremacist ideologies (in addition to explicitly anti-fascist varieties of every). The existence of each Thorr’s Hammer, a extremely revered and undoubtedly not fascist 90s dying/doom mission with lyrics about Norse mythology and a Norwegian vocalist, and Thor’s Hammer, a virulently racist neo-Nazi black steel band from Poland with deep ties to the worldwide Nazi black steel scene, make that obvious. Exterior of subcultural niches, not each one who will get a rune or Norse image tattoo essentially totally understands its political and cultural historical past, particularly now that Marvel has introduced the legend of Thor and his Hammer again into the mainstream. There may be even a rising motion to wrest these symbols and trendy heathenism extra typically away from white supremacists, with teams like Heathens Against Hate and Heathens United In opposition to Racism providing an antiracist different. 

If Angeli himself weren’t so clearly aligned with anti-Semitic far-right extremist politics, his tattoos wouldn’t carry almost a lot weight. However since he’s, he appears to be sending a message with these interlocked triangles, one which might be acknowledged by the white supremacists he’s chosen to march alongside. The precise’s try to color him as antifa would nearly be humorous if it weren’t so completely indifferent from actuality. When somebody goes to such extravagant lengths to indicate you who they’re, consider them.