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The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Daily: How the fantasy religion VALKISM powers the Far Right

The Bunker – News without the nonsense

Podmasters

News, Government, Politics, Society & Culture

4.61K Ratings

🗓️ 10 March 2021

⏱️ 22 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Amid the chaos of the Capitol Invasion of January 6, keen observers could spot the iconography of Valkism, a weird confected “religion” born out of video game culture that’s now empowering QAnon and far right politics. Former Government advisor and BBC and Reuters correspondent Amil Khan tells Arthur Snell about the crossover of video games, 4Chan, 8Chan and far right politics which produced Valkism and what it means for the fight against extremism. “Some of these people want to create an alternative reality where their political fantasies can play out.” – Amil Khan “If you’re inspired by the idea of a Nazi alternative universe in a video game, you may well be attracted to far right politics.” – Arthur Snell “We like think that we’re stable, rational people and the nutters must be from somewhere else. Well, the US Capitol riots disproved that.” – Amil Khan “We tend to see extremism as a foreign problem... But this is a British problem, because it feeds off our problems at home.” – Amil Khan Presented by Arthur Snell. Produced by Andrew Harrison. Assistant producers: Jelena Sofronijevic and Jacob Archbold. Music by Kenny Dickinson. Audio production by Alex Rees. The Bunker is a Podmasters Production See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0

My name is Stan. I'm at. Nice to meet you. So you took up photography where? I've always loved

0:05.5

photography but I turn it into earning a living at 60. I enrolled on a day course.

0:11.8

Well college. I loved going to college. It's good you can retry. I'm enrolled on the day course. But college?

0:13.0

I loved going to college.

0:14.0

It's good you can retrain and do something.

0:16.0

Yeah, yeah.

0:17.0

Let's talk about working, learning, saving and making the most of living longer.

0:22.0

Phoenix Group is the UK's largest long-term savings and retirement business.

0:28.0

Search Phoenix Group living longer.

0:30.0

Pets brings so much joy.

0:32.0

From those happy greetings at the door to the warm cuddles on the sofa

0:36.7

so give a little love back with dental life from Purina a range of delicious chues made for dogs and tasty snacks for cats that help clean and support your pets, teeth and gums, essential for their overall well-being and a happy, healthy life. They give you plenty of smiles so

0:55.3

look after theirs with dental life. Pick up dental life in the pet food aisle. Hello and welcome to the bunker I'm Arthur Snell. Last September, we invited Amal Khan to the bunker to talk about conspiracies, including

1:17.7

QAnon.

1:18.7

At the time, we thought that QAnon might be a slightly marginal, albeit fascinating issue, even if a lot of Republicans profess to believe in it.

1:29.0

But if I'm honest, I was still amazed when on the 6th of January that peripheral movement became the center

1:36.4

when Trump's supporters responding directly to his command stormed the capital and many of them

1:42.4

cure non-believers. Stormed the capital and many of them Kiannon believers.

1:44.0

One of the most visually memorable sites of that awful day was

1:48.0

Jacob Chansley, the so-called Kiannon shaman,

1:51.0

in his animal horns and furs, bare chest covered in tattoos and one of the most visible

1:56.9

tattoos which will have been seen by millions of people worldwide was a sort of stylized symbol which looked like a cross between a swastika and interlocking

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