Esoteric ‘Vannaccism’ that blends Hinduism and Nazism using AI

Not even Giorgio Galli and Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke – among the first academics to devote themselves to the study of ‘magical Nazism’ – could have predicted that, thanks to artificial intelligence and social media platforms, we would end up discussing Nazi occultism in Italy as if it were a political science category to be used in an election campaign. In fact, videos created using artificial intelligence are now circulating widely on social media platforms, in which General Roberto Vannacci becomes a sort of white knight in the memetic and post-ironic crusade waged by trolls who draw heavily on a certain imagery that, in the US, gave rise to the Online Right and the fashwave: a form of retrofuturism that blends pop culture with Nazi aesthetics.

In these videos – which were not produced by Vannacci’s party but which quite a few people mistake for genuine material from Futuro Nazionale, not least because the party’s logo is always prominently displayed on them – the protagonist is the general in the guise of a superhero, suspended somewhere between the incel subculture and a follower of secret National Socialist cults. Amid scenes of slaps to the face of Maranza and feminists, and raids on psychotherapy practices—accused of breaking up the family—Miguel Serrano appears in a video in the guise of an occult master, from whose wisdom General Vannacci rushes to draw inspiration in the heart of a Tibetan temple, to the tune of a little song evoking the Kali Yuga, the dark age of decadence.

Miguel Serrano, for those who may not know, was a Chilean diplomat, a correspondent of Carl Gustav Jung, a scholar of Eastern doctrines and one of the most ‘eminent’ proponents of a doctrine that blended Hinduism and Nazism, seeing Adolf Hitler as the final Avatar of Vishnu. Essentially, someone who makes Julius Evola look like Arnaldo Forlani by comparison. The whole affair could be filed under ‘oddities from a time when AI slop is churning out the unspeakable’, were it not for the fact that the widespread circulation of this material, in addition to the confusion mentioned earlier, is beginning to reach MPs and the political debate.

Lega Senator Claudio Borghi has taken issue with an account that circulates videos of “esoteric Vannaccism” on X: In his reply to the user, Borghi states, “Apart from those two nutcases who pick up on the various Evola-Hitlerian-esoteric references (I’ve studied Evola, but only because I was interested in him as an artist and a forerunner of abstract art in Italy), if you look at who’s having a laugh at your slapdash efforts, you’ll find plenty of former M5S supporters.” The problem, however, is not so much Dadaist Evola or the single video which, in effect, mirrors Trump’s 2016 ‘Great Meme War’ – when memes (AI-generated slop wasn’t a thing back then for obvious technological reasons) were teeming with Waffen-SS soldiers, solely black figures and other paraphernalia plucked straight from the rituals at Wewelsburg Castle or the writings of Karl Maria Wiligut, the ‘Rasputin of Himmler’ – but rather the fact that all this material is reaching critical mass and is accompanied by a certain background noise emanating from Vannaccia’s chat rooms, where the atmosphere is described as ‘chilling’ by one of the party’s own theorists, Luca Sforzini.

Sforzini, who has sought to represent a more liberal wing, appears to have been outvoted by people who would confuse the Nazi mystic Savitri Devi with an OnlyFans model appearing on La Zanzara. Even more moderate figures, such as Luca Bellotti, are jumping ship, leaving everything in the hands of the hardliners. Vannacci does not seem fazed. He does not condemn nor take a stand, despite the fact that the videos in which he is presented as an ‘incel’ prophet and a disciple of Nazi occultists feature his face and his party’s logo. Post-irony – that is, the postmodern use of controversial material to blur the line between serious intent and playful posturing – is always a slippery slope.

There is still some time to go before the vote, and yet we have already reached the white snows of Tibet, seen as the gateway to Nazi Agartha. Perhaps the MPs themselves should put their mobile phones away for a while, if they cannot resist the temptation to engage – even if only for the sake of controversy – with the invisible force driving this drivel. At this rate, if by September 2026 we’re on to Miguel Serrano, what will we be discussing in March 2027? How to apply Otto Rahn’s "The Crusade against the Grail" to the high cost of petrol, or James Nolas Mason’s "Siege" for practical tips on urban security?