Code Victorian (English Version)
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the first edition of the new interview series “Through the eyes of…” that we are bringing you this academic year in Tegenstroom
We kick off with our first guest, Matthias Victorian, better known as “Code Victorian” on social media. Matthias is a right-wing influencer who, through his short yet powerful videos, has gained more than 275,000 followers and tens of millions of views on Instagram. We are fortunate to have Matthias as our northern neighbour, which gave us the opportunity to interview him. To some, he is well known, to others, not at all. But who is Matthias? I would like to take you on a journey through the eyes of “Code Victorian”.
Senior: “Welcome, Matthias! It is a pleasure to welcome you here in Antwerp, especially for the first interview for our magazine.’
Matthias: “Thank you, gentlemen. This is my first time doing something like an interview, so I’m looking forward to it.”
Senior: “Let’s begin at the beginning. How did Code Victorian start?”
Matthias: “I started the page in January and I’ve always had quite an affinity for aesthetics, clothes, traditional architecture, ancient European civilisation, history… I always wanted to do something with that, but I was too occupied with my studies to do so. I spent the first year after my master’s degree in economics working as a broker on the stock exchange in Amsterdam. A year later, I started working in Rotterdam – again in an office job as a commodity trader. At a certain point, it really started to bother me: will this become a fulfilling career that’s going to give me purpose? That’s how it started, really. Mainly with aesthetics in the beginning and trying to help young men getting rid of modern-day indoctrination. This organically grew into a political type of content, as that’s the most effective in conveying my message. I wanted to move people and get them passionate about the Europe we know from our ancestors, and that’s exactly what I’m doing. The fact that it’s now such a considerable success – with so many followers and so many views, motivates me to continue and it restored my hope for our future.”
v. Foert: ”I had come across your videos in the past, and then people started talking about them and it turned out that several Verbonders had already seen them. When you know that your friends have seen them too, you decide to take a look and eventually follow them.”
Matthias: “I think the success lies mainly in the universal appeal of the content which resonates all over the West. We all deal with the same problem, with in the end the same cause. In that sense, I think it’s great that we’ve managed to turn it into an international force.”
Senior: “…and we’re not talking about Volt (Eurofederalist party, ed.) Europeanism. And that contrasts with the generations before us, where nationalist movements were mainly concerned with self-preservation and less with the fate of their neighbours. A content creator like you is the embodiment of that change in mentality. But to go back a bit: I assume your education was something economic?”
Matthias: “Yes, that’s right. I did a bachelor’s degree in Business Economics at Erasmus University in Rotterdam and a master’s degree in Financial Economics, but I still have a full-time job.”
Senior: “So the young Matthias who studied finance developed an interest in politics, or was that before you started university?”
Matthias: “No, I’ve always been politically involved or interested. I was in a political youth organisation in secondary school, I followed the debates, and I read Elsevier (a political and economic magazine, ed.) from quite an early age. Otherwise, I come from a very normal family.”
Senior: “Did religion play a role in that?”
Matthias: “I am baptised Catholic, but what I really want to emphasize is that Code Victorian is explicitly non-religious. To defeat our enemies, I’m convinced it’s essential to unite all conservative/reactionary forces. We don’t have the luxury to differentiate what our different religions are. Whether you are Protestant, Orthodox, Catholic or atheist, we must unite everyone who wants to contribute to preserving and restoring our beloved Europe. At some point, we have to move beyond those relatively minor differences and commit ourselves to that greater goal, because the differences between us are minimal compared to the differences we as Europeans have with the rest of the world. I think that’s one of the very scarce upsides of mass immigration. It showed us how related and connected our European cultures are.”
Senior: “That’s very nicely said. Where did the choice for the pseudonym “Code Victorian” come from?”
Matthias: “Code is actually a word that describes a certain way of life. ‘Having a code’, so to speak. Not that everyone has to live that way, but it is something one could strive for. We thought that was appropriate for what we wanted to convey: inspiring people to develop themselves, to think about politics, how to dress better, perhaps how to communicate with others. I think you could see that as a kind of code.” Many people presume Victorian is a reference to the Victorian era, but that’s just my actual last name haha.”
Senior: “Short and powerful! Can you describe in a nutshell what you want to achieve with your online presence?”
Matthias: “To counter the decades of propaganda stating Western culture and history are all about oppression and having been framed in a very disadvantageous way. Europeans shaped the world. Everything we see around us all day was, for the most part, created by Europeans and their descendants. Instead of acknowledging this and building upon it to become even greater, the mainstream nowadays aims to discredit all of it which totally paralyses our ambition. For now, with Code Victorian we’re mainly focussing on counter propaganda by reminding people what’s at stake. Especially young people have no idea of what we’re about to see destroyed. We also hope to inspire people to speak out against this self-hatred of our civilisation and history. In the long run I don’t rule out me actually becoming traditionally politically active. I’m very pessimistic about the chances of political change becoming able to reverse the destruction of our societies, but I refuse to lose hope. The alternative would be way more destructive.”
Senior: “I already mentioned that you have more than 270,000 followers. How do you experience the political climate online with so many followers?”
Matthias: “What I find so heartwarming is that I receive so much support. So much so in fact, that it’s simply impossible to engage with every supporter. I sometimes feel guilty for not responding to the hundreds of dm’s I get. I want to say that I do read all of them and try to reply to as many as possible. Of course there is also hatred. That often doesn’t exceed the level of calling me a racist and fascist, this is almost always from white people by the way. The irony is that I also regularly receive messages from non-whites saying they sympathise with our mission and that it’s horrible what our leaders are doing to us. The countries where these people are from would never even remotely allow a demographic replacement like we’re experiencing now. What also surprises me is that I’m being recognised in the wild now. I’m being approached by people from all over the world, “You’re that guy from Instagram, right? Keep doing what you do!” Considering we began this January proves the short time in which normal people without a political network can establish influence with social media nowadays.”
v. Foert: “And do you have any particular fears about censorship?”
Matthias: “I haven’t experienced it myself (apart from the limitation of a video in Australia we posted about Iryna Zarutska), but you see the developments in the United Kingdom with all the censorship and with Dries Van Langenhove closer to home, who was treated very unfairly. Everyone should be able to say whatever they want, except of course incitement to violence. There should always be open debate. And then you see in Great Britain that the terms of what can be considered hate speech are being completely stretched by the government and the judiciary resulting in arrests of people that made very fair points in a Facebook post about the detrimental effects of mass immigration. That is a serious danger.”
Senior: “We’ve come to the penultimate question, Matthias! Where do you think Code Victorian will be in five to ten years’ time, and where do you see “Matthias” in five to ten years’ time?”
Matthias laughs. “That’s a very difficult question. Well, to be honest, I’m not really sure where I see myself in five to ten years. I hope that we can grow Code Victorian even larger. The fact that it grew almost 300k followers in a year, is a very positive sign.”
Senior: “A million followers?’ with a comical undertone. ”
Matthias: ”Haha, a million followers? That would be a great honour, but also a major responsibility. Now already, people say they regain their hope because of the message we convey. I don’t take that responsibility lightly.”
Senior: ”To conclude on an inspirational note: what advice would you give young students or your followers?”
Matthias: ”Your student days are the perfect opportunity to develop yourself without immediately being tied to a job that naturally takes up a lot of time. It ensures that you talk to lots of people, it might encourage you to visit political organisations, you can go to lectures… And above all: talk to people. Because when you interact with people, you can learn so many new things, find like-minded people… Staying in your attic room is also important – you need days when you deepen your knowledge on your own – but also try to find like-minded people and challenge yourself: engage in conversation with other students, go to debates. Make sure you have a goal you want to achieve and work towards for the future. If you think about that a little during your student days and delve into certain things that you can commit to. Find something you want to commit to; I think that’s really important. And, most importantly, learn not to care too much about what others think of you. You should always treat others with respect, but do what you think is best for yourself, the ones around you and the ideals you strive for. For me too, it took a while to rid myself of the fear of being judged for speaking out. At some point I decided to free myself from that burden. This liberation enables you to become so much more valuable to what our world needs right now. We must revive trust and dignity in ourselves. Just go for it. ”