Tag: Dugin

And Trump Wins the Coveted Dugin Endorsement

Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
3418
 

duginThe Weekly Standard’s Robert Zubrin brings this news: “Putin’s Rasputin endorses Trump.” You may vaguely remember my fulminating impotently about Alexander Dugin here:

Russia’s become a gigantic, malign, lunatic-conspiracy-theory factory, and the ideology behind it is every bit as expansive, totalizing and destructive as the ideology behind the Soviet Union. The mistake too many make is to see modern Russia as just another authoritarian state, acting rationally in pursuit of its national interests – albeit a mischief-making one with nuclear weapons — rather than a new incarnation of the ideologically-driven Soviet colossus of yore.

This is understating the threat. Russia’s behavior is a product of an ideology, there is a method to its madness; the ideology is, I fear, as insidious as communism, fascism, or Islamism; and must be taken just as seriously. It’s not traditional Russian imperialism, although certainly it has its roots in it. It’s best described as Duginism, after its best-known theorist, Alexander Dugin …

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Putin’s Propaganda, Dugin’s Lunacy, and You

Claire Berlinski, Ed.
Claire Berlinski, Ed.
7323
 

tass_re146fc7_0I was asking myself this morning why I felt a special need to emphasize that the biggest threats to Europe may not be the ravening hordes of Muslim invaders (or desperate refugees) swarming across its borders (or dying en masse in the Mediterranean) and threatening to suck on the teat of its precious welfare services (or being promptly deported back to hell). After all, who am I trying to persuade? And why? Few members of Ricochet will be voting in European elections, after all. And I hardly wish to make the point that unlimited immigration to Europe will be an unfettered boon; it isn’t even a point I believe.

It took me the day to sort out my thoughts. Europe is not now under grave threat from either communists or Nazis in their most recognizable historic form. There are some left, of course. But perhaps I don’t need to run through the list of them; I’ll just say that I’m on call should you have any questions about Europeans who might be Nazis and how to recognize them, likewise should you have questions about  Europeans who might be communists, I can help you out. (As for the latter, bet you can figure it out without my help. See, for example, the Marxist–Leninist Communist Organization–Proletarian Way, which really exists, as do many such groupuscules. I think time-travelling technology may be involved, or perhaps someone pickled them. Do spend a few minutes on their site, by the way, and tell me whether you think their understandable grievances require our legitimization, given that they’ve got nowhere mainstream to go with their concerns, and Europe’s pointy-headed elite insistently lock them out of the political process. For the record, I am totally in favor locking the Marxist–Leninist Communist Organization–Proletarian Way out of the political process. Call me a pointy-headed European elitist all you like, but I think the world is a better place when people like them are marginalized, mocked, dismissed, and irrelevant.)

My real concern is Russia. It’s Duginism, in particular. But before discussing him, let me take you on a little tour of the kind of Russian propaganda in which Europe’s wallowing — but let me bring it home for you with an example that might feel more personal. Like this:

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