"I am for the blacks. White civilization, its cultural achievements, its lying, anti-human model of the world, constructed by it, did not validate itself. Everything is heading towards the beginning of anti-white pogroms across the planet. Russia will only be saved by the fact that we are not purely white. Thieving international corporations, persecution and suppression of all other races, MTV, the blue and the pink, these are the fruits of white civilization which need to be gotten rid of. That is why I am for the reds, the yellows, greens, blacks – only not for the whites. I am wholeheartedly on the side of the people of Zimbabwe.”
-Alexander Dugin
Tucker giving Dugin air is both amusing and concerning. Amusing because Dugin is an anti-white crackpot and concerning because it continues a dissident right tradition of giving oxygen to this noxious man and his beliefs. Furthermore Dugin is one of those characters who is just such an obvious quack that entertaining and taking him seriously makes you look bad.
I’m no stranger to disliking Dugin - I came across him early on in my journey around 2013/14 and his appeal then is as strange now. The intellectual mask and foreign nature of him seems to charm the malcontents of the West but for some reason they then ignore his extreme antipathy towards them. He reminds me of a Jew in this regard, quite happy to take money and talk similar but behind the backs of the Anglos who are professing an interest in him he bad mouths and spits - wishing them nothing but ill.
Why then does he draw such appeal? Why are his books shilled? At this point, 10 years on from first encountering him I think the reason is simply banal: he represents opposition to the mainstream. Indeed as the Overton Window has been pushed wider and wider open Dugin still remains outside of it to an extent, not because he has good or interesting takes but because they remain batshit and confusing. He opposes the West in a dressed up language that really is a form of resentment. He is to the dissidents as Zizek is to the leftists, with the unfortunate caveat that Zizek actually is more sensible in his positions.
Dugin really represents this uncomfortable fact that dogs many dissidents - that past a certain point one becomes wrapped up in being a dissident more than anything else. There is a reflexive contrarianism that people here demonstrate - in part because it was often what helped us break free of the mainstream programming. I too have fallen subject to this but it continues to rear its head and I think Dugin serves as this kind of totemic figure. He’s this mysterious intellectual from Russia, who still looms large as an unknowable enemy, and he is opposed to them. Much of what he has to say doesn’t matter his aesthetic is what matters. The need of a figure head to oppose the globohomo was what drove and seemingly continues to drive many to support Russia in the Ukraine debacle. Talking heads have openly come out and said as much - they just see pure value in having another State opposed the GAE.
It’s understandable to an extent but again on examining what many of these people have to say about us, as white western Europeans, you find out that in fact they also dislike us. Weirdly for the same reasons our enemies within our regimes do. When Dugin comes out and pontificates about how evil whites were in Rhodesia it is not performative, he truly believes this and Communist sympathies die hard. The irony of Dugin is that in his position on anti-colonialism he mirrors the past. That strange allegiance of the USA and the USSR in the post world war two years. Putting aside arguments for/against Empire it was the stated goal of both the USA and the USSR to dismantle the French and British Empire around the world. Dugin isn’t so much original even here, just banal anti-colonialism that most liberals themselves embrace.
To understand Dugin on a slightly deeper level he is attempting to always justify the Russian Empire. For better or worse the Russian Empire has waxed and waned, it has been a multi-ethnic collection at times and as centralized power grew during the Soviet Years it became hungrier but the Russian has never really been able to expand and conquer. It seems to seek only buffer states and peoples to absorb into. A uniquely different approach to Empire that propelled the British, the French, the Dutch, the Germans, and the Spanish. Those people rode out, sailed overseas and established an dominion in quite a different way. Dugin sneers at this in part because he has no historical record to draw upon. Opposing Dugin does not make one anti-Russian but to be an Anglo or Germanic or even Spanish and to profess interest in Dugin and support his ideas is effectively to betray your own peoples. He despises you and your history as an eternal enemy.
The hilarious poster kunley_drukpa summarizes most accurately:
Reflexive contrarianism makes for weird bed fellows and we see this all around us. I’ve written before, as have others, about the need to take our own side. It remains true. There is an extent I sigh with exhaustion hammering out this short article - giving Dugin oxygen is irritating. He offers nothing to us at best and at worst he actively puts you at risk with his ideology and influencer (marginal or not as it may be). We have enough of our *own guys* who oppose the current order at this time and the thinking has evolved and continues to evolve. Look to
and his dive into illberal Anglo traditions or how also take down some of the weird assumptions that have been developed about the European peoples. We have a deep heritage to draw from and need to draw from our own well.
Dugin considers the surfer his complete opposite. The pinnacle of all he opposes. He is of course, correct. We are here for the extreme sports. We crave adventure and the feeling of skills. We love adrenaline
Dugin's nonsense is intensely confusing not because it is opportunitic but it's because it is philosophical, and he is attempting to ram the square peg of philosophy (Heidegger) into the round hole of what's good for Russia. At least pure insane ideology like the Khmer Rouge is internally consistent.