Guest Post: Tucker Carlson's Bro Fest

Interview with Putin's Muse

Screen cap courtesy of @UngaTheGreat on X (formerly Twitter)

Perhaps we have been so engrossed in the pro-HAMAS pep rallies occurring on college campuses across the country, that we missed the sit-down alleged “journalist” Tucker Carlson held with Alexandr Dugin, described by many observers as “Putin’s brain.” At least the interview was not widely covered by the mainstream media.

After a February palaver with Vladimir Putin, in which Carlson—who is famous for just “asking questions”—tossed such softballs at Putin, that even Russia’s president said he was disappointed in the quality of the interview, the Dugin interview cemented Carlson’s status as America’s premiere Vatnik and the complete opposite of what a journalist should be.

In a 20-minute video, he allowed Dugin to ramble on about how American individualism, as derived from classic Anglo-Saxon liberalism, is destroying what he called “human identity.” And not a single challenge was issued to that word salad. Carlson even promised at the start of the “interview” that he would not discuss politics or Putin (never mind that the war in Ukraine and the politics are on everyone’s mind).

“That has led to transgender [people], to LGBT and new form[s] of sexual individualism. So, sex is something optional,” claimed Dugin.

Oh, but that’s not all. “…in this process of liberalism will mean precisely the human optional: so you can choose your individual identity to be human [or] not be human. That has a name: transhumanism, post-humanism, singularity, artificial intelligence.”

And I imagine that our cherished American individualism is turning frogs gay, too.

Of course, Dugin also spoke of Vladimir Putin in glowing terms, calling him a “traditional leader” who “contradicts the global progressivist agenda.” Thus, the reason why Putin is so hated in the West, claimed Dugin, is because he stands for traditional values (if traditional values include murder, kidnapping, torture, mass rape, and the illegal annexation of sovereign land). And he has a nuclear arsenal at his disposal to boot:

Someone with nuclear weapons to stand strong defending traditional values you’re going to abolish, I think they have some basis for this Russophobia and the hatred for Putin.

All this, of course, tickled Carlson’s ears, who listened with rapt attention, furrowing his brow and soaking in what he perceives as sagacity for the ages.

Never once did he challenge Dugin on any of his assertions. Moreover, in typical Carlson fashion, he also spun lies. He falsely claimed that the Biden administration had banned Dugin’s books. He also asserted that Ukraine was responsible for the 2022 death of Dugin’s daughter Darya Dugina in a car bombing incident.

However, as reported in the independent Moscow Times, while Dugin was sanctioned by Washington in 2015 after Russia’s illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory, his books and publications are not banned by the United States. As for Dugina’s death: Ukraine’s culpability has not been confirmed, while experts in the UK and Germany have suggested that others were responsible—perhaps even Putin’s own FSB. The US intelligence community, however, reportedly believes that Ukraine’s government at the very least knew about the assassination ahead of time, and Carlson all of a sudden decided to take the assessment at “face value.”

Isn’t it interesting that Carlson is willing to take the US intelligence community’s assessment at face value, but only when it supports his narrative? In addition, an assessment is just that—an educated guess based on available evidence. The United States—at least according to CNN’s reporting—did not at the time know who actually signed off on the assassination. And the New York Times reported that Ukraine actually denied involvement.

But Carlson won’t let anything interfere with his pro-Putin narrative.

What Carlson Didn’t Tell You About Dugin

My guess is that most of Tucker Carlson’s fanbase among the far right have no idea who Alexandr Dugin is. And while he may seem like a brilliant political philosopher with the look of a kindly Father Christmas, his radical ideas should be anathema to anyone who values the freedoms of the West.

For example, ten years ago National Review writer Robert Zubrin outlined Dugin’s bizarre plan for the domination of Europe, which Dugin called the “the Russian Spring.”

First, Ukraine would be conquered by Russia in a “European Conservative Revolution.” After that, pressure would be applied particularly upon Germany and France to “de-Americanize” and form an autonomous European armed force to replace NATO. The final result?

A new great Continental Association is formed, as a confederation of Europe and Eurasia,   the European Union and the Eurasian Union. Russian, Ukrainians and Europeans are on one side of the barricades, the Americans on the other.

Courtesy of Vatnik Soup

This political philosophy is what Dugin calls “Eurasianism.” And Dugin is the man who many observers say has the ear of Vladimir Putin—the man, who has said openly that he wants to restore the old Russian Empire of the czars.

National Review isn’t the only voice sounding the alarm over Alexandr Dugin. Tim Black, a British columnist for Spiked, called Dugin a “warped mind,” and wrote that he “has endowed Putin’s brutal imperialism with an almost spiritual significance.”

In his 1997 book, The Foundation of Geopolitics, Dugin foresaw Russia’s role in a conflict between East and West. As Black writes:

Here he argued that the geopolitical forces shaping the world derived from a foundational conflict between ‘Atlanticism’ (seafaring states and civilisations, such as the US and Britain) and ‘Eurasianism’ (land-based states and civilisations, such as Eurasia-Russia).

Konstantin Kisin, a Russian-British satirist and commentator, quotes Dugin as saying that “Russia needs an empire! Our fight for global supremacy is not over!” Kisin adds Dugin’s belief that:

The Russian people have a special mission. They are a messianic, imperial people. To relinquish this would mean spiritual castration. The only way to avoid this disaster is for the Russian people, who have a “special civilisational mission”, to secure control of the entire continent for the benefit of all Eurasians.

Finally, Brandon Weichert, a conservative American geopolitical analyst, warns that Alexandr Dugin’s “ideas have no place on the American right.” Weichert writes:

Dugin and his followers in Russia not only loathe the liberal traditions of the West, but they also resent the West in its entirety – including the right-wingers who are attempting to forge a common cause with the Duginists of Russia. 

Yet Carlson’s enthusiastic fanbase continues to adhere to every word of his streaming channel as if it contained the wisdom of Solomon.

Never mind that Carlson has entertained anti-Semites and an accused human trafficker and rapist on his show. Or that he welcomed a pro-Palestinian Christian “pastor” to spew his anti-Israel rhetoric, without even challenging him. That’s in addition to his recent softball interviews with Vladimir Putin and now Alexandr Dugin—interviews that are music to the ears of the propagandists at the Russian network RT.

Carlson’s interview—recorded during his time in Moscow when he obsequiously bowed to Putin—once again allowed a fascist ideologue, who loudly and proudly proclaimed that Ukrainians should be “killed, killed, killed” to enter the feeds of American audiences. The interview played right into the hands of Russian propagandists, and Dugin himself bragged about the audience his twisted words reached, especially since Carlson, as usual, failed to challenge him on anything.

On his Telegram channel, Dugin boasted about 6 million views for his sit down with Carlson and even urged Russian authorities to unblock X (formerly Twitter) since it is now controlled by the “libertarian Elon Musk.” He expressed excitement about piercing the veil of the Western mainstream media, describing Carlson as “Journalist No. 1 in the world.”  

Never once does “No. 1 in the world” journalist challenge his guests. Instead, he looks at the camera and declares “we’re just asking questions” — with a butter-won’t-melt-in-my-mouth expression on his baby face.

Confused Labrador expression screen cap courtesy of X (formerly Twitter)

What Carlson Could Have Asked and Didn’t

Carlson could have asked about Dugin’s loud support of genocide, in which he called on Russians to “kill, kill, kill” Ukrainians, and his dismissal of Ukrainian identity as nonexistent as support for his calls for mass murder.

He could have asked about Dugin’s weird perception of individualism as counter to human nature—an idea that US conservatives, at the very least, should have opposed, given their traditional support for independence and individual rights and opposition to collectivism.

He could have challenged Dugin’s hatred for the West and not ardently nodded in agreement that Dugin’s deranged claims about the demise of human identity thanks to those evil liberals in the West are “clearly happening” and horrifying.

He could have asked why Dugin believes he was designated by the West and about whether the allegations listed in those designations were accurate. For the record, Dugin was sanctioned in 2015 pursuant to EO 13660 as a leader of the fascist Eurasian Youth Movement, which was recruiting individuals with military experience to fight with the separatists in eastern Ukraine. He didn’t ask any of this, and he didn’t challenge Dugin’s ideas with follow-up questions, which he allegedly loves asking.

Eurasian Youth Union logo

Tucker Carlson should be recognized among conservatives (and anyone with half a brain) as anti-American—a Lord Haw-Haw for the 21st century, if you will. Instead, among many of the online far right, he’s seen as a prescient seer.

Ronald Reagan must be rolling in his grave!