The Washington Post ran an article on April 16th called “Why far-right nationalists like Steve Bannon have embraced a Russian ideologue” arguing that Alexander Dugin and Steve Bannon use a mythologized version of the Middle Ages to stoke white nationalism, whip up Islamophobia, and promote other hateful far-right goals. In this episode, I examine and criticize some of the claims about Dugin, not primarily in order to exonerate him, but to set a higher standard for the analysis of obscure, yet politically relevant matters, so that our journalists, intelligence agencies, academics, and other circles don’t become accustomed to taking cheap ideological distortions as the final word on these things.