The New Republic published an article by Myke Cole on Aug. 1 titled “The Sparta Fetish Is a Cultural Cancer.” As you can tell from the title, Cole isn’t a big fan of the ancient Spartans or the modern world’s admiration of the Greek warrior state. At best, he sees respect for Sparta as a “benign ahistorical myth,” and at worst, as an evil “cultural cancer” that has been co-opted by neo-Nazis. Cole’s article is historically revisionist, paints a false picture of the Spartans, and tries to denigrate Spartan symbolism by tying it to white supremacist groups.

He’s less interested in telling real history and more interested in grinding political axes.