Vatnik Soup
@vatniksoup
Fighting Disinformation since 2022. All soups: Debunk of the Day: Why we soup: Support our work:
Lithuania warns that Russia may be planning a false flag attack in the Baltics. Defence Minister Robertas Kaunas says Russia could use captured Ukrainian drones to stage an attack, aiming to shift attention away from Ukraine and undermine support for Kyiv among NATO countries.
Yep. He means all the other illegal immigrants from Africa, not himself and his fellow white-south-africans.
Musk is now calling anyone who disagrees with him on immigration a "traitor". Previously, he promoted a violent movie where a "vigilante" murders random immigrants, and retweeted a comment on it, “Always hang a traitor before you shoot an enemy”.
We won’t judge whether Loomer should be trusted, is sincere, or whether her change of positions redeems her past words and actions. But two things are for sure: this clearly shows how Russian propaganda works, and fewer vatniks spreading it should certainly be encouraged. 20/20
While Loomer was repeating vatnik narratives, her posts received substantial amplification, but then her views dropped dramatically after switching sides. But of course Elon will still pretend there’s no Russian propaganda on Twitter and nothing weird going on here. 19/20
We’ve documented how Russian propaganda ecosystems operate online. Certain narratives don’t spread organically, they are boosted by massive troll and bot farms. Coordinated accounts and bots disproportionately amplify pro-Kremlin messaging. 18/20
If pro-Ukraine conservatives can push Trump to support Ukraine, good, but we won’t agree with their “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars”: Trump himself has been pushing Kremlin propaganda and humiliating America by rolling out the red carpet for war criminal Putin. 17/20 bsky.app/profile/vatn...
After having to seek shelter herself, Loomer has called for Trump to give Ukraine Patriot Missiles. Great, but… those were provided by Biden already, whereas Trump cut US funding for Ukraine and scolded Zelenskyy for asking to BUY more of them, while accusing him of having started the war. 16/20
Laura’s sudden realization of the obvious also comes at a suspiciously convenient time — Russia is losing, its war crimes against Ukraine and enmity toward America are becoming impossible to ignore (Iran), and… the midterms are nearing. 15/20
Nate Vance has also been fighting for Ukraine and trying to enlighten his delusional VP of a cousin. Some Ukrainians are legitimately skeptical of Loomer’s redemption, in particular due to her past columns for RT (unpaid, she claims). 14/20
Support for Ukraine is not entirely new in the MAGA/conservative world. Ben Shapiro has also interviewed Zelenskyy, and Trump’s spiritual advisor Mark Burns has completely revised his views after travelling to Ukraine. 13/20
She has correctly highlighted Russia’s support for Islamist terrorism and sowing chaos in the Middle East. But her radical anti-Muslim views still make her get Chechnya wrong — Kadyrov has nothing to do with Dudayev. @chechencenter.bsky.social 12/20
Loomer even wants to ban Muslims from holding office in the US and rejoices at “not having seen a single Muslim in Ukraine” — forgetting that Ukraine is a pluralistic country with Christians, Jews and Muslims at the highest levels, all working together against the Russian invasion. 11/20
Instead of Putin the saviour of the white race against Muslims, she now makes it all about Ukraine being “more white and Christian”. In fact, Ukraine has native Muslim populations like the Crimean Tatars, who suffered deportations and genocide under Stalin and now under Putin’s Russia. 10/20
Loomer’s shift is certainly welcome, but some of the framing she picked up from Russian propaganda may sound cringe even with the polarity reversed. Instead of portraying Putin as the saviour of Christianity, now it’s “Putin droned Jesus Christ”. 9/20
In fact, the religious persecution of Christians by Russia is well-documented, and yes Russia spends a lot of effort into accusing Ukraine of everything of which they are guilty themselves: genocide, religious persecution, and being Nazis. 8/20 bsky.app/profile/vatn...
She even directly addressed and debunked the very staples of Russian narratives that she was previously spreading, such as “denazification” and persecution of Christians. 7/20
Loomer also saw evidence of Russian war crimes and experienced her first air raid alerts in Kyiv — what Ukrainians have been going through for years now. 6/20 bsky.app/profile/vatn...
Last week, Loomer travelled to Ukraine — a long trip due to the closed airspace, and the obvious risks of Russian bombing — and talked to many Ukrainian officials, dined with Ukraine’s Chief Rabbi, and even interviewed Volodymyr Zelenskyy himself. 5/20
… whereas her current takes are much more documented and fact-based. Her previous views closely mirrored Kremlin messaging, and in fact seemed blatantly influenced by Russian propaganda and nothing else, such as having “good feelings” about Russia and bad ones about Ukraine. 4/20
But now, she’s clearly and publicly admitted she was wrong. Now of course, this doesn’t mean that we agree with her on everything now, or that we can guarantee that she won’t change her mind again. But: her previous stance on Ukraine was extremely superficial… 3/20
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, we’ll reintroduce Laura Loomer, an American political activist. Our first possible case of a former vatnik, she’s best known for her unhinged takes on Ukraine and for admitting those were the result of falling for Russian propaganda. 1/20
The worst thing with Tim Pool is that he was in Ukraine in 2013-2014, supportive of Euromaidan. He knows perfectly well that all of those points are 100% true, yet says them ironically.
Kash Patel is planning to travel to Russia to meet with FSB officials. One of the worst ideas of Trump's second term, and that's saying a lot. They'll eat him alive.