Thread by @P_Kallioniemi

In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an American social media personality, Tim Pool (@Timcast). He’s best-known for being funded by the Kremlin, his right-wing media empire, his connections to several American conspiracy theorists, and for his cool beanie.

1/23

Tim Pool rose to fame during the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests, which he livestreamed together with a former realtor, Henry Ferry. He was one of the pioneers of doing livestreams where he also interacted with the audience and even let them direct him on the ground.

2/23

Pool’s footage was aired on NBC and other mainstream networks, and Time dubbed him as “the eyes of the movement”. In 2011, Pool described himself as “an activist 100%”, stating that he doesn’t consider himself a journalist. A year later things had changed…

3/23

…and Pool told El Pais that he’s not an activist but a journalist. In 2018, he said that “I don’t align with Occupy Wall Street and never did,” and later in 2021 he called the Occupy movement “crooked”.

4/23

After the Occupy movement fizzled, Pool moved on to work for VICE Media. He started at VICE by covering the antigovernment protests in Istanbul, and was even awarded with a Short Award in the “Best Journalist in Social Media” category.

5/23

During 2013 and 2014, Pool went to Ukraine to cover the Euromaidan and the Revolution of Dignity that finally led to the collapse of the corrupt Yanukovych government. Based on his statements from that time, he seemed to be relatively pro-Ukraine.

6/23

In 2014, Pool also interviewed the Finnish-German conspiracy theorist, Kim Dotcom. Kim is best-known for his strong opposition of US/NATO and Ukrainian sovereignty, and less known for threatening to sue me for exposing him for this.

7/23

In 2019, Tim hit the big leagues - he was invited to The Joe Rogan Experience together with Twitter founder Jack Dorsey. They both criticized the banning of right-wing provocateur Milo Yiannopoulos for “promoting hate” (he was later reinstated by Elon, as is tradition).

8/23

For his staunch support and platforming of right-wing provocateurs and conspiracy theorists like Alex Jones, Donald Trump invited Pool in 2019 to a White House event. The actual reason for this might’ve been the incident where Tim supported Kim Dotcom’s…

9/23

…conspiracy theory that a person named Seth Rich had leaked the e-mails of the Democratic National Committee in 2016. In reality, these leaks allegedly came from a Russian hacker group called Fancy Bear and were disseminated by Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks.

10/23

Tim Pool was also named as a “superspreader” of fake news over the “voter fraud” claims during the 2020 US presidential elections in a report from the Election Integrity Partnership (EIP).

11/23

Politically, Tim has claimed to be a “centrist”, often criticizing the “mainstream media” as something that’s skewed towards liberal and left-leaning audiences and that’s actually “dying”. This puts Tim in a position where he can frame the Democrats as warmongers and…

12/23

…at the same time support a convicted felon and sexual abuser like Donald Trump - who by the way has been classified as “hardcore conservative” by On The Issues, an American non-partisan organization providing information to voters on political candidates in America.

13/23

In Sep 2024, the US DoJ published an indictment in which they indicted two RT employees for funneling 10 million USD to a Tennessee-based company, TENET Media in order to promote pro-Kremlin viewpoints in the US media. TENET Media then made lucrative deals with US-based…

14/23

…YouTube influencers who were advised to produce polarizing and often anti-Ukraine content on their channels. Allegedly, Tim was paid 400 000 USD for these videos. Tim and the other creators, including Benny Johnson and Dave Rubin, claimed they were not aware of the…

15/23

…origins of the funds, but were happy to bash Ukraine and earn millions in return. Out of the bunch, Pool was the most hardcore when it came to talking shit about Ukraine, calling Ukraine “one of the greatest enemies of our nation [the US]”. He also claimed that the…

16/23

…allegations against Trump for working with Russia shouldn’t be listened to, and that the “Ukrainians run the US”. Together with Elon Musk, Tim has also been one of the biggest promoters of the “civil war in the West” narrative. More on TENET:

17/23

In Jun 2024, Tim posted on X about an Ukrainian NGO that included his name on a list accused of impeding aid to the country. Incidentally, Tim was at this point already receiving money from the Kremlin, and was happy to cover their narratives via TENET Media.

18/23

After the indictment was published, Tim doubled down on his anti-Ukraine rhetoric, mocking the country’s supporters. For example, he stated that the the man who tried to assassinate Donald Trump should be investigated for being a Ukrainian agent.

19/23

Tim’s co-host, Josie Glabach aka “The Redheaded libertarian” has also jumped on the pro-Kremlin/Kremlintarian train, and she’ll be one of the speakers at yet another installment of the “antiwar” event organized by the Libertarian Party:

20/23

Now, here’s how I see Tim Pool: I think he genuinely started as an anti-establishment activist, but once he became more popular and made friends with household name conspiracy theorists like Joe Rogan, Alex Jones and Donald Trump, he became just a regular grifter.

21/23

In Jan 2024, Tim “the man of the people” Pool was complaining that the private jets he uses, which used to be “only a little bit more than first class”, are now becoming too expensive. He then blamed the “industry’s collapse” on diversity,climate change & the “Great Reset”.
22/23

Tim also tried to gain popularity among the cool skate kids by offering 20,000 USD in prize money for an event at a local skate park. The organizers refused, after which he bought the whole skate park out of spite for 850,000 USD, blaming the whole thing on the “woke left”.
23/23

My book titled “Vatnik Soup - The Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation” has been published, you can order it here:



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