In today's #vatnik soup I'll continue discussing propaganda and disinformation. During the information age, winning the online propaganda battle can be just as important as gaining the advantage on the traditional battlefields.
1/11
For example, 🇺🇦 is pretty much dependent on the modern weaponry from the West. These weapons will be delivered as long as the people support these efforts. If people either lose interest or start resisting them, the war will be prolonged and 🇷🇺's war efforts become stronger.
2/11
Propaganda and disinformation are by no means new phenomena. Textual "fakes" have been around since the invention of writing, and already in Ancient Rome propaganda was spread through poems and texts imprinted on coins.
3/11
WW1 was the first war in which mass media played a significant role. Propaganda in mass media had two goals: keep up the morale and keep the people informed about what occured on the battlefield: bl.uk/world-war-one/…
4/11
In WW2 the efforts to demonize the opposite side became a popular thing. Nazi Germany depicted British troops as cowards and Russians as dehumanized beasts. Propaganda leaflets that contained demoralizing messages were dropped to enemy territories from planes.
5/11
Even programs like Lend-Lease required the support from the people, and this required effective propaganda.
In Russo-Ukrainian War, we haven't really seen any technological breakthrough with propaganda and disinformation efforts.
6/11
Photo and video editing are still the most common way to spread disinformation, even though we saw some
creative use of video game material at the early stages of the war. We've seen photoshopped cocaine on Zelenskyy's table, Same Hyde's face on a Russian passport...
7/11
... fake Ukrainian fighter jets in MH17 related satellite images and Argentinian lawyers depicted as the "Ghost of Kyiv". There's also been a lot of images and videos where the context is changed. A video from military exercise in 🇫🇮 was descritbe as an preparation for war. 8/11
Photoshops are easy, fast and cheap to produce and they spread quickly around social media. Videos require much more effort, but we've seen a few. Crude and unbelievable deepfake video of Zelenskyy surrendering surfaced in March, 2022.
9/11
In the near future, most photos and videos will be done by AI. We already have algorithms such as Stable Diffusion and Dreambooth that create realistic looking photographs, and these algorithms become better all the time.
10/11
In near future, we will have interfaces that take commands such as "Ukrainian soldier burying a civilian in a forest" and then go on and create a
realistic depiction from this description.
That will truly be the age of confusion and mistrust.
11/11
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In today’s Vatnik Soup, we introduce Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a French far-left politician. He’s best known for founding the party La France Insoumise (“Unsubmissive France”), demanding submission from his own movement and advocating global submission to authoritarian dictators.
1/23
Mélenchon received his early political education in the Organisation communiste internationaliste, a Trotskyist-Lambertist communist group known for secrecy, rigid discipline and entryism. Lionel Jospin was also a member, and both later joined the Socialist Party.
2/23
Mélenchon was elected to the Senate and was a junior minister in Jospin’s government. He left the Socialist Party in 2008, co-founded the Left Party, then the Left Front alliance with the Communists & ran as its presidential candidate. He was also an MEP from 2009 to 2017.
In today’s Vatnik Soup and our “Degenerate Russia” series, we’ll discuss what kind of lowlifes sink low enough to support Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, lie on Russia’s behalf, promote Russian BS, and even gather in Moscow or St. Petersburg to help the Kremlin wage its war.
1/21
For over a decade now and as part of their “firehose of falsehood” propaganda strategy, Russia has been spreading false narratives targeting right-wing/conservative audiences, portraying Russia as a bastion of Christian, traditional, family values.
Russia is also normalizing relations with the Taliban, doesn’t recognize Hamas or Hezbollah as terrorist groups, and deepens its military partnership with the Islamic Republic of Iran, the regime that legalized pedophilia through child marriage.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we introduce Vincent Bolloré, a French billionaire and media tycoon. He’s best known for building a powerful media empire and for reshaping editorial lines across French media and publishing, pushing them toward far-right and pro-Kremlin positions.
1/25
Born in 1952 in Boulogne-Billancourt to a family of industrialists, Vincent studied law at Paris Nanterre University. He took over the family business and turned it into a sprawling conglomerate spanning logistics, port infrastructure in Africa, advertising, and media.
2/25
Bolloré’s African logistics empire also became the subject of a long-running corruption investigation in France. Legal proceedings against Vincent Bolloré personally are still ongoing, with a trial planned in December, after a judge refused to approve a plea deal.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we’ll introduce an American conspiracy theorist, podcaster & antisemite, Candace Owens (@RealCandaceO). She’s best known for spreading conspiracy theories, attacking Ukraine, promoting pro-Kremlin BS, and becoming a favorite of Russian state media.
1/21
Candace started her career as an intern at Vogue magazine but later moved into political commentary. Her early career focused on criticizing Republicans, calling their antics “bat-shit crazy.” In 2016, her blog even published an article about Trump’s penis size.
2/21
That same year, she launched a doxxing website called SocialAutopsy. In response, people began posting Owens’s personal information online. During the controversy, she gained support from figures such as @Nero and @Cernovich. And just like that, she became a conservative.
In today’s Wumao Soup, we’ll talk about Taiwan, the sovereign country the Chinese Communist Party insists is not a country, but constantly threatens to invade just like a country, while the “antiwar” crowd is eagerly encouraging them to start that war, endangering millions.
1/20
Taiwan is a country, a state. It has its own territory, government, army, police, courts, taxes, passports and elections, just like any other country.
The only difference? Its neighbor, imperialist China, wants to invade it, and other countries try to please the big bully.
2/20
Taiwan’s official name is the Republic of China, or ROC. The ROC was founded in 1912, after the fall of the Qing dynasty. The People’s Republic of China, or PRC, was founded by democidal dictator Mao Zedong and his communist party, in 1949, after fighting against the ROC.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we’ll introduce Russian propaganda operations around military targets like Starobilsk. For over a decade, the Kremlin has used similar strategies, combining crisis actors, “independent journalists” and fabricated evidence.
1/13
First, let’s go back to 2014. Russia funded separatist groups and sent its mercenaries to Donbas, which led to the creation of two puppet states, Donetsk and Luhansk, governed by Russian propagandists and soldiers like Igor Girkin.
The fake genocide was touted as one of the main reasons for Russia’s war during the early stages of the full-scale invasion, and the claim was made even by Putin himself. Before his mutiny, late Wagner boss Yevgeny Prigozhin said that all this was fabricated bullshit.