In today's #vatnik soup, I'll be discussing one of the most resilient and widespread conspiracies out there: World Economic Forum (WEF), The Great Reset and the "New World Order".
WEF is a lobbying organization founded by Klaus Schwab (@ProfKlausSchwab) in the 70s... 1/10
... and is best known for their annual Davos meeting where billionaires and politicians "shape global, regional and industry agendas".
The Great Reset is an initiative launched in 2020 by Schwab's club and it aims to rebuild the post-COVID-19 society in a sustainable way.
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The three key aspects of the program are: green growth, smarter growth and fairer growth. Sounds pretty demonic, eh?
Why do the Russians want to spread this conspiracy? Because it would neutralize their economic stronghold of fossil fuels.
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The Great Reset focuses on green, renewable energy that would slow down the climate warming. This paradigm shift would ruin their business model (although the war already did that...) of selling natural gas and oil to fund their war efforts.
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Many fringe groups have created conspiracies around this program, claiming that COVID-19 was created by a secret group to seize control of the global economy. This theory suggests that lockdowns and other restrictions were designed to crash the global economy ...
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...so that Schwab's socialist system could take over.
In addition, many groups and individuals claim that "deadly COVID-19 vaccines" are used to enslave humanity and reduce populations greatly.These stories often involve influential people such as Bill Gates and George Soros.6/10
Schwab has stated that his "4th Industrial Revolution" would blur the lines between real world and digital, and that it includes technologies such as AI, IoT & nanotechnology.
Based on Klaus' vision, Danish MP Ida Auken (@IdaAuken) published an essay called ...
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... "Welcome To 2030: I Own Nothing, Have No Privacy And Life Has Never Been Better" which emphasized the importance of sustainability through renting and borrowing instead of owning stuff in the near future.WEF also produced a video based on this essay.
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It was a PR disaster, and it became one of the most widely spread "evidence" for the Great Reset conspiracy theory.
Snopes has traced the origins of this conspiracy to QAnon groups and the 8kun social media site. Russell Brand made a video on it:
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One of the first countries where this conspiracy spread quickly was Canada. A British journalist Oliver Kamm has stated that the Great Reset conspiracy theory has been widely disseminated by Russian disinformation channels. It is especially popular on sites like 4chan.
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In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American radio host and propagandist, Scott Horton (@scotthortonshow). He’s best known for blaming Russia’s genocidal war against Ukraine on the US, and for publishing a 700-page book full of Kremlin propaganda.
1/23
Most of you probably remember Scotty from this recent episode of Piers Morgan Uncensored, in which he was schooled for his revisionist propaganda by Ukrainian volunteer and activist Anastasiya Paraskevova (@UkrainianAna).
2/23
Let’s start with the obvious - Scott Horton is a hardcore Kremlin apologist who sees nothing wrong with what Putin does, but strongly condemns anything that Ukrainians do to defend themselves. For Horton,the enemy is the US and all of its allies. The way this works is that…
3/23
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss the sad (but funny) state of Finnish vatniks. After Russia launched their full-scale invasion against Ukraine, the Finnish pro-Kremlin/conspiracy theorist scene experienced a dramatic devaluation and hasn’t been able to bounce back since.
1/20
I often get asked about the current state of the Finnish vatnik club, and there’s usually not much to report.
It’s not because these people have stopped, but because today their work has only comedic value.
So here’s the latest:
2/20
Master vatnik and traitor Johan Bäckman has relocated to Russia, and he was recently given a Russian citizenship. It’s obvious that Johan was recruited by Russia’s intelligence agencies a long time ago. He’s still producing videos on YouTube on his…
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Romanian politician and conspiracy theorist, Călin Georgescu (@calin_georgescu). He’s best-known for his pro-Kremlin and conspiratorial views, running for president of Romania, and doing it by only campaigning on TikTok.
1/25
Georgescu has a doctorate in pedology (a branch of soil science), and held various positions in Romania’s environment ministry during the 90s.
Between 1999-2012, he was a representative for Romania on the national committee of the United Nations Environment Program.
2/25
He was proposed as Romania’s prime minister in 2011, 2012 and 2016 by Romanian far-right parties, but he rose to international infamy in 2024, when he ran for president of Romania independently and obtained the most votes (22,95%) out of all candidates in the first round.
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce a Canadian journalist and alleged Soviet/Russian spy, David Pugliese (@davidpugliese). He’s best-known for his articles about “Ukrainian Nazis”, and for allegedly being a spy for both the Soviet Union and later Russia.
1/21
Several months ago I was anonymously sent a pile of documents from the mid-80s originating from the KGB archives in Kyiv. These documents outlined a KGB recruitment into “Stuart”, or David Pugliese who “works in foreign mass media” and who is…
2/21
..“studied with the perspective of possible operative use”. Another document described “Stuart’s” contact “Ivan”, who allegedly became his handler.Some have speculated that “Ivan” is Fred Weir, a correspondent of the Christian Science Monitor.He’s lived in Moscow since 1986.
3/21
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an American far-right social media personality, Nicholas J. Fuentes (@NickJFuentes). He’s best-known for his white supremacist, misogynistic and antisemitic rhetoric, and for being the poster boy for the so-called incel movement.
1/17
Like so many from the white supremacist movement, Fuentes dropped out of university after his freshman year. He studied introductory international relations, which apparently made him a geopolitics expert. Nick was introduced to the white supremacist movement at an…
2/17
..early age - he took part in the infamous Unite the Right rally in Charlottesville,Virginia. In 2017, Fuentes launched his political talk show “America First”. Initially the show was aired on Trump-aligned Right Side Broadcasting Network, but it was dropped after the rally.
3/17
In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll discuss foreign malign influence operations during the 2024 US elections. As in 2016 and 2020, these recent elections were also a target of massive disinformation and hacking campaigns originating mostly from Russia and Iran.
1/17
First of all, my opinion is that these influence operations alone didn’t affect the elections so much, that they actually made a difference.
Unlike in 2016, Trump’s win over Harris was clear and these short-term campaigns didn’t really change that much this time.
2/17
Yet, many of these online campaigns attacked both Harris and Walz on various social media platforms. Especially Walz became a big target after his nomination, and many Russian efforts attempted to defame him.