Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Apr 4, 2023 25 tweets 13 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American entrepreneur and investor, David Sacks (@DavidSacks). He's best-known for his investment in various tech firms, for his ghost town podcast service, Callin, and for his "peace plan" on the Russo-Ukrainian War.

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David is much better as a businessman than as a political commentator - he's been involved in many successful companies such as PayPal, Yammer, and Geni.com, and as an angel investor in Airbnb, Facebook and Uber.

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In 1995, While in college, Sacks and his pal Peter Thiel published a book called The Diversity Myth: Multiculturalism and the Politics of Intolerance at Stanford. The book was critical of culture of political correctness in universities, arguing that campuses should...

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...have more intellectual diversity. Later in 2016, David apologized for sections of the book where he called date rape "belated regret", questioning "Why is all blame placed on the man?" Three years prior they'd published an article titled "The Rape Issue", defending a...

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...student who had earlier pleaded "no contest" (meaning that the defendant does not accept or deny responsibility for the charges but agrees to accept punishment) on statutory rape case. Sacks allegedly included a graphic description of said encounter, suggesting...

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...that the 17-year-old victim "still had the physical coordination to perform oral sex", and therefore could've uttered the word "no".

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Sacks launched a "social podcasting site" Callin in 2021. It's current "Top Shows" are hosted by @briebriejoy, @aaronjmate, Katie "My password is 1234" Halper (@kthalps), and @mtracey.

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The site itself seems to be a ghost town, with biggest shows attracting only 3-7k subscribers. I'm sure that David has had many "enlightening" discussions with these people who all for some reason seem to support a genocidal maniac, some even several.

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The problem with Sacks' commentary on the war in Ukraine is that he's completely clueless about its history, and especially on the history of Russian imperialism and meddling with its ...

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...neighboring countries ("B-but what about the US/CIA meddling in Iraq/Central America/etc..." - that's a different conversation). It also includes some conspiratorial ideas of "deep state" affecting everything and anything related to US foreign policy.

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His "international investor friend" told that the corruption in Ukraine is "beyond belief". Again he has problems in understanding that the systematic corruption is mostly a result of the previous Soviet system & of the Russian meddling since Ukraine's independence in 1991.
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In his article "Should America Go All In on Ukraine?" for the American Conservative, Sacks warned about Russia's nuclear threat and compared foreign politics to a game of poker, stating that pro-Ukraine commentators ...

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..."have not conducted a cost-benefit analysis or even played a hand of high-stakes poker". David's reasoning in the article is as follows: the more the Ukraine and the West weaken Russia, the higher the risk that Putin will resort to "unconventional arms", basically ...

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...saying that we shouldn't do anything to a genocidal maniac because they "might just nuke us". I'm sure the people of Chechnya, Moldova, Georgia, Syria and Ukraine agree with his statement.

Sacks also suggests that the US could offer a peace deal where Ukraine...

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..becomes neutral & there would be a referendum in Donbas and Crimea to determine their fate.A week later,Elon parroted this Sacks' "call for peace" on Twitter.The only problem is that when becoming independent in 1991,both of these areas already voted to be part of Ukraine.15/24 ImageImageImage
Sacks is still fighting the battle against "Woke Mind Virus", the same battle he started already in 1992 with his good friend Peter Thiel. In a recent interview with UnHerd, he said that "woke cancellation tactics" are used to silence any "peace negotiations" and that the..
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..whole thing "is turning into Woke War III". But Putin himself has said that the four annexed regions are part of Russian Federation and that they're not willing to negotiate about this. The way we can have real peace negotiations is after Russia - pardon my French - ...

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...fucks off from all regions of Ukraine, including Crimea.

Sacks has brought up the conspiratorial idea that Victoria Nuland ousting Ukraine's democratically elected government, and that she was instigating the 2014 Revolution of Dignity, again having no knowledge...

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...of the history of either Russia or Ukraine. He's also claimed that Donbas has been "the location of civil war" for eight years, completely disregarding the overwhelming evidence that Russia fabricated and coordinated most of it, also sending in military forces.

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We know all this because of the Glazyev Tapes, the Surkov leaks and the intercepted calls of Konstantin Malofeyev. It was also directly stated by former FSB officer Igor Girkin who shot down MH17.

khpg.org/en/1551054011

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He's also suggested that it was Ukraine that broke the Minsk 2 agreement,which to some degree is correct,but so did Russia. Russia also broke the 1994 Budapest Memorandum,where they promised to "Respect the signatory's independence and sovereignty in the existing borders"..
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and "Refrain from the threat or the use of force against the signatory".

A month ago David was prematurely touting about "fall of Bakhmut" and blamed media for portraying Russian defeat as "inevitable". The war of course is far from over, but Russia has been trying to...

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...take a small and strategy-wise pointless town since the beginning of Aug 2022 - I would hardly call that success.

To conclude: for some reason, perhaps due to his success in business, Sacks thinks that he has the answer to this complex and horrible conflict.

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He has no knowledge on the history of these two countries, he doesn't know the background of the conflict, he doesn't account either side's agency, nor does he think about any long-term implications.

BTW David, have you ever heard of the 2nd Chechen War?

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Jul 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian politician and First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergey Kiriyenko. He’s best known for running both domestic and foreign disinformation and propaganda operations for the Kremlin.

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On paper, and in photos, Kiriyenko is just as boring as most of the Kremlin’s “political technologists”: between 2005-2016 he headed the Rosatom nuclear energy company, but later played a leading role in the governance of Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine.

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What is a political technologist? In Russia, they’re spin doctors & propaganda architects who shape opinion, control narratives, and manage elections — often by faking opposition, staging events, and spreading disinfo to maintain Putin’s power and the illusion of democracy.

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Read 21 tweets
Jul 27
Let me show you how a Pakistani (or Indian, they're usually the same) AI slop farm/scam operates. The account @designbonsay is a prime example: a relatively attractive, AI-generated profile picture and a ChatGPT-style profile description are the first red flags.

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The profile's posts are just generic engagement farming, usually using AI-generated photos of celebrities or relatively attractive women.

These posts are often emotionally loaded and ask the user to interact with them ("like and share if you agree!").

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Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.

Country code for the phone number is in Pakistan.

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Read 5 tweets
Jul 15
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American lawyer and politician, Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee). He’s best-known for opposing the aid to Ukraine, undermining NATO by calling the US to withdraw from the alliance, and for fighting with a bunch of braindead dogs online.

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Like many of the most vile vatniks out there, “Based Mike” is a lawyer by profession. He hails from the holy land of Mormons, Utah, where he faces little political competition, allowing him to make the most outrageous claims online without risking his Senate seat.

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Before becoming a senator, Mike fought to let a nuclear waste company dump Italian radioactive waste in Utah, arguing it was fine if they just diluted it. The state said no, the public revolted, and the courts told poor Mikey to sit down.

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Read 23 tweets
Jul 14
While Ukrainians are terror bombed on a daily basis, rich Russians live in Europe like kings and queens.

This young lady lives in Portugal, and travels freely to Ibiza...
...the Alps...
... and of course Paris.
Read 5 tweets
Jul 7
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American national security policy professional and the current under secretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby (@ElbridgeColby). He’s best-known for fighting with cartoon dogs online and for halting military aid to Ukraine.

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Elbridge "Cheese" Colby earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Before entering government, he worked at top think tanks and in the intelligence community, focusing on nuclear policy and strategic planning.

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Cheese quickly became a key voice for a “China First” strategy, arguing the US must prioritize military buildup in Asia over commitments in Europe or the Middle East. He sees (or saw, rather) Taiwan as the core test of US credibility.

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Read 23 tweets
Jul 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’m going to talk about… Vatnik Soup! As some of you know, we also have a website where you can find every soup ever published. The site also has other useful resources, making it the most comprehensive resource on Russian disinformation & vatniks.

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Unfortunately, Elon has flagged the website as malware, as he might not be very happy about the soups I wrote about him - so far, they have garnered over 60 million views on X/Twitter.

The “freedom of speech” spokesperson doesn’t seem too keen on free speech, after all.

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The heart & soul of the website is of course the soups page. There you can find all 360+ soups, which can be sorted chronologically, by popularity, etc. You can also search for soups by title or even in the soup text:

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vatniksoup.com/en/soups/
Read 15 tweets

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