Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
May 8, 2023 26 tweets 17 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American political activist, attention-seeker and TV presenter, Jack Posobiec (@JackPosobiec). He's best-known for his tendency to lie and spread conspiracy theories, and for his pro-Kremlin views on the Russo-Ukrainian War.

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Posobiec rose to popularity during the 2016 US presidential election, while working for Roger Stone's organization Citizens for Trump. Jack's style of promoting lies and making up stuff resembles Stone's "admit nothing, deny everything, and launch a counterattack"...

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...style of propaganda, in which there isn't any kind of commitment to the truth. Jack has also described himself as "Roger Stone's man". He worked in the United States Navy Reserve from 2010 until 2018. A former active duty naval intelligence officer stated that Jack...

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...was "unlikely in the extreme to have ever done any intelligence gathering of any national level importance". Later his security clearance was suspended without any disclosed reason. Some have speculated that this could be due to his involvement in politics, other that...

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...it had something to do with his wife, a Belorussian MyPillow advocate, Tanya Gorbach.

At some point Jack's Twitter bio described him as being "fmr CBS News". CBS News has told that Posobiec never worked for them. During this time in 2016, he also live-streamed the...

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...infamous "Pizzagate" video where he visited a pizzeria called Comet Ping Pong, and looked for signs of child-sex ring ran by Hillary Clinton. He was asked to leave the place after he tried to broadcast a child's birthday party to his live viewers.

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A few weeks after this, a man walked into the restaurant, opening fire with a semi-automatic rifle. Posobiec later said that he was actually "debunking" the Pizzagate conspiracy theory, declaring it "stupid".

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In Nov 2016, Jack snuck into a anti-Trump protests, planting a sign saying "Rape Melania". He denied his involvement to BuzzFeed News who reported on the issue even after BuzzFeed published the text messages with Jack allegedly planning these theatrics.

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Jack's also closely connected to various far-right and neo-Nazi actors, including Richard Spencer, the Proud Boys and Oath Keepers. He has also attended a march organized by far-right, fascist political movement called Obóz Narodowo-Radykalny.

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In 2017, Posobiec hired the Clark brothers to help create a documentary about the murder of Seth Rich for Rebel News, an outlet he was working for. They're well-known neo-Nazis, and Jeffrey Clark was arrested by the FBI on gun charges after he declared that Jewish victims..
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... of the October 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting "deserved exactly what happened to them and so much worse". He naturally denied any connection to them, even though HuffPost published photos of all three working together.

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In Oct 2019, after Alexander Vindman testified in Congress - he stated that Trump withheld military aid to Ukraine and asked Zelensky to investigate Joe and Hunter Biden - Posobiec tweeted, citing NYT, that Vindman had been advising the Ukrainian government on how...

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...to counter Trump's foreign policy goals. The whole news was of course all made up. His crusade against Vindman has been going on ever since.

In the wake of George Floyd's murder in Jun 2020, Jack falsely claimed about pipe bombs planted at a veteran memorial in DC.

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Throughout his career as a... whatever he is, Jack's lied so much that the Philadelphia magazine called him the "King of Fake News". SPLC reported that Posobiec had tweeted almost thirty articles from SouthFront, a Russian fake news blog connected to Russian intelligence...
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services, and that SouthFront had promoted Posobiec as well. The US State Department has described SouthFront as part of Russia's "disinformation and propaganda ecosystem".

More about SouthFront here: state.gov/wp-content/upl…

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A 2017 investigation by HuffPost revealed that Internet Research Agency-controlled Twitter account, @TEN_GOP, retweeted Jack's content more than any other account. The account focused on disinformation and racist content, so his tweets were a perfect fit for the account.

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Posobiec was one of the most prominent spreaders of the #MacronLeaks, a hack-and-leak operation which leaked 20 000 e-mails related to Macron's 2017 campaign: . He's also promoted Alexander Dugin's 1997 book Foundations of Geopolitics.

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He also crowdfunded a comic called "Agent Poso". In this extremely sad project a character named Jack Posobiec was depicted as the leader of the TASK FORCE AEGIS. The comic was described as "a series about young conservatives that could be enjoyed from anyone from 2 to 92".
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One of Posobiec's favorite narratives has been the bioweapons labs in Ukraine. This conspiracy theory originated from QAnon supporter Jacob Creech, and quickly became one of the biggest disinformation topics related to the Russo-Ukrainian War.

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Naturally he's also promoted various other conspiracy theories,including The Great Reset & "white genocide". Lately he's put a lot of focus on defaming @MalcolmNance,a veteran who's actually gone to Ukraine to do shit (instead of just talking shit on social media like Jack).20/24 Image
Jack and his pals seem to think that the West is somehow "forcing" various countries to join their defense and economic alliances, thus removing any kind of sovereignty or free will from these actors. Another popular claim is that these sovereign countries were somehow...

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... "assimilated" by the "deep state" and intel organizations like the CIA or NGO's like NED. The focus is clear: criticize NATO and the Western leadership, question the aid to Ukraine and this way help Russia to achieve its goals.

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Posobiec is a wannabe-Roger Stone who promotes post-truth conservative politics through lies & provocation. He doesn't care about the truth and is willing to spread any extreme views or conspiracy theories, so that he can stay relevant and make some money at the same time.

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This tactic will be utilized as long as it has no consequences. These days you can say pretty much anything on social media without any real flashback. The flow of information and viral content is so fast, that all false claims are forgotten almost immediately.

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I guess it's also worth mentioning that Jack clearly puts pedophiles in two distinct categories based on their political leaning: the good pedos, and the bad pedos.

web.archive.org/web/2017022122…

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Apr 4
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll introduce a Russian ultra-nationalist propagandist and “philosopher”, Aleksandr Dugin. He’s best-known for his blueprint on Russia’s geopolitical strategy and for his genocidal rhetoric towards Ukrainians.

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In my first Dugin Soup, I covered the man’s 1997 book Foundations of Geopolitics — a manual for dismantling the West, breaking up NATO, and building a Russian-led empire. In it, he makes eerie “predictions” that seem to be playing out today.

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Dugin called for destabilizing the US by exacerbating internal divisions. Fast forward to today: culture wars, conspiracy theories, far-right lunatics, and social media algorithms doing half the work for him.

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Read 18 tweets
Apr 3
Tariffs memes are the hottest thing right now, so post your favorites👇🏻 Image
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Apr 1
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce Russian propagandist Sergei Tsaulin. He’s best-known for spreading pro-Kremlin narratives in Estonia, fleeing to Russia after breaking several laws in Estonia, and almost getting blown up by a bomb in St. Petersburg.

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For years, Tsaulin was known for organizing marches and events glorifying the Soviet Union. Under the excuse of “remembering history,” these events were nothing more than Kremlin propaganda, wrapped in a red flag with a hammer and sickle.

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One of his most infamous events was the “Immortal Regiment” march, held every 9th of May, where people carried portraits of Soviet soldiers. These marches are used by Russia to push the idea that the Baltics owe their existence to the Soviets.

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Read 18 tweets
Mar 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a podcaster and conspiracy theorist, Joe Rogan (@joerogan). He’s best-known for launching the biggest podcast in the world, promoting various conspiracy theories, his support for Donald Trump and his anti-Ukraine rhetoric.

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Joe Rogan started as a stand-up comedian in the 1980s, found fame on NewsRadio, and became a household name with Fear Factor. But his biggest impact came in 2009 when he launched The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE), one of the first major podcasts.

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JRE started as casual but deep conversations, often covering countercultural topics like psychedelics, MMA & hunting. Joe’s podcasting style is largely non-confrontational, often allowing his guests to share their views without significant pushback or critical questioning.

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Read 23 tweets
Mar 27
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce KOOS party leader and Estonian crypto businessman Oleg Ivanov. He’s best known for running shady businesses, spreading Russian false narratives in Estonia, and participating in the pro-Kremlin political party KOOS.

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As a talented youngster, Oleg learned Estonian almost flawlessly, was a promising karate athlete, and landed a job at a law firm at just 20. He caught the eye of Estonian fuel entrepreneur Endel Siff, who quickly took him under his wing.

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Oleg’s father, Vladimir Ivanov, was a longtime politician from the Russian-funded United People’s Party of Estonia. His career at the town hall ended abruptly when he was caught drunk at work. After that, he went into business with his son, Oleg.

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Read 19 tweets
Mar 26
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about the takeover of social media by illiberal, populist influencers. For the last ten years, social media has been dominated by these voices and it is one of the main reasons for the political rise of people like Trump and Orban.

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“Illiberal populists” like Trump reject democratic norms while claiming to speak for “the people.” They centralize power, attack institutions, and push nationalism over rights. Elections exist, but checks & balances erode. This is democracy in name, autocracy in action.

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The media landscape has changed drastically over the past two decades. The Internet and social media have changed how we interact online & how we consume media,but it has also become our main source of news. In many ways,social media companies have control over information.

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Read 26 tweets

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