Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
May 11, 2023 24 tweets 13 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American political analyst and media executive, Steve Bannon.

He's best-known for being Trump's chief strategist, "flooding the zone with shit", and for attempting to unite far-right, pro-Putin political parties around Europe.

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Bannon worked as an officer in the US Navy in the late 70s and early 80s, after which he worked as an investment banker at Goldman Sachs. He's also produced several Hollywood movies between 1991 and 2016. In 1980,Bannon was deployed to assist with the Operation Eagle Claw...
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.., a failed effort to save 52 embassy staff members from Tehran ordered by Jimmy Carter. In a 2015 interview, Steve stated that this marked a turning point in his political stance, turning him into a "Reaganite". This ideology of a battle between "good and evil" can be...

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clearly seen in his rhetoric. He's also been influenced by the so-called Fourth Turning theory which predicts that we are entering a phase where populism, nationalism and state-run authoritarianism will be on the rise around the world.

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In 2007, Bannon was a founding member of the website Breitbart News,later describing it as "the platform for the alt-right".Time journalist Philip Elliott said that the site pushes "racist, sexist, xenophobic and antisemitic material into the vein of the alternative right".

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Former editor of Breitbart, Ben Shapiro, called Steve a "bully" who "sold out" the website's original idea to back up Trump. In 2018, Breitbart funders Robert & Rebekah Mercer got rid of him,allegedly due to his "impulsive and attention-seeking antics" and high expenditures.
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Bannon served in the board of Cambridge Analytics, acting as its vice president. This company was also owned by the Mercer family, and it allegedly deployed illegal tactics in targeting US voters in the 2016 presidential election. Former Analytica employee, Christopher...

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...Wylie, has claimed that Bannon oversaw the collection of data from Facebook. He called the company a "psychological warfare tool".

Bannon's probably best-known for his work as a chief strategist for Donald Trump. Few days after Trump's inauguration, Bannon told the...

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...NYT that "the media should be embarrassed and humiliated and keep its mouth shut and just listen for a while. I want you to quote this: the media here is the opposition party".

Bannon was interviewed on several occasions by Robert Mueller as part of his investigation...

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...on the Russian interference in the 2016 US election. In Nov 2019, he gave evidence against Roger Stone, saying that Stone was Wikileaks' access point for the Trump campaign, and he was subsequently convicted on all charges, only to be pardoned by Trump.

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The Senate Intelligence Committee also looked into his activities and connections to George Papadopoulos and Carter Page, who both played a role in the Russian interference in the 2016 US election. In Aug 2020 members of the senate intelligence committee said that they...

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believed that Bannon, Jared Kushner, and Don Trump Jr. may have misled them with their testimonies. Bannon later said that he considered the meeting between Don Jr., Kushner, Paul Manafort and the Russian officials "treasonous". He also said that investigators will likely..
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..uncover money laundering activities that involve Jared Kushner and Deutsche Bank. He's called the Trump business a "criminal enterprise". Bannon himself was arrested in Aug 2020 and was charged with conspiracy to commit wire fraud and money laundering - Bannon & others...
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...collected money to build a wall at the US-Mexico border, and allegedly made payments to themselves instead. Prosecutors alleged that Steve got more than 1 000 000 million USD in connection with this plan.

Trump pardoned Bannon in Jan 2021.

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Steve has adopted the Russian "firehose of falsehood" propaganda style, calling it "flood the zone with shit". He's stated that "We got elected on Drain the Swamp, Lock Her Up, Build a Wall. This was pure anger. Anger and fear is what gets people to the polls."

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The Economist has stated that Bannon (along with political analyst Stephen Miller) sees Putin as a "fellow nationalist & crusader against cosmopolitanism". He's said that Putin is "standing up for traditional institutions, and he's trying to do it in a form of nationalism".
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He's also a fan of Alexander Dugin, a Russian political strategist, whom he allegedly met in Rome in 2018. He's cited Dugin on various occasions, and has described himself as a fan of his 2009 book The Fourth Political Theory.

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The book has been referred as an inspiration for Russian foreign policy, including the war in Donbas.

Bannon's described Putin's invasion of Ukraine as a "border dispute" and "a Slavic fist fist on the eastern border of Ukraine".

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During 2018, Bannon formed a foundation called The Movement, where he tried to unite right-wing populist parties around Europe. He visited and had talks with many of the pro-Kremlin parties in Europe, including Austrian FPÖ, British UKIP, German AfD, Italian Lega Nord,...

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...Hungarian Fidesz, Spanish Vox, Swiss SVP, and France's National Rally.

Incidentally, all these parties and/or some of their members have been previously featured in #vatniksoup.

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A 2023 study conducted by Brookings Institution revealed that Bannon's podcast broadcasted the highest proportion of disinformation and unsubstantiated statements among 79 political podcasts examined.

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These days Bannon is still flooding the zone with shit with his "Bannons [sic] War Room" show on Rumble. Recently he's also encouraged conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to run against Joe Biden in the 2024 Democratic Party presidential primaries.

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As a traditionalist, Bannon has been married and divorced three times. In 1996, his then-wife accused Steve of domestic abuse, but the charges were later dropped after she failed to appear in court.

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Aug 18
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explain the Alaska Fiasco and how it marks the peak of Trump’s two-year betrayal of Ukraine. What was sold as “peace talks” turned into a spectacle of weakness, humiliation, empty promises, and photo-ops that handed Putin exactly what he wanted.

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Let’s start with the obvious: Trump desperately wants the gold medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, mainly because Obama got one. That’s why he’s now LARPing as a “peace maker” in every conflict: Israel-Gaza, Azerbaijan-Armenia, India-Pakistan, and of course Ukraine-Russia.

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Another theory is that Putin holds kompromat — compromising material such as videos or documents — that would put Trump in an extremely bad light. Some have suggested it could be tied to the Epstein files or Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election.

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Read 25 tweets
Aug 11
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about engagement farming: a cynical social media tactic to rack up likes, shares, and comments. From rage farming to AI-powered outrage factories, engagement farming is reshaping online discourse and turning division into profit.

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Engagement farming is a social media tactic aimed at getting maximum likes, shares, and comments, with truth being optional. It thrives on provocative texts, images, or videos designed to spark strong reactions, boost reach, and turn online outrage into clicks and cash.

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One subset of engagement farming is rage farming: a tactic built to provoke strong negative emotions through outrageous or inflammatory claims. By triggering anger or moral outrage, these posts often generate 100s or even 1,000s of heated comments, amplifying their reach.

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Read 24 tweets
Aug 6
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the autocratic concept of “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars”: the idea that the leader is wise and just, but constantly sabotaged by corrupt advisors. This narrative shields the ruler from blame, and it’s used by both Putin and Trump today.

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The phrase “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars” (Царь хороший, бояре плохие), also known as Naïve Monarchism, refers to a long-standing idea in Russian political culture: the ruler is good and benevolent, but his advisors are corrupt, incompetent and responsible for all failures.

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From this perception, any positive action taken by the government is viewed as being an accomplishment of the benevolent leader, whereas any negative one is viewed as being caused by lower-level bureaucrats or “boyars”, without the approval of the leader.

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Read 21 tweets
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

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