In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce a Canadian psychologist, author and media commentator, Jordan Peterson (@jordanbpeterson). He's best-known for his battle against the "woke culture",and for his strong support for Putin's "Christian values" and Russia's war in Ukraine.
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Peterson was supposed to become a lawyer, but switched to political science after reading George Orwell's autobiography. He first studied political science, but eventually migrated into psychology studies. He worked in academia and in clinical practice since 2018, ...
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..after which he published and promoted his bestselling book, 12 Rules for Life, a guidebook for young men on how to clean up their rooms.
He also launched a YouTube channel, which soon became extremely popular - by May 2018 he was earning over 80 000 USD per month from...
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...crowdfunding on Patreon. Peterson eventually left Patreon after they banned another user, Sargon of Akkad, and launched a new online social networking site called Thinkspot. The site's been a lackluster and has garnered mostly negative feedback from its users. Like...
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...@DavidSacks' Callin and other "conservative social media sites", the site is a ghost town and generally considered a total failure.
Jordan has described himself as a "traditionalist", holding conservative viewpoints on cultural matters but supporting things like...
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...universal healthcare and redistribution of wealth. Jordan's target group is anxious, disenfranchised and marginalized men who feel like they have no place in modern society. He takes a lot of inspiration from the Bible, and his main target of critique has been...
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...so-called "wokeism", claiming that "proper culture" has been replaced by "post-modernism and neo-Marxism." As an outspoken critic of "mainstream academia", he's spoken against topics such as postmodernism, postmodern feminism, white privilege, cultural appropriation,...
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...and environmentalism. Jordan's critique resonates strongly with the Russian propaganda model of the "decadent West", and this view also dominates his absurd commentary on the Russo-Ukrainian War.
After Peterson's late wife was diagnosed with kidney cancer, he became...
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..addicted to clonazepam, a strong and highly addictive tranquilizer. In 2019, after failing to stop the drug use on his own & being unable to find American doctors who'd be willing to provide him with extreme treatments,he flew to Moscow only to be placed into a medically..
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...induced coma due to pneumonia. After this, he spent a total of four weeks in in intensive care, suffering from a temporary loss of motor skills. After this Peterson and his family moved to Serbia, and eventually returned back to Canada. One can only speculate how this...
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...Russian and Serbian "aid" affected his worldview, but since then Jordan has been very much pro-Russia. After Russia launched their full-scale invasion in Ukraine, Peterson suddenly became a geopolitical expert. His views on the war in Ukraine are similar to...
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...John Mearsheimer's - he says that Russia has been "threatened by careless and provocative Western expansionism into a country [referring to Ukraine] we really don’t care about", continuing that Ukraine is "a key to Russian identity and security".
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Yet again we have another Putin apologist and supporter of "real politics" who suggests that Ukraine should have no agency, and it's the "big boys" who will decide for them. As a sovereign country, Ukraine has the freedom to choose any alliance without compromise, as...
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...did those 14 European countries that have joined NATO but are also considered to be part of "Russia's sphere of influence".
In Sep 2022 interview with Piers Morgan, Peterson suggested that the war would end during the Winter after Putin shuts down the pipelines.
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Ironically, he warned the West about "escalating" the war, but stated that Putin using tactical nukes in Ukraine wouldn't somehow escalate it. He also said that we can't say 'no' to Putin because we're dependent on Russia's gas and oil.
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Peterson has stated that Ukraine is a "divided state" & Zelensky's support was divided between the Western and Eastern Ukraine. This is of course not true,as 73% of Ukrainians supported Zelensky,and he gained majority in all Oblasts except in Lviv Oblast in Western Ukraine.
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Lately Peterson's also suggested that Putin is actually at a "culture war" against the Western decadence and degeneracy, claiming that Russia is showing "every sign of the revival of Christianity.” According to him, Russia is actually part of the West and is trying to..
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..."save it" by kidnapping Ukrainian children, bombing civilians and demolishing Ukrainian cities. It's a pretty radical take, considering that less than 10% of Russians attend church monthly (compared to 21% in Ukraine and 42% in the US).
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The country also has the highest abortion rate in Europe in North America, and has 3rd highest divorce rate in the world, boasts with extremely high domestic violence rates, and has large-scale problems with drug use and alcoholism.
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Also, the country's clergy consists of people like Patriarch Kirill, who is an ex-KGB agent who got rich by selling cigarettes in the 90s:
Peterson has also put countries like Estonia and Poland into the same camp with Russia in this "culture war",..
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...which is strange considering that both countries are staunch supporters of Ukraine. He ends one of his boring rant by saying that "None of us give damn about Ukraine, and never have," concluding that "Remember the Holomodor (sic)? Do you even know what it was?"
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Of course we do - that's common knowledge, you hack. Peterson has also stated that "Russia will not lose" the war, as they can completely destroy Ukraine's infrastructure and bomb its cities. He doesn't say how all this fits in the idea of "enlightened, traditional...
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...Russia", but Russia can most definitely lose the war. They've already lost a lot, including their biggest trade partners in the West, their reputation, and a large part of their youth who have died in this brutal war. Russia will also lose all territory, including...
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..Crimea, in Ukraine & they will have to pay reparations for years. After annexing Crimea, they relied on West's apathy but as the war has progressed, its support has only increased. West's support for Ukraine must continue as long as it's needed, during and after the war.
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Jordan thinks that the West should make a peace deal with Russia as soon as possible to avoid total nuclear destruction.Again,he simply removes all agency from Ukraine by saying that it's up to the West to make peace & wants to enable the use of nuclear threat as blackmail.
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The West has appeased to Russia on several occasions: Moldova and Georgia in the early 90s, Chechnya in 1994-1996 and in 1999-2009, Georgia again in 2008, then in Ukraine from 2014 - did those appeasements end Russia's imperialistic adventures?
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American social media influencer, Benny Johnson (@bennyjohnson). He’s best known for his plagiarism while working as a clickbait “journalist”, and for being paid by the Kremlin to spread anti-Ukraine and anti-Democratic narratives.
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Benny graduated from the University of Iowa in 2009 with a degree in developmental psychology. His former high school buddy described him as the “smartest, most articulate kid in school,” and was disappointed to see him turn into a “cheating, low standard hack.”
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After graduating, Benny dived directly into the world of outrage media. Benny’s first job was writing op-eds for far-right website Breitbart, from where he moved on to TheBlaze, a conservative media owned by Glenn Beck, and a spring board for many conservative influencers.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Cypriot politician and social media personality, Fidias Panayiotou (@Fidias0). He’s best known for his clickbait YouTube stunts and for voting against aid to Ukraine and the return of abducted Ukrainian children from Russia.
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Fidias hails from Meniko, Cyprus. In 2019, he began posting videos on YouTube. After a slow start, he found his niche with clickbaity, MrBeast-style content featuring silly stunts, catchy titles and scripted dialogue. Today, Fidias has 2,7 million subscribers on YouTube.
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Fidias’s channel started with trend-riding, but he found his niche in traveling without money — aka freeloading. In one video, he fare-dodged on the Bengaluru Metro. The train authority responded by saying they would file a criminal case against him.
In today’s May 9th Vatnik Soup, we discuss the ambiguous relationship of the Kremlin with Nazism and explain why so many vatniks can be outright Nazis, and promote or excuse them while at the same time being so hysterical about alleged “Nazis in Ukraine”.
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Of course, Kremlin propaganda employs the Firehose of Falsehood and often lacks any consistent ideology other than spreading chaos and seeking power, so such contradictions can be commonplace. However in this case there is a certain cynical consistency there.
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To understand modern Russia, we need to go back a hundred years to the beginnings of Soviet Russia/Soviet Union — a genocidal terror regime under dictators Lenin and Stalin, whose totalitarian and imperialist legacy Putin’s Russia fully embraces.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll discuss the state of X in May 2025. Since its acquisition by Elon Musk, this platform has rapidly transformed into his personal political tool and a breeding ground for hate speech and disinformation.
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Not everyone is following this shitshow as closely as I am, so I thought it would be good to write a summary of all the changes that have happened on this forum and outside of it. These changes have drastically changed how the platform operates and who gets “a voice” here.
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Elon’s team has been tweaking the algorithm many times after the takeover. One of these tweaks happened already around Nov 2022, when the platform heavily suppressed the visibility of pro-Ukraine accounts. This change was then noticed & reported by many pro-Ukraine accounts.
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In today’s 350th Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American comedian and podcaster, Dave Smith (@ComicDaveSmith). He’s best-known for his numerous appearances on the Joe Rogan Experience and for his unhinged takes on the Russo-Ukrainian War.
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Smith has a massive megaphone - he’s a good friend of Joe Rogan, and he’s appeared on Joe’s podcast a whopping 16 times. Naturally, he’s also visited Lex Fridman’s podcast and frequently appears on Fox News’ Kennedy and The Greg Gutfeld Show.
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Dave is part of the Kremlintarian section of the Libertarian Party called Mises Caucus. They took control of the party in May 2022, and with the help of their new leader, Angela McArdle, turned it into an extension of the MAGA Republicans:
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian journalist, Leonid Ragozin (@leonidragozin). He’s best-known for posing as a Russian dissident, while at the same time sneakily promoting the Kremlin’s narratives about the Russo-Ukrainian War.
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On paper, Leonid doesn’t look like your typical Kremlin apologist - he’s written and worked for prestigious Western outlets like the BBC, the Guardian, and he’s even written some Lonely Planet guides for the Baltic countries!
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But Ragozin’s public commentary often seems to walk a fine line: condemning the war while pushing narratives that shift blame, dilute responsibility, or quietly carry the same old imperial baggage Russia - or its opposition - has never truly forgotten.