In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American social media grifter and supplements salesman, Scottson "Ayden" Sterritt (@squatsons). He's best-known for his extensive experience in geopolitics, bodybuilding and military strategy, and for his strong support for Russia.
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Before starting to simp for Putin, Scottson was involved in the bodybuilding scene. His vast knowledge on geopolitics and military issues stems from his education at the prestigious Cibola High School.
2/20
In addition to grifting online, Sterritt has had another source of income: he sells protein powders, shakes, and such. As you can see from the photo (and the receding hairline) below, he's found the perfect, natural way of bodybuilding with the help of @MnmProlabs ...
3/20
...shakes and protein bars. All natural, baby.
But maybe the powder business wasn't very lucrative, and after the war started he found a nice opportunity in selling Z-merchandise, claiming its for charity and pocketing the profits.
4/20
Apparently Sterritt's main job at the moment is to tweet about the Russo-Ukrainian War. He averages about 60 tweets per day, and most, if not all, are related to the conflict.
5/20
Sterritt was also allegedly involved in the crowdfunding efforts with Sarah "Donbass Devushka" Bils. Apparently he was part of the organizing team for the merchandise, and stated that "all proceeds go to charities helping the Donbass."
While NAFO was conducting research on "Donbass Devushka", he was speculating that the "investigation is meaningless and no one care about your theories about our team." 12 days later a small local newspaper called Wall Street Journal broke the DD story on their front page.
7/20
He also tweeted that "I know her name and it isn't Sarah or whatever," which can actually be true in case Sarah had already changed her name to Lyudmila. Lyudmila might or might not be in the backseat in the last photo with Scotty.
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Sterritt's most popular episode of his "Kalibrated with Scott" podcast was when he hosted the convicted sex criminal, Scott Ritter. Ritter's expertise was evident during the early days of war, when he claimed that "Ukraine is getting schooled in the art of Urban warfare."
9/20
Because of Scottson's extensive knowledge in geopolitics and military issues, he knew already back in Aug 2022, that Iranian drones weren't being sent to Russia, calling the claim "complete crap".
10/20
A month later he was selling T-shirts promoting Iranian drones,again claiming that "all proceeds go to charities helping the Donbass." I think it would be an interesting investigation to see where the money actually went.
11/20
Now, let's look briefly at Sterritt's amazing ability to do military analysis. In Aug 2022, he tweeted that Kherson "will never be Ukraine again." The city was of course recaptured by the Ukrainian forces just three months later.
12/20
He was also all about the "winter of death", many times suggesting that Ukraine wouldn't survive over the winter, and that they'd "capitulate when the power goes off".
He cheered for the Vuhledar push in Nov 2022, which turned out to be a complete failure for the Russians.
13/20
In May 2023, Scotty tweeted that Russia "never targeted civilians power infrastructure, only substations linked to rail traffic." Then, few months later he was sharing videos of Russian's targeting a power station in Kyiv. Because Scotty's consistent like that.
14/20
Sterritt's made fun of both big counteroffensives conducted by the Ukrainian forces. Back in Aug 2022, he seemed to think that the first counteroffensive was a total failure. Few months later Ukraine re-captured a lot of areas (see the before and after map below).
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He's always claimed to be having higher moral standards than the rabid Shiba Inus of NAFO, but in May 2022, he tweeted this nasty gem. The tweet's now deleted, of course, as it could be a PR hit for the morale crusader Scottson.
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In May 2023, Scotty appeared on an open mic podcast called Defense Politics Asia, where he discussed various topics, including Bucha. He cast doubts on the events of Bucha, suggesting that the West had started their propaganda push some time prior to the events, ...
17/20
...and emphasized that it was either "something that didn't happen" or an "isolated incident", just like the tortured people in the mass graves in Izium, constant bombing of civilian targets around Ukraine, and the children's torture chambers in Kherson.
18/20
He claimed that he's been "for peace" the whole time, and that the Ukrainians should stop fighting and negotiate for peace. I did a quick search on Scotty's tweets, but couldn't find any calls for peace prior to Putin's fake annexation of the four Ukrainian Oblasts.
19/20
Currently he is focusing on bashing the ongoing second Ukrainian counteroffensive, especially celebrating any lost vehicles that were donated by Western countries.
Don't know about you, but I'm getting some popcorn ready for Scotty's coping if the offensive is successful!
In this 3rd Debunk of the Day, we’ll talk about… “ending” the war by surrendering or ceding territory.
Nearing four years of the 2-day “special military operation”, Russia is desperate to obtain through other means what they failed to conquer on the battlefield. 1/5
An endless army of vatniks therefore tries to demoralize both Ukrainians and supporters.
They sound noble: “anti-war” or concerned about the fate of Ukraine’s civilians, soldiers and cities. They claim that if we just stop fighting or helping, this horror would magically end. 2/5
What they never mention is… WHO started the war, WHO murders Ukrainians, WHO destroys Ukrainian cities: the same monsters they suggest Ukrainians be at the mercy of. Surrendering wouldn’t end the atrocities of the occupation, it would enable them. Surrendering wouldn’t even…3/5
In today’s Debunk of the Day (2), we’ll look at… nuclear blackmail. Vatniks love using Russia’s nuclear threats as a reason for surrendering or for not lifting a finger to help Ukraine: “see, they have nukes, we have to give them whatever they want”.
The argument is absurd: 1/5
Nuclear deterrence has been a reality for decades. Both the US and Russia have lost wars without resorting to nukes. We are not submitting to the whims of Pakistan or North Korea either. For vatniks, it’s just an insidious way of siding with Putin. 2/5
We can’t just give in to the Kremlin’s nuclear blackmail, to the threats their officials and propagandists make five times a day to scare us into letting them have something they know perfectly well is not theirs, with no limit to their appetite. 3/5 vatniksoup.com/en/nuclear-thr…
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we introduce a Ukrainian “scholar” and social media activist, Marta Havryshko (@HavryshkoMarta). She’s best known for spreading anti-Ukraine and pro-Kremlin narratives online, along with a habit of spotting neo-Nazis everywhere in Ukraine.
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Marta hails from Ukraine, where she studied history at Ivan Franko National University of Lviv. She received her PhD in history in 2010. Her academic work focused on gender-based violence and wartime atrocities, including publications on sexual crimes in occupied Ukraine.
2/20
She is currently working as a visiting Assistant Professor at the Strassler Center for Holocaust & Genocide Studies at Clark University in the US. According to the center’s website, Marta teaches courses on antisemitism, racism, and gender-based violence in armed conflicts.
In today’s (first) Debunk of the Day, we’ll talk about… “realistic expectations”.
Russia has the GDP of Italy. NATO — which Russia claims to be fighting — has 20 times their GDP, and a much stronger and more modern military. 1/5
Russia’s full scale invasion was supposed to take 2 days, but we’re nearing 4 years. They’ve lost a million men. Their economy is in shambles.
And yet we're letting them set their red lines instead of massive sanctions, strong support for Ukraine, and an immediate sky shield. 2/5
Russia thought their war was “realistic” because we’d let them get away with it. It wouldn’t be “realistic” to invade a European nation and redraw borders by force if the West had a strong and united response.
What’s “realistic” is what public opinion tolerates and accepts. 3/5
In this first (and maybe last?) Basiji Soup, we’ll look at… the Islamic Republic of Iran, its disinformation operations, its hypocrisy, how it sells its atrocities as virtue and its repression as morality, how it serves the Kremlin, and the current protests against it.
1/20
Basijis are members of the most fanatical part of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC). In a broader sense: Iranian regime loyalists & propagandists. They may be fewer than vatniks or wumaos, but the goal is the same: destabilize the West to protect a brutal regime.
2/20
The regime oppressing Iran is a “theocratic” authoritarian state around a “Supreme Leader” hiding behind religion to justify its crimes: censorship, repression, executions, torture and terror — similar to Russia and its “holy war” against Ukraine.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, we introduce our first Czech vatnik, Tomio Okamura. He’s best known for building a political career on xenophobia while being of mixed origins himself, and for pushing Kremlin narratives in Czechia, a country otherwise very supportive of Ukraine.
1/19
Okamura was born in Tokyo in 1972 to a Japanese-Korean father and Czech mother. He spent part of his childhood in Japan, and part in a Czechoslovak foster home where he was heavily bullied. His mixed origins made it difficult for him to fit in either country.
2/19
Nonetheless, after working odd jobs in Japan, Tomio returned to Czechia and became a successful entrepreneur in Japanese tourism. He then rose in politics: Senator in 2012, MP in 2013, he founded two parties: Dawn of Direct Democracy and SPD (Freedom and Direct Democracy).