Pekka Kallioniemi Profile picture
Jun 25, 2023 25 tweets 13 min read Read on X
In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American businessman and social media figure, Elon Musk (@elonmusk). He's best-known for being the wealthiest man in the world, running companies like Tesla Inc., SpaceX and Twitter, and for parroting Kremlin's propaganda narratives.
1/23
Musk was born in South Africa to a wealthy family. His father co-owned an emerald mine in Zambia, and he also invested in some of Elon's early business ventures in mid 90's. The company, Zip2, was later in 1999 sold to Compaq for 307 million USD.

2/23

In 1999 Musk co-founded ,an online financial services that merged with an online bank & eventually became PayPal. The company's key figures were referred to as the "PayPal Mafia" & included people like the anti-woke crusaders Peter Thiel & @davidsacks.
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Musk's various business ventures have made him the richest man in the world. He demands a lot from his employees, expecting them to work for long hours, often removing the possibility of working remotely. He fires people en masse, and all employees sign strict NDA's.

4/23





Musk has also taken the Giving Pledge, committing to give the majority of his wealth to charitable causes. In 2022,Forbes gave him the worst score in the philanthropy rating,since he had only given less than 1% of his fortune to charity. Soros was the biggest giver of all.

5/23

Musk has been active Twitter user since 2009, and he's the platform's biggest account by far with over 140 million followers. Throughout the years, he has provoked controversy with his tweets. Some of these incidents include comparing Justin Trudeau to Hitler,...

6/23
...calling the cave explorer who played a crucial role in saving 12 children from a cave in Thailand a "pedo guy" and "child rapist". Due to his success in business and developing future technologies, Musk has garnered a large group of faithful and fervent followers.

7/23

Like his old friend @davidsacks, Elon also likes to promote his ideas on absolutely everything, even when he doesn't have any expertise on knowledge on the topic (like the cave rescue operation) - a phenomenon known as the Dunning-Kruger effect.

8/23
Musk showed interested in buying Twitter as early as in 2017, and had previously criticized the platform for lack of free speech. He started buying Twitter shares already in Jan 2022, and eventually bought the platform for 44 billion USD in Oct 2022. The idea of buying...

9/23





..Twitter & making it "radically free speech" allegedly came from Elon's ex-wife @TalulahRiley, who'd texted Elon "Please do something to fight woke-ism. I will do anything to help!" Riley had specifically cited the ban of a conservative news satire website, @TheBabylonBee.
10/23

Prior to Musk's buyout of Twitter, the platform used so-called blue check marks to identify prominent figures and organizations. Musk quickly removed these, and introduced a blue tick that anyone could buy. This would provide them boost in the algorithm, and he declared...

11/23
...that this would provide real free speech. Previously he stated that the "Price [would be] adjusted by country proportionate to purchasing power parity." As of today, Twitter Blue's pricing is almost identical in every country where it's available, including Madagasgar,..
12/23

...one of the poorest countries in the world. For only +20% of their annual income, average Madagasgarians can get some REAL free speech - thanks Elon!

He also sponsored the blue tick to the poorest of the poor, including @KingJames, @WilliamShatner and @StephenKing.

13/23

Elon also quickly started firing old Twitter employees, getting rid of 80% of its workforce. He said stated that the process was "painful", but at the same time mocked many of these individuals on Twitter. One especially disgusting example of this was when he mocked...

14/23
...Haraldur Thorleifsson, or @iamharaldur, an Icelandic national hero who suffers from muscular dystrophy. Musk also fired the team that fought against coordinated propaganda campaigns by countries such as Russia, China and Saudi Arabia. Research by Darren Linvill et al...
15/23



...found out that many disabled troll farms had become active again after the buyout.

Apparently, none of Elon's friends haven't told him about the study that fake news spread 6 times faster on Twitter than truthful content. As of today, this number is probably higher.

16/23

This type of research has become much more expensive since the buyout,as Musk has increased the API costs astronomically - access to 50 million tweets per month costs a whopping 42 000 USD.He also removed the free, basic API access used by many indie developers & academics.
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Elon has attempted to combat disinformation on Twitter with "improved" community notes that he's called a "game changer". It's basically a crowdsourced (= free for Elon) feature where Twitter users can add context to tweets.

18/23
In May 2023, Musk's interview was hit with community notes over his claims that there's "no proof" that the Texas mall shooter was a white supremacist, and that @bellingcat is a "psyop". As of today, the community note has been removed.

19/23
Musk also provides a lot of publicity to known conspiracy theorists like al-Assad apologist and pro-Kremlin pundit, @aaronjmate, QAnon-affiliated @KanekoaTheGreat, social media grifter @stillgray, and of course fugitive @KimDotcom. When I asked for his comment...
20/23



...on this soup, Elon replied indirectly (I assume he didn't want to promote me in any way) to his old "war room" buddy and pro-Kremlin investor, @davidsacks, declaring that "This platform now cares about the truth, even if we don't like the truth."

21/23
It's somewhat ironic that the people who declare to be running a "free speech platform" that "cares about the truth", seem to be afraid to have any kind of discussion. I guess they don't want their own "truth" to be challenged, after all?

22/23
End of part one.

In the second part of this series, I'll focus more on Elon's comments on the Russo-Ukrainian War, including Elon's (or David Sacks') "peace plan", the undermining of neutral investigations, and promotion of pro-Kremlin narratives.

Stay tuned for more!

23/23
Support my work:
Subscribe for my upcoming YouTube channel: https://t.co/1gnCOdcGoa
Past soups: https://t.co/9k5rQx4cgbbuymeacoffee.com/PKallioniemi
youtube.com/@TheSoupCentral
vatniksoup.com
APPENDIX: Both Elon's and Errol (Elon's father) version about the emerald mine biz can be found here:

teslarati.com/elon-musk-dad-…

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More from @P_Kallioniemi

Apr 28
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll introduce a bank that is well-known in both Austria and Russia: Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) and its Russian subsidiary, AO Raiffeisen. It is one of the few foreign banks that still does business in Russia.

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Raiffeisen’s Russian branch was founded in 1996 and expanded dramatically after the acquisition of Russia’s Impexbank in 2006. A year later, it was the largest bank trading in foreign capital (seventh in size) in Russia.

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In the early 2000s, Raiffeisen opened new branches in Russia, including in Saint Petersburg, Samara, Yekaterinburg, Novosibirsk and Krasnodar. After 2018, it focused on digital expansion and by 2021 it had a digital presence in more than 300 cities.

3/21 Image
Read 22 tweets
Apr 24
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an Estonian lawyer, social activist, politician, and useful idiot for the Kremlin, Varro Vooglaid (@varrovooglaid). He’s best-known for promoting pro-Kremlin viewpoints under the guise of “traditional family values.”

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Vooglaid has an academic background, which usually gives people plenty of credibility in the eyes of the Kremlin. Most of his academic career was spent at the University of Tartu, but he was also a researcher between 2007 and 2011 at the University of Helsinki.

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Varro is likely the most influential vatnik in Estonia. His academic credentials provide him credibility, while his religious image appeals to “traditionalists” - many of whom oddly admire Russia and its imperialistic nature.

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Read 21 tweets
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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Apr 3
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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

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