In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American social media personality, Dominick "Dom Lucre" McGee (@dom_lucre). He's best-known for lying about absolutely everything, and for spreading QAnon-related conspiracy theories and disinformation on the Russo-Ukrainian War.
1/21
Based on Dom Lucre, Dom Lucre is a massively popular Renaissance Man, who's dabbled successfully in military, hip hop, financial advising, philanthropy, politics and of course "breaking narratives". Hell, he even wrote an (everybody)Wiki about himself!
2/21
In many ways, Dominick is the George Santos for the black community, as almost everything about his past has been either exaggerated or completely made-up. A Twitter user @CoffinItUp (they're great, follow them and check their substack!) has made a lot of research on Dom,..
3/21
...and I'll be referencing to his investigative work quite often. First of all, Dom claims to have graduated from college in 2017 from Penn State, but they couldn't verify any diplomas or degrees. Dom then back-pedaled and said he's missing his "internship".
4/21
He's actually been enrolled to Penn State since 2017, but hasn't graduated after 6½ years. They even kicked him out once. Dom's also claimed to have obtained a certificate from Wharton University,but there's absolutely no proof of any of this:
Mr McGee has also his own business, Credit Cadabra. The site's been referred to as the "Most Searched and Serviced Financial Advising Company", which doesn't really mean anything at all. Anyway, it appears that he wrote a bunch of 5-star reviews by himself.
6/21
McGee also joined the army in 2013. He had a 4-year contract, but was allegedly generally discharged. Dom's version is that he left in order to care for his half-brother. As usual, his story is full of holes and you can read more about it here:
As is tradition with pathological liars like Santos and McGee, the lies hardly stop there. Dom's also lied about owning a 150 000 USD watch (it's a cheap copy), buying a house at the age of 22 (he was/is renting it), and having a net worth of 1,2 million USD.
8/21
Dominick has built his brand around being a black conservative who supports Donald Trump. He was also involved in the "Stop the Steal" movement, and even orchestrated his own FB group around the event called "Win the Win".
9/21
Most of his followers on social media came from running the group, which was also filled with QAnon references like "the storm will come." The group was also used by far-right militias for recruiting members.
10/21
Dom has launched an NGO called The Citizen's Crusade, although there is no information of this organization outside of Dom's interviews, so it's probably just another made-up project of his.
11/21
Dom Lucre has over half a million followers on Twitter, and his "exposures" have relatively high engagement. These posts include ridiculous claims like saying that Tom Hanks is a pedophile and it was actually Trump that got Epstein locked up.
12/21
He's also promoted the Pizza Gate conspiracy theory, which claims that high-profile Hollywood stars and politicians are involved in a child sex trafficking ring. As an "evidence", he posted a segment from Ben Swann's "Reality Check" TV show from Fox. Swann has promoted...
13/21
...every conspiracy theory out there, and has made almost 7 million USD by the Russian government for his propaganda work for the South America, Indian and Chinese markets.
14/21
As most grifters often focus on what's trending, Dom has also written about Ukraine. In one of his hot takes, he stated that Putin is "fighting the deep state in Ukraine," and that QAnon is somehow connected to human trafficking in Ukraine.
15/21
He also shared a slideshow that was supposed to be proof that Ukraine is infested with Nazis - too bad most of the images were from Russia.
Mistreatment of children in Ukraine is probably a remnant from the Soviet times, read more here:
He's pushed the bioweapons lab conspiracy theory and also tried to connect Joe Biden's son, Hunter, into the production of "pandemic diseases that could be used as a bioweapons."
17/21
In addition, Dom's tweeted about the "genocide in Donbas". On 14 Jul 2023, one of Prigozhin's "trolls" revealed the "Donbas genocide" victims were actually paid actors. He also forgot to mention that a lot of the civilians died in Donbas came from the down shooting of MH17.
18/21
In Dom's view, the 2014 Revolution of Dignity was a CIA-orchestrated coup. His source for this is a far-left fake news blog, MROnline. He's also suggested that Zelensky is a war criminal and that the US provoked the war with Russia.
You know, all the classics.
19/21
Dom is definitely trying to make his way into conservative politics, and in the current state of "post-truth politics" he could actually make it.
That's probably why he's a "black conservative" supporting Trump, as the truth is absolutely irrelevant within the MAGA gang.
20/21
To conclude: Dominick McGee is an opportunist, attention-seeking grifter who's trying to make money by spreading disinformation and conspiracy theories. He follows every "current thing" in order to garner to his "fans", while trying to make a quick buck.
21/21
Sources:
https://t.co/l71y31CRKe
Support my work: https://t.co/QgUl6jqlCM
Subscribe for my YouTube channel: https://t.co/1gnCOddedI
Past soups:
https://t.co/pZfBD2NvH4
In today’s Vatnik Soup, made together with chef invité @Martinlaineolen, we discuss the extensive links between pedophile sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein and Russian officials and intelligence operatives, and how Western politicians reinforced these links.
1/23
While MAGA influencers remain silent on Epstein, pro-Kremlin propagandists and bot farms have expectedly launched an anti-Ukraine online operation, spreading fake narratives that connect Ukraine, its politicians, and the late sex trafficker.
2/23
But the emails paint a very different picture: in reality, Epstein had very close connections with Russian officials and intelligence operatives, and even built bridges and arranged meetings between MAGA figures and the Kremlin.
In this 5th Debunk of the Day, we’ll discuss something that sounds great in theory, but was completely turned upside-down by the tankie kind of vatnik: anti-imperialism. More consistent anti-imperialists call this the “anti-imperialism of idiots”. 1/5
“Anti-imperialism” was popularized by Lenin, who saw imperialism as the ultimate stage of capitalism. Ironically, the largest empire is now… Putin’s Russia, proud heir to both Lenin’s Soviet Union and to the Tsarist Empire. 2/5
Indeed, Russia is an empire that is still ruled by a de facto all-powerful Tsar, that still proudly flies its imperial flag, that still dreams of expanding its already huge territory through brutal conquest and colonization. 3/5
In this 4th Debunk of the Day, we’ll refute an absolute classic of vatnik BS, the crown jewel of peak dishonesty: whataboutism.
Now, not everything that looks like whataboutism is wrong. Seeking consistency or comparing actions or responses is normal. 1/5
But when someone pulls some completely unrelated event, that happened to completely different people, a long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away, you know what you’re dealing with: a crass denial of the problem at hand, a bad-faith attempt to derail the topic. 2/5
Logic or chronology plays no role here, nor your opinion on these other topics. You could be the staunchest critic or supporter of these other actions thrown into the discussion, it doesn’t matter. It is irrelevant whether these other things are true or not, or bad or not. 3/5
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.
1/20
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.