In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American far-right social media personality, Stewart Peters (@realstewpeters). He's best-known for his (short) rap career, and for promoting conspiracy theories related to COVID-19, "global elites" and the Russo-Ukrainian War.
1/21
Peters falls in the category of "far-right conspiracy theorists monetizing outrage & lies" with a white trash twist. As is the case with all of this type of accounts (for example @mattwallace888 & @bennyjohnson), Stewie has no interest in correcting any fake info he shares.
2/21
It is important to note, that this type of people have no interest in the truth. These people also almost always lack any set of moral values, and are willing to share any trendy topic to get engagement for their content and buyers for their snake oil products.
3/21
As a young boy, Stewie really wanted to become a police officer. He wanted it so much, that he even took classes towards a law enforcement degree, but eventually was either too slow or too conspiratorial to make it. At the ripe age of 32 and after the failure to become...
4/21
...a police officer - Peters decided to try his second career option as a rapper named Fokiss.
His song titled "I Never Made It" tells how well his career as an artist went. This might be the saddest thing I've seen this year, and I've seen a lot of war footage.
5/21
He has always wanted to become someone famous & without any talent his only chance for stardom was to lie. In 2000 he was kicked out of a movie production after he lied about his brother being a famous sitcom actor during the 90s.
6/21
After failing to become a police officer, radio DJ, rapper, and a film star, Stewart started his own bounty hunting company. While working, he dressed up as a cop and his police-like uniform even resulted in a change of Minnesota laws, restricting how similar bounty...
7/21
...hunter's uniforms can resemble the police's. One County Sheriff complained that the attention-seeking Stewie desperately wanted to become like the celebrity bail bondsman Dog the Bounty Hunter.
This guy wanted to be a cop so much, that he even LARPed as one.
8/21
He eventually had to close down his bounty hunting business in 2021 after he was found guilty of disorderly conduct. One night in Feb 2021, Stewie's wife called the police, claiming he was in drunken rage and was throwing household items at her.
9/21
When asked whether she was scared of Stewie attacking her, she nodded and responded "That’s the reason that I had to call you guys." Stewie's wife said he "regularly became belligerently drunk," and that this type of incidents were "happening too frequently."
10/21
Incidentally, Peters has publicly promoted "family values" (without the Mrs...),while at the same time blaming the "woke culture" for ruining them.
Peters launched his podcast, The Stew Peters Show, in 2021. The show mostly featured conspiracy theories and hosted various..
11/21
...American far-right figures like L. Lin Wood and Paul Gosar. Gosar is a strong opponent of any aid to Ukraine and says "Russia is not our enemy".
In 2022, he launched his own media company called the Stew Peters Network.
12/21
The network features shows from fellow conspiracy theorists like QAnon follower DeAnna Lorraine and anti-semites Lauren Witzke and Edward Szall. Stewie's own shows average between 40 000-70 000 views on Rumble - a relatively high number on the platform.
13/21
So what disinformation and conspiracy theories Stewie spreads? Absolutely ANYTHING that creates controversy and engagement. His pet peeve is COVID-19 vaccinations, and in 2022 he published a documentary called "Died Suddenly", that "exposed" how global elites were...
14/21
... involved in the vaccine production and how they're used to "depopulate the planet."
His first COVID-19 documentary, "Watch the Water", claimed that the virus is actually derived from snake venom and it contains the "Satan's DNA".
15/21
In 2023, he claimed that the wildfires in Canada and in Hawaii were caused by "orbital energy weapon platforms" - a narrative stolen from Marjorie Taylor Greene when she talked about "Jewish space lasers" starting fires in California.
16/21
As most contrarian conspiracy theorists, Peters has often tweeted & spoken about the war in Ukraine. According to him,the whole war is completely fabricated,the Ukrainians have a black market for organ trading & Zelenskyy is a drug addict and a thief.
So,nothing new there.
17/21
He's claimed that Mexican cartels bought the weapons that were sent to Ukraine,the bioweapons program in Ukraine was started by Obama & Putin is the "one man standing between what’s left of a 'free' world, and a totalitarian, tyrannical,murderous one-world government body."
18/21
Naturally, all this is then complemented with various money-making schemes. From his website, one can buy Stewie-merch like T-shirts and hats, buy premium access to most ridiculous conspiracy theories that ever existed, and even buy "wealth protection", whatever that is.
19/21
To conclude, Stew Peters is relatively popular conspiracy theorist who monetizes rage and disinformation. We can safely assume, that he'll ditch all narratives related to Ukraine as soon as there's a new fad, but at the moment he's sharing vast amounts of fake...
20/21
...information to hundreds of thousands of uninformed people. At the same time, he's fighting against the "woke culture" and promoting Christianity while getting drunk at a bowling alley and assaulting his (ex-?)wife after.
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll reintroduce an American political commentator and pro-Kremlin propagandist, Tucker Carlson (@TuckerCarlson). He’s best known for his promotion of crazy conspiracy theories and for his support of authoritarian regimes around the world.
1/24
Tucker’s career spans decades, but he’s also been very active in recent years, so a lot has happened since our previous soup on him, which can be found here:
Once described as “the most powerful conservative in America”, Tucker has now fully transformed into a grifting conspiracy theorist and propagandist willing to work for whoever pays him the most. It’s unclear whether Tucker truly believes his endless conspiracy theories or…
3/24
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the agenda-setting and flood of disinformation that spread on X and other platforms right after Charlie Kirk’s assassination. It’s far from the first or last time a tragedy has been weaponized for political purposes.
1/18
Every major political event, especially those involving violence, attracts massive attention. In the immediate aftermath, reliable information is scarce, making it highly vulnerable to both coordinated and improvised disinformation campaigns.
2/18
As I’ve mentioned in my previous soups and lectures, in disinformation campaigns, being first with a narrative is crucial, as people often remember the first version best — psychology studies show it sets the mental schema, and later updates rarely overwrite it.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce American social media personality David Freeman, AKA Gunther Eagleman™ (@GuntherEagleman). He’s best known for spreading political disinformation on X and shamelessly sucking up to Trump, Putin, and other authoritarian leaders.
1/22
David is a textbook example of someone profiting from MAGA grievance politics. He uses extreme, provocative language to farm engagement on X and never hesitates to flatter anyone who might give him more exposure — or money.
2/22
But David wasn’t always like this. At some point, in his mid-40s, he even tried a real job: he trained to become a cop. He spent three years with the Metro Transit PD, but after that he either got fired or quit, and never looked back.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian-Estonian businessman, Oleg Ossinovski. He is best-known for his deep ties to Russian rail and energy networks, shady cross-border dealings, and for channeling his wealth into Estonian politics.
1/14
Oleg made his fortune via Spacecom Trans & Skinest Rail, both deeply tied to Russia’s rail system. Most of this is through Globaltrans Investments PLC, a Cyprus-based firm with 62% held via Spacecom and tens of millions in yearly profits.
2/14
Ossinovski’s Russian-linked ventures made him Estonia’s richest man in 2014, with an estimated fortune of ~€300M. His business empire stretched across railways, oil via Alexela shares, and Russian bitumen imports from Help-Oil, a supplier to the Defense Ministry.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Swiss/French writer, Alain Bonnet, aka Alain Soral (@officielsoral). He’s best known for his rabid antisemitism and for his pathetic support for all the worst authoritarian regimes from Russia to North Korea.
1/22
Alain’s childhood was problematic, as his father has been characterized as a “narcissistic pervert” who beat his children and did jail time for fraud. Alain himself has said he was “programmed to be a monster.” Born Alain Bonnet, he took the stage name of his sister,…
2/22
… actress Agnès Soral. She wasn’t too happy about this, commenting “How would you like to be called Agnès Hitler?”. Like many grifters, he became a pick-up/seduction artist writer, à la late Gonzalo Lira, writing books and even making a B-movie, “Confessions d’un dragueur”.
3/22