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 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.
1/22
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.
2/22
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.
1/20
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!
2/20
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.
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.
1/21
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.
2/21
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.
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.”
1/20
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.
2/20
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.
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.
1/17
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.
2/17
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.