In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American far-right conspiracy theorist and social media personality, Laura Loomer (@LauraLoomer). She's best-known for her unethical activism and "journalism", and for promoting the most outrageous conspiracy theories.
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Laura graduated in 2015 with bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism, but apparently she skipped the course on journalistic ethics altogether, as she immediately started doing highly controversial and biased reporting, including interviews while wearing concealed camera.
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In 2015, she used a hidden camera to record her discussions with university officials about start a club called "Sympathetic Students in Support of the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria". The school then asked the name to be changed to "Students in Support of the Middle East".
3/16
With clever editing by a far-right grifter James O'Keefe, the tape was then made to look like the university official was not bothered by a university organization that was supporting the Islamic State. Loomer was then suspended for violating the student code of conduct.
4/16
Soon after this, Loomer and two other women attempted to entrap Hillary Clinton's campaign workers into accepting illegal cash donations. At this time, he was allegedly already working for O'Keefe and his far-right activist group Project Veritas.
5/16
In 2016 during the US presidential election, Laura went to the polling station dressed in a burqa and asked for a ballot under the name of Huma Abedin. In Jun 2017, she gave a speech "anti-sharia" protest in NYCand condemned "liberals who aligned themselves with sharia law."
6/16
In 2017, Loomer disrupted a Shakespeare in the Park presentation of Julius Caesar in NYC, calling for an end on "political violence against the right". She then went on to collect over 13 000 USD from donations to help her "legal defense".
Is that @jackPosobiec filming?
7/16
In addition to to working for Project Veritas, Loomer has also collaborated and worked with the Geller Report, The Rebel Media and InfoWars. All of these are known for publishing fake news and disinformation.
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As you can guess from some of the examples above, Loomer's pet peeve is Islam. She's declared to be a "proud Islamophobe" and have even tried to popularize a hashtag with the same message. She's also probably the first person to be banned from both Uber and Lyft.
9/16
She's also promoted a bunch of conspiracy theorist, mostly related to mass shootings. She's claimed that school shootings in Florida and Texas in 2018 were staged, and that the 2017 Vegas shooter was affiliated with ISIS.
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In 2020, Laura won the Republican primary, after which Trump expressed his support for her by tweeting "Great going Laura. You have a great chance against a Pelosi puppet!" She was also congratulated by @RepMattGaetz, who's best-known for hanging out with 17-year old girls.
11/16
In 2021, Loomer tried to unseat Republican Rep. Daniel Webster in the primary election, but lost. She refused to concede, though, and blamed unspecified voter fraud and "big-tech election interference" for her loss. Loomer's X/Twitter account was reinstated in Dec 2022.
12/16
Laura has been banned from numerous social media sites, payment processors, and other platforms for, among other things, violating policies on hate speech and spreading disinformation. Her meltdown over this made even Alex Jones uncomfortable.
13/16
When it comes to the war in Ukraine, Laura's cheering for the Kremlin. She's called Zelenskyy to "stop antagonizing Russia", that "much of the conflict and chaos in the world always traces back to Ukraine", & that "Ukraine’s biggest supporters are Nazis & Nazi sympathizers".14/16
Recently, Loomer accused a US citizen and serial liar Kent Boneface McLellan of fighting with the Azov Brigade in Ukraine, and even blamed "Ukrainian spy operatives" for "penetrating the Capitol" during Jan 6th United States Capitol attack.
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Of course Loomer is no longer talking about any of this, as there are more trendy topics around. Currently she's attacking Hamas/Palestine supporters and fellow "citizen journalists" like @ShaykhSulaiman who disagree with her.
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.
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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.
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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.