In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American social media personality, conspiracy theorist and neo-Nazi, Angelo John Gage AKA Lucas Gage (@Lucas_Gage_). He's best-known for his rabid antisemitism, support for white nationalism, and his anti-Ukrainian statements on X.
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In 2015, Gage was chairman of the National Youth Front (NYF), a far-right organization that's goal, according to Gage was "declaring our freedom from this oppressive, anti-white, globalist government that has been slowly subverting our country since the 1960's."
2/16
In 2016, Angelo started creating racist videos on YouTube, discussing topics such as "anti-racist is a code word for anti-white", "diversity is white genocide" and making videos with titles like "Make Whites Great Again".
3/16
As a clout chaser & opportunist,he soon realized that white supremacy is a losing strategy & after Trump's victory moved on to "ethno-nationalism" and populism. Ironically, he then stated that he's going to "get away from this internet bull****" and get into local politics.
4/16
He admired Trump's way to "attract broad support from Americans through a simple, hard-hitting and emotionally appealing style," and tried to distance himself from racist and antisemitic views as he realized that it would prevent him from getting political power.
5/16
In 2020, he published a blog post titled "My Journey In and Out of the Rabbit Hole of Racism," still being a rabid racist but now calling it "trait realism," while defending eugenics, antisemitism and opposing non-white immigration.
6/16
Basically, every narrative Gage spreads is revolving around Jews. He claims that the fabricated Russian text "The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion" is real. His X/Twitter feed mostly consists of anti-Semitic content and his criticism of Zionism.
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In Feb 2023, Angelo tweeted that Russians had "intercepted a submarine in the Black Sea carrying a HUGE shipment of cocaine," then claiming that Zelenskyy reroutes military aid to Mexico in exchange to cocaine, and that Zelenskyy himself uses the dope.
8/16
According to him, "Jewish Supremacist are the MAIN DRIVER behind the Ukraine/Russia war." He's also spread the lie that the casualties are 7:1 in favor to Russia and that the US has "jihadist assets pulled from Syria" to assist Ukrainians with their defense.
9/16
He's also attacked the "Kyiv regime" and called for Ukraine to "kick out Zelensky and all the parasites" and stated that "I want Russia to feel secure at its borders." Angelo's also falsely stated that Zelenskyy refuses to have peace negotiations:
Naturally, he's called Zelenskyy Israeli asset, suggesting that he'll eventually flee to Israel after "Ukraine falls". He claims that Zelenskyy and his leadership takes orders from US/NATO and that he doesn't "give a shit about Ukraine."
In Jul 2023, he was a guest on RT.
11/16
Angelo is also trying to connect the situation in the Middle East to the war in Ukraine, by sharing a conspiracy theory called The Heavenly Jerusalem Project. It's a fake narrative over the plan to reduce the native Ukrainian population and replace it with Jewish settlers.
12/16
Angelo has legally changed his name to Lucas Gage and is now using this name on X/Twitter and YouTube. He's probably trying to wipe his past as a raging neo-Nazi and participating in far-right organizations in the past.
13/16
Before 7 Oct 2023, Gage's account went mostly unnoticed. After Hamas' terrorist attack against Israeli civilians, Angelo started promoting posts around the #GazaGenocide hashtag, gaining over 100 000 followers in one month. He's posted about the "evil Zionists" and a...
14/16
...summary of the fake scripture The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and quotes from Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf. In one of his more popular posts, he claimed that we should "STOP BEING SOFT ON JEWS!" and "that God is telling us to go HARD on them; they deserve it."
15/16
Angelo most probably does all this for attention and money. His book, "Thoughts and Reflections on Life", looks like 1 dollar store version of Marcus Aurelius' Meditations. As is tradition, his angry and racist tirades have also been monetized by Elon's X.
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.