In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American attorney, weeaboo and social media personality, Tyler Weaver (@ArmchairW). He's best-known for his copium-infused, pro-Russian analysis on the Russo-Ukrainian War, and for his deep admiration of Russian Imperialism.
1/17
Tyler spent 9 years in active service as an Artillery Officer in the US Army, and he frequently leans on his military background to lend credence to his takes and to shut down criticism. And although Tyler claims not to like credentialism, they seem very important to him.
2/17
As someone who often bends the definition of truth, Mr. Weaver has definitely chosen the right career path - he currently works as an Assistant District Attorney after graduating from the University of Washington School of Law in Jun 2022.
3/17
On X, Tyler is mainly known for 4 things: posting dubious anime girls, battlefield predictions that age spectacularly badly, downplaying all Russian strategic losses and war crimes and of course overestimating Ukraine's losses and their alleged war crimes.
4/17
Oh, and if you want to engage with Mr. Weaver, try to refrain from describing him or his book as "creepy". I mean, in his book he does describe in detail the breasts of a schoolgirl as she undresses, but that's just high-quality literature.
5/17
Apparently Tyler absolutely loathes Zelenskyy. During the early days of the full-scale invasion, he was supporting the rumour that he had fled to Poland and was hiding in a "Polish basement". That's pretty ironic, as it was actually grandpa Putin who was hiding in a bunker.
6/17
Then there's the other classics, like calling Zelenskyy a drug addict, claiming that he's not a "real Jew" (or that he's not a Jew at all), that he doesn't visit synagogues, that he & his wife are profiting from the war & that he's raising an army from children and elderly.
7/17
Tyler asserted that the claims of a massacre of civilians in Bucha were dubious, because they were made a week after Russians left town. In actuality, the news was starting to come out in real-time, but since the press could not visit the area until the Ukrainian Army...
8/17
...had forced a Russian withdrawal, journalists had to wait for verification. He called the incident an "ongoing psyop campaign" and demanded "hard evidence" for the massacre. That hard evidence came in a form of photos and video later in an article by the New York Times.
9/17
He's often described the abduction of Ukrainian children to Russia as "patent nonsense". The International Criminal Court seems to disagree with this statement,having issued an arrest warrant for Putin after determining the extent of child abductions equated to a war crime.
10/17
He's also downplayed war crimes conducted by Russian soldiers, claimed that Russia's soldiers and leadership have adhered to the Geneva conventions. Naturally, he's downplayed Russian casualties, too, suggesting that Ukraine has lost 7-13 times more soldiers than Russia.
11/17
As you can guess, his battlefield predictions are usually wrong. Good example of this is the recapture of Kherson, which Tyler called a "disastrous counteroffensive".He later stated that Russia actually didn't want to keep Kherson since they met their "withdrawal criteria".
12/17
He's stated that he's seen "zero evidence of any systematic Russian violations". UN Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine of course disagrees with Tyler, and in Oct 2023 reported about "continued war crimes and human rights violations gravely impacting civilians."
13/17
According to Weaver, Russia was surgical in Mariupol, minimizing the damage done to the city and asserting that power was back on and stores open while fighting was still ongoing. In reality, approximately 46% of buildings in Mariupol were either destroyed or damaged.
14/17
Emergency services collapsed completely, and civilians had to be buried in mass graves. A total of 350 000 citizens fled. The precise scale of death is still unknown due to the Russian occupation, but estimates put the number of dead civilians into the 10s of thousands.
15/17
Tyler's ignored all drone-footage verified evidence about completely demolished cities like Bakhmut and Mariupol, referring to them as "mere projection" and "hyperventilating stories," and claims that it's again Ukraine who shells their own cities and citizens.
16/17
Like @GeromanAT and @Trollstoy88 (RIP Zoka), Weaver has no trouble in lying, exaggerating and just making shit up to his +80 000 followers.
Thank you for the sous-chef @ArmchairCopelrd for helping me to prepare this soup and @UnintelAgency seasoning it to perfection.
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
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explain the Alaska Fiasco and how it marks the peak of Trump’s two-year betrayal of Ukraine. What was sold as “peace talks” turned into a spectacle of weakness, humiliation, empty promises, and photo-ops that handed Putin exactly what he wanted.
1/24
Let’s start with the obvious: Trump desperately wants the gold medal of the Nobel Peace Prize, mainly because Obama got one. That’s why he’s now LARPing as a “peace maker” in every conflict: Israel-Gaza, Azerbaijan-Armenia, India-Pakistan, and of course Ukraine-Russia.
2/24
Another theory is that Putin holds kompromat — compromising material such as videos or documents — that would put Trump in an extremely bad light. Some have suggested it could be tied to the Epstein files or Russia’s interference in the 2016 US presidential election.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll talk about engagement farming: a cynical social media tactic to rack up likes, shares, and comments. From rage farming to AI-powered outrage factories, engagement farming is reshaping online discourse and turning division into profit.
1/23
Engagement farming is a social media tactic aimed at getting maximum likes, shares, and comments, with truth being optional. It thrives on provocative texts, images, or videos designed to spark strong reactions, boost reach, and turn online outrage into clicks and cash.
2/23
One subset of engagement farming is rage farming: a tactic built to provoke strong negative emotions through outrageous or inflammatory claims. By triggering anger or moral outrage, these posts often generate 100s or even 1,000s of heated comments, amplifying their reach.