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 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.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll cover the autocratic concept of “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars”: the idea that the leader is wise and just, but constantly sabotaged by corrupt advisors. This narrative shields the ruler from blame, and it’s used by both Putin and Trump today.
1/20
The phrase “Good Tsar, Bad Boyars” (Царь хороший, бояре плохие), also known as Naïve Monarchism, refers to a long-standing idea in Russian political culture: the ruler is good and benevolent, but his advisors are corrupt, incompetent and responsible for all failures.
2/20
From this perception, any positive action taken by the government is viewed as being an accomplishment of the benevolent leader, whereas any negative one is viewed as being caused by lower-level bureaucrats or “boyars”, without the approval of the leader.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce a Russian politician and First Deputy Chief of Staff of the Presidential Administration of Russia, Sergey Kiriyenko. He’s best known for running both domestic and foreign disinformation and propaganda operations for the Kremlin.
1/20
On paper, and in photos, Kiriyenko is just as boring as most of the Kremlin’s “political technologists”: between 2005-2016 he headed the Rosatom nuclear energy company, but later played a leading role in the governance of Russia-occupied territories in Ukraine.
2/20
What is a political technologist? In Russia, they’re spin doctors & propaganda architects who shape opinion, control narratives, and manage elections — often by faking opposition, staging events, and spreading disinfo to maintain Putin’s power and the illusion of democracy.
Let me show you how a Pakistani (or Indian, they're usually the same) AI slop farm/scam operates. The account @designbonsay is a prime example: a relatively attractive, AI-generated profile picture and a ChatGPT-style profile description are the first red flags.
1/5
The profile's posts are just generic engagement farming, usually using AI-generated photos of celebrities or relatively attractive women.
These posts are often emotionally loaded and ask the user to interact with them ("like and share if you agree!").
2/5
Then there's the monetization part. This particular account sells "pencil art", which again are just AI-generated slop.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American lawyer and politician, Mike Lee (@BasedMikeLee). He’s best-known for opposing the aid to Ukraine, undermining NATO by calling the US to withdraw from the alliance, and for fighting with a bunch of braindead dogs online.
1/21
Like many of the most vile vatniks out there, “Based Mike” is a lawyer by profession. He hails from the holy land of Mormons, Utah, where he faces little political competition, allowing him to make the most outrageous claims online without risking his Senate seat.
2/21
Before becoming a senator, Mike fought to let a nuclear waste company dump Italian radioactive waste in Utah, arguing it was fine if they just diluted it. The state said no, the public revolted, and the courts told poor Mikey to sit down.