In today's #vatniksoup, I'll introduce an American far-right conspiracy theorist and radio show host, Alex Jones (@realAlexJones). He's best-known for claiming that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was a "false flag" operation & for claiming that the frogs are gay.
1/22
From a young age, Jones has been fascinated about conspiracy theories. As a teenager, he was inspired and strongly influenced by Gary Allen's None Dare Call It Conspiracy, which claimed that the US politics is controlled by global bankers rather than elected officials.
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He was also strongly influenced by The Waco siege at the Branch Davidian complex. Branch Davidians were an apocalyptic cult led by David Koresh in Waco, Texas. Jones even organized a successful campaign to build a new Branch Davidian church as a memorial in 1998.
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Jones published his first film, America Destroyed by Design, in 1998. In it, he claimed that The 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was actually a "false flag operation" and the bomber, Timothy McVeigh planted the explosives together with a military escort and cops.
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In 1999, Alex and his then-wife Kelly Jones launched the conspiratorial fake news blog, InfoWars. Slowly but surely the website became very popular, and in 2016 it surpassed mainstream news websites such as The Economist and Newsweek in its reach.
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Repeating all of Jones' ramblings and conspiracy theories is pointless, as he's basically covered them all, even a claim that the chemicals in the water turns all frogs gay. According to him, "The majority of frogs in most areas of the United States are now gay."
6/22
He also started his own radio show, in which he for example claimed that 9/11 was a "98 percent chance this was a government-orchestrated controlled bombing," making him the leading figure of the "9/11 truther" cause. In 2014,InfoWars had revenues of over $20 million a year.
7/22
Conspiracy theorists often make most of their money by first provoking fear and then selling their products - this is the case with Alex Jones, too. Most of the money he made came from products like dietary supplements, "brain pills", bulletproof vests and toothpaste.
8/22
Jones has involved in many litigations in relation to conspiracy theories like Pizzagate. But he faced his most famous lawsuits after he claimed that the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was a "false flag" operation coordinated by gun control advocates.
9/22
He said that in reality, "no one died" in Sandy Hook and that the whole incident was "staged", "a giant hoax", and "completely fake with actors". He made these claims without a shred of evidence, and for this the judge ordered Jones to pay 965 million USD to the plaintiffs.
10/22
Being the scumbag he is, Jones hasn't paid the victim's families a dime, while spending 93 000 USD a month on housekeeping, entertainment and meals, and on one of his ex-wives. He also transferred up 10 million USD to his friends and families to avoid paying his debts.
11/22
As a far-right propagandist and friend of Carlson's and Andrew Tate's, naturally Jones has also been sucking up to the Kremlin. In Sep 2023, he appeared on Vladimir Solovyov's show, in which he compared the US to the 9/11 hijackers. In addition, he said that lives in an...
12/22
..."occupied globalist country," that's being controlled by "oligarchs" like "Klaus Schwab and Bill Gates". According to Jones, these "oligarchs" are "arresting everybody," also stating that "our country is captured."
13/22
By 2107, Jones had also stolen over 1000 articles from the Kremlin mouthpiece Russia Today even when he did not have permission to re-publish its content. Naturally, RT had no objections to this, as it only helped them to spread their lies about the Western countries.
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He's also suggested that the ICC's charges against Putin for "evacuating children from a war zone," and Trump's arrest happened at the same time because globalists are trying to stop people who obey them. In Oct 2023, he interviewed Putin bootlicker Vivek Ramaswamy.
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In Apr 2022, Alex denied Russian war crimes and accused the Ukrainians of staging the Bucha massacre. He claimed that most media coming in from Ukraine were in fact staged. He's also promoted the classic vatnik idea that it was NATO that "lured" Russia to invade Ukraine.
16/22
Many Jones' defenders parrot @joerogan's typical rhetoric, suggesting that Jones has been wrong a "couple of times" & is judged due to his mistakes. In reality,there's hardly any truth to what Alex has said, and he says the most outrageous things to probably sell more shit.
17/22
On 9 Dec 2023, @elonmusk published a poll on whether Jones should be reinstated on X. The troll and bot farms and conspiracy theorists of X supported this, and Jones' account was brought back the next day. He's gained a half a million new followers since then.
18/22
Throughout the years, Jones has promoted numerous conspiracy theorists and grifters, including QAnon follower @GenFlynn (you can add me to your lawsuit, you hack), alleged rapist and human trafficker @Cobratate, professional grifter @tuckercarlson & of course Donald Trump.
19/22
He also appeared on @MarioNawfal's Space together with fellow conspiracy theorists Michael Flynn, Sulaiman Ahmed, Jackson Hinkle, Vivek Ramaswamy, Andrew Tate, and of course Elon Musk. The highlight of the whole show was when Vivek forgot to turn off his mic while peeing.
20/22
My prediction is, that both Alex Jones and Tucker Carlson will play a big role in the upcoming presidential election, where both give out their full support to Donald Trump. This message will naturally be amplified by the likes of Elon Musk and David Sacks.
21/22
Meanwhile, Alex will continue his grifting business and selling merchandise by fear. He actually started already, as he's now aggressively pushing his new book, "The Great Awakening", no doubt full of disinformation, crazy ramblings and bullshit.
22/22
I have paused personal donations for now to drive funds to Ukraine, so please support @U24_gov_ua by donating to the #HopakChallenge and sending me the receipt:
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll introduce an American national security policy professional and the current under secretary of defense for policy, Elbridge Colby (@ElbridgeColby). He’s best-known for fighting with cartoon dogs online and for halting military aid to Ukraine.
1/21
Elbridge "Cheese" Colby earned his bachelor’s degree from Yale and a Juris Doctor from Harvard Law School. Before entering government, he worked at top think tanks and in the intelligence community, focusing on nuclear policy and strategic planning.
2/21
Cheese quickly became a key voice for a “China First” strategy, arguing the US must prioritize military buildup in Asia over commitments in Europe or the Middle East. He sees (or saw, rather) Taiwan as the core test of US credibility.
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’m going to talk about… Vatnik Soup! As some of you know, we also have a website where you can find every soup ever published. The site also has other useful resources, making it the most comprehensive resource on Russian disinformation & vatniks.
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Unfortunately, Elon has flagged the website as malware, as he might not be very happy about the soups I wrote about him - so far, they have garnered over 60 million views on X/Twitter.
The “freedom of speech” spokesperson doesn’t seem too keen on free speech, after all.
2/15
The heart & soul of the website is of course the soups page. There you can find all 360+ soups, which can be sorted chronologically, by popularity, etc. You can also search for soups by title or even in the soup text:
In today’s Wumao Soup, I’ll introduce how and where the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) online propaganda and influence operations work. Due to China’s massive population and advances in AI, CCP-aligned online content has become increasingly visible.
1/20
Like Russia’s troll farms, China has its own troll army: the “50 Cent Party” or “Wumao” refers to state-linked online commentators who are reportedly paid ¥0.50 per post to steer discussions away from criticism and amplify CCP narratives on social media.
2/20
Back in 2017, a research paper estimated that the Wumao produced almost 500 million fabricated comments annually to distract readers and shift topics. In that sense, Wumao operates very similarly to the Russian “Firehose of Falsehood” model:
In today’s Vatnik Soup and the “Degenerate Russia” series, I’ll show you the brutal reality of Russian war crimes, in particular the horrific tortures and sexual abuses of children, women and men.
Buckle up, this one is not for the faint-hearted.
1/24
For over a decade now and as part of their “firehose of falsehood” propaganda strategy, Russia has been spreading false narratives targeted at right-wing/conservative audiences, portraying russia as a bastion of Christian, traditional,family values.
In the previous “degenerate Russia” series we discussed Russia’s insanely high divorce rates, rampant domestic violence, high murder rates, thriving neo-Nazi culture, corruption of the Orthodox Church, and their massive demographic problem:
In today’s Vatnik Soup, I’ll explore how Russia is working with Iran, and how the recent Israel–US strikes on Iran could affect the war in Ukraine. Iran has been one of Russia’s key allies in their genocidal war, but in reality the partnership is deeply one-sided.
1/21
Historically, Russia/USSR has been involved in numerous wars in the Middle East, invading Afghanistan for nearly a decade and desperately trying to keep Syria’s authoritarian leader, al-Assad, in power before his eventual downfall.
2/21
While initially supportive of Israel, the Soviet Union quickly pivoted to backing its enemies, fueling antisemitism, terrorism, and chaos in an already tense region. At times, this meant near-open war, like when Soviet Air Force MiG-21s were shot down by Israel over Egypt.
In today’s Vatnik Soup REBREW, I’ll re-introduce a Latvian politician and former MEP, Tatjana Ždanoka. She’s best-known for her history in the Communist Party of Latvia, for her pro-Russian politics in the country, and her connections to Russian intelligence.
1/22
Based on Ždanoka’s speeches and social media posts, she has a deep hatred towards the people of Latvia. The reason for this can only be speculated, but part of it could be due to her paternal family being killed by the Latvian Auxiliary Police,…
2/22
…a paramilitary force supported by the Nazis, during the early 1940s. Ždanoka became politically active in the late 80s. She was one of the leaders of Interfront, a political party that supported Latvia remaining part of the USSR.