In today’s #vatniksoup, I’ll introduce an American politician and author, JD Vance (@JDVance). He’s best-known for his strong stance against US aid to Ukraine, and for being the Republican party’s nominee for vice president in the 2024 election.
1/20
Vance hails from the small town of Middletown, Ohio. His parents divorced when he was a toddler, JD’s mother struggled with drug addiction, and he was raised primarily by his grandparents. Later he enlisted in the US Marine Corps, and spent 6 months as a PR guy in Iraq.
2/20
In 2016, Harper published JD’s book, Hillbilly Elegy, in which he described his life and hardships, and the socioeconomic problems of his hometown. The book was very successful, and it was even adapted into a shitty Netflix movie. It also made JD famous.
3/20
During this time, JD had also moved to San Francisco to work as a venture capitalist in the tech industry, even (allegedly) working for Elon Musk’s and David Sacks’ old buddy, Peter Thiel in his firm Mithril Capital between 2016 and 2017.
4/20
But Vance had higher ambitions, and for those he had to move back to Ohio. First, he launched a non-profit organization that was supposed to focus on education, addiction, and other socioeconomic issues he had described in his book. The organization closed down just two…
5/20
…years after its launch with very few accomplishments. In 2022, JD’s rival Tim Ryan claimed that the NGO was a front for his political ambitions, and later Business Insider reported that it had spent more on Vance’s political advisor than on programs to fight opioid abuse.
6/20
And Vance’s old friend Peter Thiel also chipped in - he put a staggering 15 million USD into JD’s campaign to run for senator in 2022. Thiel had previously financed Vance’s venture firm Narya Capital that later helped fund the “alt-right” video platform Rumble.
7/20
As most of you have noticed, Vance has been a pretty bad choice for Trump as a VP candidate - he’s awkward, uncharismatic, not funny, and also extremely hostile. For example, after the Trump assassination attempt, he quickly blamed Biden for the incident.
8/20
So why was JD picked? My bet is on money. Vance’s connections to Silicon Valley investors like Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, Ben Horowicz, Marc Andreessen and David Sacks bring in huge campaign contributions to Trump who at times has been strapped for cash.
9/20
In return, Vance has allegedly promised to deregulate crypto and remove safeguards around AI development. And as an investor, having your favorite candidate in the White House can’t be bad for business, eh?
10/20
Like his investor buddies, JD is also extremely opportunistic. In 2016, he was strongly against Trump’s presidency, calling him “divisive and arrogant” and “America’s Hitler”, referring to himself as a “never Trump guy” and calling Trump’s voters “idiots”.
11/20
But apparently his wealthy overlords changed their minds about Trump: in 2021, after announcing his senate candidacy, JD had been politically cuckolded by Trump. This led to JD deleting some of his old social media posts and publicly apologizing for his past behavior.
12/20
And like Trump, Vance also has a way of polarizing whole societies. He’s alienated a bunch of voters by saying that people without children are often "most sociopathic,” “psychotic,” and “deranged”. He’s also suggested that people without children should pay more taxes.
13/20
Probably in order to suck up to Trump, Vance has parroted the claims that the 2020 election was stolen and that the Jan 6 rioters are unjustly prosecuted. He’s also said that journalists should be investigated for “colluding against Trump” in 2020.
14/20
JD’s stance on the Russo-Ukrainian War has been in line with the tech bros that support him. In Apr 2022, he stated that “I don’t really care what happens to Ukraine one way or the other”.
JD hasn’t also been shy about sharing literal Russian disinformation, when he…
15/20
… claimed that the US is sending money to Ukraine “so that one of Zelenskyy’s ministers can buy a bigger yacht”. The fake story about Zelenskyy (not his ministers) buying a yacht was spread by super-vatnik and conman John Mark Dougan:
He’s also published a Senate memo claiming that Ukraine isn’t accounting for the aid they’re given (Ukraine established a parliamentary commission for this sole purpose in 2022) & that Ukraine has too few soldiers - the latter may be true at this point, but they now have…
17/20
… 14 fresh and trained brigades waiting to rotate to the frontlines, but the troops are not properly armed due to delays in Western aid. And as most of you know, these life-costing delays were mostly due to political decisions made by JD’s MAGA gang & speaker Mike Johnson.
18/20
He’s also stated that Ukraine should just cede land and cut a deal with Putin - a man who has broken pretty much every treaty and ceasefire in the past. JD apparently also ignores the fact that Russia is now funneling 35% of total government spending on military.
19/20
To conclude,JD is a VP candidate that was probably chosen because he brings in a lot of money from the tech bros.He doesn’t seem to have any set of permanent values & his former roommate called him a “sellout”, “angry”, “vindictive”, & “the perfect fit for Trump’s revenge”.
20/20
You can now pre-order my upcoming (Fall of 2024) book titled “Vatnik Soup - The Ultimate Guide to Russian Disinformation” from here:
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.
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.
1/15
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: