‘LYING ON PURPOSE’ - RadPod’s Interview with ‘Vatnik Soup’ Creator Pekka Kallioniemi
As a brave ally gets targeted online, this post serves as a reminder of the great work my friend Pekka does exposing the pro-Kremlin bullshit artists. Reposting our interview from 5-15-2023
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‘Lying On Purpose’
RadPod’s interview from May 15, 2023, with Pekka Kallioniemi, the creator of ‘Vatnik Soup’, is epic.
Please revisit this interview with him as a reminder of the important work that he does.
His reach has grown, and with that, his attack surface. Today, he was attacked online, and I just want to remind my friends that when coordinated harassment campaigns occur, it’s because people do good work.
As I wrote this morning:
When you see people who do good and important getting attacked, stand by them, unwaveringly.
I prefer my heroes to be imperfect. The Putin regime doesn’t want you to have heroes.
The trust we have for one another is sacred. Fascists want to break it—be unwavering and fight on.
It takes brave people to do this work and expose authoritarian enablers.
Everyone has a past. I owned mine by publishing two books about it.
And when you see who Pekka’s targeted harasser tagged into his hate thread, it’s not only a confession of Russian symping, but a forensic crime scene.
Pekka began his Vatnik Soup work by wanting to try to do something helpful for the Ukrainian people from his home country of Finland, and as a postdoctoral researcher at Tampere University of Applied Sciences, he began identifying Russian propagandists. When you crack open his website, you will find many Americans who wrap themselves in our flag as they do the work of the Kremlin.
As they lie on purpose.
Having a repository with many of the people who harass me and my various team members on that list is like manna from heaven.
I ask each of you to watch, absorb, share, and please consider supporting the work we do at RadPod by joining our monthly patreon.
I ask that you also consider a coffee donation to support Pekka’s vital work. What we all have in common is we are parents who do not want our children growing up in a fascist hellscape, as Jim Stewartson so eloquently puts it.
Join me in reciting that phrase from Pekka, often - ‘lying on purpose’ - a most pernicious thing to do to people, which as our Ukraine soldier friend, Volodymr Demchenko said puts liars in the lowest rung of hell because they force people to live in a false reality.
Here is another report on Pekka’s work that I wrote:
Thank you as always for your support of the work I do and the work of my allies.
As I sometimes remind people, if you like what I do, great. If you don’t, that’s okay. The main this is, I like what I do. And along the way, I have learned to like me. I owned my past.
I even like that girl, too. I am a sum of all my parts and experiences, and all the things that make me, me - that make me durable in fighting this war.
And each night, I go to bed grateful I am not a traitor taking money from the Russians.
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More info about Bette Dangerous - This magazine is written by Heidi Siegmund Cuda, an Emmy-award winning investigative reporter/producer, author, and veteran music and nightlife columnist. She is the cohost of RADICALIZED Truth Survives, an investigative show about disinformation and is part of the Byline Media team. Thank you for your support of independent investigative journalism.
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Begin each day with a grateful heart.
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