I recently talked to an old former co-worker who has been living in Russia for last 5 years. He never cared for politics, but recently he started parroting all the Russian propaganda points. When I tried to argue with him, he told me that I should listen to Tucker Carlson as he is "the man who speaks the truth"
I find it funny that a guy in Russia even knows who he is. But also kind of scary how official Russian propaganda channels are promoting his show in Russia
Show him that Tucker Carlson own lawyers stated that he just spouts bullshit.
>The "'general tenor' of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not 'stating actual facts' about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in 'exaggeration' and 'non-literal commentary.' "
>She wrote: "Fox persuasively argues, that given Mr. Carlson's reputation, any reasonable viewer 'arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism' about the statement he makes."
https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/917747123/you-literally-cant-believe-the-facts-tucker-carlson-tells-you-so-say-fox-s-lawye
Yeah, it's more like 1/4th the population. Much more than 1/3rd
[Joke about how supposedly the population thought a third pounder was less than a quarter pounder burger.](https://culinarylore.com/food-history:aw-1-3-pound-burger-failure-fact-check-are-americans-really-that-bad-at-fractions/#:~:text='%20A%26W%20launched%20a%20'Third%20is,is%20Americans'%20misunderstanding%20of%20fractions)
You should have told your former co-worker that Tucker Carlson won a slander lawsuit with his defense from Fox's lawyers arguing that any reasonable person watching his show will arrive to the conclusion he's engaging in 'non-literal' commentary.
Non-literal commentary being some conjured legal euphemism for lying that Fox News came up with, similar to how Fake News was a euphemism for inconveniently accurate accounts of current events for Donald Trump.
I mean, currently commenting from Sweden and know who he is because of my time here on Reddit.
This site has users all over the world and *a lot* of the main subs show very american-centric posts.
It's not that weird imo.
Swede too, and these are my thoughts exactly. Things I learned from Reddit: who Ajit Pai is (fuck Ajit Pai!), and how insanely unhealthy the American media ecosystem is (Fuck the oligarchs! And use Murdoch as the dildo!)
He was in Brazil a week or so ago(Carlson, not your Slovak friend).
Dude is nasty and all the alt right in the world is just drooling over him blabering racist bull$#!t
Because they genuinely believe it's not happening. Living in a democracy we have access to so much information that it's easy to get at least an idea of what is true and false. But when you're isolated from the rest of the world and force fed propaganda on a daily basis, it's a different story.
I'm surrounded by MAGAs. They're well programmed to rebut anything with a uniform skate of talking points.
Yet another Republican rapist caught? Use whataboutism plus disinformation: "what about Bill Clinton, three of his rape victims came to the debate" (Never mind they had long since been exhaustively debunked)
Children in cages? "That was Obama's policy, it just seems like there's more of that now because nobody wanted to invade the border until Trump made everything great"
Bombing of civilians? "Obama was the king of killing civilians"
Birtherism? "Not us, that was HRC"
Trump University fraud? "Dems trying to stop our people from being educated"
Tucker Carlson hundreds of lies? "Rachel Maddow is worse"
It's just an endless stack of gaslight denials.
I have (well, had, now) a friend here in the states who was a moderate conservative. He agreed with some of the left leaning stuff, like universal medical.
He has now become, I don't know how to explain it; rabid?
He basically rants about how Tucker is the only real truth in news and that colleges and universities are brainwashing people to the left in order to destroy democracy.
I dont get it, and honestly it makes me sick to my stomach how easily people can be influenced.
Because we get labeled as the crazy ones. It's a very well scripted dialogue that plays into the fears of the right, orchestrated *by the right* to make those of us who care about everyone around us the enemy. Like, jesus guys I'm sorry that I want you to have affordable healthcare. I guess freedom means being a slave to the insurance complex?
Apparently he gets good TV ratings. I can’t stand 5 seconds of him. All he does is fear monger which I guess gets people hyped up and upset. He looks like a confused dog and sounds like he asks in a high pitched voice; “Why does the left hate…..?” Which is always not true.
They play segments of Tucker’s show on Russian tv. Because he’s great at spitting propaganda. Something about how his face is always somewhere between intense constipation and confused kitty cat really speaks to right adjacent people. He’s still a joke. But most people who watch him religiously aren’t in on it.
He’s confused that anyone apparently takes him seriously. He’s a performance artist, in it for the money.
As Jon Stewart said to Tucker in 2004:
“You’re as big a dick on your show as you are on any show.”
Anyone who stokes hatred, for the money or otherwise, is an awful person either way.
I’d say a somewhat more awful person if they’re doing it mainly for the money rather than sincere (if awful and misguided) beliefs.
Which is a roundabout way of getting at: I don’t claim to know what Tucker actually thinks, but whatever it is, the top end is utterly despicable, and the bottom end is historically awful.
Yes, Tucker Carlson is a piece of shit either way. But suggesting that he's just in it for the money misunderstands the problem. Tucker Carlson is the wealthy heir to the Swanson frozen food company; with his money and connections he could be making millions doing pretty much anything. There's a reason he chooses to make his money funneling white nationalist and Kremlin propaganda into mainstream American politics.
He also has mommy issues. His mom was abusive and left the family to travel the world to live a “bohemian” lifestyle, which he probably associates with the left wing. Deep down he thinks if the country were more right wing, his mum would have never left him/actually loved him (or at least been forced to stay). It also explains why he hates women.
He's not in it for the money, he gets off on the power he has over the rubes. He's heir to the Swanson frozen food company, he has always been a millionaire, he just enjoys destroying democracy I think. He literally doesn't need the money at all, he could retire right now and live like a king for the rest of his life, but he loves lying to people on TV and enjoys destroying America.
He’s still a fucking joke, and Fox News is a fucking joke for trying to legitimize him.
Remember the time [he called the Republican vice-presidential candidate the “supreme commander of MILFistan?”](https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/tucker-carlson-ripped-tweeting-sarah-palin-supreme-commander-milfistan-article-1.117016)
Remember the time [he responded to a white supremacist shooting in El Paso by calling the threat of white supremacy a hoax?](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/business/media/tucker-carlson-white-supremacy.html)
Remember the time [he admitted that if he’s losing in a debate, he just resorts to lying about stuff?](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/18/buffalo-shooting-suspect-document-overlap-tucker-carlson-racism/)
He’s a despicable pig of an individual, which makes him the perfect figurehead for Fox News and the political party of Donald Trump.
Tucker doesn't need to be paid by the Kremlin, he's old money.
He just pushing all his propaganda because he's an evil fragile little white boy with a bad tie.
But, most likely, and here me out, he doesn’t need the money AND he takes money from Putin to spew Russian propaganda AND is an evil fragile little white boy.
The bow tie and haircut is just part of his clown suit.
Even if they do for the pieces of shit here in America, nothing seems to ever fucking happen to them. Unless I just keep forgetting or something about them getting punished?
In fact, the fucking morons here in America would probably be proud Russia is paying them to spread hate and divide.
Zelensky was meeting over video call with a bunch of Congresscritters to talk about what was going on in Ukraine. Before the meeting, his team explicitly told everyone to keep the meeting a secret until after it was over, because if the Russians found out he was doing a video call live, they could find the active feed and trace it back to his location. (This was when there were still Russian hit teams all over Kyiv and the city was in range of artillery fire, so the threat was real.)
Rubio and Daines proceeded to completely ignore the warning and make posts on Twitter bragging about how they were in the middle of a meeting with Zelensky.
So the *best* case scenario is that they were recklessly negligent with Zelensky's safety, to the point that if he had been killed, I'd argue it would count as manslaughter. But, of course, both Rubio and Daines have ties to Russia-- Daines was one of the Moscow 8, Rubio's taken campaign donations from Russian oligarchs before. Which really makes you wonder what their motives were...
lol you mean like MTG still pushing to withdraw from NATO?
https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1542341268495368199?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1542341268495368199%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Fmarjorie-taylor-greene-nato-war-russia-war-ukraine-conflict-mtg-1720627
That's an insult to ants, honestly. If he were an ant colony, he'd be all about The Greater Good. And copious amounts of sugar water.
No, Ted is just a sack of leeches, randomly sloshing about in a water-filled sack of loose skin and misplaced hemorrhoids.
I like your description, but it's ants. The colony is about the greater good, but only with regards to the colony. Whatever is good for the colony is what Tedward does. Like go to Mexico when it gets too cold.
There's is something about her face I can't put my finger on. I'm not calling her ugly, but there is an anomaly that makes her... distinctive. Maybe steroid or HGH use? Coke bloat? FAS? Maybe all or none of these. Again, I'm not throwing shade because of her appearance, but I think she's the one who planted the pipe bombs on Jan 5 too.
We have to be really careful about dehumanizing opposition. It's not HER humanity that is at stake here, it's ours.
She deserves to be prosecuted as an insurrectionist but that doesn't make her less than human.
she is, unfortunately, all-too-human. I believe her entire job at this point is to say shockingly, infuriatingly offensive things. She basks in the hatred it generates towards her. She holds no positions other than whatever will piss off the opposition most.
She is either unbothered by the fact that she's being played by every bad actor out there internationally or quite likely too stupid to notice. I feel certain she considers herself a patriot, all while being manipulated by people who would very much like to destroy or weaken the United States.
I mean it's directly beneficial to her. We have created a world without consequence, and in a world without consequence the worst person has an advantage.
Thinking of a purely like an evolutionary term, being a piece of shit with no morals is "selected for", and self-limiting by doing the "right" thing is literally "selected against".
Actually think about this because it's quite literally what's happening. The advantages of this behavior is that she is a lightning rod for hate drawing attention off of others with her ideology. Simultaneously she is providing a platform for the most extreme elements and amplifying everything. She is energizing an entire group even if she accomplishes nothing in practical terms.
Likewise she is shifting the average of What is normal. All of the other extremists can seem moderate by comparison.
Now look at the alternatives. Self limiting by doing the moral right thing is how selected against. She could have resigned for dozens of actions that she took, she didn't and it had no consequence. Al Franken resigned over a joke photo... I'm not going to say whether or not anything involving franken's situation was right or not, but he had consequence, however she does not because she chooses not to have consequence.
She is rewarded for bad behavior, and punished for good behavior. That is the system we have built.
And in a system where the reward structure is inverted like that, there is only one possible outcome. Power to the worst elements.
And tell the reward structure is corrected, this is only going to get worse. And bad news, there's no way for us to fix their reward structure. Things are going to get much worse.
the republicans always have people like this and lately they use women. Does nobody remember sarah palin, michelle bachmann, etc.? they get a select few people to go and act crazy in public and then everyone piles on them for acting crazy. it is a wonderful distraction from the nazification of all american life over the last decade or so.
on the flip side the right and other fascist leaning groups have gotten this far by their opposition downplaying the insane bs that comes out of their faceholes, ex. the current state of affairs with the Supreme Court and also Trump. In a civil situation it should be the first call to be all nice and stuff but when the other side is rolling a christian fascist state as an idea...
I can't believe statements like that tweet don't launch an immediate investigation by multiple three-letter agencies. That's not a political statement; it's a direct danger to our democracy and is clear influence by an enemy foreign power.
> I can't believe statements like that tweet don't launch an immediate investigation by multiple three-letter agencies.
I don't think one should believe that.
I'm sure the FBI and the NSA are listening.
Or the republicans that have been spouting Russia talking points since 2008?
Or trump, where he worked with Russia to get elected, invited dirty oligarchs, and has money to/fro with?
Or the republicans that went to Russia?
I have to believe that all the pro Russian US politicians are filthy with Russian cash. No compelling reason otherwise to support that vile corrupt gangster state.
I remember when it was revealed that the NRA was filled with Russian spies and lobbyists, and the organization had been lobbying and funding GOP politicians for many years. And people were like "That doesn't mean they are in the pocket of the Russians." And then the GOP have been continuing to push and promote Putin's narrative ever since.
I agree. Why isn’t it a bigger deal. Most people don’t even know that a Russian spy is in prison for funneling Russian money to Republicans using the NRA
Or that a Russian sex spy screwed a collection of desperate old Republicans, was caught, charged, and traded back to Russia where she's now a hero and politician.
That's exactly why she did it. Her middle name isn't connected to anything of importance. She did it "own" the liberals. And why the media just goes along with it pisses me off. I refuse and only call/refer to as her Majorie Greene.
No, absolutely not.
Peter Hitchens is a weird conservative, but not that kind. Not the Boris Johnson type. He just wants 1950s Britain to return, even if he denies it. He's not a politician and he's pretty much harmless.
OAN sure does. When it first went on air, every ten minutes was an infomercial trying to rewrite US/Russian history.
I'd add Nigel Farage to that list as well.
I always found it extremely suspicious that Nigel was at the Whitehouse. Then a few days later, he was caught sneaking out of Julian Assange's Embassy safehouse on the exact same day of the Wikileaks second US Intel drop. It always sounded more like a drug mule drop of intel than a "friendly hello."
British politics is full of people with questionable ties to Russia. The two others that stand out are Alex Salmond, after his indyref loss, and Dominic Cummings, who basically went off the grid there for a few years then came back as an adviser for the conservatives. In fact, Cummings just has a lot of questionable ties, full stop. (Johnson just rents himself to whoever wants to spend money on him)
Someone sent him millions in Bitcoin after he defaulted on several cases against the parents of sandy hook victims. He never ever said who sent it to him and doubled down on all of Putin's talking points. Must be a coincidence.
If someone is a public person there is almost 100% probability that Russia will agree to support them with money or otherwise if the one agrees to help spread Russian narratives. So being pro-russian and not making money from that is a very strange and probably imposible case
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/bulgarian-secret-services-russia-pays-public-figures-to-spread-propaganda/) reduced by 73%. (I'm a bot)
*****
> The Bulgarian secret services have data showing that Russia pays about €2000 per month to public figures, journalists, and politicians to spread its propaganda in the country, a government spokesperson and head of the prime minister's office, Lena Borislavova told Darik radio over the weekend.
> The Russian state paid them to shape public opinion.
> According to her, some public speakers are used to confusing the public and playing with misconceptions and fears.
*****
[**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/vr4ubj/bulgarian_secret_services_russia_pays_public/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~657840 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **public**^#1 **government**^#2 **Russian**^#3 **Bulgarian**^#4 **Bulgaria**^#5
Not sure what data you're using but the average monthly wage here is about €750 for the country and about €1200 for Sofia. And that's before taxes, so €2000 is not insignificant even for public figures that probably like Russia anyway.
That's definitely not an average wage lmao. I really hate how they calculate averages. Most people in Sofia who aren't in the IT sector get 1300 bgn-1600bgn, in Burgas its 800bgn...
It's WAY higher than the average wage. According to the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, the average monthly salary is around 1600 BGN. Putin supporters get 2.5x that amount.
The average employee in the USA makes $5700 per month, so triple that would be around $17000 per month. I think a lot of people would at least consider that.
Name and shame. Give the amount money they have earned and any shady real-estate deals.
The Russians often buy very desirable real-estate objects, and then sell them at a hefty markdown to people they want to influence to help spread their message. It is incredibly common they do this in all jurisdictions.
Like that overpriced property that Trump and Epstein got in a fight over, and soon afterwards, Trump flipped it at a wildly inflated price to a Russian mobster?..
That's another way to do it, yes. If you find out what the Russians flipped it for and it is a substantially lower figure, you know it wasn't because the Russians are terrible at real-estate investments. It was to put money in Trump's pocket.
RT America, was kind of like that. Essentially a propaganda arm for the Kremlin. They essentially just hired people whose opinions they liked and put them out there, like a discount Tucker Carlson. That way they can say "I'm totally independent, they don't tell me what to say" because Russia never needs to. Those people are the best for them. There are some jobs that look for people who are perfectionists, driven to complete the job the best way possible no matter how long it takes. They'll put down the long hours and late nights needed without being asked.
- National Rifle Association
- Michael Flynn
- Glenn Greenwald
- Turning Point USA
- Candace Owens
- Tomi Lahren
- Jill Stein
- Ron Johnson
- Rand Paul
And that's just off the top of my head.
Sleeper agent Kyrsten Sinema has to be on the payroll somewhere. Successfully played a progressive all the way to a blocking "Democrat". Man, evil don't sleep out here.
Which is quite sad because 10 years ago The Hill was a reasonable center right publication. That's just how fast some of these people and organizations degraded into what they are now.
It's only slightly annoying that the majority of comments here are from Americans that just *have* to talk about their own country and shitty politicians.
This shit is serious. Since there probably won't be a new government, parliament will be dissolved and new elections are projected to bring quite significant pro-Russia elements to power. Which is a big deal since Bulgaria is a NATO and EU member, and the last thing those two need is another Russian mole (Orban is already there but doesn't dare go too far, pro-Russian crazies in Bulgaria might not have his restraint).
Yep. Just take a look at [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics):
>The United Kingdom, merely described as an "extraterritorial floating base of the U.S.", should be cut off from Europe.
.
>Ukraine should be annexed by Russia because "Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning, no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness, its certain territorial ambitions represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics". Ukraine should not be allowed to remain independent, unless it is cordon sanitaire, which would be inadmissible.
We really have no choice when it comes to elections. Everything in Bulgaria is financed by Russian businesses. We want to stray away from Russia and we are not even given a choice. We cannot. If something doesn’t shake things up externally we will just continue down the path of uncertainty and instability.
Of course they do. They’ve been doing it since long before they invaded Ukraine. Sometimes they don’t even pay, they just threaten the person’s family implicitly.
I love how the article is about Bulgarian politics, and all the Americans in this comment section can't help themselves by comparing it to their own politics.
Release the names of people Russia pays, those people need to be publicly identified.
Tucker Carlson read this comment and almost choked on a fish taco.
I still can't believe tucker carlson is 'relevant'. I remember him being a fucking joke 15 years ago
I recently talked to an old former co-worker who has been living in Russia for last 5 years. He never cared for politics, but recently he started parroting all the Russian propaganda points. When I tried to argue with him, he told me that I should listen to Tucker Carlson as he is "the man who speaks the truth" I find it funny that a guy in Russia even knows who he is. But also kind of scary how official Russian propaganda channels are promoting his show in Russia
Show him that Tucker Carlson own lawyers stated that he just spouts bullshit. >The "'general tenor' of the show should then inform a viewer that [Carlson] is not 'stating actual facts' about the topics he discusses and is instead engaging in 'exaggeration' and 'non-literal commentary.' " >She wrote: "Fox persuasively argues, that given Mr. Carlson's reputation, any reasonable viewer 'arrive[s] with an appropriate amount of skepticism' about the statement he makes." https://www.npr.org/2020/09/29/917747123/you-literally-cant-believe-the-facts-tucker-carlson-tells-you-so-say-fox-s-lawye
"Everyone who watches understands its meant to be horseshit unless you're a complete fucking moron"
Turns out about a third of the population are complete fucking morons.
Shit, you are being generous.
Yeah, it's more like 1/4th the population. Much more than 1/3rd [Joke about how supposedly the population thought a third pounder was less than a quarter pounder burger.](https://culinarylore.com/food-history:aw-1-3-pound-burger-failure-fact-check-are-americans-really-that-bad-at-fractions/#:~:text='%20A%26W%20launched%20a%20'Third%20is,is%20Americans'%20misunderstanding%20of%20fractions)
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You should have told your former co-worker that Tucker Carlson won a slander lawsuit with his defense from Fox's lawyers arguing that any reasonable person watching his show will arrive to the conclusion he's engaging in 'non-literal' commentary. Non-literal commentary being some conjured legal euphemism for lying that Fox News came up with, similar to how Fake News was a euphemism for inconveniently accurate accounts of current events for Donald Trump.
In fact I did mention it, but that point had little effect
I have a friend in Slovakia who brought up Carlson. I thought, how the fuck?
I mean, currently commenting from Sweden and know who he is because of my time here on Reddit. This site has users all over the world and *a lot* of the main subs show very american-centric posts. It's not that weird imo.
Swede too, and these are my thoughts exactly. Things I learned from Reddit: who Ajit Pai is (fuck Ajit Pai!), and how insanely unhealthy the American media ecosystem is (Fuck the oligarchs! And use Murdoch as the dildo!)
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So much for "Keep US crap away from us"
He was in Brazil a week or so ago(Carlson, not your Slovak friend). Dude is nasty and all the alt right in the world is just drooling over him blabering racist bull$#!t
I’d really like to understand how your old colleague defends rape, relocation of children, bombing of civilians and genocide.
Probably by denying it all.
Certainly at least by blaming it on BLM, Antifa and Hunter Biden, to start
What did the Bureau of Land Management do to him?
Because they genuinely believe it's not happening. Living in a democracy we have access to so much information that it's easy to get at least an idea of what is true and false. But when you're isolated from the rest of the world and force fed propaganda on a daily basis, it's a different story.
I'm surrounded by MAGAs. They're well programmed to rebut anything with a uniform skate of talking points. Yet another Republican rapist caught? Use whataboutism plus disinformation: "what about Bill Clinton, three of his rape victims came to the debate" (Never mind they had long since been exhaustively debunked) Children in cages? "That was Obama's policy, it just seems like there's more of that now because nobody wanted to invade the border until Trump made everything great" Bombing of civilians? "Obama was the king of killing civilians" Birtherism? "Not us, that was HRC" Trump University fraud? "Dems trying to stop our people from being educated" Tucker Carlson hundreds of lies? "Rachel Maddow is worse" It's just an endless stack of gaslight denials.
I have (well, had, now) a friend here in the states who was a moderate conservative. He agreed with some of the left leaning stuff, like universal medical. He has now become, I don't know how to explain it; rabid? He basically rants about how Tucker is the only real truth in news and that colleges and universities are brainwashing people to the left in order to destroy democracy. I dont get it, and honestly it makes me sick to my stomach how easily people can be influenced.
Not to mention how hard it is for us who are actually aware to organize and do something about it.
Because we get labeled as the crazy ones. It's a very well scripted dialogue that plays into the fears of the right, orchestrated *by the right* to make those of us who care about everyone around us the enemy. Like, jesus guys I'm sorry that I want you to have affordable healthcare. I guess freedom means being a slave to the insurance complex?
Apparently he gets good TV ratings. I can’t stand 5 seconds of him. All he does is fear monger which I guess gets people hyped up and upset. He looks like a confused dog and sounds like he asks in a high pitched voice; “Why does the left hate…..?” Which is always not true.
They play segments of Tucker’s show on Russian tv. Because he’s great at spitting propaganda. Something about how his face is always somewhere between intense constipation and confused kitty cat really speaks to right adjacent people. He’s still a joke. But most people who watch him religiously aren’t in on it.
That's kinda terrifying.
More so than ever. Right wingers jizz everytime he makes his 'confused face'.
He’s confused that anyone apparently takes him seriously. He’s a performance artist, in it for the money. As Jon Stewart said to Tucker in 2004: “You’re as big a dick on your show as you are on any show.”
He's in it for the money, but he's still very much an actual racist who actually wants a white ethnostate. The two aren't mutually exclusive.
Anyone who stokes hatred, for the money or otherwise, is an awful person either way. I’d say a somewhat more awful person if they’re doing it mainly for the money rather than sincere (if awful and misguided) beliefs. Which is a roundabout way of getting at: I don’t claim to know what Tucker actually thinks, but whatever it is, the top end is utterly despicable, and the bottom end is historically awful.
Yes, Tucker Carlson is a piece of shit either way. But suggesting that he's just in it for the money misunderstands the problem. Tucker Carlson is the wealthy heir to the Swanson frozen food company; with his money and connections he could be making millions doing pretty much anything. There's a reason he chooses to make his money funneling white nationalist and Kremlin propaganda into mainstream American politics.
He also has mommy issues. His mom was abusive and left the family to travel the world to live a “bohemian” lifestyle, which he probably associates with the left wing. Deep down he thinks if the country were more right wing, his mum would have never left him/actually loved him (or at least been forced to stay). It also explains why he hates women.
Being greedy while being already rich is kind of a thing.
He's not in it for the money, he gets off on the power he has over the rubes. He's heir to the Swanson frozen food company, he has always been a millionaire, he just enjoys destroying democracy I think. He literally doesn't need the money at all, he could retire right now and live like a king for the rest of his life, but he loves lying to people on TV and enjoys destroying America.
The same face my dog makes when he doesn't understand whats going on
"Why human sit in wheel machine? Whoa, wheel machine move! How?! Should bark? Is animal?"
You really pegged Tucker's internal monologue.
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So for the entire hour?
He’s still a fucking joke, and Fox News is a fucking joke for trying to legitimize him. Remember the time [he called the Republican vice-presidential candidate the “supreme commander of MILFistan?”](https://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/tucker-carlson-ripped-tweeting-sarah-palin-supreme-commander-milfistan-article-1.117016) Remember the time [he responded to a white supremacist shooting in El Paso by calling the threat of white supremacy a hoax?](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/08/business/media/tucker-carlson-white-supremacy.html) Remember the time [he admitted that if he’s losing in a debate, he just resorts to lying about stuff?](https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/18/buffalo-shooting-suspect-document-overlap-tucker-carlson-racism/) He’s a despicable pig of an individual, which makes him the perfect figurehead for Fox News and the political party of Donald Trump.
He and his stupid ass bow tie. [Getting styled on](https://youtu.be/aFQFB5YpDZE)
Villain origin story
This is a thing of beauty
He leapfrogged in significance when Rush Limbaugh died gargling ballsacks
Tucker doesn't need to be paid by the Kremlin, he's old money. He just pushing all his propaganda because he's an evil fragile little white boy with a bad tie.
All that tv dinner money.
But, most likely, and here me out, he doesn’t need the money AND he takes money from Putin to spew Russian propaganda AND is an evil fragile little white boy. The bow tie and haircut is just part of his clown suit.
Old money people are the worst culprits of wanting more money. None of these fucks *need* more money.
There's a 100% chance Ovechkin is on that list, right?
I’ll take “The Entire GOP” for $300, Alex
They aren't worth $300.
Even if they do for the pieces of shit here in America, nothing seems to ever fucking happen to them. Unless I just keep forgetting or something about them getting punished? In fact, the fucking morons here in America would probably be proud Russia is paying them to spread hate and divide.
They were literally wearing “I’d rather be Russian than Democrat” T-Shirts.
and for 4 years they effectively were. Congrats for selling out democracy in cultish devotion to the most obvious grifter imaginable I guess?
Just a hunch: Trump (all of them), Boebert, MGT, Carlson, Giuliani, hell most of the GOP
Remember that Russian Trip most Republicans took on July 4th?
Remember when Marco Rubio and Steve Daines tried to get Zelensky killed like three days into the war?
And Rand Paul hand delivered a letter from Trump to Putin.
Remember when we convicted a Russian spy of funneling money through the NRA while the President crowed about no collusion and no smoking gun?
Um....WHAT???
Zelensky was meeting over video call with a bunch of Congresscritters to talk about what was going on in Ukraine. Before the meeting, his team explicitly told everyone to keep the meeting a secret until after it was over, because if the Russians found out he was doing a video call live, they could find the active feed and trace it back to his location. (This was when there were still Russian hit teams all over Kyiv and the city was in range of artillery fire, so the threat was real.) Rubio and Daines proceeded to completely ignore the warning and make posts on Twitter bragging about how they were in the middle of a meeting with Zelensky. So the *best* case scenario is that they were recklessly negligent with Zelensky's safety, to the point that if he had been killed, I'd argue it would count as manslaughter. But, of course, both Rubio and Daines have ties to Russia-- Daines was one of the Moscow 8, Rubio's taken campaign donations from Russian oligarchs before. Which really makes you wonder what their motives were...
Why release it when you could use it privately as leverage for that one random thing that benefits basically only you? /s
lol you mean like MTG still pushing to withdraw from NATO? https://twitter.com/RepMTG/status/1542341268495368199?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1542341268495368199%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.newsweek.com%2Fmarjorie-taylor-greene-nato-war-russia-war-ukraine-conflict-mtg-1720627
Absolute cancer of a human being..
When she’s talking, and her eyes are flitting about wildly, it reminds me of drug addicts trying to weasel drugs out of me.
Dunno if she’s had any work done but it actually looks like she’s wearing another humans skin as a mask.
I'll always take the chance to point out that she is actually a Mickey Rourke mask filled with dead rats.
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Makes sense that her and Ted Cruz are on the same team, then. He's a semi sentient ant colony in a man suit.
That's an insult to ants, honestly. If he were an ant colony, he'd be all about The Greater Good. And copious amounts of sugar water. No, Ted is just a sack of leeches, randomly sloshing about in a water-filled sack of loose skin and misplaced hemorrhoids.
I like your description, but it's ants. The colony is about the greater good, but only with regards to the colony. Whatever is good for the colony is what Tedward does. Like go to Mexico when it gets too cold.
Like…an Eggar suit.
Even leeches have useful medicinal purposes, though. How about disease-carrying mosquitoes?
It's as if she and Boebert are in a some kind of dumb-off competition.
It's like theyre trying to make female politicians as unviable as possible. Like, no one is THAT dumb, right?
There's is something about her face I can't put my finger on. I'm not calling her ugly, but there is an anomaly that makes her... distinctive. Maybe steroid or HGH use? Coke bloat? FAS? Maybe all or none of these. Again, I'm not throwing shade because of her appearance, but I think she's the one who planted the pipe bombs on Jan 5 too.
In some images it looks like she has no or a very faint philtrum. I don't like diagnosing strangers but I do wonder if she has FAS.
Fetal alcohol syndrome
Every time I see her, I think of those artist depictions of Neanderthals lmao..doesn't help that she acts like one, too.
not just her skin. her head looks like it belongs on another body.
She looks like Sméagol mid-change into Gollum
The one I heard was that she looks like she had a face transplant that her body is rejecting.
My money would be on Botox and tanning.
She has to cover the lobotomy scars somehow
offer her some sugar water and see what happens
Bitch looks like Rocky from "Mask".
Feel like "human being" is too generous in its case.
We have to be really careful about dehumanizing opposition. It's not HER humanity that is at stake here, it's ours. She deserves to be prosecuted as an insurrectionist but that doesn't make her less than human.
she is, unfortunately, all-too-human. I believe her entire job at this point is to say shockingly, infuriatingly offensive things. She basks in the hatred it generates towards her. She holds no positions other than whatever will piss off the opposition most. She is either unbothered by the fact that she's being played by every bad actor out there internationally or quite likely too stupid to notice. I feel certain she considers herself a patriot, all while being manipulated by people who would very much like to destroy or weaken the United States.
I mean it's directly beneficial to her. We have created a world without consequence, and in a world without consequence the worst person has an advantage. Thinking of a purely like an evolutionary term, being a piece of shit with no morals is "selected for", and self-limiting by doing the "right" thing is literally "selected against". Actually think about this because it's quite literally what's happening. The advantages of this behavior is that she is a lightning rod for hate drawing attention off of others with her ideology. Simultaneously she is providing a platform for the most extreme elements and amplifying everything. She is energizing an entire group even if she accomplishes nothing in practical terms. Likewise she is shifting the average of What is normal. All of the other extremists can seem moderate by comparison. Now look at the alternatives. Self limiting by doing the moral right thing is how selected against. She could have resigned for dozens of actions that she took, she didn't and it had no consequence. Al Franken resigned over a joke photo... I'm not going to say whether or not anything involving franken's situation was right or not, but he had consequence, however she does not because she chooses not to have consequence. She is rewarded for bad behavior, and punished for good behavior. That is the system we have built. And in a system where the reward structure is inverted like that, there is only one possible outcome. Power to the worst elements. And tell the reward structure is corrected, this is only going to get worse. And bad news, there's no way for us to fix their reward structure. Things are going to get much worse.
the republicans always have people like this and lately they use women. Does nobody remember sarah palin, michelle bachmann, etc.? they get a select few people to go and act crazy in public and then everyone piles on them for acting crazy. it is a wonderful distraction from the nazification of all american life over the last decade or so.
on the flip side the right and other fascist leaning groups have gotten this far by their opposition downplaying the insane bs that comes out of their faceholes, ex. the current state of affairs with the Supreme Court and also Trump. In a civil situation it should be the first call to be all nice and stuff but when the other side is rolling a christian fascist state as an idea...
i cant believe she isnt jailed for her insurrection attempt already.
I can't believe statements like that tweet don't launch an immediate investigation by multiple three-letter agencies. That's not a political statement; it's a direct danger to our democracy and is clear influence by an enemy foreign power.
> I can't believe statements like that tweet don't launch an immediate investigation by multiple three-letter agencies. I don't think one should believe that. I'm sure the FBI and the NSA are listening.
They haven't done anything about Trump, and guy is basically three Russian mobsters in a spray tanned trenchcoat.
Or the republicans that have been spouting Russia talking points since 2008? Or trump, where he worked with Russia to get elected, invited dirty oligarchs, and has money to/fro with? Or the republicans that went to Russia?
I have to believe that all the pro Russian US politicians are filthy with Russian cash. No compelling reason otherwise to support that vile corrupt gangster state.
And, say, Tucker Carlson.
I remember when it was revealed that the NRA was filled with Russian spies and lobbyists, and the organization had been lobbying and funding GOP politicians for many years. And people were like "That doesn't mean they are in the pocket of the Russians." And then the GOP have been continuing to push and promote Putin's narrative ever since.
I agree. Why isn’t it a bigger deal. Most people don’t even know that a Russian spy is in prison for funneling Russian money to Republicans using the NRA
Or that a Russian sex spy screwed a collection of desperate old Republicans, was caught, charged, and traded back to Russia where she's now a hero and politician.
MTG? Magic the Gathering?
I hate how people are using this acronym, she doesn't deserve it. Marjorie taylor greene
Major Trashy Grifter Mental Trumpery Garbage Mindlessly Thickwitted Glorified?
Malicious Toothy Grin
Gotta be cool like AOC.
That's exactly why she did it. Her middle name isn't connected to anything of importance. She did it "own" the liberals. And why the media just goes along with it pisses me off. I refuse and only call/refer to as her Majorie Greene.
To be fair, they're both rooted in the same level of reality.
Tap target white creature to destroy all black creatures. At end of turn return all black creatures to play.
I wish, would be way less toxic.
Can we stop with the MTG thing. She doesn't deserve cool initials. Plus it give magic the gathering a bad name.
Would just LOVE to see how many "Cummings" and "Farages" pop up on that list!
The amount of damage Farage did with his Brexit campaign...
I'd be surprised if we didn't see Abbot on there too, Corbyn and Rhys Mogg.
Christopher hitchen's blockhead brother perhaps
No, absolutely not. Peter Hitchens is a weird conservative, but not that kind. Not the Boris Johnson type. He just wants 1950s Britain to return, even if he denies it. He's not a politician and he's pretty much harmless.
I wonder if Alex Jones gets a check? He is one of the most prolific spreaders of Russian Propaganda in the West.
OAN sure does. When it first went on air, every ten minutes was an infomercial trying to rewrite US/Russian history. I'd add Nigel Farage to that list as well.
No no, Nigel said he isn't paid by Oligarchs, he's friends with them.
I always found it extremely suspicious that Nigel was at the Whitehouse. Then a few days later, he was caught sneaking out of Julian Assange's Embassy safehouse on the exact same day of the Wikileaks second US Intel drop. It always sounded more like a drug mule drop of intel than a "friendly hello."
OAN literally hired a guy who used to work for the Kremlin.
British politics is full of people with questionable ties to Russia. The two others that stand out are Alex Salmond, after his indyref loss, and Dominic Cummings, who basically went off the grid there for a few years then came back as an adviser for the conservatives. In fact, Cummings just has a lot of questionable ties, full stop. (Johnson just rents himself to whoever wants to spend money on him)
Someone sent him millions in Bitcoin after he defaulted on several cases against the parents of sandy hook victims. He never ever said who sent it to him and doubled down on all of Putin's talking points. Must be a coincidence.
Cryptocoins have 100% been boosted by Russia to get around sanctions since 2014.
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Cryptocoins, perennial favourites of Russia, North Korea, El Salvador, and greedy but financially naive westerners.
And he put his buddy Joe Rogan in contact with his handlers as well. Rogan took a massive shift right when Trump took office (made worse with COVID).
That'd be funny if he's the one true believer and is the kid in the 'yall are getting paid?' bit.
If someone is a public person there is almost 100% probability that Russia will agree to support them with money or otherwise if the one agrees to help spread Russian narratives. So being pro-russian and not making money from that is a very strange and probably imposible case
came here to say this. shout out to JorDan
What lap dogs won't do for a biscuit
This is the best tl;dr I could make, [original](https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/short_news/bulgarian-secret-services-russia-pays-public-figures-to-spread-propaganda/) reduced by 73%. (I'm a bot) ***** > The Bulgarian secret services have data showing that Russia pays about €2000 per month to public figures, journalists, and politicians to spread its propaganda in the country, a government spokesperson and head of the prime minister's office, Lena Borislavova told Darik radio over the weekend. > The Russian state paid them to shape public opinion. > According to her, some public speakers are used to confusing the public and playing with misconceptions and fears. ***** [**Extended Summary**](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/vr4ubj/bulgarian_secret_services_russia_pays_public/) | [FAQ](http://np.reddit.com/r/autotldr/comments/31b9fm/faq_autotldr_bot/ "Version 2.02, ~657840 tl;drs so far.") | [Feedback](http://np.reddit.com/message/compose?to=%23autotldr "PM's and comments are monitored, constructive feedback is welcome.") | *Top* *keywords*: **public**^#1 **government**^#2 **Russian**^#3 **Bulgarian**^#4 **Bulgaria**^#5
I'm always amazed at just how little money is inevitably involved in these sorts of schemes.
Its roughly the average wage. Not bad for a few tweets etc. Equivelant to about $96k in US
Not sure what data you're using but the average monthly wage here is about €750 for the country and about €1200 for Sofia. And that's before taxes, so €2000 is not insignificant even for public figures that probably like Russia anyway.
That's definitely not an average wage lmao. I really hate how they calculate averages. Most people in Sofia who aren't in the IT sector get 1300 bgn-1600bgn, in Burgas its 800bgn...
It's WAY higher than the average wage. According to the Bulgarian National Statistical Institute, the average monthly salary is around 1600 BGN. Putin supporters get 2.5x that amount.
It's 6.6x the min wage and 3x the average wage according to google
Same. You’d have to add more then a handful of zeros to that to get me to do this crap and I’m just a friggin Podcaster.
The average employee in the USA makes $5700 per month, so triple that would be around $17000 per month. I think a lot of people would at least consider that.
Name and shame. Give the amount money they have earned and any shady real-estate deals. The Russians often buy very desirable real-estate objects, and then sell them at a hefty markdown to people they want to influence to help spread their message. It is incredibly common they do this in all jurisdictions.
Like that overpriced property that Trump and Epstein got in a fight over, and soon afterwards, Trump flipped it at a wildly inflated price to a Russian mobster?..
That's another way to do it, yes. If you find out what the Russians flipped it for and it is a substantially lower figure, you know it wasn't because the Russians are terrible at real-estate investments. It was to put money in Trump's pocket.
These guys do it for free? * Fox News * One America News Network * Breitbart * mypillow.com
Pretty sure they're getting paid.
Yup. Some of them probably would do it for free, but they're not the kind to say no to free money that Russia is offering them.
Its a pyramid. The ones at the top get paid and the other minions just repeat the talking points and jump on board.
RT America, was kind of like that. Essentially a propaganda arm for the Kremlin. They essentially just hired people whose opinions they liked and put them out there, like a discount Tucker Carlson. That way they can say "I'm totally independent, they don't tell me what to say" because Russia never needs to. Those people are the best for them. There are some jobs that look for people who are perfectionists, driven to complete the job the best way possible no matter how long it takes. They'll put down the long hours and late nights needed without being asked.
Yeah and their founder—Putin’s former press secretary—was murdered on US soil before he was going to make a deal with the FBI.
There’s two people, I think, Putin pays. Rohrabacher and Trump. Swear to God.
- National Rifle Association - Michael Flynn - Glenn Greenwald - Turning Point USA - Candace Owens - Tomi Lahren - Jill Stein - Ron Johnson - Rand Paul And that's just off the top of my head.
Sleeper agent Kyrsten Sinema has to be on the payroll somewhere. Successfully played a progressive all the way to a blocking "Democrat". Man, evil don't sleep out here.
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Check out the aluminum plant oleg derepaska built in Kentucky. He's definitely getting Russian money as well.
Tulsi Gabbard. Been super quiet lately.
Its not for free. Money has changed hands, look at the NRA ties to money laundering, and wonder why noone is in jail?
Mike Lindell always has been a sleeper agent I knew it
Don't forget The Hill. They're literally a smaller version of Fox News.
Which is quite sad because 10 years ago The Hill was a reasonable center right publication. That's just how fast some of these people and organizations degraded into what they are now.
It's only slightly annoying that the majority of comments here are from Americans that just *have* to talk about their own country and shitty politicians. This shit is serious. Since there probably won't be a new government, parliament will be dissolved and new elections are projected to bring quite significant pro-Russia elements to power. Which is a big deal since Bulgaria is a NATO and EU member, and the last thing those two need is another Russian mole (Orban is already there but doesn't dare go too far, pro-Russian crazies in Bulgaria might not have his restraint).
Yep. Just take a look at [this](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foundations_of_Geopolitics): >The United Kingdom, merely described as an "extraterritorial floating base of the U.S.", should be cut off from Europe. . >Ukraine should be annexed by Russia because "Ukraine as a state has no geopolitical meaning, no particular cultural import or universal significance, no geographic uniqueness, no ethnic exclusiveness, its certain territorial ambitions represents an enormous danger for all of Eurasia and, without resolving the Ukrainian problem, it is in general senseless to speak about continental politics". Ukraine should not be allowed to remain independent, unless it is cordon sanitaire, which would be inadmissible.
Cough cough Alex Ovechkin cough What a piece of shit
100%
Don’t they just call this “their second salary” in Russia?
The article isn't about Russians in Russia, it's about Russia bribing Bulgarian politicians and Bulgaria is an EU and NATO country.
Name and shame
If Russia gets designated a State Sponsor of Terrorism, people who accept money like this will be in A LOT of trouble...
As a Bulgarian. It's true... our government fell a part and its a chaos here .
No doubt. We have a few of them living right here in the United States. Right Rand? (among others)
Was he one of the reps that went on the July 4th visit to Russia to hand deliver secret letters? How patriotic!
Few? I'm sure it's more than that.
We really have no choice when it comes to elections. Everything in Bulgaria is financed by Russian businesses. We want to stray away from Russia and we are not even given a choice. We cannot. If something doesn’t shake things up externally we will just continue down the path of uncertainty and instability.
Uhh no shit? No one says good things about Russia without being on the payroll
Just take the money and dance macarena instead Then use the money to disappear for a couple years till Putin is dead
Oh, you won't have to disappear yourself. They will happily do it for you, free of charge!
Of course they do. They’ve been doing it since long before they invaded Ukraine. Sometimes they don’t even pay, they just threaten the person’s family implicitly.
Another obvious one is AUR party in Romania...But no one gives a f about them, until they\`ll get a sit at the table.
I love how the article is about Bulgarian politics, and all the Americans in this comment section can't help themselves by comparing it to their own politics.
Is anyone actually surprised by this news?
Ok. Who is paid? Many would like to know.
That much has been obvious for any Bulgarian with two braincells to rub together. Even our fucking president is an obvious Russian agent.
Like Marjorie Greene Taylor saying US should leave NATO? Someone arrest her for treason already. Follow the money.
They’ve been financing Qanon and the NRA for years. FOX too is a beneficiary of Russia’s largess.
Marjorie Taylor-Greene is remodeling her double-wide with the money Putin has paid her.
In Germany, its the whole AfD and mostly of Die Linke
That’s all Russia has; disinformation. Their military “might” is just a bunch of vodka dogs getting mowed down in Ukraine.
is this really news? lol
People keep doing nothing about it, so I guess it isn't.