He peddled sexist bile and toxic relationship advice within a subculture populated by Men’s Rights Activists and incels—while living in Ukraine. Then the invasion started.
at the start of the offensive, wrote in a recent post, “trying to be as balanced and factually accurate as I can be.”
He has also shared widely debunked conspiracy theories to support or build out his narratives, many of them revolving around Russian claims that they’ve found evidence of Lira is not fake. Nor is there any evidence that he’s a paid Russian agent. In fact, he’s actually attempted to publicly distance himself from propaganda content that uses his clips.But until just months before this conflict started, he didn’t appear to present himself as a citizen journalist, nor a Ukraine expert, nor a foreign policy buff, nor a war nerd.
Some of Lira’s content offered reasonable, run-of-the-mill tips on things like financial literacy, according to George Michael, a professor of criminal justice at Westfield State University and an expert on far-right groups who’s been watching Coach Red Pill videos for years. But, Ribeiro added, most of his content was steeped in old and reductive views on gender and society, as well as outright vile misogyny, often defended using “questionable interpretations of evolutionary psychology.
Lira declined to respond to questions The Daily Beast sent him about his decision to shift away from his manosphere-centric content and towards dedicated Ukraine conflict commentary. Or about the information he chooses to share, where he finds it, and how he assesses and frames it. Or any of the other topics discussed in this article.