On Monday, The Daily Beast profiled Gonzalo Lira, an American "manosphere" YouTuber and "dating coach" who has spent years living in Kharkiv, Ukraine — and has begun promoting pro-Kremlin propaganda and conspiracy theories about the Russian invasion.
"He began showing up on niche but notable podcasts and livestreams, where hosts introduced him as an unmediated font of on-the-ground insights, as someone willing to share truths about the complex conflict that the mainstream media either can’t or won’t," reported Mark Hay. "He’s also gained a slew of new followers — his Telegram has about 45,000 followers, up from 20,000 on March 1, and seems to be gaining hundreds more every day ... But his 'fair-and-balanced' accounts often involve wild claims about the supposedly obvious 'evil' of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky."
"The comedian-turned-politician is a known 'cokehead,' Lira has claimed — a man who uses his people as shields, has provided arms to criminals who have terrorized the streets of Kyiv, and has possibly 'deliberately tried to have a nuclear accident' to pin it on Russia and possibly drag America into his war," said the report. "Meanwhile, Lira has portrayed the Russian assault as provoked — and as 'one of the most brilliant invasions in military history.' ... 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 American bioweapons labs and research in Ukraine. He has decried stories about Ukrainian resistance as obvious Western propaganda. And he has accused people who contradict his assessments of being idiots or paid shills."
Rutgers University Ukraine expert Alexander Moytl has called Lira's claims "nonsense" — and, as it turns out, he does not come from a journalistic background at all.
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"Until just months before this conflict started ... he was a 'medium-sized manosphere YouTuber,' according to Manoel Horta Ribeiro, a researcher at Switzerland’s École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne," said the report. "Ribeiro studies that digital space — a loose constellation of blogs, forums, and social-media accounts inhabited by pick-up artists, men’s rights activists, and incels. Most of those who dwell in this world believe that men are the true oppressed gender, despite clear evidence that women still face undeniable and rampant, systemic discrimination across the globe. Under the name Coach Red Pill, Lira made videos and hosted digital seminars in which he offered dating, life, and relationship advice. In the manosphere, a 'red-pilled' person is someone who’s realized hidden supposed truths about gender and relationships." Among the tips Lira has given his followers is to "never date a woman in her thirties."
The "pick-up artist" community has been accused of promoting hate speech about women, and have also coached each other on how to pressure women into sex without being accused of rape. In 2014, one prominent pick-up artist named Roosh V claimed that the University of California, Santa Barbara shooter was actually a "feminist" and that's why he murdered women.
According to experts who spoke to the Daily Beast, the fact that Lira has pivoted to anti-Ukraine, pro-Russia conspiracy theories "speaks to long-simmering trends in both worlds, which kicked into high gear when the Ukraine conflict started."
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