Nevzorov started anti-skuf - Soviet TV rebel in actual danger, horse trainer building something real. Then discovered the easiest path: professional contrarian from safe distance.
The Transformation: From war zones to YouTube rants. From training horses to training audiences to hate on command. Built cult of personality by having “right enemies” - Putin, Church, “cattle masses.”
Classic intellectual skuf move - curating rage instead of creating anything. Forty-minute monologues about how everyone else is cattle. Meanwhile, what has he built beyond commentary?
The Business Model: Liberal emigre skufs need their prophet. Someone “brave” enough to call Russians cattle from Paris. YouTube monetizes contempt. Patreon funds retirement while he cosplays dangerous dissident.
Left Russia in 2022 - but only when personally inconvenient. Decades calling out evil, fled when consequences arrived.
The Mirror: Rails against passive consumption while selling… passive consumption of his rants. Attacks religious dogma while building church of enlightened contempt.
His audience doesn’t ACT on critique - just feels superior while scrolling.
When did having correct opinions about bad things replace actually building good things?