⚡📰 [Matthew Kratter's Bitcoin University Pushing Pro-Kremlin Propaganda. Why?](https://stacker.news/items/918392/r/botlab)

I'm putting this in the 'bitcoin' territory because Matthew Kratter has been, generally, agreatBitcoin educator the last several years. But I take serious issue with the content of his videos... the last few months and they have gone completely off the rails in my opinion.

Why? Because they are being 'influenced' by "influencers" or other information on social media particularly Twitter...

Things are being taken out of context, and there is averystrong current of Pro-Kremlin propaganda being spread and repeated in his videos, as well as elsewhere on X, and it's time we speak out against it and recognize it for what it is.

Take this video from just yesterday:

It's titled "EU Confiscating "Unused Savings"?"

Firstly, the EU isnotconfiscating bank deposits, that's the entire premise of the video and it spreads fear and misinformation and greatly harms the credibility of the Bitcoin movementin my opinion.

Matthew posts this screenshot of an article... from "Belarus Today" that "is circulating" (as if 'everyone' is reading it)

It makes it 'look like', and Matthew strongly pushes the idea, that the EU governments are confiscating savers' savings to fund the new "war machine" with Russia. Taking them presumably right out of bank accounts.

But he provides ZERO evidence for this assertion and then follows up with saying that the EU 'warfare state' (what a joke) since the Europeans are spending more on defense, is confiscating savings, taking away freedom and liberties, rooting for "war in Ukraine" and keeping Zelensky from making lasting peace.

Really?

The speech he 'links' to (the only relevant government document) is this one herehttps://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/speech_25_704by a European commissioner at a conference.

Here is what it says (an excerpt):

"The need for more harmonised and attractive European capital markets is not a new discussion, but its current prominence is due to the growing recognition that public funds are just not enough.

And the political will is certainly there now.

Equally important is the need to deepen our EU Single Market and for less administrative burden for businesses.

We are committed to making life easier for businesses to operate in Europe......

In a couple of weeks, I will be putting forward a strategy for aEuropean Savings and Investments Union.

The focus of this initiative will be on supporting household wealth creation, while widening the financing opportunities for businesses.

This is an essential step forward for Europe and will be key to finance our transitions, our infrastructure and our innovation needs.

To meet these financing needs, we first need to scale up our investor base, including by bringing in more retail investors.

Rules which ensure fairer access to Europe's capital markets can greatly increase retail investor participation.

It's hard to incentivise retail investment if there is nothing or very little in it for the retail investor.

Savers should have long term investment opportunities readily available to them.

We also want to incentivise saving for retirement, including through occupational pension schemes.

This is what THE ACTUAL TEXT of the speech says (I've included an excerpt obviously because it's very long) so... where is the confusion here? What is so shocking about this?

Then Matthew goes into a discussion... about "unused savings" and how it's "unfair" that banks or "the EU" calls those savings 'unused'. Because 'savings' "aren't supposed to be used."

He says this withmuchindignation and this video has over 80k views in 2 days and a lot of people are watching it plus commenting....

So what is my issue with this?

Well it's how banks work.Nothing is changing. The money you 'deposit' into a regular-old, commercial bankisn't really yours... your account is. And your account iscreditedwith the money you give to the bank. Meanwhile the banklends that money out, probably most of it, to get paid back in interest to generate profitfor the Bank.

The end. Finished.

Everybody knows this.Your money may not even be "in the bank" necessarily... but mostly loaned out but this isnotspecific to EU banks andit is not new.

Then Matthew goes on and says this -

That European savers are being 'rational' because they are worried about 'war on the continent'.

Or that they are saving up to "buy a house".

But this is ridiculous.

I amnota huge fan of the EU.Nota fan as the EU is slow, difficult to change, wasteful, inefficient, anti-Bitcoin (generally), anti-individual (through higher taxes) and itdoes notfoster individualism or risk-taking in business the way the United States does.

The economy in Europe is ashadowof what it should be through too much regulation, red tape, and high taxes.

Everybody knows this it'snotin contention.

But what Matthewshouldsay is that the bureaucrats are absolutelyrightabout the savings - keeping money in 'cash' in a bank of significant quantitieslong termiseconomic suicideand the cash is continually "losing money" to inflation every single day.

And if theaverage yearly return on the S&Pis around 12% (over 20 years/long term) then you are losing12%a year by leaving money in cash. It's abadidea.

Everybody knows this and if they don't they're idiots it's financial education.

So while the EU bureaucrats areFAR FROM PERFECT... having large numbers of citizens leaving their money in cash "in the bank" for long periods is a total waste of time. Those funds would bemuchbetter left in an American index fund (or S&P 500) or evenEuropeanfund and if that's too complicated just capitalize the funds in Bitcoin self-custody.

Thatis the solution and it's what Matthew should focus on.

Then Matt postsANOTHERscreenshot from a twitter thread.https://x.com/knutsvanholm/status/1900113134376943821

Matt is quoting this Twitter user... who is saying that 'money is insurance against uncertainty' and is 'of use' to its owner...

MONEY YES, CURRENCY NO. CURRENCY (of the paper kind at least) IS NOT FOR SAVING.

CURRENCY IN OUR "CURRENT SYSTEM" is FOR SPENDING.

This is really important...

You don't even have "money in the bank" that bankusuallyloans the money out you deposit it, and it's been this way for a long time. The "pieces of paper" you have in a bankin and of themselvesare WORTHLESS.

Your MONEY (dollars for example) ARE NOT YOUR PROPERTY according to the US government.https://reason.com/2025/01/31/the-government-says-money-isnt-property-so-it-can-take-yours/

Bitcoin is YOUR PROPERTY, it's SCARCE and DESIRABLE (by all accounts) and that's why YOU PROBABLY SHOULD BE SAVING IN BITCOIN. NOT 'paper money' in "commercial banks"long term.

Thisis the message.

The EU Bureaucratsare rightin that saving in commercial banks is adumb strategy for most savers.But they are wrong of course, as is Matthew Kratter, for not making theclear distinctionthatbanks don't have your money...

Banks lend money out for profit...

And 'money' ie dollars (at least in the United States) are. not. property. Your Bitcoinisproperty. Paper moneyisn't... it's designed forspendingNOT necessarily for saving.

And having a bank "account" (note the name) isnotevidence that the money is being "confiscated." No information Matthew provides supports this assertion.

Matthew repeats this again... that "money" (paper dollars specifically) are property THEY AREN'T.

The government DOES NOT treat them this way.

Should it not be obvious then, for the reason of the explosion of Bitcoin's value?

This is financial education...

Then Matthew goes into the European 'rearmament' question... asking "why" Europe should "rearm"?

This is coming from someone who heavily supported Trump... during the last US presidential campaign.

Well... Trumpspecifically statedthat NATO members (most of Western Europe) should spend5%of GDP in order to remainpart of NATOotherwise they functionally wouldn't be part any more. WELL HERE THEY ARE, spending more money on their armed forces.

And he (Matthew) acts surprised and offended... Why? That what Trumpwanted them to do???

Then Matthew goes on and on about Europe (the EU of course) becoming more and more "totalitarian".

But weshould notbe naivein my opinionby thinking that the Russian or Chinese governance model is somehow far superior or better. It isnot.

I knowmanypeople from China, worked with them, andmanyothers from the Russian federation or the former Soviet Union and civil liberties and "freedom" in those places is extremely limited if notnon-existent. Try acquiring Bitcoin in China, ok?

Then he talks about "war on the European Continent"...

You know who started the War in Ukraine? RUSSIA started the war. NOT Western Europeans.

So in words, since "Europe" started the war in Ukraine, they are at fault for wanting to have more military now that the US is AWOL geopolitically? Really?

To me it sounds like Russian nonsense, or disinformation talking points - 99% propaganda - being spread on Twitter, frequently by bots, somehow making its way into Matthew K's "Bitcoin University" channel?

How? And Why?

Then here's Matthew saying that the Europeans want to "continue the war" because they "don't want peace" even though "trump does".

Total NONSENSE.

Trump would just assume sell the Ukrainians down the river, because he's either an idiot, a self-absorbed plant, or some kind of weirdRussian agent... he is not a MAGICAL NEGOTIATOR who will "end the war on day 1."

Selling the Ukrainians out, in my opinion, while gettingpractically zeroconcessions from the Russianswho invaded Ukraine to begin withis not IN THE INTEREST of the United States, peace, stability OR Bitcoin.

And repeating Russian disinformation on Twitter to the contrary, that "it's all Ukraine's fault and they should want peace" DOES. NOT. HELP. BITCOIN.

We should be smarter than this than toblindlyfollow propaganda on Twitter that.. doesn't make sense and harms our credibilityas Bitcoinersin my opinion.

Did the Ukrainians agree to a cease-fire? Yes. Did the Russians (from whom Mr Trump asked almost no concessions?) No.

Mr. Kratter claims the EU is "bent on war" (and I quote). Didn't Russia invade Ukraine?

What am I missing here?

Bitcoiners are conditioned tothink differentlyto "not trust, verify" and to be open-minded. These are allreally important.But it's also OK to say

"WE DON'T KNOW" and

"THERE'S A GRAY AREA" and

"HEY HERE'S WHAT WE KNOW AND WHAT WE DON'T"...

And what we don't know, we don't know because to state otherwise would cost usour credibilityand a Bitcoin Educator's Credibility is Really Important.

Our credibility as Bitcoiners, our ability to look at information critically, to not "pick sides", and to present things fully and completely...couldhave a major impact on how successful Bitcoin is in the future.

That's why it's so important to our future generations.

Taking things at face value, much of itpropaganda or disinformation, or otherwisecompletely unverifiable,off the internet isnota great Strategy. If it sounds too good to be true, and if there's only "one side" it usually is.

We can and should agree to disagree... but we shouldn't look like idiots in the process too.

By @028559d218 (1594 sats, 6 zappers) | [Stacker News](https://stacker.news/items/918392/r/botlab)