I've rarely seen Wikipedia lie as overtly as this, usually it's more subtle and done by omission. They are straight up erasing history and making shit up. I remember for a fact these mercenary group was present in Syria and they were getting killed by Russian mercenaries, I saw a video of one getting sledgehammered in the knee. Now they are just pretending it's a radical clothing brand that travels to Syria and Ukraine.

Forward Observations Group, (nicknamed FOG), is a military lifestyle brand[1][2] founded by former U.S. Army infantryman Derrick Bales, that sells tactical gear and branded accessories and operates "popular military lifestyle social media channels" on Instagram[3] and YouTube.[4] The group has traveled to Ukraine, Iraq, and Syria to make connections with local fighters there and to shoot photo and video from the Russian invasion and Syrian civil war.

Military lifestyle "brand"? It's a mercenary company that you pay to do violence. It's thugs for hire. They go to warzones to "make connections with local fighters" like Azov and ISIS huh?

Literally nothing about Syria or Iraq, that section is completely omitted.

They mention in Ukraine sometimes they were seen with guns in backs of cars going to conflict areas in the Donbas. Weird huh, that a "lifestyle brand" would do that?

Then they say the Wagner sledgehammering FOG patch comes from an unrelated case of a treasonous Russian prisoner Yevgeny Nuzhin. They fail to mention what it actually is a reference to, Russians in Syria sledgehammering these FOG fucks to death because they fight alongside ISIS. I witnessed one such video, which I won't link here (don't even know where to find this) you will have to take my word for it. Good riddance scum. Owned so hard that they dissolved as a mercenary company and went underground to pretend they are a fucking clothing brand, scrubbing their entire portfolio from the internet.

Oh yeah and they're fighting on behalf of Israel doing genocide in Gaza too. Weird for a fucking CLOTHING BRAND.

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[–] alexandra_kollontai@hexbear.net 41 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you look at the page history, it was recently created by this Wikipedia administrator: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User:Swatjester

[–] ashinadash@hexbear.net 34 points 1 year ago

New Wikipedia cryptid just dropped: mercenary propaganda guy

[–] zed_proclaimer@hexbear.net 41 points 1 year ago (2 children)

They have rebranded their logo to the boring globe thing instead of the Blackbeard’s flag with horns and a F instead of a ❤️

Ever get owned so hard you have to rebrand your military company into a clothing brand? Unlimited Wagners on the FOG world

[–] Hexamerous@hexbear.net 25 points 1 year ago

Fascist stealing art because they're so fucking bad at it, name a more iconic duo. And no symbolism or anything, just literally a chad operator killing a soyjack demon so there's no confusion. It's like a universal rule that fascists have bad art at this point.

[–] OrionsMask@hexbear.net 18 points 1 year ago

I got the impression that this was an attempt to obfuscate their actions rather than as a result of getting owned?

[–] CredibleBattery@hexbear.net 31 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

oh boy i can't wait until blackwater releases their new line of merch

[–] QuietCupcake@hexbear.net 20 points 1 year ago

Repurposed cluster munition fidget spinners. Sniper rifle tote bags with your choice of usa, azov, isis or a variety of other wholesome death squad flag logos.

[–] peeonyou@hexbear.net 23 points 1 year ago

I saw this not too long ago when I read something awful and was trying to figure out who FOG was.. this made it all the more confusing

[–] Tankiedesantski@hexbear.net 18 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That Wagner Exorcist Group pic goes hard.

[–] zed_proclaimer@hexbear.net 18 points 1 year ago

unlimited wagners on the FOG world

[–] egg1918@hexbear.net 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This post sent me down a rabbit hole, good job Op.

This patch got me thinking about that time in 2018/19(?) or so when allegedly the US military in Syria absolutely destroyed a load of Russian mercs with air strikes, artillery and Apache helicopters. I remember this because I was still pretty lib and believed it, it was all over the media too.

Does anyone have anything to read about what actually happened? If there's something I've learned in the last few years it's not to believe a single thing these fuckers say

[–] Amerihay@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago

It's been a long time and I haven't looked into it since it happened, but from what I remember before the west got a hold of the story was that Syrian militias were chasing either ISIS or some other similar group and there were going to launch an offensive on their stronghold. The Syrians crossed some imaginary red line in the sand around their al tanf base so the US bombed a few of them. The rest turned around and returned to their bases. At the time there was no mention of Russians or even mercenaries. Russia in Syria was mainly their air force with soldiers protecting their bases. Russian troops didn't really fight except in a few instances.

I think the narrative took hold that America stomped the Russians was to saturated the news before people heard that America just killed a bunch of people to protect ISIS or al-qaeda

Syria was the proto-ukraine in terms of propaganda and I followed the war since 2012 or so. It was interesting watching al-qaeda split in HTS and ISIS with the Turks supporting both at one point as well as the Israelis. A lot of information from the war has been erased off the internet or at least the English speaking side

[–] OrionsMask@hexbear.net 13 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

This is disgusting. Is there any effective way to combat this propaganda? Is there anything we can do? This is not really my world so tell me if it's unfeasible, but how hard would it be to push a site exposing them to the top of search results for "F@rward Obs5rvations Gr*up."

[–] MaoTheLawn@hexbear.net 10 points 1 year ago

Can't you just submit edit requests on Wikipedia? Usually an admin will at least reply, and it's hard to justify omitting that sort of information.

[–] egg1918@hexbear.net 7 points 1 year ago

A bunch of army officers I know follow their insta page lmao

[–] RNAi@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago

If I was a general I wouldn't like my mercenaries to pretend they are my actual soldiers just happening to wear some clothes brand, because the point of me hiring mercenaries is for them to do BIG war crimes while I later pretend to not be responsible for their actions.