Curd Knüpfer

The US is currently a case study of how quickly fringe far-right ideas become policy.

The unspeakable is articulated -> a cleavage forms -> it becomes an in-group signal -> then a political demand -> policy.

Also note the transnational component here: This concept originated in Europe's far right.

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Screenshot of the site, including bar charts and more

'flood the zone' --> 'map the flood'

"We are documenting the actions, statements, and plans of President Donald Trump and his administration that may pose a threat to American democracy, since the start of his second term in January 2025."

www.trumpactiontracker.info

Title page for the paper “The Logic of Connective Faction” By Curd Knüpfer, Yunkang Yang, and Mike Cowburn

After a great evening at the first @wzb.bsky.social conference on the future of democracy I’m looking forward to the first full day first tomorrow. I’m presenting work (w/ @curdknupfer.bsky.social & @yunkangyang.bsky.social) at 9:30am in B001

mikecowburn.com/wp-content/u...

TLDR: "In Europe, you can't even be outspokenly Islamophobic without people branding you Islamophobic."

The Caldwell of 2009 would segregate European cities.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reflect...

When you're the author of books like “Reflections on the Revolution in Europe: Immigration, Islam and the West” and “The Age of Entitlement: America Since the Sixties” you can just make up claims about entire demographics and generations and have them printed in the NYT, I guess.

PS: this whole thing reads like political commentary in reverse -- rather than condense and critique, it's a whole lot of words to complexify and mask otherwise obvious oversimplification & incompetence.
It's basically "here's what he meant to say" PR work.

"But the military of the 2020s has been as overburdened by the imperatives of progressivism as schools were by the duties of racial integration in the 1970s."

...so yes, if your premise is that desegregation was a bit too much of a hassle, then I guess the speech wasn't actually that bad.

Screenshot of an academic article titled “Rally and Recalibrate: Political Dynamics of Audience Expectations of Journalism During Times of Crisis” published in The International Journal of Press/Politics (OnlineFirst, Sage Journals). Authors: Claire Roney, Daniel Wiesner, Andreas A. Riedl, and Jakob-Moritz Eberl. The abstract explains that the study examines how audience expectations of journalism in Austria evolved during the COVID-19 pandemic. It identifies shifts toward emerging journalistic roles such as Fact Checker and Science Communicator, based on data from three waves of the Austrian Corona Panel Project. Findings show fluctuating audience expectations tied to changes in public trust and crisis dynamics, emphasizing journalism’s need for adaptability. Keywords listed: journalism, audience expectations, trust in institutions, crisis attitudes, survey research, COVID-19. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/19401612251375203

New publication out in #IJPP! 📑
We study how audience expectations of journalism 📰 shifted during COVID-19 in Austria 🇦🇹 – showing both short-term rally effects & longer-term recalibration 🔄.
Led by @clmron.bsky.social & @danielwiesner.bsky.social , w/ @andreasriedl.bsky.social & me. 1/n

Putnam-ed!

"The royals loved the show."
The rules were negotiated down to... "don’t make fun of royals".

So I guess that leaves the non royals? What did they think?

That said, I maybe would have expected a collective "hooah" or some such sound...

Honest question, since I am not familiar with US military protocols:
Are high-ranking members of the military even allowed to clap at these events?

Based on inaugurations and state-of-the-union addresses, it seems like they generally don't do this?

Not even the solitary sympathetic bro in the audience going "woo. yeah" was really committed to his reaction.

I’ve never wanted audience reaction shots more than I do for this speech.

Excellent Op-ed by @pastpunditry.bsky.social, on the history of the censorious right.
What she observes here for the US also goes for other national contexts, where formations on the far right often self-depict & are seen as free-speech absolutists, when they're anything but...

This was basically my dissertation. Slightly expanded to...

Am I watching things on television that are different from what's happening AND from what other people are watching?

Maybe a loss of trust can be traced back to growing discrepancies between public debate and one's own information environment. In an increasingly fragmented info- and social space and resulting majority illusion, this poses a fundamental problem as media and institutions can never cover all topics.

He's tapping into a dark well of connective affect.
Meanwhile AI is drawing from an established and culturally embedded narrative that it can easily visualize.

A technologically facilitated form of elite "deep storytelling" that might seem ridiculous to most, but is sure to resonate with some.

PS: This might be his most overtly QAnon-coded post yet.
The movement feeds not just on conspiracies, but on a quasi-religious faith in imminent salvation.

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medbed

Wow!
AI is so advanced, it can now generate entire videos for a regime promising made up miracle cures, while slashing funding for medical research and cutting social benefits.

Practically zero propaganda skills required.

Bots function as amplifiers and build network bridges.
So what probably happened here is that institutions outside of the right wing ecosystem became aware and then further amplified, partly due to these activities.

I don't think it's a good idea to use "left-wing" or "right-wing" as categories to classify terrorism.

These terms stem from parliamentary politics & blur more than they reveal. More precise labels should be applied -- which would also lead to more meaningful comparative values.

Hey #PolComm folks!
The #ICA26 @icahdq.bsky.social election for the PolComm Division @polcomm.bsky.social is now open.
There are fantastic candidates running for Vice Chair, Early Career Rep, & International Liaison.
Go read their statements & cast your votes! 🗳️
www.icahdq.org/surveys/?id=...

You wouldn't know this from following mediated debates in Germany, but it turns out there are reasons beyond illdefined anxieties about immigration for where and why the far right wins votes...

Den amerikanske højrefløj bruger "ragebait" som strategi, men det ses også i Danmark Mennesker reagerer meget på følelser af vrede og forargelse, og det får os til at dele indhold meget mere end andre følelser, forklarer retoriker om online-fænomenet ragebait.

Spoke to the Danish Online Magazine @kforum.bsky.social about "Ragebaiting" and how the attention economy can be exploited for political gain.
kforum.dk/nyheder/digi...

Our political debates (in Europe and the US) are missing a crucial part of the real story:
The quiet consolidations, planned mergers, & vying for Trump’s favor that will decide who becomes America’s Next Top-Mogul.

Alles Gute und welcome back!

Most Sinclair & Nexstar stations did not address the Jimmy Kimmel Live issue at all, but a few did. Here's Nexstar station WTEN in Albany: