Curd Knüpfer

First DDC Brown Bag Lunch talk of 2026:
This Thursday (Feb 19th), @curdknupfer.bsky.social and @andre-k-rodarte.bsky.social present ideas and ongoing research on "Connective Factions".
If you are at SDU, grab some lunch and join us in Dynamo, at 12!

Very sorry for your loss. My condolences. 🖤

Terms travel, ideas grow. But today's far right can draw on internationally connected digital networks to craft shared imaginaries, set agendas, and influence global debates.

Marco Rubio says US and Europe 'belong together' despite tensions The US secretary of state reassures European leaders that the Trump administration backs the transatlantic alliance.

In 2026, the secretary of state of the US uses the same terminology to address European leaders and outline official policies.

Matthias Hoffmann & I traced these terms across various actor types and uncovered hierarchies in where they emerged and circulated. Right wing news sites helped establish them. The German party AfD used them in their campaign rhetoric.

Countering the “Climate Cult” – Framing Cascades in Far-Right Digital Networks In many contemporary democracies, digital networks on the far-right have established themselves as “alternatives” to liberal institutions. Within this nexus of parties, hyper-partisan news, and soc...

6 years ago, we first noticed sudden upticks in German fringe far right networks, using terms like "climate cult" to disparage climate activists and green policy initiatives.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Abbau bei Washington Post: US-Medien unter Druck Die Washington Post entlässt rund einen Drittel der Mitarbeitenden. Der Abbau fällt in eine Zeit, in der unabhängige Medien in den USA unter stärkeren Druck geraten, auch durch die US-Regierung. Curd ...

Wenn Milliardäre Medienhäuser kaufen und diese dann zerstören, um Trump zu gefallen: Medien-Experte @curdknupfer.bsky.social im „Echo“-Gespräch.

This week, I attended a conference of the 🇩🇪 Communication Associations #polcomm section on "Democratic Resilience" in snowy Hamburg.
Annett Heft & I presented work on conspiracy theories, & @jolukito.bsky.social gave a keynote on right-wing digital surrogates.
Highly impressed with the panels I saw!

Blink 187

Gladys Mae West obituary: mathematician who pioneered GPS technology She made key contributions to US cold-war science despite facing huge barriers as a Black woman.

No joke: I got angry hate mail today for writing an obituary of a Black woman scientist—because the person felt she did didn’t deserve the recognition.

Which just makes me want to share it again: www.nature.com/articles/d41...

Trump scolds CNN reporter Kaitlan Collins for not smiling as she asks about Epstein abuse survivors – as it happened This live blog is now closed.

Even at this point of general inoculation, I will read something like this and literally have to catch my breath for a solid minute.

I hope I never get used to whatever these news cycles are and how they make us feel.

www.theguardian.com/us-news/live...

My favorite genre of Epstein emails are powerful people emailing WITH JEFFREY EPSTEIN about how MeToo has gone too far and the woke mob must be stopped.

Your ticket to hop aboard the Digital Democracy train:
bsky.app/profile/ddc-...

Check out who just moved into the office across the hall from mine! 🥳😊

Ideas are already being tossed around. Big things brewing, here at the @ddc-sdu.bsky.social

"My chat gpt agrees with me on this"

Legacy news corrections remain one of my favorite genres of text.

It's been raining grant rejections for me.
But as they say: as one door closes, another one also remains closed, for me specifically.

Immer wieder frech, wie bei solchen Kommentatoren plötzlich eine kritische Heuristik auftaucht, wenn es um die angebliche Hegemonie anderer Gruppen geht.

Nur wenn es um die eigene Positionalität geht sieht, hört & sagt man nix.

-> Mittel der Gegenöffentlichkeit, aber in der Sache des Machterhalts.

Title: “They’re Eating the Pets”: From Participatory Propaganda to Policy in Trump 2.0 Slide contains a graphic with arrows moving clockwise, suggesting a circular process. At the top, are about ten large bubbles with the label “GOP Political Elites”. At the bottom are about a hundred small bubbles, with the label “Audiences”. Up the left side are a series of bubbles of increasing size, labeled “Influencers”. Arrow [1] runs from GOP Political Elites down to Audiences and has 2 labels: Political elites on the right set an “anti-immigration” frame during the 2024 election. JD Vance claims Springfield has been “overwhelmed” by Haitian immigrants [July 10, 2024] Arrow [2] runs up from Audiences to Elites and contains 3 labels: A Facebook user in Ohio shared her (false) suspicion that a neighbor’s daughter’s friend’s missing cat had been eaten by Haitian immigrants. [Sept 2024] The story percolated up through online influencers. Online activists created AI-generated images or “memes” of Trump saving pets. Arrow [3] runs down from Elites to Audiences and contains 2 labels: GOP political leaders repeated the claims and amplified the memes. Trump repeated the rumor from the debate stage. [Sept 10 2024] Arrow [4] runs up from Audiences to Elites and contains 2 labels: Online audiences continued to engage, cheering the rumors on, repeating and retweeting. “They’re eating the pets” became a meme and a jingle Arrow [5] runs down from Elites to Audiences and contains 2 labels, highlighted against a white background: Trump administration rescinds TPS status for Haitian immigrants (ending Feb 3 2026) [Nov 2025] Trump administration begins detaining and deporting Haitian immigrants? [Feb ?? 2026] There are two images on the side, screenshots from social media. The first is Donald Trump on a debate stage (from Sept 10, 2024). The second is a synthetic AI image of Donald Trump in a blue suit, carrying a cat, and running away from a group of brown-skinned men in the background.

I'm working on a single graphic that illustrates how participatory propaganda becomes policy in the second Trump administration, particularly around the case of "They're Eating the Pets".

Still hoping we'll get to take that last label away before those ?s resolve.

Oder alles Leute, die gucken wollen wer die Leute sind, die sich das antun.

Jedes *einzelne* verkaufte Ticket würde schon mein mind blowen.

The spending is one side.
But I guess local movie theatres and public ad space would still have to be provided for what will be, by my best estimate, an audience of 0.

Dollars and soft power fail to explain this.

YouTube video by RATMVEVO Rage Against The Machine - No Shelter (from The Battle Of Mexico City)

RATM said it best:

There be no shelter here...

youtu.be/ufsJLRfVKaM?...

My bus stop in Hamburg Germany.

I kind of get how and why US audiences are currently subjected to this form of propagandist bribery.

But by what series of events does this make it across the Atlantic and all the way up to my front door?

Treating myself to a 60$ whiskey to remind myself of how bad the economy is.

Alison Luchs, who has worked at the National Gallery of Art for 47 years, agreed to learn Gen Z slang and make videos because she wanted to raise interest in the museum’s art.

She never expected to slay. https://wapo.st/45BXc3S

Add "slopaganda" to "clicktatorship":

"Shirley’s viral fraud video achieved something that many reporters dream of: immediate impact. It’s almost unheard of that a single story results in an instantaneous response from multiple federal agencies."

You furnish the slop, I'll furnish the war.

Never forget that the reason they are so convinced you’re all getting paid is that they are all getting paid.

🤫 pssst.
Don't jinx it!
We quietly enjoy when things run smoothly, and only go public to complain.
Otherwise the Bahn might get too cocky.