Jacob Kramer-Duffield
@jaykaydee.bsky.social
Consulting on audience strategy, audiostrategy.org
Writing a book for @beltpublishing.bsky.social
Teaching digital sociability and ethics, NYU-Tandon
ACT-UAW Local 7902
Ph.D., UNC-SILS
Fmr audience data WNYC, NYMag, Megaphone
jkd.10 on Signal
Enjoys birds
Writing a book for @beltpublishing.bsky.social
Teaching digital sociability and ethics, NYU-Tandon
ACT-UAW Local 7902
Ph.D., UNC-SILS
Fmr audience data WNYC, NYMag, Megaphone
jkd.10 on Signal
Enjoys birds
Pinned
Since I am apparently on a starter pack or something: hello! I'm JKD. I have been bopping around the Internet for a long time, used to work in politics, got my Ph.D. studying digital identity, worked in-house in media on analytics and audience, and now consult on that and teach about Online. (1/n)
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
One of the big media failures of the past decade is the ongoing search for the deeper side of Trump. There isn't one. His ideology, such as it is, is personalist, transactional, and zero-sum. That's as vain, vulgar, and wrong as you can get. He likes gold shit and applause. There's nothing beneath.
January 21, 2026 at 12:50 AM
One of the big media failures of the past decade is the ongoing search for the deeper side of Trump. There isn't one. His ideology, such as it is, is personalist, transactional, and zero-sum. That's as vain, vulgar, and wrong as you can get. He likes gold shit and applause. There's nothing beneath.
I've been convinced for a while that the thing that's really going to make federated social media break through both in usage and *conceptually* is a universal reader app - very excited to see progress here.
Oops, I started a new project: Skyreader, an RSS reader on the AT Protocol. Share cool articles like it's 2010 and Google Reader would never die. skyreader.app
www.disnetdev.com/blog/2026-01...
www.disnetdev.com/blog/2026-01...
Skyreader: A RSS Reader on the AT Protocol
Introducing a RSS reader for the AT Protocol where you feeds and article sharing are portable
www.disnetdev.com
January 20, 2026 at 11:47 PM
I've been convinced for a while that the thing that's really going to make federated social media break through both in usage and *conceptually* is a universal reader app - very excited to see progress here.
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
I get why a distinction between "America" and "the Trump regime" may seem immaterial to many Europeans. But Trump's domestic political weakness is something Europe can exploit, which in turn strengthens the hand of opposition within the US. Plus, the distinction is *extremely* relevant stateside.
January 20, 2026 at 10:15 PM
I get why a distinction between "America" and "the Trump regime" may seem immaterial to many Europeans. But Trump's domestic political weakness is something Europe can exploit, which in turn strengthens the hand of opposition within the US. Plus, the distinction is *extremely* relevant stateside.
There are of course nearly infinite grounds for criticism of our tech overlords but the thing I find perhaps most vulgar about them as a class is their disinterest in being patrons of the arts. Shallow, insipid people.
New York’s Metropolitan Opera announces layoff and production cuts and is looking into selling its Marc Chagall murals.
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/a...
www.nytimes.com/2026/01/20/a...
Despite Drastic Financial Steps, Met Opera Turns to Layoffs and Cuts
www.nytimes.com
January 20, 2026 at 8:26 PM
There are of course nearly infinite grounds for criticism of our tech overlords but the thing I find perhaps most vulgar about them as a class is their disinterest in being patrons of the arts. Shallow, insipid people.
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
Honestly wondering, in light of across-the-board antipathy toward the Greenland nonsense, whether we might enter an Articles of Confederation moment — in which events impossible under a good-faith reading of the Constitution make plain that our governing arrangements are no longer fit for purpose.
It is not normal for a president to be pushing for a net -80 policy. That Trump apparently does not care about the public opinion on Greenland (or maybe he doesn't know about the polls) is a sign of how far we have drifted from normal democratic government
Quinnipiac Poll, Jan 8-12 - poll.qu.edu/poll-release...
January 20, 2026 at 7:14 PM
Honestly wondering, in light of across-the-board antipathy toward the Greenland nonsense, whether we might enter an Articles of Confederation moment — in which events impossible under a good-faith reading of the Constitution make plain that our governing arrangements are no longer fit for purpose.
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
it really is just this stupid
January 20, 2026 at 4:43 PM
it really is just this stupid
Read all of the thread above this but this is an issue I've spent a lot of time thinking about, as well. In point of fact even many "local" media - and this includes nonprofit and public media - have decision-making structures (boards esp.) with national and non-local perspectives and imperatives.
The argument is about local 'ownership' but also about local 'control' and that pendulum has followed Big Tech way too far away from local in both senses.
January 20, 2026 at 5:40 PM
Read all of the thread above this but this is an issue I've spent a lot of time thinking about, as well. In point of fact even many "local" media - and this includes nonprofit and public media - have decision-making structures (boards esp.) with national and non-local perspectives and imperatives.
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
I just woke up from a nap and somehow while I was asleep, everyone on the bus has figured out we are not going to the right place
January 20, 2026 at 1:57 AM
I just woke up from a nap and somehow while I was asleep, everyone on the bus has figured out we are not going to the right place
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
I was invited to do some live Decoders at Davos but didn’t go because new baby. But the only tech question worth asking in that forum right now is what American big tech companies are planning to do when the European markets slam shut as NATO collapses
January 19, 2026 at 11:28 PM
I was invited to do some live Decoders at Davos but didn’t go because new baby. But the only tech question worth asking in that forum right now is what American big tech companies are planning to do when the European markets slam shut as NATO collapses
What's a smilin' face when the whole state's racist?
January 19, 2026 at 5:12 PM
What's a smilin' face when the whole state's racist?
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
Trump trying to start a weird stupid war no one wants out of spite because he's mad about not getting a Nobel Peace Prize is dead center "gag you would leave in drafts because it is both too obvious and not funny." Obviously this is all bad but it is also just incredibly hack. What a way to go.
January 19, 2026 at 4:57 PM
Trump trying to start a weird stupid war no one wants out of spite because he's mad about not getting a Nobel Peace Prize is dead center "gag you would leave in drafts because it is both too obvious and not funny." Obviously this is all bad but it is also just incredibly hack. What a way to go.
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
donald trump experienced a level of what was, for him, humiliation equivalent to death when obama lightly mocked him back in 2011 and we all are going to pay for it
January 19, 2026 at 3:38 PM
donald trump experienced a level of what was, for him, humiliation equivalent to death when obama lightly mocked him back in 2011 and we all are going to pay for it
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
fwiw i think his obsession with the nobel prize is entirely about obama getting it (setting aside whether or not obama ought to have received it)
"Donald Trump now genuinely lives in a different reality, one in which neither grammar nor history nor the normal rules of human interaction now affect him. Also, he really is maniacally, unhealthily obsessive about the Nobel Prize."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
www.theatlantic.com
January 19, 2026 at 3:31 PM
fwiw i think his obsession with the nobel prize is entirely about obama getting it (setting aside whether or not obama ought to have received it)
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
I Photoshop Paddington into a movie, TV show, or pop culture until I forget: Day 1768
January 16, 2026 at 9:25 AM
I Photoshop Paddington into a movie, TV show, or pop culture until I forget: Day 1768
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
it's 100% what they expected. Conservatives think of Minneapolis' white people as scared of our neighbors, especially the immigrants. But that's because *they're* scared, not because we are. They cannot imagine being in a city with such diversity and enjoying it.
To those saying “nuh-uh, ICE picked Minneapolis because they WANTED the city to rise up as one against them” -
no, pretty sure they expected a scattering of blue-haired protesters they could easily crush for content + tacit support from other whites, not the organized total resistance they got.
no, pretty sure they expected a scattering of blue-haired protesters they could easily crush for content + tacit support from other whites, not the organized total resistance they got.
ICE and MAGA really did bet the farm on all of Minneapolis’s white people going “oh yes, please take away our disgusting, evil non-white-foreigner neighbors, oh thank you so much.”
it’s beautiful that they’ve been proven incredibly wrong about that - may the rest of the country do the same.
it’s beautiful that they’ve been proven incredibly wrong about that - may the rest of the country do the same.
January 19, 2026 at 2:21 AM
it's 100% what they expected. Conservatives think of Minneapolis' white people as scared of our neighbors, especially the immigrants. But that's because *they're* scared, not because we are. They cannot imagine being in a city with such diversity and enjoying it.
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
little kids all think trash collectors hang the moon and moreover they’re right. why on earth do people grow out of that?! in a sane civilization they’d be worshipped as gods
January 18, 2026 at 5:41 PM
little kids all think trash collectors hang the moon and moreover they’re right. why on earth do people grow out of that?! in a sane civilization they’d be worshipped as gods
"The law, in its majesty, in its majestic equality, forbids both citizens and jack-booted thugs from disobeying jack-booted thugs."
Ah yes, the new, “free markets and liberties”-focused Washington Post:
January 18, 2026 at 5:33 PM
"The law, in its majesty, in its majestic equality, forbids both citizens and jack-booted thugs from disobeying jack-booted thugs."
Though he was, before the character cap removal, a genuine Twitter savant, this is another reminder that in media terms Trump lives entirely in a broadcast television mindset that is pretty far from normal American life today. Dude just watches (linear!) TV all the time and thinks that's the world.
I mean, aside from everything else, isn’t Army-Navy generally a mediocre game of football?
January 18, 2026 at 5:16 PM
Though he was, before the character cap removal, a genuine Twitter savant, this is another reminder that in media terms Trump lives entirely in a broadcast television mindset that is pretty far from normal American life today. Dude just watches (linear!) TV all the time and thinks that's the world.
This is right, but it's also the approach that MI Dems took once they had a very narrow trifecta in 2022. Whitmer has been a disappointment under Trump's second term but she deserves credit here too.
Between Mamdani and Spanberger, the establishment of "instantly repeal all the bullshit the last pig put in place" as Democratic priority #1 for both democratic socialists and ex-CIA types is an extremely heartening development.
The first thing Virginia Spanberger did after being sworn in as Governor of Virginia was repeal Youngkin’s executive order requiring state and local law enforcement to cooperate with ICE.
This is the kind of leadership Democratic governors nationwide should be emulating.
This is the kind of leadership Democratic governors nationwide should be emulating.
January 18, 2026 at 3:41 PM
This is right, but it's also the approach that MI Dems took once they had a very narrow trifecta in 2022. Whitmer has been a disappointment under Trump's second term but she deserves credit here too.
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
A lot of people were extremely angry about the accolades, the best sellers, the awards and especially jobs that went to people who in their view were only meant to be subjects of journalism not its authors. The genesis is closer to 2008 though bsky.app/profile/juda...
There was a similar flowering of Black American public intellectuals culminating in the 2016-2024 period, and I'd argue the anti-Woke backlash was in many ways a reaction to the threat this posed to the outclassed white punditocracy, for whom meritocracy and DEI hire was a way to disqualify them.
Just finished this right after having read @hofrench.bsky.social's Second Emancipation, and it convinced me that the African & African diaspora anti-colonial thinkers of the 1940-1975 period constituted one of the great intellectual movements in the history of humankind.
Second Enlightenment level.
Second Enlightenment level.
January 18, 2026 at 2:48 PM
A lot of people were extremely angry about the accolades, the best sellers, the awards and especially jobs that went to people who in their view were only meant to be subjects of journalism not its authors. The genesis is closer to 2008 though bsky.app/profile/juda...
Reposted by Jacob Kramer-Duffield
The past decade of US politics can be summed up by liberal pundits persuading themselves that radical leftist sh!itposters nowhere near the levers of power in the Democratic party represented such a threat to liberalism, it was better to put radical far-right sh!tposters in charge of the govt.
January 18, 2026 at 12:55 PM
The past decade of US politics can be summed up by liberal pundits persuading themselves that radical leftist sh!itposters nowhere near the levers of power in the Democratic party represented such a threat to liberalism, it was better to put radical far-right sh!tposters in charge of the govt.