Dave Karpf
@davekarpf.bsky.social
Political Communication Professor at GWU. I write a lot about the history and future of tech and politics. Best known for that one time I made fun of Bret Stephens.
Davekarpf.substack.com
Davekarpf.substack.com
Reposted by Dave Karpf
"save your anger for 2026" wait you think I'll run out in a year this is why I hate amateurs
November 10, 2025 at 1:56 PM
"save your anger for 2026" wait you think I'll run out in a year this is why I hate amateurs
Reposted by Dave Karpf
This weekend, the New York Times ran a story claiming Sierra Club’s values have diluted our mission. They couldn’t be more wrong. The list of their errors is too long for one social post, but we go over some examples in these slides.
November 10, 2025 at 11:08 PM
This weekend, the New York Times ran a story claiming Sierra Club’s values have diluted our mission. They couldn’t be more wrong. The list of their errors is too long for one social post, but we go over some examples in these slides.
Reposted by Dave Karpf
Is it called blockchain because they deny all the claims
okay, but hear me out: What if we put health insurance *on the blockchain?*
November 11, 2025 at 1:11 AM
Is it called blockchain because they deny all the claims
okay, but hear me out: What if we put health insurance *on the blockchain?*
November 11, 2025 at 1:06 AM
okay, but hear me out: What if we put health insurance *on the blockchain?*
I feel terrible for our country but this is tremendous content.
Trump: "I want the money to go into an account for people where they buy their own health insurance. It's so good. The insurance will be better. It'll cost less. Everybody is gonna be happy. They're gonna feel like entrepreneurs. They're actually able to go out & negotiate their own insurance"
November 11, 2025 at 12:44 AM
I feel terrible for our country but this is tremendous content.
Reposted by Dave Karpf
late to this but i feel like an underrated part of the musk meltdown over joyce carol oates accusing him of not reading is this musk reply that makes it clear he has never read anything by joyce carol oates
November 10, 2025 at 9:31 PM
late to this but i feel like an underrated part of the musk meltdown over joyce carol oates accusing him of not reading is this musk reply that makes it clear he has never read anything by joyce carol oates
Reposted by Dave Karpf
Reopening the government (in part) to fix air travel before the holidays only for the Orange god king to fuck it up anyways
November 10, 2025 at 10:09 PM
Reopening the government (in part) to fix air travel before the holidays only for the Orange god king to fuck it up anyways
Reposted by Dave Karpf
Filling out a banking form that asks for my occupation, and in what I am choosing to consider as a sign of the times, "journalist" is not a selectable option, but "cryptocurrency" is
November 10, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Filling out a banking form that asks for my occupation, and in what I am choosing to consider as a sign of the times, "journalist" is not a selectable option, but "cryptocurrency" is
Reposted by Dave Karpf
America's political elite has decided that climate change is no longer that important or worth talking about, but rest assured, it's still happening, it's extremely bad, and yes, it is going to affect you here in America.
What Climate Change Will Do to America by Mid-Century
Many places may become uninhabitable. Many people may be on their own.
www.theatlantic.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:55 PM
America's political elite has decided that climate change is no longer that important or worth talking about, but rest assured, it's still happening, it's extremely bad, and yes, it is going to affect you here in America.
Reposted by Dave Karpf
Reposted by Dave Karpf
i parachute into X/Twitter a lot for my job and obviously have chronicled the devolution but today it feels that, even outside of the realm of groyperposting the broad culture there is just like *i have lead poisoning*
November 10, 2025 at 6:59 PM
i parachute into X/Twitter a lot for my job and obviously have chronicled the devolution but today it feels that, even outside of the realm of groyperposting the broad culture there is just like *i have lead poisoning*
Reposted by Dave Karpf
Joyce Carol Oates owned Elon so hard he's spent the last day posting about movies he hasn't seen in 15 years
November 10, 2025 at 4:31 PM
Joyce Carol Oates owned Elon so hard he's spent the last day posting about movies he hasn't seen in 15 years
Reposted by Dave Karpf
[at Tesla]
Tesla Shareholders: in recognition of your incredible gift for lowering the price of tesla stock, we would like to award you this trillion dollar bonus
Elon Musk: yeah yeah that'sa fine
Tesla Shareholders: what's the matter? you seem distracted
Musk: no i'm fine
Musk: [muttering] oates
Tesla Shareholders: in recognition of your incredible gift for lowering the price of tesla stock, we would like to award you this trillion dollar bonus
Elon Musk: yeah yeah that'sa fine
Tesla Shareholders: what's the matter? you seem distracted
Musk: no i'm fine
Musk: [muttering] oates
November 10, 2025 at 8:27 PM
[at Tesla]
Tesla Shareholders: in recognition of your incredible gift for lowering the price of tesla stock, we would like to award you this trillion dollar bonus
Elon Musk: yeah yeah that'sa fine
Tesla Shareholders: what's the matter? you seem distracted
Musk: no i'm fine
Musk: [muttering] oates
Tesla Shareholders: in recognition of your incredible gift for lowering the price of tesla stock, we would like to award you this trillion dollar bonus
Elon Musk: yeah yeah that'sa fine
Tesla Shareholders: what's the matter? you seem distracted
Musk: no i'm fine
Musk: [muttering] oates
Reposted by Dave Karpf
books have no tech tree, no fog of war
November 10, 2025 at 8:13 PM
books have no tech tree, no fog of war
Reposted by Dave Karpf
It turns out that the madman theory works on one particular target. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/the-madman...
The Madman Theory's Perfect Target
Yes, it's moderate Democrats.
danieldrezner.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 8:26 PM
It turns out that the madman theory works on one particular target. danieldrezner.substack.com/p/the-madman...
Reposted by Dave Karpf
3 years ago Elon enabled the funniest day in Twitter history.
November 10, 2025 at 8:05 PM
3 years ago Elon enabled the funniest day in Twitter history.
Reposted by Dave Karpf
Sorry for all the tags, @davekarpf.bsky.social, but you keep being right.
This is a helpful calibration of what the shutdown/cave do/don't mean. Expecting it to transform the Dem Party was, er, misguided, as was expecting it to stop Trump's abuses. That doesn't make it OK, but less doomy?
This is a helpful calibration of what the shutdown/cave do/don't mean. Expecting it to transform the Dem Party was, er, misguided, as was expecting it to stop Trump's abuses. That doesn't make it OK, but less doomy?
The Shutdown Surrender
I just... I mean... Whatever.
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 7:47 PM
Sorry for all the tags, @davekarpf.bsky.social, but you keep being right.
This is a helpful calibration of what the shutdown/cave do/don't mean. Expecting it to transform the Dem Party was, er, misguided, as was expecting it to stop Trump's abuses. That doesn't make it OK, but less doomy?
This is a helpful calibration of what the shutdown/cave do/don't mean. Expecting it to transform the Dem Party was, er, misguided, as was expecting it to stop Trump's abuses. That doesn't make it OK, but less doomy?
Reposted by Dave Karpf
Joyce Carol Oates may be the best poster of our time.
November 10, 2025 at 7:18 PM
Joyce Carol Oates may be the best poster of our time.
Reposted by Dave Karpf
Basically agree with everything Dave says here with the additional note that caving right now at the least-optimal time has the minor benefit of really clarifying in a *public* way who is on Team Fight vs. Team Surrender. That's good and will shape things going forward.
I scribbled down all my shutdown-related intrusive thoughts and put them in a blog post.
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
The Shutdown Surrender
I just... I mean... Whatever.
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 6:08 PM
Basically agree with everything Dave says here with the additional note that caving right now at the least-optimal time has the minor benefit of really clarifying in a *public* way who is on Team Fight vs. Team Surrender. That's good and will shape things going forward.
Reposted by Dave Karpf
Yeah this is it. Today in “neither our media nor our political system is designed to deal with a far right authoritarian party.”
I scribbled down all my shutdown-related intrusive thoughts and put them in a blog post.
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
The Shutdown Surrender
I just... I mean... Whatever.
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:23 PM
Yeah this is it. Today in “neither our media nor our political system is designed to deal with a far right authoritarian party.”
Reposted by Dave Karpf
This is the best thing I’ve read on this whole mess, and not just because I agree with it
I scribbled down all my shutdown-related intrusive thoughts and put them in a blog post.
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
The Shutdown Surrender
I just... I mean... Whatever.
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:27 PM
This is the best thing I’ve read on this whole mess, and not just because I agree with it
Reposted by Dave Karpf
"...frustrating as it is to watch the Democrats pause a footrace to tie their own shoelaces together..."
I scribbled down all my shutdown-related intrusive thoughts and put them in a blog post.
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
The Shutdown Surrender
I just... I mean... Whatever.
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 5:08 PM
"...frustrating as it is to watch the Democrats pause a footrace to tie their own shoelaces together..."
Reposted by Dave Karpf
This is a smart @davekarpf.bsky.social write-up for all who, like me, have been looping these bars all day long:
"Don't let them lead you astray,
This congress does not speak for me,
They're playing a dangerous game."
"Don't let them lead you astray,
This congress does not speak for me,
They're playing a dangerous game."
I scribbled down all my shutdown-related intrusive thoughts and put them in a blog post.
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
open.substack.com/pub/davekarp...
The Shutdown Surrender
I just... I mean... Whatever.
open.substack.com
November 10, 2025 at 4:59 PM
This is a smart @davekarpf.bsky.social write-up for all who, like me, have been looping these bars all day long:
"Don't let them lead you astray,
This congress does not speak for me,
They're playing a dangerous game."
"Don't let them lead you astray,
This congress does not speak for me,
They're playing a dangerous game."
Reposted by Dave Karpf
musk's extwitter was a failure by any quantitative metric of business or technical performance. he and his stans ended up revising the goal to make it an ideological performance, and that had a much bigger impact
OpenAI "proved" that LLMs are a viable product and X "proved" that you can fire large numbers of employees
(and, for that matter, Trump 2024 "proved" that wokeness was over and you didn't need to put up with any lip from your workers)
(and, for that matter, Trump 2024 "proved" that wokeness was over and you didn't need to put up with any lip from your workers)
November 10, 2025 at 4:44 PM
musk's extwitter was a failure by any quantitative metric of business or technical performance. he and his stans ended up revising the goal to make it an ideological performance, and that had a much bigger impact