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Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK
@doctorow
Author/activist/journalist. New novel: THE BEZZLE, a thriller of hi-tech fraud and the Shitty Tech Adoption Curve https://t.co/4ZExCQHv6q @pluralistic@mamot.fr
Chris Bugbee Profile picture eDo Profile picture Adam Smithee Profile picture Hamish MacEwan Profile picture no Profile picture 281 subscribed
May 13 • 98 tweets • 19 min read
When it comes to AI art (or "art"), it's hard to find a nuanced position that respects creative workers' labor rights, free expression, copyright law's vital exceptions and limitations, and aesthetics.

1/ An old woodcut of a disembodied man's hand operating a Ouija board planchette. It has been modified to add an extra finger and thumb. It has been tinted green. It has been placed on a 'code waterfall' backdrop as seen in the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies. If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/13/spo…
May 11 • 86 tweets • 19 min read
Like Oscar Wilde, "I can resist anything except temptation," and my slow and halting journey to adulthood is really just me grappling with this fact, getting temptation out of my way before I can yield to it.

1/ A complex control panel whose knobs have all been replaced with the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' A skeletal figure on one side of the image reaches out a bony finger to twiddle one of the knobs. Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en -- djhughman https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Modular_synthesizer_-_%22Control_Voltage%22_electronic_music_shop_in_Portland_OR_-_School_Photos_PCC_%282015-05-23_12.43.01_by_djhughman%29.jpg CC BY 2.0 https://cr... If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/11/for…
May 9 • 50 tweets • 12 min read
Fun fact: "The Tragedy Of the Commons" is a hoax created by the white nationalist Garrett Hardin to justify stealing land from colonized people.

1/ A lonely mud-brick well in a brown desert. It has been modified to add a 'caganar' - a traditional Spanish figure of a man crouching down and defecating - perched on the edge of the well. The caganar's head has been replaced with the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The sky behind this scene has been blended with a 'code waterfall' effect as seen in the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies. Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en -- Cathe... If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/09/shi…
May 6 • 49 tweets • 9 min read
Amazon is very good at everything it does, including being very bad at the things it doesn't want to do. Take signing up for Prime: nothing could be simpler. The company has built a greased slide from Prime-curiosity to Prime-confirmed that is the envy of every UX designer.

1/ A hand depositing a ballot in a perspex ballot box on a black background. The box is full of yellow-green piss and the ballot features an angry robot made from Amazon boxes and the phrase 'I am not a robot.' The box has an Amazon logo across its top. Image: Isabela.Zanella (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ballot-box-2.jpg CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/06/one…
May 4 • 10 tweets • 7 min read
tumblr.com/ilovedamsels19…
Image Director Irvin Kershner posing with Darth Vader, IG-88 and Boba Fett gameraboy2.tumblr.com/post/749583586…
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May 3 • 57 tweets • 13 min read
Even Google admits - grudgingly - that it is losing the spam wars. The explosive proliferation of botshit has supercharged the sleazy "search engine optimization" business.

1/ A wall of Spam cans stacked many layers high and deep. Superimposed over it are UI elements from the Google 1998 homepage: a search box, a 'Google Search' button, and an 'I'm feeling lucky' button. The middle four rows of Spam cans have been colorized to match the Google four-color logo tones. Image: freezelight (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Spam_wall_-_Flickr_-_freezelight.jpg CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/03/key…
May 1 • 66 tweets • 11 min read
Boeing's 787 "Dreamliner" is manufactured far from the company's Seattle headquarters, in a non-union shop in Charleston, South Carolina. At that shop, there is a cage full of defective parts that have been pulled from production because they are not airworthy.

1/ A Boeing 737 Max with Boeing livery, flying through a grey-blue sky. It has split in two. The tail section, which is falling out of the sky, has a large REJECTED stamp on it. A parachute sailing away from the wreckage suspends a '¯\_(ツ)_/¯' ASCII shrug emoji. Image: Tom Axford 1 (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Blue_sky_with_wisps_of_cloud_on_a_clear_summer_morning.jpg CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en -- Clemens Vasters (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:N7379E_-_Boeing_737_MAX_9.jpg CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons... If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/05/01/boe…
Apr 30 • 38 tweets • 9 min read
Anything that can't go on forever eventually stops. Monopolies are intrinsically destabilizing and inevitably implode...eventually. Guessing *which* of the loathesome monopolies that make us all miserable will be the first domino is a hard call, but Ticketmaster is definitely high on my list.

1/The Capitol building. Before it sits a vast pile of hundred dollar bills in rubber-banded packets. Behind it is a set of stadium concert lights. Overhead hangs a crooked, dirty sign bearing the Live Nation wordmark. The Capitol building is a-crawl with vivid green tentacles. Image: Matt Biddulph (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/mbiddulph/13904063945/ CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/ -- Flying Logos (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Over_$1,000,000_dollars_in_USD_$100_bill_stacks.png CC BY-SA 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/30/nix…
Apr 29 • 61 tweets • 9 min read
Cigna - like all private health insurers - has two contradictory imperatives:

I. To keep its customers healthy; and

II. To make as much money for its shareholders as is possible.

1/ An existential plane extending to an abstract background. Scattered through the scene are mainframes and control panels, being worked by faceless figure. In the center stands a downcast MD in old-fashioned scrubs. In the foreground to the right is an impatient older man in a business suit, staring at his watch and brandishing a sheaf of papers. In the background left is a grim reaper figure raising a glass of blood in a toast, the blood spattering his robes. In the center background in large magnetic 'computer font' lettering is the word 'NO.' If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/29/wha…
Apr 27 • 49 tweets • 9 min read
One of my weirder and more rewarding hobbies is collecting definitions of "conservativism," and one of the jewels of that collection comes from @CoreyRobin's must-read book *The Reactionary Mind*:



1/ en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_React…
A 19th century photo of bailiffs using a battering ram to evict debtors from a thatched cottage in Ireland. The photo has been hand-tinted and the logo for Alden Capital has been added to the tip of the battering ram. A vulture in a top hat overlooks the scene. If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/27/for…
Apr 25 • 65 tweets • 12 min read
This is huge: yesterday, the @FTC finalized a rule banning noncompetes for every American worker. That means that the person working the register at a Wendy's can switch to the fry-trap at McD's for an extra $0.25/hour, without their boss suing them:



1/ ftc.gov/news-events/ne…
An ominous long institutional corridor. At the far end of it is a collection of workers with their upraised fists merging into a single giant fist. In the foreground is a guillotine manned by a pair of revolutionary French executioners who labor over a prone, doomed aristocrat. If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/25/cap…
Apr 23 • 68 tweets • 13 min read
If AI has a future (a big if), it will have to be economically viable. An industry can't spend 1,700% more on Nvidia chips than it earns indefinitely - not even with Nvidia being a principle investor in its largest customers:



1/ news.ycombinator.com/item?id=398835…
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/23/max…
Apr 22 • 29 tweets • 19 min read
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

NOTE: I DID NOT BUY A BLUE-TICK. IT WAS NONCONSENSUALLY ADDED TO MY ACCOUNT.

Inside: Paying for it doesn't make it a market; and more!

Archived at:

#Pluralistic

1/ pluralistic.net/2024/04/22/kar…
A man working at an old-fashioned control panel covered in dials and buttons. The screen in front of him reads HORROR! in old-fashioned, dripping horror-movie letters. The control panel has the logos of Google, Apple and Meta. To his left sits an enthroned demon, sneering at the viewer. The background is a code waterfall effect as seen in the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies. I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel *The Bezzle*! Catch me in THIS SATURDAY (Apr 27) in MARIN COUNTY, Winnipeg (May 2), Calgary (May 3), Vancouver (May 4), and beyond!



2/ pluralistic.net/2024/02/16/nar…
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Apr 19 • 56 tweets • 12 min read
Combine Angelou's "When someone shows you who they are, believe them" with the truism that in politics, "every accusation is a confession" and you get: "Every time someone accuses you of a vice, they're showing you who they are and you should believe them."

1/ A tightrope walker in a tuxedo and top-hat. He is about to fall off his tightrope and his eyes are white and staring, while his mouth is open in a scream. The tightrope is anchored to a street-post with a 'Wall Street' sign on it. The post is being knocked askew by hundreds of tiny workers and farmers whose upraised fists have combined into one giant fist that is pushing the post over. In front of the tightrope walker is a black anarchist cat, barring his way. Image: Vlad Lazarenko (modified) https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wall_Street_Sign_%281-9%29.jpg CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creati... If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/19/mak…
Apr 18 • 87 tweets • 16 min read
This week on my podcast, I read "Capitalists Hate Capitalism," my latest column for @LocusMag:



1/ locusmag.com/2024/03/cory-d…
An illuminated manuscript drawing of two serfs threshing wheat. Behind them is a portrait of a fat-cat type in a business suit, with a dollar-sign money-bag for a head. If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/18/in-…
Apr 15 • 24 tweets • 5 min read
Corporate crime is underpoliced and underprosecuted. We just choose not to do anything about it. US corporations commit crimes at 20X the rate of humans, and their crimes are far worse than any human crime, but they are almost never prosecuted:



1/ pluralistic.net/2021/10/12/no-…
A proletarian-looking figure glowering from between rusty bars. In front of the bars is a capitalist-type guy in a top hat holding a huge money-sack emblazoned with a dollar-sign. He's shouting over his shoulder at the imprisoned prole. A whistle sits on the ledge of the cell bars. If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/15/whi…
Apr 12 • 52 tweets • 10 min read
Using Amazon, or Twitter, or Facebook, or Google, or Doordash, or Uber doesn't make you lazy. Platform capitalism isn't enshittifying because you made the wrong shopping choices.

1/ A Rube Goldberg drawing of a man using an elaborate automatic napkin, a contraption that integrates a wall-clock, a parrot, a pop-up toaster and other contrivances. The background has been replaced with the 'code waterfall' effect seen in the credits of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movie. The fact of the wall-clock has been replaced with the staring eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/12/giv…
Apr 10 • 26 tweets • 7 min read
Here's a silver lining to global monopolies: we're all fighting the same enemy, who uses the same tactics everywhere. The same tools that allow firms to extend their tendrils to every corner of the Earth allows regulators and labor organizers to coordinate their resistance.

1/ Abraham Bosse's 17th century etching of David with a defeated Goliath. In the original, David marvels at his sling while standing astride the giant head of Goliath, which has been severed and sports a notable forehead-dent. The image has been modified, replacing the rock in David's sling with the Earth, and adding a monocle and top-hat to Goliath's severed head. If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/10/an-…
Apr 8 • 87 tweets • 16 min read
Audre Lorde counsels us that "The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House," while MLK said "the law cannot make a man love me, but it can restrain him from lynching me."

1/ A period oil-painting depicting 'The Defenestrations of Prague,' in which wealthy people were thrown out of windows. This image contains two of these wealthy people, one about to be pushed backwards out the window by other stolid burghers, the other being dragged toward the same window to face a similar fate. Both look terrified. The skyline outside of the window has been replaced with the Manhattan skyline. The wall behind them has been replaced with a green-on-black stock ticker. Image: KMJ (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Boerse_01_KMJ.jpg CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creati... If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/08/mon…
Apr 5 • 28 tweets • 16 min read
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: General Mills and cheaply bought "dietitians" co-opted the anti-diet movement; and more!

Archived at:

#Pluralistic

1/ pluralistic.net/2024/04/05/cor…
A lab-coated scientist in a chem lab filled with retorts, glassware, etc. The image has been modified. The scientist's head has been replaced with the head of the Trix rabbit, and his labcoat now has a General Mills logo patch stitched onto the shoulder. The contents of his main beaker have been replaced with a floating Cocoa Puffs logo. I'm touring my new, nationally bestselling novel *The Bezzle*! Catch me NEXT THURSDAY (Apr 11) in BOSTON with Randall "@XKCD" Munroe (Apr 11), then PROVIDENCE, RI (Apr 12) and beyond!



2/ pluralistic.net/2024/02/16/nar…
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Apr 5 • 42 tweets • 9 min read
Steve Bannon isn't wrong: for his brand of nihilistic politics to win, all he has to do is "flood the zone with shit," demoralizing people to the point where they no longer even *try* to learn the truth.

1/ A lab-coated scientist in a chem lab filled with retorts, glassware, etc. The image has been modified. The scientist's head has been replaced with the head of the Trix rabbit, and his labcoat now has a General Mills logo patch stitched onto the shoulder. The contents of his main beaker have been replaced with a floating Cocoa Puffs logo. If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2024/04/05/cor…