I have a (free) new book out! "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism" is an anti-monopolist critique of Big Tech that connects the rise of conspiratorial thinking to the rise of tech monopolies and proposes a way to deal with both:
My next book is ATTACK SURFACE, sequel to Little Brother and Homeland: it's a technothriller about a surveillance techie who goes home and learns the weapons she helped build are used against the racial justice movement founded by her best friend.
My ebooks and audiobooks (from @torbooks, @HoZ_Books, @mcsweeneys, and others) are for sale all over the net, but I sell 'em too, and when you buy 'em from me, I earn twice as much and you get books with no DRM and no license "agreements."
My first picture book just came out! It's called Poesy the Monster Slayer and it's an epic tale of bedtime-refusal, toy-hacking and monster-hunting, illustrated by Matt Rockefeller. It's the monster book I dreamt of reading to my own daughter.
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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:
We can't even bear to utter the *words* "corporate crime": instead, we deploy a whole raft of euphemisms like "risk and compliance," and that ole fave, the trusty "white-collar crime":
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.
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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:
Remember, the reason these corporations were able to capture such substantial market-share is that the capital markets saw them as a bet that they could lose money for years, drive out competition, capture their markets.
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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.
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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:
That's a lesson Mercedes is learning. In 2023, Germany's Supply Chain Act went into effect, banning large German corporations from using child labor, violating health and safety standards, and (critically) interfering with union organizers:
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."
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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:
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!