Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Mar 9, 2022 19 tweets 16 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: The cruelty isn't the point; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2022/03/09/tur…

#Pluralistic 1/ A roast turkey on a countertop wearing an 'I voted' sticker
Tomorrow (Mar 10), I'm on a #RightToRepair panel in honor of the special "War on Repair" issue of @Make: magazine:

makezine.com/2022/03/07/vol… 2/
The cruelty isn't the point: The point is power.

3/  Image: Gerry (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/tucho
#20yrsago Rob Ford: dead cyclists have themselves to blame! web.archive.org/web/2008070411…

#10yrsago Infographic: Charter Cable’s dirty tricks to kill community broadcast muninetworks.org/content/charte… 4/
#10yrsago TSA body-scanner guy says TSA is “strongly cautioning” reporters not to write about him professional-troublemaker.com/2012/03/08/bre…

#10yrsago Arizona Senate votes to let anti-abortion docs lie to pregnant women azcapitoltimes.com/news/2012/03/0… 5/
#5yrsago Bunnie Huang’s tour-de-force “Hardware Hacker” memex.craphound.com/2017/03/09/bun…

#5yrsago Senate Republicans introduce resolution ensuring ISPs don’t need your permission to sell your private data and SSN arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20… 6/
#5yrsago The grueling emotional labor of an open source maintainer nolanlawson.com/2017/03/05/wha…

#5yrsago Uber’s “sharing economy” is really the “taking economy” papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cf… 7/
Yesterday's threads: How and why to break up Big Tech; The Dawn of Everything; and more!

8/ Image: Macmillan https://us.macmillan.com/books/978037415735
Hey look at this

* Zelensky's "Servant of the People" sitcom, with English subtitles (h/t @DavidIsen) 9/
My latest book is Attack Surface, a sequel to my bestselling Little Brother books, now in paperback, wherever books are sold.

Signed copies at @darkdel:

darkdel.com/store/p1840/Co… 10/
My book "How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism" is a critique of Big Tech connecting conspiratorial thinking to the rise of tech monopolies (proposing a way to deal with both) is now out in paperback:

onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy…

Signed copies here:
darkdel.com/store/p2024/Av… 11/
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."

craphound.com/shop/ 12/
Upcoming appearances:

* @make Vol 80 launch party (Mar 10)
makezine.com/2022/03/07/vol…

* Competition & Regulation in Disrupted Times (@News_CRA/Brussels), Mar 31
cra-brusselsconference.com

* Emerging Technologies For the Enterprise, Apr 19-20
2022.phillyemergingtech.com 13/
Recent appearances:

* Safety Orange (@TWIT)
twit.tv/shows/this-wee…

* Seize the Means of Computation (Boston Computation Club)

castro.fm/episode/cBq9TF

* Policy Implications of Web3 (@StanfordCyber)
14/
My first picture book is 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 @MCRockefeller. It's the monster book I dreamt of reading to my own daughter.

pluralistic.net/2020/07/14/poe… 15/
You can also follow these posts as a daily blog at pluralistic.net: no ads, trackers, or data-collection!

Here's today's edition: pluralistic.net/2022/03/09/tur… 16/
If you're a @Medium subscriber, you can read these - as well as previews of upcoming magazine columns and early exclusives on doctorow.medium.com.

My latest Medium column is: "What is 'Peak Indifference?'"

doctorow.medium.com/what-is-peak-i… 17/
If you prefer a newsletter, subscribe to the plura-list, which is also ad- and tracker-free, and is utterly unadorned save a single daily emoji. Today's is "👨🏿‍💼". Suggestions solicited for future emojis!

Subscribe here: pluralistic.net/plura-list 18/
Are you trying to wean yourself off Big Tech? Follow these threads on the #fediverse at @pluralistic@mamot.fr.

Here's today's edition: mamot.fr/@pluralistic/1… 19/

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More from @doctorow

Feb 5
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

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

Inside: MLMs are the mirror-world version of community organizing; and more!

Archived at:

#Pluralistic

1/ pluralistic.net/2025/02/04/pow…A vintage ad for Amway Nutrilite supplements; the illustration in the center of the ad has been replaced with a WPA mural depicting trade unionists rising up against capitalism.
This week, Barnes and Noble are offering a 25% discount on pre-order of my next novel, *Picks and Shovels* (use code PREORDERS):



2/ barnesandnoble.com/w/picks-and-sh…Image
MLMs are the mirror-world version of community organizing: In the mirror world, community organizers are community predators.



3/ Image
Read 29 tweets
Jan 27
If Elon Musk wants to cut $2t from the US federal budget, there's a pretty straightforward way to get there - just eliminate all the beltway bandits who overcharge Uncle Sucker for everything from pharma to roads to (of course) rockets, and make the rich pay their taxes.

1/  A highwayman in a tailcoat and top-hat with Elon Musk's laughing face points a pair of oversized revolvers at a bent-double Uncle Sam, his face a bitter mask; Sam is being crushed under a small mountain of variegated fardels, e.g., large sacks, barrels, and railroad rails. In the background is a halftoned image of a Falcon Heavy rocket plummeting out of the sky, chased by a plume of flame.   Image: Steve Jurvetson (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/jurvetson/52005460639/  CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/01/27/bel…

2/
There *is* a ton of federal bloat, but it's not coming from useless programs or overpaid federal employees.

3/
Read 56 tweets
Jan 25
The core regulatory proposition of the tech industry is "it's not a crime if we do it with an app." It's not an unlicensed taxi if we do it with an app. It's not an illegal hotel room if we do it with an app.

1/  Two caricatures of top-hatted millionaires whose bodies are bulging money-sacks. Their heads have been replaced with potatoes. The potatoes' eyes have been replaced with the hostile red eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' They stand in a potato field filled with stoop laborers. The sky is a 'code waterfall' 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
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/01/25/pot…

2/
It's not an unregistered security if we do it with an app. It's not wage theft if we do it with an app.

3/
Read 34 tweets
Jan 24
"Boss politics" are a feature of corrupt societies. When a society is dominated by self-dealing, corrupt institutions, strongman leaders can seize control by appealing to the public's fury and desperation.

1/ An altered version of a Gilded Age editorial cartoon titled 'Who controls the Senate?' which depicts the Senate as populated by tiny, ineffectual politicians ringed by massive, bloated, brooding monopolists. A door labeled 'people's entrance.' is firmly locked. A sign reads, 'This is a senate of the monopolists, by the monopolists and for the monopolists.' The image has been altered: an editorial cartoon of Boss Tweed, portrayed as a portly man in a business suit with a money-bag for a head, stands in the foreground. He is wearing a MAGA hat. On his shoulder perches a tiny, 'big stick' swin...
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/01/24/enf…

2/
Then, the boss can selectively punish corrupt entities that oppose him, and since *everyone* is corrupt, these will be valid prosecutions.

3/
Read 49 tweets
Jan 22
Turns out Donald Trump isn't the only world leader with a tech billionaire "first buddy" who gets to serve as an unaccountable, self-interested de facto business regulator. UK PM Kier Starmer has just handed the keys to the British economy over to Jeff Bezos.

1/ A vintage Puck cover illustration depicting a tophatted millionaire as a puppeteer, operating two marionettes, one dressed as a general, the other as a businessman. It has been altered: the puppeteer's face has been replaced with Jeff Bezos's. The general marionette's face has been replaced with Keir Starmer's. The other marionette's face has been replaced with a vintage oil pastel drawing of an outraged bricklayer in a folded paper hat. The puppet theater is surmounted by the UK royal crest.   Image: UK Parliament/Maria Unger (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Keir_Starmer_...
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/01/22/aut…

2/
Oh, not literally. But here's what's happened: the UK's Competitions and Markets Authority, an organisation charged with investigating and punishing tech monopolists (like Amazon) has just been turned over to Doug Gurr, the guy who used to run Amazon UK.

3/
Read 50 tweets
Jan 20
Many of us have left the big social media platforms; far more of us *wish* we could leave them; and even those of us who've escaped from Facebook/Insta and Twitter still spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to get the people we care about off of them, too.

1/ A page out of a medieval hand-illuminated grimoire; it is an illustration of a tree, with each branch terminating in a demon; these branches are annotated in an unknown script. The demons have been replaced with 19th century caricatures of shouting millionaire industrialists.
If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/01/20/cap…

2/
It's lazy and easy to think that our friends who are stuck on legacy platforms run by Zuckerberg and Musk lack the self-discipline to wean themselves off of these services.

3/
Read 93 tweets

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