Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Jul 7, 2022 27 tweets 24 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: Countervaling power; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2022/07/07/col…

#Pluralistic 1/ A mountain village that is being trampled under the feet of
Sponsor me for the @ClarionUCSD Write-A-Thon! I'm writing 10,000 words on my prison-tech thriller "Some Men Rob You With a Fountain Pen" and raising scholarship money for the Clarion SF/F workshop, which I graduated from in 1992.

clarionwriteathon.com/members/profil… 2/
Countervaling power: Finding the hairball's loose ends.

3/
Hey look at this

* Companies Are Hacking Their Way Around the Chip Shortage wired.com/story/chip-sho…

* Nick Robinson speaks to Mick Lynch, the general secretary of the RMT union bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m0…

* Journey Back Into Imagination …urneybackintoimagination.blogspot.com (h/t Wil Wheaton) 4/
#20yrsago The 1997 prototype for parasitic computing web.archive.org/web/2001060502…

#20yrsago The difference between OS X and Linux web.archive.org/web/2002070919…

#20yrsago Michael Jackson: music industry is a racist conspiracy to steal from artists billboard.com/music/music-ne… 5/
#20yrsago More sharp notes on Palladium web.archive.org/web/2002080214…

#10yrsago The UK has spent more money bailing out its banks in the past 12 months than it has spent on science since the time of Christ bbc.com/news/av/uk-pol… 6/
#10yrsago Def Leppard cuts off Universal Music, re-records “forgeries” of its own hits hollywoodreporter.com/news/general-n…

#10yrsago My stupidest moment as a customer, ever memex.craphound.com/2012/07/06/my-…

#10yrsago Mitt Romney doesn’t know how Venn diagrams work thesocietypages.org/socimages/2012… 7/
#10yrsago Just Do It doc on direct-action environmentalists now available as free, CC-licensed BitTorrent download web.archive.org/web/2012062908…

#10yrsago Austerity creates an organlegging bubble nytimes.com/2012/06/29/wor… 8/
#10yrsago Rand and Ron Paul denounce net neutrality and the public domain techdirt.com/2012/07/05/ron…

#10yrsago Scientology memo asks members to censor critical web comments with trumped up “code of conduct” complaints news.yahoo.com/blogs/lookout/… 9/
#10yrsago John @Scalzi profiled in the NYT nytimes.com/2012/07/07/boo…

#5yrsago Theresa May says she won’t address climate change at the G20 summit independent.co.uk/news/uk/politi… 10/
#5yrsago Networks hide badly rated shows by misspelling their names in Nielsen submissions cnet.com/culture/entert…

#5yrsago Under Trumpcare, surviving a gunshot wounds gives you a “pre-existing condition” bloomberg.com/news/articles/… 11/
#5yrsago The W3C has overruled members’ objections and will publish its DRM for videos eff.org/deeplinks/2017…

#5yrsago How to write pulp fiction that celebrates humanity’s essential goodness locusmag.com/2017/07/cory-d… 12/
#5yrsago America is starting to realize that “liberal/conservative” labels exclude the left nytimes.com/2017/07/05/mag…

#1yrsago Quantifying copyright reversion: The first-of-its-kind dataset of creators who took back their rights pluralistic.net/2021/07/06/bac… 13/
#1yrago Comic book store files comic-book lawsuit: Third Planet Comics has already won its case…in my heart pluralistic.net/2021/07/07/ins…

#1yrago Biden delivers Right to Repair via executive order pluralistic.net/2021/07/07/ins… 14/
#1yrago Technological self-determination: Competition is a means, not an end pluralistic.net/2021/07/07/ins… 15/
Tuesday's threads: "The Swerve"; and more!

16/
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… 17/
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/ 18/
Upcoming appearances:

* A New @HOPEconf (NYC), Jul 24
hope.net

* @DEFCON 30 (Las Vegas), Aug 13
defcon.org/html/defcon-30… 19/
Recent appearances:

* @CMAgovUK Data, Technology and Analytics Conference:


* Supp-Lie Demand (Bad Faith with @briebriejoy):
patreon.com/posts/67550669

* The Sci-Fi Feedback Loop: Mapping Fiction’s Influence on Real-World Tech
csi.asu.edu/calendar/event… 20/
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… 21/
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/2022/07/07/col… 22/
If you're a @Medium subscriber, you can read these essays - as well as previews of upcoming magazine columns and early exclusives on doctorow.medium.com. 23/
My latest @Medium column is "Shovel-Ready: A half-to-three-quarters-baked idea to fix capitalism"

doctorow.medium.com/shovel-ready-3… 24/
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 25/
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… 26/
Today's top sources: @YvesSmith (nakedcapitalism.com). 27/

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More from @doctorow

Apr 24
Patrick "patio11" McKenzie is a fantastic explainer, the kind of person who breaks topics down in ways that stay with you, and creep into your understanding of other subjects, too. Take his 2022 essay, "The optimal amount of fraud is non-zero":



1/ bitsaboutmoney.com/archive/optima…A rainforest in Chiapas, green and intergrown.
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/2025/04/24/her…

2/
It's a very well-argued piece, and here's the nut of it:

> The marginal return of permitting fraud against you is plausibly greater than zero, and therefore, you should welcome greater than zero fraud.

3/
Read 55 tweets
Apr 22
Astrophysicist Adam Becker knows a bit about science and tech - enough to show, in his book *More Everything Forever* that claims tech bros make about space colonies, mind uploading, and other skiffy subjects are nonsense dressed up as prediction:



1/ hachettebookgroup.com/titles/adam-be…The Basic Books cover for Adam Becker's 'More Everything Faster.'
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/2025/04/22/vin…

2/
Becker investigates the personalities, the ideologies, the coalitions, the histories, and crucially, the *grifts* behind various science fictional pursuits.

3/
Read 24 tweets
Apr 21
Have you heard that tariffs are going to drive prices up? Me too. There's a good reason we're hearing a lot of talk about tariffs prices: tariffs are a tax that is ultimately paid by consumers.

1/
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/2025/04/21/tru…

2/
Trump plans to raise $6t in tariffs, making them the largest tax increase in US history:



But that $6t is just for starters.

3/ohiocapitaljournal.com/2025/04/03/as-…
Read 42 tweets
Apr 18
It's damned hard to prove an antitrust case: so often, the prosecution has to prove that the company *intended* to crush competition, and/or that they raised prices or reduced quality because they knew they didn't have to fear competitors.

1/ A naked, sexless pull-string talking doll with a speaker grille set into its chest. It has the head of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar, and a pull string extending from its back. A hand - again, from a Zuckerberg metaverse avatar - is pulling back the string. The doll towers over a courtroom.
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/2025/04/18/cha…

2/
It's a lot easier to prove *what* a corporation did than it is to prove *why* they did it. What am I, a mind-reader? But imagine for a second that the corporation in the dock is a global multinational.

3/
Read 64 tweets
Apr 15
A lawsuit filed in February accuses Tesla of remotely altering odometer values on failure-prone cars, in a bid to push these lemons beyond the 50,000 mile warranty limit:



1/ thestreet.com/automotive/tes…A scene out of an 11th century tome on demon-summoning called 'Compendium rarissimum totius Artis Magicae sistematisatae per celeberrimos Artis hujus Magistros. Anno 1057. Noli me tangere.' It depicts a demon tormenting two unlucky would-be demon-summoners who have dug up a grave in a graveyard. One summoner is held aloft by his hair, screaming; the other screams from inside the grave he is digging up. The scene has been altered to remove the demon's prominent, urinating penis, to add in a Tesla supercharger, and a red Tesla Model S nosing into the scene.   Image: Steve Jurvetson (modified)...
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/2025/04/15/mus…

2/
The suit was filed by a California driver who bought a used Tesla with 36,772 miles on it. The car's suspension kept failing, necessitating multiple servicings.

3/
Read 62 tweets
Apr 12
A jury has ordered Blue Cross of Louisiana to pay $421m to a hospital specializing in a much sought-after type of breast reconstruction, primarily for cancer survivors.

1/ A 19th century medical illustration of a topless woman whose left breast has been consumed by a tumor. She is being menaced by an engraved illustration of a looming skeleton, who raises one hand as if to strike her. Behind them is a faded and distressed Blue Cross logo.
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/2025/04/12/pre…

2/
The insurer "preapproved" surgeries for thousands of patients, but then held back 92% of the payments it owed, with CEO Steven Udvarhelyi insisting that "authorization never says we’re going to pay you":



3/documentcloud.org/documents/2588…
Read 34 tweets

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