Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Sep 19, 2022 35 tweets 35 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: How to ditch Facebook without ditching your friends; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2022/09/19/int…

#Pluralistic 1/ The header graphic for 'How...
#NYC! I'm in town this week with "Chokepoint Capitalism," @rgibli's and my latest book! See us tonight at 7PM at @mcnallyjackson Seaport:

mcnallyjackson.com/event/rebecca-…

And on Friday at @NYUEngelberg!

eventbrite.com/e/chokepoint-c… 2/ Image
(and in between, I'll be at #UnfinishedLive: live.unfinished.com)

More cities here:

chokepointcapitalism.com 3/
How to ditch Facebook without ditching your friends: A new interop design fiction from EFF.

4/ Image
Hey look at this

* Regs2Riches regs2riches.com (outstanding!) (h/t Andrew Hunter)

* DIY graphics calculator galdeano02 hardware (h/t @hackaday)

* It’s Time For A Federal Anti-SLAPP Law To Protect Online Speakers eff.org/deeplinks/2022… 5/ Image
#20yrsago Infosec advice for civil society web.archive.org/web/2002040120…

#15yrsago Brian Dettmer’s “Book Autopsies” — sliced book sculptures web.archive.org/web/2007092503…

#15yrsago @KarlSchroeder’s Ventus now a free CC download web.archive.org/web/2007092022… 6/ Image
#15yrsago Mozilla creating a foundation to improve email web.archive.org/web/2007091820…

#15yrsago Head of US copyright says “DMCA does what it is supposed to do” memex.craphound.com/2007/09/17/hea… 7/ Image
#15yrsago NYTimes kills its paywall: “Google visitors make more dough than subscribers” nytimes.com/2007/09/18/bus…

#15yrsago Airport cops’ database includes your reading material wired.com/2007/09/u-s-ai… 8/ Image
#15yrsago MediaDefender sends takedowns for leaked mail, gets savagely taunted arstechnica.com/information-te…

#15yrsago Harvard bookstore: Our prices are “property” web.archive.org/web/2007102706… 9/ Image
#10yrsago Thin-skinned, plagiarizing Philippines Senator criminalizes “libel” with last minute stealth-attack on cybercrime bill raissarobles.com/2012/09/18/who…

#10yrsago Court to hear argument on the privacy implications of “junk” DNA databases eff.org/deeplinks/2012… 10/ Image
#10yrsago HOWTO be a good commenter whatever.scalzi.com/2012/09/18/how…

#10yrsago Scroogled: CC-licensed story about the day Google turned evil web.archive.org/web/2007092019…

#10yrsago Terrorists suck at terrorism politicalscience.osu.edu/faculty/jmuell… 11/ Image
#10yrsago District Attorneys rent out their letterhead to debt collectors, split the shakedown loot nytimes.com/2012/09/16/bus…

#10yrsago Turing and Burroughs: a beatnik SF novel by @rudytheelder rudyrucker.com/blog/2012/09/1… 12/ Image
#10yrsago A mandatory $180 art school textbook about “prehistory to 1800” with no pictures, thanks to a lack of mysterious “copyright clearances” ashleyit.com/blogs/brentash… 13/ Image
#10yrsago Obama 2012 campaign erases all previous civil liberties campaign guarantees web.archive.org/web/2012091909…

#5yrsago World Wide Web Consortium abandons consensus, standardizes DRM with 58.4% support, EFF resigns eff.org/deeplinks/2017… 14/ ImageImage
#5yrsago Florida Power and Light lobbyists made it illegal to use solar during outages miaminewtimes.com/news/miami-fru…

#5yrsago Vancouver housing co-op rescinds family’s apartment because unborn child is a girl cbc.ca/news/canada/br… 15/ Image
#5yrsago No one wants to host the Olympics thewire.in/sport/why-nobo…

#5yrsago Equifax was always dirty, it bills the US government for millions, and was repeatedly hacked memex.craphound.com/2017/09/19/equ… 16/ Image
#5yrsago America’s dirtiest, biggest student lender neutralized by federal watchdog bloomberg.com/news/articles/…

#5yrsago Study shows mainstream press condemns Nazis and anti-racist activists at comparable rates fair.org/home/in-month-… 17/ Image
#5yrsago @Annaleen’s Autonomous: a robosexual romp through an unequal future where biotech patent-enforcement is the only law memex.craphound.com/2017/09/19/ann…

#5yrsago California Democrats sell out online privacy in the dead of night eff.org/deeplinks/2017… 18/ Image
#5yrsago #Dieselgate kills 5,000 Europeans per year phys.org/news/2017-09-d…

#5yrsago In California’s foreclosure valley, rents soar thanks to hedge fund landlords nakedcapitalism.com/2017/09/wall-s… 19/ Image
#5yrsago Survey: Canadians are increasingly denying science, climate and vaccines vice.com/en/article/mb7…

#5yrsago Turkish high school students will no longer be taught “controversial” evolutionary theory english.alaraby.co.uk/features/turke… 20/ Image
#5yrsago Downtown LA: high vacancy rates and catastrophic homelessness web.archive.org/web/2017091800… 21/ Image
Friday's threads: Moneylike; and more!

22/ Image: Corey Coyle https://...
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… 23/
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… 24/ Image
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/ 25/ Image
Upcoming appearances:

* Chokepoint Capitalism, @mcnallyjackson (NYC), Sept 19, 7PM
mcnallyjackson.com/event/rebecca-…

* #UnfinishedLive (NYC), 9/21-23
live.unfinished.com

* Chokepoint Capitalism with @reckless, @NYUEngelberg (NYC) 9/23, 7PM
eventbrite.com/e/chokepoint-c… 26/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Chokepoint Capitalism, SFPL (San Francisco), 9/25
sfpl.org/events/2022/09…

* Chokepoint Capitalism, @BookSoup (LA), 9/27
booksoup.com/event/cory-doc… 27/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Discussing "Adventure Capitalism" with @raycraib, @skylightbooks (LA), 9/29
blog.pmpress.org/events/raymond…

* #OnlinePublicSphere2022, 10/3
globalfreedomofexpression.columbia.edu/events/regulat…

* @WEDF_forum, 10/26-28
worldethicaldataforum.org 28/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Arthur C Clarke Award (DC), 11/16
mailchi.mp/2e2b8a01e992/s… 29/ Image
Recent appearances:

* Billionaires As Policy Failure Factories (@CheeseMacro)
realprogressives.org/podcast_episod…

* Where’s My Privacy? (@myjetpackca)
wheresmyjetpack.ca/2022/09/14/doc…

* Launch for @motherboard's Terraform antho
vice.com/en/article/3ad… 30/ Image
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… 31/ Image
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/2022/09/19/int… 32/
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.

My latest Medium column is "Doing the Work: How to Write When You Suck

doctorow.medium.com/doing-the-work… 33/
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 34/
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… 35/

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
 

Keep Current with Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK

Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @doctorow

Jun 28
In 2014, I read a political science paper that nearly convinced me to quit my lifelong career as an activist: "Testing Theories of American Politics: Elites, Interest Groups, and Average Citizens," published in *Perspectives on Politics*:



1/ cambridge.org/core/journals/…An inflatable pig balloon against a blue sky, bearing the Zohran for Mayor logo. The Chrysler Building sits to one side.  Image: Frank Vincentz (modified) https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Geeste_-_Biener_Stra%C3%9Fe_-_Speicherbecken_-_Drachenfest_38_ies.jpg  Petri Krohn https://commons.m.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chrysler_building-_top.jpg  CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/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/2025/06/28/mam…

2/
The paper's authors are Martin Gilens, a UCLA professor of Public Policy; and Northwestern's Benjamin Page, a professor of Decision Making. Gilens and Page studied a representative sample of 1,779 policy issues.

3/
Read 49 tweets
Jun 24
When a company sells you something for $2 that someone else can buy for $1, they're revaluing the dollars in your pocket at half the rate of the other guy's.

1/ A busy 1950s grocery store. The scene has been altered: the massive, menacing, glaring red eye of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' hovers over the store, shooting red beams into the cash register. The store -- but not the shoppers at its front -- is suffused with red light.  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/2025/06/24/pri…

2/
Economists praise "price discrimination" as "efficient." That's when a company charges different customers different amounts based on inferences about their willingness to pay.

3/
Read 50 tweets
Jun 20
Private equity firms are the demon princes of the hellspace that is the imploding, life-destroying, plutocrat-generating American economy.

1/ A billionaire in a tuxedo with dollar-sign cufflinks, stands at a podium, yanking a lever shaped like a gilded dollar sign with one gloved hand. From the other hand, he contemptuously dangles a bloody corpse. His head has been replaced with the head of a doctor in a surgeon's blue cap, with red, glaring eyes. The background is the text of Oregon's new Corporate Practice of Medicine law, in blown-out, red type.
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/2025/06/20/the…

2/
Their favorite scam, the "leveraged buyout" is a mafia bustout dressed up in respectable clothes, and if you mourn a beloved, failed business, chances are that an LBO was the murder weapon, and PE was the killer:



3/pluralistic.net/2024/05/23/spi…
Read 44 tweets
May 27
On a recent This Machine Kills episode, guest Hagen Blix described the ultimate form of "AI therapy" with a "human in the loop":



1/ soundcloud.com/thismachinekil…A magnified image of the inside of an automated backup tape library, with gleaming racks of silver tape drives receding into the distance. In the foreground is a pile of dirt being shoveled by three figures in prisoner's stripes. Two of the figures' heads have been replaced with cliche hacker-in-hoodie heads, from which shine yellow, inverted Amazon 'smile' logos, such that the smile is a frown. The remaining figure's head has been replaced with a horse's head. Behind the figure is an impatiently posed man in a sharp business suit, frowning at his watch. His head has been replaced with the ...
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/2025/05/27/ran…

2/
> One actual therapist is just having ten chat GPT windows open where they just like have five seconds to interrupt the chatGPT. They have to scan them all and see if it says something really inappropriate. That's your job, to stop it.

3/
Read 98 tweets
May 21
My latest *Locus Magazine* column is "Strange Bedfellows and Long Knives," about the secret engine of sweeping political upheavals (like Trumpism) and their inherent fragility:



1/ locusmag.com/2025/05/commen…A Renaissance oil-painting of the assassination of Julius Caesar, modified to give Caesar Trump's hair and turn his skin orange, to make the knives glow, and to emboss a Heritage Foundation logo on the wall behind the scene.
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/2025/05/21/et-…

2/
Stories about major change usually focus on a *group*, but groups rarely achieve big, ambitious goals. Think about all the goal-oriented groups in your orbit, with missions like alleviating hunger, or beautifying your neighborhood, or changing the health-care system.

3/
Read 40 tweets
May 14
Something's very different in tech. Once upon a time, every bad choice by tech companies - taking away features, locking out mods or plugins, nerfing the API - was countered, nearly instantaneously, by someone writing a program that overrode that choice.

1/ A 19th century engraving of fiendishly complex machine composed of thousands of interlocking gears and frames (originally an image of a printing press, but modified so that it's just all gears and things), colored dark blue. It bears Woody Guthrie's guitar sticker, 'This machine KILLS fascists. To one side of it stands an image of Ned Ludd, taken from an infamous 19th century Luddite handbill, waving troops into battle. King Ludd's head has been replaced with a hacker's hoodie, the face within lost in shadow.
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/2025/05/14/pre…

2/
Bad clients would be muscled aside by third-party clients. Locked bootloaders would be hacked and replaced. Code that confirmed you were using OEM parts, consumables or adapters would be found and nuked from orbit.

3/
Read 51 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!


This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Don't want to be a Premium member but still want to support us?

Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal

Or Donate anonymously using crypto!

Ethereum

0xfe58350B80634f60Fa6Dc149a72b4DFbc17D341E copy

Bitcoin

3ATGMxNzCUFzxpMCHL5sWSt4DVtS8UqXpi copy

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us!

:(