Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Oct 13, 2022 30 tweets 30 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: US health insurers get more and more federal funding, deliver less and less care; and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2022/10/13/sic…

#Pluralistic 1/ Image
I'm in #Miami!

Catch me today (Oct 13) at @JoinLincoln's Reboot Conference:

eventbrite.com/e/reboot-2022-… 2/
US health insurers get more and more federal funding, deliver less and less care: Medicare Advantage will murder your grandparents - and you're next.

3/ Image
Hey look at this

* How Flashbots is taking over Ethereum block proposals protos.com/how-flashbots-…

* The Polyhedral Perspective publicdomainreview.org/essay/polyhedr…

* One trick Apple uses to make you think green bubbles are “gross” uxdesign.cc/how-apple-make… (h/t @BoingBoing) 4/ Image
#15yrsago First-ever patent-suit filed against Linux groklaw.net/article.php?st…

#15yrsago HOWTO cite blogs in formal academic medical papers ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK7266/ 5/ Image
#10yrsago California AG publicly shames United Airlines on Twitter over crappy privacy policy latimes.com/business/la-xp…

#10yrsago Videos from the HOPE 2004 conference: Jello Biafra, Woz, Schneier, Mitnick and more web.archive.org/web/2012103000… 6/ Image
#10yrsago UK surveillance bill: 19,000 letters opposing, 0 in favour web.archive.org/web/2012101500…

#10yrsago Myhrvold patents 3D printing DRM web.archive.org/web/2012101404…

#10yrsago Scanning whole books is fair use arstechnica.com/tech-policy/20… 7/ Image
#10yrsago Photos from backstage at Disneyland imgur.com/a/TJQYm

#5yrsago How do you dump the firmware from a “secure” voting machine? With a $15 open source hardware board blog.adafruit.com/2017/10/11/ft2… 8/ Image
#5yrsago Portland police stage bizarre sensory deprivation stunt against ICE protesters

#5yrsago The US has quit UNESCO, the UN agency that protects world heritage sites and teaches poor children to read vice.com/en/article/gy5… 9/ Image
#5yrsago China’s 1 percenters are now worth as much as the GDP of the United Kingdom scmp.com/business/china…

#5yrsago Here are the three most common dishonest arguments used to derail universal healthcare proposals latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/… 10/ Image
#5yrsago Yet another Trump official accused of defrauding taxpayers with dirty travel expenses cnn.com/2017/10/11/pol…

#5yrsago Trump’s FCC redefines “effective competition” to include having only one ISP in your county techdirt.com/2017/10/12/gro… 11/ Image
#5yrsago Here’s what hospital food looks like in Japan web.archive.org/web/2017100606…

#5yrsago Chinese internet censors really enjoy the work scmp.com/news/china/pol…

#5yrsago You are the elevator captain: a guide to Japan’s unspoken elevator etiquette medium.com/japan-init/ele… 12/ Image
#5yrsago Equifax is serving malware to visitors arstechnica.com/information-te…

#5yrsago How the University of New Hampshire spun blowing a frugal librarian’s donation on a stupid football scoreboard deadspin.com/how-unh-turned… 13/ Image
#1yrago There are no corporate criminals in America: Because America doesn't have corporate crime prosecutions pluralistic.net/2021/10/12/no-…

#1yrago This Thing Between Us, a neck-hair-stand-up cuycuy horror: Gus Moreno's debut novel pluralistic.net/2021/10/12/no-… 14/ Image
#1yrago India funded a starving kids' app, but not food: Solutionism at its worst pluralistic.net/2021/10/13/the…

#1yrago Adobe uses copyfraud to preserve spyware: A free-as-in-surveillance-free Flash installer is gone thanks to a bogus copyright claim pluralistic.net/2021/10/13/the… 15/ Image
#1yrago Charter uses bad credit threats to corral ex-subscribers: "Resubscribe or we'll keep trashing your credit report." pluralistic.net/2021/10/13/the… 16/ Image
Monday's threads: Undetectable, undefendable back-doors for machine learning; Shelter in place; and more!

17/ Image: in0_m0x0 (modified) ...
My latest book is Chokepoint Capitalism (with @rgibli), nonfiction about monopoly and fairness in creative labor markets.

chokepointcapitalism.com

Signed copies available from @BookSoup:

booksoup.com/book/978080700… 18/
My latest novel 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… 19/
My ebooks and audiobooks (from @torbooks, @HoZ_Books, @mcsweeneys, @BeaconPressBks et al) 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/ 20/ Image
Upcoming appearances:

* Reboot Conference, @JoinLincoln (Miami), 10/13
eventbrite.com/e/reboot-2022-…

* Copyright Evidence: Synthesis and Futures – @copyrightcentre (Glasgow), Oct 17
create.ac.uk/copyright-evid…

* @LibraryJournal Day of Dialog (Zoom), 10/20
libraryjournal.com/event/library-… 21/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Chokepoint Capitalism Event, @ArgoBookshop (Montreal), Oct 23
eventbrite.ca/e/cory-doctoro…

* Surviving Apocalyptic Economics, with @rushkoff and @rgibli, Ottawa @Writersfest, 10/24
writersfestival.org/events/fall-20… 22/ Image
Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* @WEDF_forum, 10/26-28
worldethicaldataforum.org/registration

* #RadicalBookFair/@Lighthousebks (Edinburgh), Nov 10
lighthousebookshop.com/events/chokepo…

* Arthur C Clarke Award (DC), 11/16
mailchi.mp/2e2b8a01e992/s… 23/ Image
Recent appearances:

* Regulating the Online Public Sphere (@ColumbiaGFoE)


* Canadians Connected 2022 with @ambermac:


* Amazon Billing Amazon for Amazon (@trashfuturepod)
trashfuturepodcast.podbean.com/e/amazon-billi… 24/ Image
Happy #SpookySeason! My picture book "Poesy the Monster Slayer" is the perfect read for your little monsters: it's an epic tale of bedtime-refusal, toy-hacking and monster-hunting, illustrated by @mcrockefeller.

pluralistic.net/2020/07/14/poe… 25/ 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/2022/10/13/sic… 26/
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 "Bankruptcy protects fake people, brutalizes real ones"

doctorow.medium.com/bankruptcy-pro… 27/
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 28/
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… 29/
Today's top sources: @yvessmith (nakedcapitalism.com). 30/ Image

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More from @doctorow

Oct 11
I am an environmentalist, but I'm not a climate activist. I used to be - I even used to ring strangers' doorbells on behalf of Greenpeace.

1/ A field of utility scale solar. Behind the mountains on the horizon line loom two logos: the original EFF 'clenched fist and lightning bolt' logo and the first Earth Day logo. They are reflected in the solar panels. Behind them roils hellish red-shot smoke.
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/2025/10/11/cyb…

2/
But a quarter of a century ago, I fell in with the Electronic Frontier Foundation and became a lifelong digital rights activist, and switched to cheering on environmental activists from the sidelines of their fight:



3/eff.org
Read 53 tweets
Sep 27
Like you, I'm sick to the back teeth of talking about AI. Like you, I keep getting dragged into AI discussions. Unlike you‡, I spent the summer writing a book on why I'm sick of AI⹋, which @fsgbooks will publish in 2026.

‡probably

⹋"The Reverse Centaur's Guide to AI"

1/ A Zimbabwean one hundred trillion dollar bill; the bill's iconography have been replaced with the glaring red eye of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey' and a stylized, engraving-style portrait of Sam Altman.  Image: TechCrunch https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sam_Altman_-_TechCrunch_Disrupt_SF_2017_(36522988343).jpg  CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en  --  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/2025/09/27/eco…

2/
A week ago, I turned that book into a speech, which I delivered as the annual Nordlander Memorial Lecture at Cornell, where I'm an AD White Professor-at-Large.

3/
Read 52 tweets
Sep 24
Billionaires don't think we're real. How could they? How could you inflict the vast misery that generates billions while still feeling even a twinge of empathy for the sufferer in your extractive enterprise. No wonder Elon Musk calls us "NPCs":



1/ pluralistic.net/2025/08/18/see…  An oil painting of a French king atop a throne, draped in sumptuous robes. His head has been replaced with a screaming, toothless man wearing a top-hat. Over his shoulder looms the hostile red eye of HAL 9000 from Stanley 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 pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/09/24/rob…

2/
Ever notice how people get palpably stupider as they gain riches and power? Musk went from a cringe doofus to a world-class credulous dolt, and it seems like he loses five IQ points for every $10b that's added to his net worth.

3/
Read 26 tweets
Sep 23
I'm only a few chapters into Bill McKibben's stupendous new book *Here Comes the Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization* and I already know it's going to change my outlook forever:



1/ billmckibben.com/books/here-com…A rooftop solar installation. Behind the roof rages a blazing forest fire. Reflected in the solar panels is the poop emoji from the cover of my book 'Enshittification,' which has angry eyebrows and a black, grawlix-filled bar across its mouth."    Image: Bastique (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Solar_Panels_on_Church_Roof_full.jpg  CC BY 4.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/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 pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/09/23/our…

2/
McKibben is one of our preeminent climate writers and activists, noteworthy for his informed and brilliant explanations of the technical limits - and possibilities - of various climate interventions, and for his lifelong organizing work.

3/
Read 80 tweets
Sep 22
One of the dumbest, shrewdest tricks corporate America ever pulled was teaching us all to reflexively say, "If a corporation blocks your speech, that doesn't violate the First Amendment and therefore it's not censorship":



1/ pluralistic.net/2022/12/04/yes…Two figures in royal robes seated back to back atop a pile of gold bars. One wears a tophat, the other, a crown in the form of a gilded crown. A forest of angled broadcast towers sits behind them. The sky is overshadowed by thunderheads.
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/2025/09/22/one…

2/
Censorship isn't limited to government action: it's the act of preventing a message from a willing speaker from reaching a willing listener. The fact that it's censorship doesn't (necessarily) mean that it's illegitimate or bad.

3/
Read 62 tweets
Sep 17
Conspiratorialism is downstream of the trauma of institutional failures.

Insitutional failures are downstream of regulatory capture.

Regulatory capture is downstream of monopolization.

Monopolization is downstream of the failure to enforce antitrust law.

1/ A four-doll matrioshke, unpacked and arranged 2x2. In order, the dolls' faces have been replaced with: the Qanon logo; an Oxycontin pill, the face of Robert Bork, and Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar.  Image: Vicent Ibáñez (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nina_Rusa._Mu%C3%B1eca_Rusa.JPG  CC BY-SA 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/deed.en  --  RootOfAllLight (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:QAnon.png  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 pluralistic.net, my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

pluralistic.net/2025/09/17/cau…

2/
Start with conspiratorialism and trauma. I am staunchly pro-vaccine. I have had so many covid jabs that I glow in the dark and can get impeccable 5g reception at the bottom of a coal-mine.

Nevertheless.

3/
Read 57 tweets

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