Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
May 17, 2023 25 tweets 33 min read Read on X
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

Inside: The IRS will do your taxes for you (if that's what you prefer); and more!

Archived at: pluralistic.net/2023/05/17/fre…

#Pluralistic

1/ A vintage drawing of Uncle ...
The IRS will do your taxes for you (if that's what you prefer): After years of expensively purchased delay, Turbotax and its fellow tax-profiteers are losing the fight to make you pay them to tell the government what it already knows.



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Hey look at this

* #AntiPiracy Outfit Wipes ACE’s ‘#WatchLegally’ Page From Google torrentfreak.com/anti-piracy-ou… (h/t @slashdot)

* dome sweet dome mcmansionhell.com/post/717478586…

* #NEWSPAPERS AND THINKING THE UNTHINKABLE edge.org/conversation/c… (h/t @TodayinTabs)

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#15yrsago Ballad of a #TCPResetPacket arstechnica.com/staff/2008/05/…

#15yrsago @bruces’s visionary novel Distraction: still brilliant a decade later memex.craphound.com/2008/05/17/bru…

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#10yrsago #Gawker reporter claims to have seen video of Toronto Mayor #RobFord #SmokingCrack gawker.com/for-sale-a-vid…

#10yrsago Company that oversees US “six-strikes” copyright shakedown has its company status revoked torrentfreak.com/six-strikes-an…

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#5yrsago Star of racist deli rant identified as Trump-donating NYC lawyer #AaronSchlossberg gothamist.com/news/enraged-w…

#5yrsago Rising levels of a banned chemical are threatening the #OzoneLayer (again) washingtonpost.com/news/energy-en…

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#5yrsago #StudentDebt crisis watch: pay $18,000 of your $24,000 loan, owe $24k bustle.com/p/ive-paid-180…

#5yrsago For decades it was an open secret that patients of #USC’s only full-time gynecologist were complaining about sexual assaults during exams latimes.com/local/californ…

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#5yrsago It’s laughably simple to buy thousands of cheap, plausible Facebook identities buzzfeednews.com/article/charli…

#5yrsago A collaborative bibliography of “#EconomicScienceFictionedgeryders.eu/t/economic-sci…

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#5yrsago The £7 billion #Carillion collapse has the UK government talking about breaking up the Big Four accounting firms independent.co.uk/news/business/…

#5yrsago America’s new aristocracy: the 9.9% and their delusion of #HereditaryMeritocracy theatlantic.com/magazine/archi…

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#5yrsago New York surpasses Brexit London as the world’s second-hottest luxury property market mansionglobal.com/articles/hong-…

#1yrago How #BigPharma bribed docs to overprescribe #opioids pluralistic.net/2022/05/17/dol…

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Yesterday's threads: Rent control works; and more!



12/  Image: ozz13x (modified) h...
My latest novel is Red Team Blues, available wherever books are sold!

Signed copies at @DarkDel:

darkdel.com/store/p2873/We…

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My latest nonfiction 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…

14/
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/

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Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Red Team Blues event with @christreilly (#Nottingham), 5/30
waterstones.com/events/an-even…

* @uclcs Peter Kirstein Lecture, 6/1 (#London):
eventbrite.co.uk/e/peter-kirste…

* @CymeraF, 6/3 (#Edinburgh)
cymerafestival.co.uk/cymera23-event…

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Upcoming appearances (cont'd):

* Red Team Blues with @Marthalanefox at the @bl, 6/5 (#London):
bl.uk/events/an-even…

* @republica keynote, 6/7 (#Berlin)
re-publica.com/de/news/rp23-k…

* Otherland event for Red Team Blues, 6/8 (#Berlin)
otherland-berlin.de/de/event-detai…

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Recent appearances:

* Shakedowns, Shell Games & Silicon Valley Shenanigans @MMTpodcast
pileusmmt.libsyn.com/170-cory-docto…

* Chokepoint Capitalism's Arts Stranglehold @USNewsBeat
radiopublic.com/news-beat-GKkd…

* Enshittification 2: How Big Tech curdled @onthemedia
wnycstudios.org/podcasts/otm/s…

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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/2023/05/17/fre…

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If you're a @Medium subscriber, you can read these essays - and previews of upcoming magazine columns and early exclusives on doctorow.medium.com.

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My latest @Medium column is "Google's AI Hype Circle: We have to do Bard because everyone else is doing AI; everyone else is doing AI because we're doing Bard"

doctorow.medium.com/googles-ai-hyp…

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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: mail.flarn.com/mailman/listin…

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Are you trying to wean yourself off Big Tech? You can read my work elsewhere, but it is now a #TwitterCrime to tell you how. Please visit my site, pluralistic.net, for links to find me on less-unhinged places (I can only imagine that my days here are numbered).

eof/

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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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