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Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK Profile picture
Cory Doctorow NONCONSENSUAL BLUE TICK
@doctorow
Author/activist/journalist. New book: PICKS AND SHOVELS, a Marty Hench adventure from the dawn of enshittification: https://t.co/zGDGhU2RvP @pluralistic@mamot.fr
296 subscribers
Feb 18 • 62 tweets • 12 min read
In 2013, Thomas Piketty had an unexpected bestseller (a 750 page economics book translated from French!) *Capital in the 21st Century*.

1/ A Gilded Age editorial cartoon of a frowning Uncle Sam giving a blood transfusion to a gargantuan business-man whose waistcoat is labeled 'protected monopolies.' The businessman's head has been replaced with the hostile red eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The background has been replaced with a halftoned EU flag whose blue field is covered in circuit-board traceries. The floor beneath the figures is an abstract, pinkish pattern. Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.... 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/2025/02/18/pik…

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Feb 17 • 36 tweets • 8 min read
Theory-free inference is a hell of a drug. For years, Big Data advocates - the larval form of today's AI weirdos - have insisted that if you have enough data, you can infer causal relationships between complex phenomena without ever having to understand how x causes y.

1/ https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/17/caliper-ai/#racism-machine A phrenological illustration of a man's face in profile, with his skull divided up into sections with illustrations of what each area is meant to govern, e.g., appetite, artistic aptitude, aggression, ardor. A pair of gleaming silver calipers, wielded by the hostile red eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey,' measures the figure's skull. 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/2025/02/17/cal…

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Feb 12 • 39 tweets • 9 min read
Remember the Tiktok ban? I know, it was ten million years ago (in Musk years, anyway), so it may have slipped your mind, but let me remind you: Congress passed a law saying Tiktok was banned. Trump said he wouldn't enforce the law. The end.

1/ An official portrait of the US Supreme Court, with the justices sitting and standing before a red velvet curtain. Their faces have been replaced with the green 'Mr Yuck' logo. Floating in the middle of the image, obscuring several judges, is the Tiktok logo, with Trump's hair. 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/2025/02/12/you…

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Feb 11 • 29 tweets • 8 min read
Let me tell you about the most wasteful US federal government spending I know about. It's a humdinger. You and everyone you know are mired in it for weeks, or perhaps months, every year.

1/ A halftoned 2025 IRS 1040 form. To the left is a bloated billionaire figure in top hat, white gloves and tux, with the pouting face of Elon Musk. With one hand, he is yanking on a lever made out of a gilded dollar-sign. With the other hand, he contemptuously dangles a street urchin. The podium to which the lever is attached bears the Turbotax logo, a white checkmark in a red circle. To the left is a cascade of gold coins, falling out of an upended sack. Image: Wcamp9 (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Elon_Musk_-_March_28,_2024_%28cropped%29.jpg CC BY 4.0 https://creative... 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/2025/02/11/dou…

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Feb 5 • 29 tweets • 19 min read
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
Jan 27 • 56 tweets • 12 min read
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…

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Jan 25 • 34 tweets • 7 min read
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…

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Jan 24 • 49 tweets • 10 min read
"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…

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Jan 22 • 50 tweets • 11 min read
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…

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Jan 20 • 93 tweets • 15 min read
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…

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Jan 18 • 101 tweets • 19 min read
We're less than a month into 2025 and I'm already overwhelmed by my backlog of links! Herewith, then, is my 25th linkdump post, a grab-bag of artful transitions between miscellaneous subjects. Here's the previous 24:



1/ pluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/A pile of miscellaneous junk. Image: Jen (cropped) https://www.flickr.com/photos/jenrab/4877784036 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/2025/01/18/rag…

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Jan 15 • 57 tweets • 9 min read
Five years ago, Trump touted his "big, beautiful" replacement for NAFTA, the "free trade agreement" between the US, Mexico and Canada. Trump's NAFTA-2 was called the USMCA (US-Mexico-Canada Agreement) and it was pretty similar to NAFTA, to be honest.

1/ A 19th century painting depicting the burning of the White House during the War of 1812. The white Xes on the soldiers' uniforms have been replaced with white Canadian maple leaves. 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/2025/01/15/bea…

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Jan 14 • 59 tweets • 12 min read
During the Napster wars, the record labels *seriously* pissed off millions of internet users when they sued over 19,000 music fans, mostly kids, but also grannies, old people, and dead people.

1/ A multiton bank vault door set in a red room. Within the vault, we see a 'code waterfall' effect as seen in the credit sequences of the Wachowskis' 'Matrix' movies. In front of the fault is a ghoulish, skull-faced figure in a tailcoat and a red sash, holding a tube that is vomiting out a poorly differentiated stream of rubbish and slop. 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/2025/01/14/con…

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Jan 11 • 61 tweets • 14 min read
The social function of the economics profession is to explain, over and over again, that your boss is actually right and that you don't really want the things you want, and you're secretly happy to be abused by the system.

1/ A Soviet propaganda poster depicting two workers holding flags in front of a locomotive. The flags have been replaced with US flags. The locomotive's face has been replaced with the glaring red eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The maxim below has been replaced with the lettering from a Walmart 'everyday low prices' sign. The background has been replaced with a posterized grocery aisle. Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en -- Ser Amantio di Nicolao (modified) ht... 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/2025/01/11/soc…

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Jan 9 • 95 tweets • 16 min read
My next novel is *Picks and Shovels*, out next month. It's tells the origin story of Martin Hench, my hard-charging, scambusting, high-tech forensic accountant, in a 1980s battle over the soul of a PC company:



1/ us.macmillan.com/books/97812508…A remix of the cover of the Tor Books edition of 'Picks and Shovels,' depicting a vector art vintage PC, whose blue screen includes a male figure stepping out of the picture to the right. Superimposed on the art is the book's title in a custom, modernist font. 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/2025/01/09/the…

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Jan 8 • 24 tweets • 15 min read
Today's Twitter threads (a Twitter thread).

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

Inside: The Brave Little Toaster; and more!

Archived at:

#Pluralistic

1/ pluralistic.net/2025/01/08/sir…A deluxe mid-century fridge, its double-doors swung wide to reveal many groceries. Before it stands a demon, suspending a screaming man by the hair from one taloned hand. One of the fridge's panels has been replaced with the hostile red eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' In the background is a 'code waterfall' effect 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 *Picks and Shovels* is a new, standalone technothriller starring Marty Hench, my two-fisted, hard-fighting, tech-scam-busting forensic accountant. You can pre-order it on my latest Kickstarter, which features a brilliant audiobook read by Wil Wheaton:



2/martinhench.comImage
Dec 20, 2024 • 30 tweets • 6 min read
There was never any question as to whether Trump would implement Project 2025, the 900-page brick of terrifying, unhinged policy prescriptions edited by the Heritage Foundation. He would *not* implement it, because he *could* not implement it. No one could. It's impossible.

1/ A WWII-era infirmary with two ranks of beds. Behind a bed on each side stands an outraged Tweedledee/Tweedledum figure from Tenniel's Alice Through the Looking Glass engravings, pulling their hair; they face one another. One is tinted green; the other, blue. Between them in the aisle stands an elephant in GOP livery, wearing a Trump wig. A spatter of blood climbs the wall on the right. 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/2024/12/20/cli…

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Dec 18, 2024 • 49 tweets • 9 min read
Running a business is risky: you can't be sure how many customers you'll have, or what they'll ask for. Guess wrong and you'll either have too few workers for the crowd, or you'll pay workers to stand around. This is true even when your "business" is a "hospital."

1/ A nurse, pouring medicine out of a bottle; she is terrified because she is being held a gunpoint by a male figure whose head has been replaced with the staring eye of HAL 9000 from Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The background is a sepia-toned early 20th C wartime infirmary, crowded with wounded men. In the top left corner there is a subtle 'code waterfall' effect 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/2024/12/18/loo…

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Dec 12, 2024 • 61 tweets • 12 min read
Postmortems and blame for the 2024 elections are thick on the ground, but amidst all those theories and pointed fingers, one explanation looms large and credible: the American housing emergency. If the system can't put a roof over your head, that system needs to go.

1/ A modest pink bungalow in the southwestern style. Its roof is askew, and a mushroom cloud emerges from behind it. The sky around it is filled with menacing storm clouds. 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/2024/12/11/nim…

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Dec 6, 2024 • 67 tweets • 11 min read
After 9/11, we were told that "no cost was too high" when it came to fighting terrorism, and indeed, the US did blow *trillions* on forever wars and regime change projects and black sites and kidnappings and dronings and gulags that were supposed to end terrorism.

1/ A vintage Ray-O-Vac battery; the 'o' in Ray-O-Vac has been replaced with a demonic hellmouth cropped from an medieval manuscript. From the top of the battery, a giant mushroom cloud emerges, against a starry backdrop. 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/2024/12/06/sho…

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Dec 5, 2024 • 23 tweets • 5 min read
The Canadian national identity involves a lot of sneering at the US, but when it comes to oligarchy, Canada makes America look positively amateurish.

1/ The cover for Denise Hearn and Vass Bednar's 'The Big Fix.' 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/2024/12/05/ted…

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