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Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr Profile picture
Cory Doctorow @pluralistic@mamot.fr
@doctorow
Author, journalist, activist. Latest book: THE INTERNET CON, an anti-enshittification Big Tech disassembly manual https://t.co/ehGzIa2BWd
Chris Bugbee Profile picture eDo Profile picture Hamish MacEwan Profile picture Neal Rauhauser Profile picture The Media Kahuna 🇬🇷🇨🇦🦅 Profile picture 253 subscribed
Sep 22 • 55 tweets • 12 min read
#RightToRepair has no cannie adversary than @Apple, whose most innovative work is dreaming up new ways to sabotage electronics repair while claiming to be a caring environmental steward, a lie to cover the mountains of #ewaste that Apple dooms our descendants to wade through.

1/ An ornate fireplace and mantlepiece. There is a roaring fire in the grate. Over the mantlepiece is an AR-15 assault rifle, surmounted by Apple's 'Think Different' wordmark. The scene is pockmarked with bullet-holes. Image: Mitch Barrie (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Daytona_Skeleton_AR-15_completed_rifle_%2817551907724%29.jpg CC BY-SA 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en -- kambanji (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/kambanji/4135216486/ CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/ -- Rawpixel (modified) https://www.rawpixel.c... If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/09/22/vin…
Sep 20 • 22 tweets • 5 min read
*Your Face Belongs To Us* is @kashhill's tell-all history of #ClearviewAI, the creepy #FacialRecognition company whose origins are mired in far-right politics, off-book police misconduct, sales to authoritarian states and sleazy 1%er one-upmanship:



1/ penguinrandomhouse.com/books/691288/y…
The cover for the Penguin Random House cover of Kashmir Hill's "Your Face Belongs To Us." If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/09/20/ste…
Sep 16 • 71 tweets • 11 min read
As a teenager growing up in #Ontario, I always envied the kids who spent their summers #TreePlanting.

1/ A forest swept by a wildfire; a river runs through it. Standing in the river is a caricature of a bloated, top-hatted capitalist lugging a huge sack of money. He is shouting over his shoulder. If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:



2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/09/16/mur…
Sep 14 • 100 tweets • 18 min read
Anything that can't go on forever will eventually stop. 40 years of declining worker power shattered the American Dream (TM), producing multiple generations whose children fared worse than their parents, cratering faith in institutions and hope for a better future.

1/ A McDonald's restaurant; on its lawn is a guillotine whose blade bears the Golden Arches; along with the bear that appears on the California state flag. For decades, leftists have taken a back seat to liberals in the progressive coalition, allowing "unionize!" to be drowned out by "learn to code!" The liberal-led coalition ceded the mantle of radical change to fake populist demagogues on the right.

6/
Aug 12 • 54 tweets • 9 min read
The vast majority of America's debt collection targets $500-2,000 credit card debts. It is a filthy business, operated by lawless firms who hire unskilled workers drawn from the same economic background as their targets, who routinely and grotesquely flout the law.

1/ A blasted wasteland. Three young men who have been terribly beaten cluster in the center of the frame. Looming out of the left is a thug brandishing a club, holding out his hand. If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/dHWFW5NZT2

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/08/12/do-…
Aug 11 • 56 tweets • 12 min read
The saga of the #Sacklers, a multigenerational billionaire crime family of murdering dope-peddlers, is an enraging parable about how the wealthy, the courts, and sadistic high-powered lawyers collude to destroy the lives of millions, profit handsomely, and evade justice.

1/ A stately columnated museum building with SACKLER GALLERY graven into its pediment. Before it is an analog bedside alarm clock whose hour-hand is a pen nib and whose minute-hand is a saber. The saber is ticking toward midnight. At the 12 on the clockface is the alarmed, piggish face of a top-hatted capitalist, about to be decapitated. Strewn before the gallery are pills. Image: Edwardx (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Serpentine_Sackler_Gallery,_June_2016_05.jpg 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 , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/P6wjqytRLS

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/jus…
Aug 9 • 49 tweets • 10 min read
#Bezzle (n):

1. "the magic interval when a confidence trickster knows he has the money he has appropriated but the victim does not yet understand that he has lost it" (#JKGabraith)

2. #Uber

1/ A mammoth drowning in tar, from the La Brea Tar Pits. Next to the sinking mammoth is a sinking Uber logo. In the opposite corner is a sinking business-man whose head has been replaced by a bag of money. Running diagonally across the whole image is a jagged, declining red line as from a stock-chart. Image: JERRYE AND ROY KLOTZ MD (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:LA_BREA_TAR_PITS,_LOS_ANGELES.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 , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/glGFi0m7NV

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/08/09/acc…
Aug 5 • 59 tweets • 13 min read
It's not that #conservatives aren't sometimes right - it's that even when they're right, they're *highly selective* about it. Take the hoary chestnut that "#IncentivesMatter," trotted out to deny humane benefits on the grounds that "free money" makes people "workshy."

1/ An industrial meat-grinder. A sick man, propped up with pillows, is being carried up its conveyor towards its hopper. Ground meat comes out of the other end. It bears the logo of HCA healthcare. A pool of blood spreads out below it. Image: Seydelmann (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:GW300_1.jpg CC BY 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 , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/Y8xmgykAPR

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/08/05/any…
Aug 4 • 38 tweets • 8 min read
"#Populism" isn't left or right. The distinction betweenis often obscured by jargon, but there's a simple litmus test (h/t @stevenbrust): "ask what's more important: human rights, or property rights. If they say 'property rights are human rights,' they're on the right."

1/ A mechanical credit card imprinter (AKA 'zipzap') emblazoned with a US flag Punisher logo. It is imprinting a blank credit-card slip with a red Visa card bearing the GOP logo. It sits on a weathered wooden plank table, stained a dark brown. If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/4iBgBAdEoJ

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/08/04/own…
Aug 3 • 50 tweets • 11 min read
#Enshittification isn't inevitable: under different conditions, the old, good internet could have given way to a new, good internet. Enshittification results from policy choices: encouraging monopolies; enabling high-speed, digital shell games; and blocking #interoperability.

1/ If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/qlsGbNG6sk

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/08/03/the…
Aug 2 • 100 tweets • 18 min read
Powerful people imprisoned by the cluelessness of their own isolation, locked up with their own motivated reasoning: "It's impossible to get a CEO to understand something when his quarterly earnings call depends on him not understanding it."

1/ Image "Privacy is dead" actually means, "When privacy is dead, I will be richer than you can imagine, so stop trying to save it, goddamnit."

22/
Jul 31 • 41 tweets • 12 min read
My next book is *The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation.* It's a recipe to disenshittify the web and bring back the old good internet. The book is from @VersoBoooks, but the #audiobook is from me - because Amazon refuses to sell it:



1/ https://t.co/v5Qn6JTstCkickstarter.com/projects/docto…
My forthcoming book 'The Internet Con: How to Seize the Means of Computation' in various editions: Verso hardcover, audiobook displayed on a phone, and ebook displayed on an e-ink reader. If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/cs8oCdb9XD

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/07/31/sei…
Jul 28 • 56 tweets • 12 min read
Elon Musk lies a lot. He lies about being a "utopian socialist." He lies about being a "free speech absolutist." He lies about which companies he founded:



1/ https://t.co/i66nZZPD9ubusinessinsider.com/tesla-cofounde…
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 , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/pBRHhl62TU

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/07/28/edi…
Jul 26 • 54 tweets • 11 min read
Here's the #DictatorsDilemma: they want to block their frustrated elites from mobilizing against them, so they censor; but they also want to know what their people truly believe to head off simmering resentments before they boil over into regime-toppling revolutions.

1/ An altered image of the Nuremberg rally, with ranked lines of soldiers facing a towering figure in a many-ribboned soldier's coat. He wears a high-peaked cap with a microchip in place of insignia. His head has been replaced with the menacing red eye of HAL9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey.' The sky behind him is filled with a 'code waterfall' from 'The Matrix.' Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en -- Raimond Spekking (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:... If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/uKhpHXUQJn

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/07/26/dic…
Jul 24 • 90 tweets • 20 min read
Forget F1: the only car race that matters now is the race to turn your car into a digital extraction machine, a high-speed inkjet printer on wheels, stealing your private data as it picks your pocket.

1/ The interior of a luxury car. There is a dagger protruding from the steering wheel. The entertainment console has been replaced by the text 'You wouldn't download a car,' in MPAA scare-ad font. Outside of the windscreen looms the Matrix waterfall effect. Visible in the rear- and side-view mirror is the driver: the figure from Munch's 'Scream.' The screen behind the steering-wheel has been replaced by the menacing red eye of HAL9000 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... If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/PBfat03JoH

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/07/24/ren…
Jul 19 • 79 tweets • 14 min read
#Germany is the "world champion in remembrance," celebrated for its post-#Holocaust policies of ensuring that every German never forgot what had been done in their names, and in holding themselves and future generations accountable for the Nazis' crimes.

1/ Three 'stumbling stones' ('stolpersteine') set into the sidewalk in the Mitte, in Berlin; they memorialize Jews who lived nearby until they were deported to Auschwitz and murdered. If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/zH79aNfMwV

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/07/19/sto…
Jul 18 • 69 tweets • 15 min read
This week on my #podcast, I read "Let the Platforms Burn," a recent @Medium column making the case that we should focus more on making it easier for people to leave platforms, rather than making the platforms less terrible places to be:



1/ https://t.co/oelwJL60QKdoctorow.medium.com/let-the-platfo…
A forest wildfire. Peeking through the darks in the stark image are hints of the green Matrix "waterfall" effect. Image: Cameron Strandberg (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fire-Forest.jpg CC BY 2.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/Y8JAsD0tOt

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/07/18/urb…
Jul 15 • 97 tweets • 22 min read
I was *supposed* to be on vacation, and I didn't blog for a month, but I still looked at my distraction rectangle, listing things I wanted to write about. Consequentially, the backlog is *massive*, so it's time to declare bankruptcy with a #linkdump:



1/ https://t.co/u26APZTDzZpluralistic.net/tag/linkdump/
A dump-truck, dumping out a load of gravel. A caricature of Humpty Dumpty clings to its lip, restrained by a group of straining, Lilliputian men. If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/TnblCKbYjC

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/07/15/in-…
Jul 14 • 87 tweets • 17 min read
My god, they *hate* @linakhanFTC. This once-in-a-generation brilliant legal scholar and fighter for the public interest, slayer of #Reaganomics, has attracted more vitriol, mockery, and dismissal than any predecessors in living memory.

She must be doing something right, huh?

1/ Image If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/Rz6JPMAKNW

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/07/14/mak…
Jul 13 • 45 tweets • 8 min read
Two decades ago, my life changed forever: hearing #BruceSchneier explain that "#security" doesn't exist in the abstract. You can only be secure *from some threat*. A fire alarm won't protect you from burglaries. A condom won't protect you from mass shootings.

1/ A down-the-barrel view of a massive, battleship-gray artillery piece protruding from the brick battlement of a fortress. From the black depths of the barrel shines a red neon 'EBT' sign. Image: Bjarne Henning Kvaale (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Oscarsborg_28cm_Krupp_cannon_4_-_panoramio.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 , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/F36LbBLTOp

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/07/13/who…
Jul 12 • 36 tweets • 6 min read
12% of Americans live in California - but 30% of homeless Americans, and 50% of unsheltered Americans, call California "home." This prompts endless schadenfreude from "red state" partisans, and is waved as proof of the failure of liberal policies.

1/ If you'd like an essay-formatted version of this thread to read or share, here's a link to it on , my surveillance-free, ad-free, tracker-free blog:

https://t.co/A7611j4pjE

2/pluralistic.net
pluralistic.net/2023/07/12/bec…