Cory DoctorowToday's threads (a thread)
Inside: Blowtorching the frog; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/03/05/executive-dysfunction/
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Blowtorching the frog: If I must have enemies, let them be impatient ones.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116178287302461459
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Hey look at this
* mctuscan heaven https://www.tumblr.com/mcmansionhell/809937203073581056/mctuscan-heaven
* What's a Panama? https://catvalente.substack.com/p/whats-a-panama
* The AI Bubble Is An Information War https://www.wheresyoured.at/the-ai-bubble-is-an-information-war/
* The Ticketmaster Monopoly Trial Starts https://www.bigtechontrial.com/p/the-ticketmaster-monopoly-trial-starts
* HyperCard Changed Everything https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxHkNToXga8 (h/t Kottke)
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#20yrsago Waxy threatened with a lawsuit by Bill Cosby over “House of Cosbys” vids https://waxy.org/2006/03/litigation_cosb/
#15yrsago Proposed TX law would criminalize TSA screening procedures https://blog.tenthamendmentcenter.com/2011/03/texas-legislation-proposes-felony-charges-for-tsa-agents/
#15yrsago Rodney King: 20 years of citizen photojournalism https://mediactive.com/2011/03/02/rodney-king-and-the-rise-of-the-citizen-photojournalist/
#15yrsago Mobile “bandwidth hogs” are just ahead of the curve https://tech.slashdot.org/story/11/03/02/2027209/High-Bandwidth-Users-Are-Just-Early-Adopters
#15yrsago Peter Watts blogs from near-death experience with flesh-eating bacteria https://www.rifters.com/crawl/?category_name=flesh-eating-fest-11
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#15yrsago How a HarperCollins library book looks after 26 checkouts (pretty good!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Je90XRRrruM
#15yrsago Banksy bails out Russian graffiti artists https://memex.craphound.com/2011/03/04/banksy-bails-out-russian-graffiti-artists/
#15yrsago TSA wants hand-luggage fee to pay for extra screening due to checked luggage fees https://web.archive.org/web/20110308142316/https://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_TSA_BAGGAGE_FEES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-03-03-16-50-03
#15yrsago US house prices fall to 1890s levels (where they usually are) https://www.csmonitor.com/Business/Paper-Economy/2011/0303/Home-prices-falling-to-level-of-1890s
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#10yrsago Whuffie would be a terrible currency https://locusmag.com/feature/cory-doctorow-wealth-inequality-is-even-worse-in-reputation-economies/
#10yrsago Ditch your overpriced Sodastream canisters in favor of refillable CO2 tanks https://www.wired.com/2016/03/sodamod/
#10yrsago Why the First Amendment means that the FBI can’t force Apple to write and sign code https://www.eff.org/files/2016/03/03/16cm10sp_eff_apple_v_fbi_amicus_court_stamped.pdf
#10yrsago Apple vs FBI: The privacy disaster is inevitable, but we can prevent the catastrophe https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/mar/04/privacy-apple-fbi-encryption-surveillance
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#10yrsago The 2010 election was the most important one in American history https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fw41BDhI_K8
#10yrsago As Apple fights the FBI tooth and nail, Amazon drops Kindle encryption https://web.archive.org/web/20160304055204/https://motherboard.vice.com/read/amazon-removes-device-encryption-fire-os-kindle-phones-and-tablets
#10yrsago Understanding American authoritarianism https://web.archive.org/web/20160301224922/https://www.vox.com/2016/3/1/11127424/trump-authoritarianism
#10yrsago Proposal: replace Algebra II and Calculus with “Statistics for Citizenship” https://web.archive.org/web/20190310081625/https://slate.com/human-interest/2016/03/algebra-ii-has-to-go.html
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#10yrsago Panorama: the largest photo ever made of NYC https://360gigapixels.com/nyc-skyline-photo-panorama/
#1yrago Ideas Lying Around https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/03/friedmanite/#oil-crisis-two-point-oh
#1yrago There Were Always Enshittifiers https://pluralistic.net/2025/03/04/object-permanence/#picks-and-shovels
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Tuesday's threads: Supreme Court saves artists from AI; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116166870556559106
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My latest novel is "Picks and Shovels," a historical technothriller set in the Weird Era of the PC, about Ponzi schemes, techbros, and the dawn of enshittification:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels
--
My latest nonfiction book is the internationally bestselling "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/
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My ebooks and audiobooks (from FSGxMCD, Tor Books, Head of Zeus, McSweeneys, Beacon, Verso 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."
11/
Upcoming appearances:
* #SanFrancisco: Launch for Cindy Cohn's "Privacy's Defender" (City Lights), Mar 10
https://citylights.com/events/cindy-cohn-launch-party-for-privacys-defender/
* #Barcelona: Enshittification with Simona Levi/Xnet (Llibreria Finestres), Mar 20
https://www.llibreriafinestres.com/evento/cory-doctorow/
* #Berkeley: Bioneers keynote, Mar 27
https://conference.bioneers.org/
* #Montreal: Bronfman Lecture (McGill) Apr 10
https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/artificial-intelligence-the-ultimate-disrupter-tickets-1982706623885
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Upcoming appearances (cont'd):
* #London: Resisting Big Tech Empires (LSBU)
https://www.tickettailor.com/events/globaljusticenow/2042691
* #Berlin: Re:publica, May 18-20
https://re-publica.com/de/news/rp26-sprecher-cory-doctorow
* #Berlin: Enshittification at Otherland Books, May 19
https://www.otherland-berlin.de/de/event-details/cory-doctorow.html
* #HayOnWye: HowTheLightGetsIn, May 22-25
https://howthelightgetsin.org/festivals/hay/big-ideas-2
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Recent appearances:
* Tanner Humanities Lecture (U Utah)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6Yf1nSyekI
* The Lost Cause
https://streets.mn/2026/03/02/book-club-the-lost-cause/
* Should Democrats Make A Nuremberg Caucus? (Make It Make Sense)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWxKrnNfrlo
* Making The Internet Suck Less (Thinking With Mitch Joel)
https://www.sixpixels.com/podcast/archives/making-the-internet-suck-less-with-cory-doctorow-twmj-1024/
* Panopticon :3 (Trashfuture)
https://www.patreon.com/posts/panopticon-3-150395435
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