Cory Doctorow

By Cory Doctorow (GPG 0xBF3D9110957E5F4C)
@doctorow.

Archived at pluralistic.net

I post long threads. If you don't like these in your timeline but want to read them, I suggest unfollowing me here and subscribing to my RSS, or my newsletter, or any of my various long-form feeds. Links at https://pluralistic.net.

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NIP-05 Address

pluralistic_at_mamot.fr@mostr.pub

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Publishing to

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npub1yxzkmtuyctjw2pffp6e9uvyrkp29hrqra2tm3xp3z9707z06muxsg75qvv

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Last Notes

2024-08-14 23:37:21

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@npub1gdt…fd90 Thank you.

2024-08-14 19:25:05

763 words (38649 total) on Enshittification (a nonfiction book about platform decay) #DailyWords

2024-08-14 16:04:26

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@npub1m9c…s4l8 Actually, we're seeing some pretty good action there - states are breaking with private prison providers, though the feds are still addicted to them for border detention, which is a giant nightmare.

2024-08-14 13:06:49

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My ebooks and audiobooks (from 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."
https://craphound.com/shop/
13/
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2024-08-14 13:06:11

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Yesterday's threads: Madeline Ashby's 'Glass Houses'; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112955488759430716
11/
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2024-08-14 13:02:12

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The one weird monopoly trick that gave us Walmart and Amazon and killed Main Street: The Robinson-Patman Act is how we make sure companies aren't too big to jail nor too big to care.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112960433659690635
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2024-08-14 13:01:53

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I'm coming to BURNING MAN! On TUESDAY (Aug 27) at 1PM, I'm giving a talk called "DISENSHITTIFY OR DIE!" at PALENQUE NORTE (7&E). On WEDNESDAY (Aug 28) at NOON, I'm doing a "Talking Caterpillar" Q&A at LIMINAL LABS (830&C).
--
Community voting for SXSW is live! If you wanna hear Rida Qadri and me talk about how gig workers can disenshittify their jobs with interoperability, vote for this one!
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/150498
2/

2024-08-14 13:01:30

Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: The one weird monopoly trick that gave us Walmart and Amazon and killed Main Street; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/14/the-price-is-wright/
#Pluralistic
1/
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2024-08-14 12:49:17

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The fight against monopoly is only secondarily a fight between small businesses and giant ones. It's foundationally a fight about whether corporations should have so much power that they are too big to fail, too big to jail, *and* too big to care.
26/

2024-08-14 12:49:08

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> Congress recognized that the needs of communities and people—whether in their role as consumers, business owners, or workers—are varied and diverse. A handful of large chains would never be able to meet all those needs in every community, especially if they are granted pricing power.
25/

2024-08-14 12:48:58

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There are some capital-intensive sectors (say, chip fabrication) where the minimum size for doing *anything* is pretty damned big.
As Miller and Tuttle write:
> The goal of RPA was not to create a permanent Jeffersonian agrarian republic of exclusively small businesses. It was to preserve a diverse economy of big and small businesses.
24/

2024-08-14 12:48:31

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If they are included in hearings, notices of inquiry, or just given a vote on what the Chamber of Commerce will lobby for with their membership dollars, they will ask for things that break with the big business lobbying consensus.
That's why *we* should like small business. Not because small business owners are incapable of being petty tyrants, but because whatever else, they will be *petty*.
22/

2024-08-14 12:48:22

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They recount a notorious and telling anaecdote about the editor of the Chamber of Commerce magazine asking his boss if he could include coverage of small businesses, given the many small business owners who belonged to the Chamber, only to be told, "Over my dead body." Why did - why does - big business hate small business so much? Because small businesses wreck the game.
21/

2024-08-14 12:48:10

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They have gigantic war-chests they can spend lobbying governments and corrupting the political process, and concentrated sectors find it comparatively easy to come together to decide on a single lobbying position and then make it reality.
As Vinsel and Waterhouse discuss, US big business has traditionally *hated* small business.
20/

2024-08-14 12:47:57

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But while this is all true, that doesn't make Robinson-Patman a reactionary law, or bad for workers. The point of protecting small businesses from the predatory practices of large firms is to maintain an American economy where business can't trump workers or government. Large companies are literally ungovernable.
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2024-08-14 12:47:14

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They point out - correctly - that Wright Patman was something of a creep, a "Dixiecrat" (southern Democrat) who was either an ideological segregationist or someone who didn't mind supporting segregation irrespective of his beliefs.
That's a valid critique of Wright Patman, but it's got little bearing on the substance and history of the law that bears his name, the Robinson-Patman Act.
17/

2024-08-14 12:46:35

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Both the Clayton Act and Robinson-Patman reject the argument that it's OK to let monopolies form and come to dominate critical sectors of the American economy based on the theoretical possibility that this will lead to lower prices. They reject this idea first as a legal matter. We don't let giant corporations victimize small businesses and their suppliers just because that might help someone else.
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2024-08-14 12:46:00

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Working at a dollar store is incredibly dangerous, thanks to low staffing levels that make them easy targets for armed robbers. Then, they jack up prices, selling goods in "cheater" sizes that are smaller than the normal retail packaging, and which are only made available to large dollar store conglomerates:
https://pluralistic.net/2023/03/27/walmarts-jackals/#cheater-sizes
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2024-08-14 12:44:49

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That means that they can demand deep discounts from suppliers. Smaller stores - the mom and pop store on your Main Street - don't have the clout to demand those discounts. Worse, because those buyers are weak, the sellers - packaged goods companies, agribusiness cartels, Big Meat - can actually charge them *more* to make up for the losses they're taking in selling below cost to Walmart.
4/

2024-08-14 12:44:41

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The law that Reagan neutered? The Robinson-Patman Act, a very boring-sounding law that makes it illegal for powerful companies (like Walmart) to demand preferential pricing from their suppliers (farmers, packaged goods makers, meat producers, etc). The idea here is straightforward. A company like Walmart is a powerful buyer (a "monopsonist" - compare with "monopolist," a powerful seller).
3/

2024-08-14 12:44:06

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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:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/14/the-price-is-wright/#enforcement-priorities
2/

2024-08-14 12:43:49

Walmart didn't just *happen*. The rise of Walmart - and Amazon, its online successor - was the result of a specific policy choice, the decision by the Reagan administration not to enforce a key antitrust law. Walmart may have been founded by Sam Walton, but its success (and the demise of the American Main Street) are down to Reaganomics.
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2024-08-14 02:42:40

Confetti party
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2024-08-13 23:19:17

In case you were unclear on what "anti-anti-semitism" is, it's the process whereby German gentiles tell Jews whose parents survived the Holocaust that they are antiseimitic for criticizing finance capital:
https://mas.to/@Dingsextrem/112957239938974203

2024-08-13 22:22:22

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@npub15ed…zlyy
> Third, from all capitalists doing shady businesses, you name exactly one (1) as example: Zuckerberg.
Mark Zuckerberg isn't a banker.

2024-08-13 17:17:40

789 words (37782 total) on Enshittification (a nonfiction book about platform decay) #DailyWords

2024-08-13 17:02:57

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@npub1ekp…lvl3 I met another Palenque Norte volunteer working as a dealer at the Horseshoe Poker Room during the EFF Charity Tournament at Defcon last week!

2024-08-13 17:02:24

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@npub1ekp…lvl3 Sorry to miss you!

2024-08-13 15:49:56

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My ebooks and audiobooks (from 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."
https://craphound.com/shop/
10/
https://static.mamot.fr/media_attachments/files/112/955/502/842/001/405/original/962161ce17d3af58.jpg

2024-08-13 15:48:57

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Yesterday's threads: The paradox of choice screens; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112950546802865948
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2024-08-13 15:48:37

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#5yrsago Adversarial Fashion: clothes designed to confuse license-plate readers https://adversarialfashion.com/collections/all
#1yrago The Sacklers woulda gotten away with it if it wasn't for those darned meddling feds https://pluralistic.net/2023/08/11/justice-delayed/#justice-redeemed
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2024-08-13 15:47:09

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Madeline Ashby's 'Glass Houses': A savage, high-tech locked-room mystery.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112955449165883092
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2024-08-13 15:46:43

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2024-08-13 15:46:16

Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: Madeline Ashby's 'Glass Houses'; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/13/influencers/
#Pluralistic
1/
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2024-08-13 15:39:03

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This is a *fantastic* dramatic engine for Ashby's specialty: extremely pointed techno-criticism. The ensuing chapters, which flip back and forth between the story of Wuv's rise and rise to a top tech company, and the company's surviving staff being terrorized on a paradisaical tropical aisle, flesh out Ashby's speculation and the critique it embodies.
10/

2024-08-13 15:38:56

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This is the setup for a haunted house story where the house seems to be an unknown billionaire prepper's IoT house of horrors. As the survivors of the crash suffer horrible injuries and deaths on the island, the remaining Wuvvies bolt themselves inside, setting up a locked-room whodunnit that runs in parallel.
9/

2024-08-13 15:38:48

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As the survivors explore the island, they discover only one sign of human habitation: a huge, brutalist, featureless black glass house, which initially rebuffs all their efforts to enter it. But once they gain entry, they discover that the house is even harder to leave.
8/

2024-08-13 15:38:39

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Managing Sumter through Wuv's tumultuous launch is hard work for Kristen, but at last, it's paid off. The company has been acquired, making Kristen - and all her coworkers on the founding core team - into instant millionaires. They're flying to a lavish celebration in an autonomous plane that Sumter chartered when the action begins: the plane has a malfunction and crashes into a desert island, killing all but ten of the Wuvvies.
7/

2024-08-13 15:38:32

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Kristen's parents died the most Extremely Online death imaginable: a cryptocurrency price-spike sent her father's mining rigs into overdrive, and when they burst into flame, the IoT house system failed to alert him until it was too late. The fire left Kristen both alone and horribly burned, with scars over much of her body.
6/

2024-08-13 15:38:23

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Kristen, though, was thrust into the spotlight by her parents: her prepper cryptocurrency hustling father, and her tradwife mother, whose livestreams of Kristen's childhoods involved letting the audience vote everything from whether she'd get dessert after dinner to whether her mother should give her bangs.
5/

2024-08-13 15:37:54

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Both Sumter and Kristen had been in the spotlight even before their parents' death, though. Sumter was the focus of the intense attention that the children of celebrity billionaires always come in for.
4/

2024-08-13 15:37:19

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"Chief Emotional Manager" is just a cutesy tech euphemism for "chief of staff." The only person whose emotions Kristen *really* manages is Sumter William, the boyish billionaire CEO and founder of Wuv. Sumter hired Kirsten because they share a key developmental trait: both were orphaned at an early age and had to raise themselves in a media spotlight.
3/

2024-08-13 15:37:09

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Kristen is the "Chief Emotional Manager" for Wuv, a hot startup that has defined the new field of "affective computing," which is when a computer tells you what everyone else around you is *really* feeling, based on the unsuppressible tells emitted by their bodies, voices and gadgets.
2/

2024-08-13 15:13:16

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@npub1wcv…68qv Thank you! Lovely to meet you too!

2024-08-13 13:18:12

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And today there was a super-cool spider with a web that she must spin every night, because it's strung between the car and the mailbox. Silly spider!
https://static.mamot.fr/media_attachments/files/112/954/900/026/265/631/original/a9defb09dacc750c.jpg

2024-08-13 13:16:22

One of the best things about being an early riser is getting to see the dawn flowers of our front yard cactus.
https://static.mamot.fr/media_attachments/files/112/954/892/865/610/778/original/803c7d18e1eebc97.jpg
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2024-08-12 23:35:00

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@npub1ggr…ayu7 Some of my best friends have vons!

2024-08-12 23:27:29

ngl, I didn't realize just how toxic German anti-anti-semitism was until a German gentile with a "von" in his name called me - a Jew - an antisemite on the basis that criticizing the finance sector was "structurally antisemitic"
https://jewishcurrents.org/the-strange-logic-of-germanys-antisemitism-bureaucrats

2024-08-12 18:53:36

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Friday's threads: "Carbon neutral" Bitcoin operation founded by coal plant operator wasn't actually carbon neutral; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112932267625502676
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2024-08-12 18:50:42

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Hey look at this
* Post Group Entrepreneurship https://nonprofit.ventures/
* The cornerstone of democracy... https://cornerstone.ghost.io
*John Varley: An Appreciation https://www.discoursemagazine.com/p/john-varley-an-appreciation
4/
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2024-08-12 18:50:27

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The paradox of choice screens: What does a post-Google world look like?
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112950422100263331
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2024-08-12 18:50:05

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2024-08-12 18:49:28

Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: The paradox of choice screens; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/08/12/defaults-matter/
#Pluralistic
1/
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2024-08-12 18:27:01

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Image:
ICMA Photos (modified)
https://www.flickr.com/photos/icma/3635981474/
CC BY-SA 2.0
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/
eof/

2024-08-12 18:26:38

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Of course, Moz depends on Google's payment for default search placement for 90% of its revenue. If Google can't pay for this in the future, the org is going to have to find another source of revenue. Perhaps that will be the EU, or foundations, or users. In any of these cases, the org will find it *much* easier to raise funds if it is standing up for its users - not compromising on their interests.
32/

2024-08-12 18:26:30

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After the past decade's heartbreaks, seeing Moz under new leadership makes me cautiously hopeful. Like I say, I am dependent on Firefox and *want* an independent, principled browser vendor that sees their role as producing a "user agent" that is faithful to its users' interests above all else:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/07/treacherous-computing/#rewilding-the-internet
31/

2024-08-12 18:25:43

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For example, there was the tool to automatically remove your information from scummy data brokers, that they outsourced to a scummy data-broker:
https://www.theverge.com/2024/3/22/24109116/mozilla-ends-onerep-data-removal-partnership
And there's the "Privacy Preserving Attribution" tracking system that helps advertisers target you with surveillance advertising (in a way that's less invasive than existing techniques).
27/

2024-08-12 18:24:03

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The *order* in which browsers are presented has a *much* larger effect than how many browsers or how much detail is present. People say they want lots of choices, but they usually choose one of the first four options. That said, users who get choice screens *say* it changes which browser they'd choose as a default.
22/

2024-08-12 18:23:11

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This is the psychology behind those obnoxious cookie-consent pop-ups that website bombard you with when you first visit them: you've clicked to that website because you need something it has, and being stuck with a privacy opt-out screen at that moment is predictably frustrating (which is why companies do it, and also why the DMA is going to punish companies that do).
20/

2024-08-12 18:22:58

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By contrast, the first time you open a browser on a new device, it's probably to *get something else done* (e.g. look up how to install a piece of software you used on your old device) and being interrupted with a choice screen at that moment is an unwelcome interruption.
19/

2024-08-12 18:22:44

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Users don't consider choice screens to be burdensome, and adding a choice screen doesn't appreciably increase setup time.
There are some nuances to this. Users like choice screens *during device setup* but they *don't* like choice screens that pop up the first time they use a browser. That makes total sense: "choosing a browser" is colorably part of the "setting up your gadget" task.
18/

2024-08-12 18:21:35

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This is an area with a pretty good literature, as it turns out, thanks in part due to some natural experiments, like when Russia forced Google to offer choice screens for Android in 2017, but didn't let Google design that screen. The Russian policy produced a significant switch away from Google's own apps to Russian versions, primarily made by Yandex:
https://cepr.org/publications/dp17779
14/

2024-08-12 18:21:26

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By ascribing widespread negative effects to subtle psychological manipulation ("dark patterns") rather than obvious and blatant fraud, we inadvertently elevate "nudging" to a real science, rather than a cult led by scammy fake scientists.
All this raises some empirical questions about choice screens: do they work (in the sense of getting people to break away from defaults), and if so, what's the best way to make them work?
13/

2024-08-12 18:21:14

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For example, the term "dark patterns" lumps together really sneaky tactics with blunt acts of fraud. When you click an "opt out of cookies" button and get a screen that says "Success!" but which has a tiny little "confirm" button on it that you have to click to *actually* opt out, that's not a "dark pattern," it's just a scam:
https://pluralistic.net/2022/03/27/beware-of-the-leopard/#relentless
12/

2024-08-12 18:21:02

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Today, it's hard to find much to salvage from the field. To the extent the field is taken seriously today, it's often due to its *critics* repeating the claims of its boosters, a process Lee Vinsel calls "criti-hype":
https://sts-news.medium.com/youre-doing-it-wrong-notes-on-criticism-and-technology-hype-18b08b4307e5
12/

2024-08-12 18:20:25

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These choice screens have a mixed record. Google's 2019 Android setup choice screen for the European Mobile Application Distribution Agreement somehow managed to result in the vast majority of users sticking with Chrome. Microsoft had a similar experience in 2010 with BrowserChoice.eu, its response to the EU's 2000s-era antitrust action:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BrowserChoice.eu
9/

2024-08-12 18:20:11

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This means that any remedy to Google's browser dominance is going to involve a lot of wrangling about defaults. That's not a new wrangle, either. For many years, regulators and tech companies have tinkered with "choice screens" that were nominally designed to encourage users to try out different browsers and brake the inertia of the big two browsers that came bundled with OSes.
8/

2024-08-12 18:19:17

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In 1982, IBM wriggled off the antitrust hook after a 12-year fight that completely transformed the company's approach to business. After more than a decade of being micromanaged by lawyers who wanted to be sure that the company didn't screw up its appeal and anger antitrust enforcers, IBM's executives were totally transformed.
4/

2024-08-12 18:18:49

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That's just the beginning, of course. Even if the court orders some big, muscular remedies, we can expect Google to appeal (they've already said they would) and that could drag out the case for years. But that can be a feature, not a bug: a years-long appeal will see Google on its very best behavior, with massive, attendant culture changes inside the company.
2/

2024-08-11 13:22:39

The old folkways are still alive
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2024-08-11 13:21:07

I can't figure out which is weirder: the possibility that they didn't read the book before naming the bar after it, or that they read the book and named it that anyway.
https://static.mamot.fr/media_attachments/files/112/943/592/637/491/560/original/f80b47f480fd9404.jpg

2024-08-10 22:43:23

Malt Whisky
#defcon32
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2024-08-10 22:41:33

The sweet spot between bench science and meth lab
https://static.mamot.fr/media_attachments/files/112/940/132/302/393/816/original/2c36ec86a49c191d.jpg

2024-08-10 22:39:30

Autopilot
#Decon32
https://static.mamot.fr/media_attachments/files/112/940/126/140/779/731/original/dbbb7451df738708.jpg

2024-08-10 22:38:02

A captcha for the ages
#Defcon32
https://static.mamot.fr/media_attachments/files/112/940/119/591/414/465/original/a3c766254f5fbef7.jpg

2024-08-10 22:34:29

Assembling a Microlab
#defcon32
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2024-08-09 15:07:32

772 words (36216 total) on Enshittification (a nonfiction book about platform decay) #DailyWords

2024-08-09 13:28:13

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@npub1h9y…cr0d Hahahahah!

2024-08-09 13:26:19

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Community voting for SXSW is live! If you wanna hear Rida Qadri and me talk about how gig workers can disenshittify their jobs with interoperability, vote for this one!
https://panelpicker.sxsw.com/vote/150498
eof/

2024-08-09 13:25:58

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Today's top sources: DSHR (https://blog.dshr.org/).
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2024-07-31 23:04:53

911 words (30817 total) on Enshittification (a nonfiction book about platform decay) #DailyWords
Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!
https://clarionwriteathon.com/members/profile.php?writerid=293388

2024-07-26 18:35:16

Three companies control the market for school lunch payments. They take as much as 60 cents out of every dollar poor kids' parents put into the system to the tune of $100m/year. They're literally stealing poor kids' lunch money.
--
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:
https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/26/taanstafl/#stay-hungry
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2024-07-19 16:04:07

Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: FCC strikes a blow against prison profiteering; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/07/19/martha-wright-reed/
#Pluralistic
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2024-06-28 17:18:14

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Recent appearances:
* Living Your Principles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UTfqxF5KyCc
* Reimagining the Internet
https://publicinfrastructure.org/podcast/102-cory-doctorow-enshittification/
* Circulating ideas
https://circulatingideas.com/2024/06/11/261-the-bezzle-by-cory-doctorow-summer-reading-spectacular/
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2024-06-28 17:18:06

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Upcoming appearances:
* HOPE XV, Jul 14 (Queens, NY)
https://www.hope.net/talks.html
* Exile in Bookville, (Chicago), July 20
https://exileinbookville.com/events/39808
* American Association of Law Libraries keynote (Chicago), Jul 21
https://www.aallnet.org/conference/agenda/keynote-speaker/
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2024-06-28 17:17:52

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My ebooks and audiobooks (from 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."
https://craphound.com/shop/
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2024-06-28 17:17:31

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Yesterday's threads: Copyright takedowns are a cautionary tale that few are heeding; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112689891714846788
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2024-06-28 17:13:21

On July 14, I'm giving the closing keynote for the fifteenth Hackers On Planet Earth, in Queens, NY:
https://www.hope.net/talks.html
On July 20, I'm appearing at Chicago's Exile in Bookville:
https://exileinbookville.com/events/39808
--
Support me this summer on the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop!
https://clarionwriteathon.com/members/profile.php?writerid=293388
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2024-06-28 17:12:42

Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: The reason you can't buy a car is the same reason that your health insurer let hackers dox you; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2024/06/28/dealer-management-software/
#Pluralistic
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2024-06-18 19:29:19

774 words (13747 total) on Enshittification (a nonfiction book about platform decay) #DailyWords

2024-06-18 19:00:26

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@npub12c8…ng23 Fantastic - just emailed 'em

2024-06-18 18:50:42

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@npub12c8…ng23 Ooh, thanks! Are you still abroad? Have they been cool about the fact that you're not in the UK if so?

2024-06-18 17:27:20

"If it don't bounce back, you go hungry."

2024-06-18 17:09:13

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My ebooks and audiobooks (from 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."
https://craphound.com/shop/
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2024-06-18 17:08:49

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Yesterday's threads: Bankruptcy is very, very good; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/112632885570553973
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2024-06-18 16:49:50

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Back in 2004, I asked Microsoft why they were willing to fight the US government to the death over antitrust enforcement, but were such wimps when confronted with the entertainment industry's demands for DRM. 20 years later, I think I know the answer: Microsoft understood that DRM would let them usurp the relationship between creative workers, entertainment industry companies, and audiences.
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2024-06-18 16:49:41

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The project of getting people to understand, care about, and fight for digital rights is a marathon, not a sprint. When I joined EFF, it was already 12 years old. There were six people in the org then (I was the seventh). Today, there's more than a hundred of us, and we're stretched so thin! The 30+ year old idea that internet policy will intersect with every part of every fight has been utterly vindicated.
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2024-06-18 16:49:34

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I believed then - and believe today - that the internet isn't more important that the other fights I waged as a young activist, but I think that the internet is *fundamental* to those fights.
Saving the planet, smashing patriarchy, overthrowing tyranny and freeing labor are all fights that will be coordinated - Coase style - on the internet. Without a free, fair and open internet, those fights are infinitely harder to win.
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2024-06-18 16:49:25

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I thought I was right then, and I think history has borne me out. The point of waging these fights - both in the wide public sphere and within political movements - is to get people activated before it's too late. Every day that goes by is a day when the internet becomes more inhospitable to political organizing for a better world - more surveillant, more controlling.
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2024-06-18 16:49:13

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At the time, this was a fringe cause. Most of the traditional activists I'd come up with in the feminist, antiwar, antiracist, environmental and labour movement viewed digital rights as a distraction and dismissed its partisans as sad, self-obsessed nerds who mistook fights over the management of Star Trek message boards for civil rights struggles:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/10/04/small-change-malcolm-gladwell
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