Pluralistic: Farewell (for the moment) (30 May 2025)


Today's links


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Farewell (for the moment) (permalink)

I'm about to take a two-ish week sabbatical so I can (once again!) rewrite the Trump chapter of my Enshittification book (October 2025), and so that I can get my (thankfully very treatable) cancer irradiated:

https://pluralistic.net/2024/11/05/carcinoma-angels/#squeaky-nail

While I'm away, here are some things I'd like to call your attention to. First, some good news: the Washington Post Tech Guild just won a historic union vote with a giant majority, despite the vicious union-hating owner of the Post, a Mr Jeffrey Preston Bezos:

https://newsguild.org/washington-post-tech-guild-overwhelmingly-votes-to-certify-union-in-historic-election/

Even more good news: the GOP have ratfucked themselves, doing the work that our Democratic Party leaders can't or won't do. In overruling the parliamentarian in a bid to arrogate to themselves the power to kill California emission standards, Republican Senators have opened the door for Democrats to seize 10 hours of debate time for every single change Trump makes to federal regulations. These debates take precedence over all Senate business. They can even go back in time and demand 10 hours of floor debate on every agency action for the past 60 days. Basically, that means that Senate Dems can tie up the Senate until the 2026 mid-terms and beyond:

https://prospect.org/politics/2025-05-28-senate-democrats-stop-big-beautiful-bill/

Will they? I mean, it's the kind of tactic Mitch McConnell would have leapt at without even bothering to fully raise the lid of his sarcophagus. Chuck Schumer? I dunno. Maybe if we gave him a ping-pong paddle with some stylish sans serif text invoking each debate?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KADW3ZRZLVI

That's some good news I'm going to take with me into my coming break. I've really cleared my calendar for this time off, finishing up my CBC podcast "Understood: Who Broke the Internet?" just in the nick of time:

https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/26/babyish-radical-extremists/#cancon

The series prompted Harrison Mooney to do a long, fantastic interview with me for The Tyee, which sets out the series' thesis and call to action very well:

https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2025/05/27/Musk-Zuck-Use-Our-Love-Hostage/

If you're as pissed off about enshittification as I am and you happen to live in NYC, there's a support group for you! This week, I heard from a reader who's organized a monthly open mic "Evening on Enshittification," where attendees present and learn about different kinds of enshittification, from AI to dating and beyond:

https://partiful.com/e/Li1DGg7x5ohmCOf2hAkj

And if you're on the other coast, you can catch me TOMORROW in Seattle at the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival, where I'll be onstage with the folks from NPR's On The Media:

https://www.cascadepbs.org/festival/speaker/cory-doctorow

If a couple weeks without me is too much, please consider dialing into my virtual keynote for Fediforum on June 5:

https://fediforum.org/2025-06/

And of course, when I get back, I'm going to be finishing off my tour for Picks and Shovels with gigs in Portland, London, and Manchester:

http://martinhench.com

I've got a packed schedule in Portland: first, I'm doing a keynote at the Teardown conference on Friday, June 20:

https://www.crowdsupply.com/teardown/portland-2025

Followed by a bookstore event with bunnie Huang at the Lloyd Center Barnes and Noble:

https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780062183697-0

And a library gig on June 20 in Tualatin:

https://www.tualatinoregon.gov/library/author-talk-cory-doctorow

Londoners, you can catch me at the How To Academy on July 1, where I'll be doing a Canada Day book event with the amazing Riley Quinn, showrunner for Trashfuture:

https://howtoacademy.com/events/cory-doctorow-the-fight-against-the-big-tech-oligarchy/

And then I'm doing a bookstore event in Manchester at Blackwells on July 2:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-evening-with-cory-doctorow-tickets-1308451968059

Followed by a July 4 keynote for the Co-operatives UK Congress in Manchester:

https://www.uk.coop/events-and-training/events-calendar/co-op-congress-2025-book-your-place


A Wayback Machine banner.

Object permanence (permalink)

#20yrsago Copyright prevented transmission of Beatles music to aliens https://memex.craphound.com/2005/05/29/copyright-prevented-transmission-of-beatles-music-to-aliens/

#10yrsago Pornoscanner lobbyist’s new job: overseeing TSA spending https://theintercept.com/2015/05/27/tsa-body-scanner-lobbyist-takes-congressional-job-overseeing-spending-tsa-security/

#5yrsago Canadian newsrooms restructure as co-ops https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/29/mind-control-skepticism/#co-ops

#5yrsago GOP lawmaker hid his diagnosis from Democrats https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/29/mind-control-skepticism/#flu-klux-klan

#5yrsago Walmart's crummy anti-theft AI https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/29/mind-control-skepticism/#neverseen

#5yrsago Masks work https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/29/mind-control-skepticism/#mask-up

#5yrsago What to do about the police https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/29/mind-control-skepticism/#qualified-immunity

#5yrsago Private equity goes mainstream https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/29/mind-control-skepticism/#looters

#5yrsago How the IoT reinforces gentrification https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/29/mind-control-skepticism/#automated-karens

#5yrsago Big Tech distorts our discourse https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/29/mind-control-skepticism/#tech-unexceptionalism

#5yrsago Bus drivers refuse to take arrested protesters to jail https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/30/up-is-not-down/#solidarity

#5yrsago Why I haven't written about CDA 230 https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/30/up-is-not-down/#cda230

#5yrsago Australia caves on "robodebt" https://pluralistic.net/2020/05/30/up-is-not-down/#robodebt

#1yrago Real innovation vs Silicon Valley nonsense https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/30/posiwid/#social-cost-of-carbon

#1yrago The Pizzaburger Presidency https://pluralistic.net/2024/05/29/sub-bushel-comms-strategy/#nothing-would-fundamentally-change

Upcoming appearances (permalink)

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A screenshot of me at my desk, doing a livecast.

Recent appearances (permalink)


A grid of my books with Will Stahle covers..

Latest books (permalink)


A cardboard book box with the Macmillan logo.

Upcoming books (permalink)

  • Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, October 7 2025
    https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/

  • Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2026

  • Enshittification, Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It (the graphic novel), Firstsecond, 2026

  • The Memex Method, Farrar, Straus, Giroux, 2026


Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

  • Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Status: second pass edit underway (readaloud)

  • A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING

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