Today's links

The far right grows through "disaster fantasies": Armageddon tired of this bullshit.
Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.
This day in history: 2009, 2014, 2019, 2023.
Upcoming appearances: Where to find me.
Recent appearances: Where I've been.
Latest books: You keep readin' em, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Upcoming books: Like I said, I'll keep writin' 'em.
Colophon: All the rest.

A heavily armed and armored figure with the head of an foolishly grinning 19th century newsie. He stands in the atrium of a pink, vintage mall.

The far right grows through "disaster fantasies" (permalink)

The core of the prepper fantasy: "What if the world ended in the precise way that made me the most important person?" The ultra-rich fantasize about emerging from luxury bunkers with an army of mercs and thumbdrives full of bitcoin to a world in ruins that they restructure using their "leadership skills."

The ethnographer Rich Miller spent his career embedding with preppers, eventually writing the canonical book of the fantasies that power their obsessions, Dancing at Armageddon: Survivalism and Chaos in Modern Times:

https://www.press.uchicago.edu/ucp/books/book/chicago/D/bo3637295.html

Miller recounts how the disasters that preppers prepare for are the disasters that will call upon their skills, like the water chemist who's devoted his life to preparing to help his community recover from a terrorist attack on its water supply; and who, when pressed, has no theory as to why any terrorist would stage such an attack:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/03/22/preppers-are-larpers/#preppers-unprepared

Prepping is what happens when you are consumed by the fantasy of a terrible omnicrisis that you can solve, personally. It's an individualistic fantasy, and that makes it inherently neoliberal. Neoliberalism's mind-zap is to convince us all that our only role in society is as an individual ("There is no such thing as society" – M. Thatcher). If we have a workplace problem, we must bargain with our bosses, and if we lose, our choices are to quit or eat shit. Under no circumstances should we solve labor disputes through a union, especially not one that wins strong legal protections for workers and then holds the government's feet to the fire.

Same with bad corporate conduct: getting ripped off? Caveat emptor! Vote with your wallet and take your business elsewhere. Elections are slow and politics are boring. But "vote with your wallet" turns retail therapy into a form of civics.

This individualistic approach to problem solving does useful work for powerful people, because it keeps the rest of us thoroughly powerless. Voting with your wallet is casting a ballot in a rigged election that's always won by the people with the thickest wallets, and statistically, that's never you. That's why the right is so obsessed with removing barriers to election spending: the wealthy can't win a one-person/one-vote election (to be in the 1% is to be outnumbered 99:1), but unlimited campaign spending lets the wealthy vote in real elections using their wallets, not just just ballots.

You can't recycle your way out of the climate emergency. Practically speaking, you can't even recycle. All those plastics you lovingly washed and sorted ended up in a landfill or floating in the ocean. Plastics recycling is a hoax perpetrated by the petrochemical industry, who knew all along that their products would never be recycled. These despoilers convinced us to view the systemic rot of corporate ecocide as an individual matter, chiding us about "littering" and exhorting us to sort our garbage:

https://pluralistic.net/2020/09/14/they-knew/#doing-it-again

We are bombarded by real problems that require urgent solutions that can only be resolved through collective action, which we are told is impossible. This is an objectively frightening state of affairs, and it makes people go nuts.

At the start of this century, in the weeks before 9/11, a message-board poster calling himself Gecko45 went Web 1.0 viral by earnestly bullshitting about his job as a mall security guard, doing battle with heavily armed gangs, human traffickers, and ravening monsters. Gecko45's posts were unhinged: he started out seeking advice for doubling up on body-armor to protect him while he deployed his smoke bombs and his partner assembled a high-powered rifle. Though Gecko45 was apparently sincere, he drew tongue-in-cheek replies from the other posters on GlockTalk, who soon dubbed him the "Mall Ninja":

https://lonelymachines.org/mall-ninjas/

The Mall Ninja professed to patrolling a suburban shopping mall while armed with 15 firearms as he carried out his duties as "Sergeant of a three-man Rapid Tactical Force at one of America’s largest indoor retail shopping areas." His qualifications? Mastery "of three martial arts including ninjitsu, which means I can wear the special boots to climb walls."

The Mall Ninja's fantasy of a single brave individual, defending the sleepy populace from violent, armed mobs is instantly recognizable as an ancestor to today's right wing fantasy of America's cities as "no-go zones" filled with "open air drug markets," patrolled by MS-13 and antifa super-soldiers. And while the Mall Ninja drew derision – even from the kinds of people who hang out on a message board called "GlockTalk" – today, his brand of fantasy wins elections.

On Jacobin, Olly Haynes interviews the political writer Richard Seymour about this phenomenon:

https://jacobin.com/2024/11/disaster-nationalism-fantasies-far-right/

Seymour's latest book is Disaster Nationalism:The Downfall of Liberal Civilization, an exploration of the strange obsessions of the right with imaginary disasters in the midst of real ones:

https://www.versobooks.com/en-gb/products/3147-disaster-nationalism

You know these imaginary disasters: "FEMA death camps, 'great replacement theory,' the 'Great Reset,' fifteen-minute cities, 5G towers being beacons of mind control, and microchips installed in people through vaccines." As Seymour writes, these conspiracy fantasies are proliferated by authoritarian regimes and their supporters, especially as real disasters rage around them.

For example, during the Oregon wildfires, people who were threatened by blazing forests that hit 800'C refused to evacuate because they'd been convinced that the fires were set by antifa arsonists in a bid to "wipe out white conservative Christians." They barricaded themselves in their fire-threatened homes, brandishing guns and prepping for the antifa mob.

Seymour says that this "disaster nationalism" "processes disaster in a way that is actually quite enlivening." Confronted with the helplessness of a real disaster that can only be solved through the collective action you've been told is both impossible and a Communist plot, you retreat to an individualistic disaster fantasy that you can play an outsized role in. Every crisis – the climate emergency, poverty, a toxic environment – is replaced by "bad people" and you can go get them.

For authoritarian politicians, a world of bad people at the gates who can only be stopped by "the good guys" makes for great politics. It impels proto-fascist movements to electoral victories, all over the world: in the US, of course, but Seymour also analyzes this as the phenomenon behind the electoral victories of authoritarian ethno-nationalists in India, Israel, Brazil, and all over the world.

I find Seymour's analysis bracing and clarifying. It explains the right's tendency to obsess over the imaginary at the expense of the real. Think of conservatives' obsession with imaginary and hypothetical children, from Qanon's child trafficking conspiracies to the forced birth movement's fixation on "the unborn."

It's not just that these kids don't exist – it's that the right is either indifferent or actively hostile to real children. Qanon peaked at the same time as Trump's "kids in cages" family separation policy, which saw thousands of kids separated from their parents, many forever, as a deliberate policy.

The forced birth movement spent decades fighting to overturn Roe in the name of saving "the unborn" – even as its leaders were also overturning the Child Tax Credit, the most successful child poverty alleviation measure in American history. Actual children were left to sink into food insecurity and precarity, to be enlisted to work overnight shifts in meat-packing plants, to fall into homelessness – even as the movement celebrated the "culture of life" that would rescue hypothetical children.

Lifting kids out of poverty and building a world where parents can afford to raise as many children as they care to have is a collective endeavor. Firebombing abortion clinics or storming into a pizza parlor with an assault rifle is an individual rescue fantasy that escapes into the world.

Mall Ninja politics are winning.

Hey look at this (permalink)

Supreme Court allows multibillion-dollar class action to proceed against Meta https://apnews.com/article/supreme-court-meta-facebook-lawsuit-9173ad92e11df4b2a565418e419dfb88
If MMT is wrong, why is it so much better at predicting the economy – and economic disaster? https://dougaldlamont.substack.com/p/if-mmt-is-wrong-why-is-it-so-much (h/t Naked Capitalism)
Europress Optical Sorting Machine https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbSww5SBqN4 (h/t Hackaday)

A Wayback Machine banner.

This day in history (permalink)

#15yrsago EULAs + Arbitration = endless opportunity for abuse https://archive.org/details/TheUnconcionabilityOfArbitrationAgreementsInEulas

#15yrsago Wikipedia’s facts-about-facts make the impossible real https://web.archive.org/web/20091116023225/http://www.make-digital.com/make/vol20/?pg=16

#15yrsago How Britain’s Pirate Finder General is trying to save the Analog Economy at the Digital Economy’s expense https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2009/nov/26/digital-economy-file-sharing-mandelson

#15yrago Musician’s open letter, sung to Peter Mandelson, Britain’s Pirate-Finder General https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_P4lJD_OPI

#15yrsago Scientist explains why climate scientists talk trash https://rifters.com/crawl/?p=886

#10yrsago The clown-prince of DHS checkpoint refusal videos https://www.youtube.com/user/ttoutpost/featured

#10yrsago Song for Shaker: free the last UK Gitmo prisoner! https://standwithshakeraamer.tumblr.com

#10yrsago Vodafone made millions helping GCHQ spy on the world https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2014/11/new-snowden-docs-gchqs-ties-to-telco-gave-spies-global-surveillance-reach/

#10yrsago Uberdystopian: the surge-priced nightmare future https://www.vice.com/en/article/one-day-i-will-die-on-mars/

#10yrsago Essential reading: the irreconcilable tension between cybersecurity and national security https://opencanada.org/the-cyber-security-syndrome/

#10yrsago Strong Female Protagonist Book One https://memex.craphound.com/2014/11/26/strong-female-protagonist-book-one/

#10yrsago Youtube nukes 7 hours’ worth of science symposium audio due to background music during lunch break https://memex.craphound.com/2014/11/25/youtube-nukes-7-hours-worth-of-science-symposium-audio-due-to-background-music-during-lunch-break/

#10yrsago El Deafo: moving, fresh YA comic-book memoir about growing up deaf https://memex.craphound.com/2014/11/25/el-deafo-moving-fresh-ya-comic-book-memoir-about-growing-up-deaf/

#5yrsago Four union organizers fired from Google https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2019/11/firing-of-four-google-employees-is-retaliatory-activists-say/

#5yrsago 1941 film shows striking animators brandishing a working guillotine at the Disney studio gates https://web.archive.org/web/20191126175152/https://paleofuture.gizmodo.com/that-time-animators-brought-a-guillotine-to-the-disney-1839802702

#5yrsago Christian TV pastor Rick Wiles: Impeachment is a “Jew coup” https://web.archive.org/web/20191127005302/https://www.patheos.com/blogs/progressivesecularhumanist/2019/11/christian-tv-host-warns-followers-trump-impeachment-is-jew-coup/

#5yrsago In defamation case, Elon Musk will testify that “pedo guy” is a common South African phrase and not an accusation of pedophilia https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-california-dmv-is-making-dollar50m-a-year-selling-drivers-personal-information/

#5yrsago Across America, DMVs make millions selling your license data to private eyes — and randos https://www.vice.com/en/article/the-california-dmv-is-making-dollar50m-a-year-selling-drivers-personal-information/

#5yrsago Bloomberg’s $34m presidential campaign ad-buy is 1.1% of the taxes Bernie, Warren and Steyer want him to pay https://newrepublic.com/article/155844/michael-bloomberg-big-hedge-wealth-tax-2020

#5yrsago How to argue with your racist Facebook uncle this Thanksgiving https://action.dccc.org/pdf/knowyourstuffing-2019_print.pdf

#5yrsago Podcast: The Engagement-Maximization Presidency https://ia803104.us.archive.org/30/items/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_316/Cory_Doctorow_Podcast_316_-_The_Engagement-Maximization_Presidency.mp3

#5yrsago Networked authoritarianism may contain the seeds of its own undoing https://crookedtimber.org/2019/11/25/seeing-like-a-finite-state-machine/

#5yrsago After Katrina, neoliberals replaced New Orleans’ schools with charters, which are now failing https://www.nola.com/news/education/article_0c5918cc-058d-11ea-aa21-d78ab966b579.html

#5yrsago Talking about Disney’s 1964 Carousel of Progress with Bleeding Cool: our lost animatronic future https://bleedingcool.com/pop-culture/castle-talk-cory-doctorow-on-disneys-carousel-of-progress-and-lost-optimism/

#5yrsago Tiny alterations in training data can introduce “backdoors” into machine learning models https://arxiv.org/abs/1903.06638

#5yrsago Leaked documents document China’s plan for mass arrests and concentration-camp internment of Uyghurs and other ethnic minorities in Xinjiang https://www.icij.org/investigations/china-cables/exposed-chinas-operating-manuals-for-mass-internment-and-arrest-by-algorithm/

#5yrsago Hong Kong elections: overconfident Beijing loyalist parties suffer a near-total rout https://www.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/politics/article/3039132/results-blog

#5yrsago Library Socialism: a utopian vision of a sustaniable, luxuriant future of circulating abundance https://memex.craphound.com/2019/11/25/library-socialism-a-utopian-vision-of-a-sustaniable-luxuriant-future-of-circulating-abundance/

#1yrago The moral injury of having your work enshittified https://pluralistic.net/2023/11/25/moral-injury/#enshittification

Upcoming appearances (permalink)

A photo of me onstage, giving a speech, holding a mic.

International Cooperative Alliance (New Delhi), Nov 24
https://icanewdelhi2024.coop/welcome/pages/Programme
ACM Conext-2024 Workshop on the Decentralization of the Internet (Los Angeles), Dec 9
https://conferences.sigcomm.org/co-next/2024/#!/din
IA et “merdification“ d’internet: peut-on envisager un nouveau web? (Remote), Dec 12
https://www.unige.ch/comprendre-le-numerique/conferences-publiques1/cycle-5-2024-2025/ia-et-merdification-dinternet-peut-envisager-un-nouveau-web/
ISSA-LA Holiday Celebration keynote (Los Angeles), Dec 18
https://issala.org/event/issa-la-december-18-dinner-meeting/
Cloudfest (Europa Park), Mar 17-20
https://cloudfest.link/
DeepSouthCon63 (New Orleans), Oct 10-12, 2025
http://www.contraflowscifi.org/

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

Recent appearances (permalink)

Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It (HOPE XV)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YrciT_dc2sc&list=PLcajvRZA8E0_tLLEh1COeAv-TcaDna2k1&index=32
How To Keep IoT From Becoming An IoTrash (Def Con)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tA7bpp8qXxI
How Big Tech made Trump 2.0 (Real News Network)
https://therealnews.com/how-big-tech-made-trump-2-0

A grid of my books with Will Stahle covers..

Latest books (permalink)

The Bezzle: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about prison-tech and other grifts, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2024 (the-bezzle.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3062/Available_Feb_20th%3A_The_Bezzle_HB.html#/).
"The Lost Cause:" a solarpunk novel of hope in the climate emergency, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), November 2023 (http://lost-cause.org). Signed, personalized copies at Dark Delicacies (https://www.darkdel.com/store/p3007/Pre-Order_Signed_Copies%3A_The_Lost_Cause_HB.html#/)
"The Internet Con": A nonfiction book about interoperability and Big Tech (Verso) September 2023 (http://seizethemeansofcomputation.org). Signed copies at Book Soup (https://www.booksoup.com/book/9781804291245).
"Red Team Blues": "A grabby, compulsive thriller that will leave you knowing more about how the world works than you did before." Tor Books http://redteamblues.com. Signed copies at Dark Delicacies (US): and Forbidden Planet (UK): https://forbiddenplanet.com/385004-red-team-blues-signed-edition-hardcover/.
"Chokepoint Capitalism: How to Beat Big Tech, Tame Big Content, and Get Artists Paid, with Rebecca Giblin", on how to unrig the markets for creative labor, Beacon Press/Scribe 2022 https://chokepointcapitalism.com
"Attack Surface": The third Little Brother novel, a standalone technothriller for adults. The Washington Post called it "a political cyberthriller, vigorous, bold and savvy about the limits of revolution and resistance." Order signed, personalized copies from Dark Delicacies https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1840/Available_Now%3A_Attack_Surface.html
"How to Destroy Surveillance Capitalism": an anti-monopoly pamphlet analyzing the true harms of surveillance capitalism and proposing a solution. https://onezero.medium.com/how-to-destroy-surveillance-capitalism-8135e6744d59?sk=f6cd10e54e20a07d4c6d0f3ac011af6b) (signed copies: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2024/Available_Now%3A__How_to_Destroy_Surveillance_Capitalism.html)
"Little Brother/Homeland": A reissue omnibus edition with a new introduction by Edward Snowden: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250774583; personalized/signed copies here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p1750/July%3A__Little_Brother_%26_Homeland.html
"Poesy the Monster Slayer" a picture book about monsters, bedtime, gender, and kicking ass. Order here: https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781626723627. Get a personalized, signed copy here: https://www.darkdel.com/store/p2682/Corey_Doctorow%3A_Poesy_the_Monster_Slayer_HB.html#/.

A cardboard book box with the Macmillan logo.

Upcoming books (permalink)

Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books, February 2025
Unauthorized Bread: a middle-grades graphic novel adapted from my novella about refugees, toasters and DRM, FirstSecond, 2025

Colophon (permalink)

Today's top sources:

Currently writing:

Enshittification: a nonfiction book about platform decay for Farrar, Straus, Giroux. Friday's progress: 796 words (87388 words total).
A Little Brother short story about DIY insulin PLANNING
Picks and Shovels, a Martin Hench noir thriller about the heroic era of the PC. FORTHCOMING TOR BOOKS FEB 2025

Latest podcast: Spill, part four (a Little Brother story) https://craphound.com/littlebrother/2024/10/28/spill-part-four-a-little-brother-story/

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