Brutkey

Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr
Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Threads' margin is the Eurostack's opportunity; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/30/zucksauce/

#Pluralistic

1/

An EU flag; the stars have been replaced with a ring of Threads logos, tinted yellow. In the center floats the disembodied head of Mark Zuckerberg's metaverse avatar. It has been modified: a black bar scrawled with grawlix covers the mouth.
Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Trump and the unmighty dollar; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/26/i-dont-want/

#Pluralistic

1/

A detail from a US $100 bill. The bill has been tinted orange. Ben Franklin's face has been replaced with an indistinct blur surmounted by Trump's hair. The lettering in the scrollwork beneath the portrait reads 'TRUMP.' The '100's have been turned into '000's. The writing 'ONE HUNDRED' now reads 'NONE HUNDRED.' The series issue has been changed to '47.' The Secretary of the Treasury's signature has been replaced with Trump's.
Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: Google's AI pricing plan; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/01/21/cod-marxism/

#Pluralistic

1/

Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr

Trying to track down a famous satirical quote (maybe attributed to Stalin?!), along the lines of, "If the people choose the wrong leader, the leader must elect a new people"

Not quite that (obvs) but close.

Anyone know what I'm thinking of?

ETA: it's "Would it not be simpler, if the government simply dissolved the people and elected another?" (Brecht)

Thanks, @timo21@mastodon.sdf.org!

Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: A perfect distillation of the social uselessness of finance; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/18/self-licking-ice-cream-cone/

#Pluralistic

(This is the last edition of Pluralistic for the year - see you in 2026!)

1/

The Earth from space. Standing astride it is the Wall Street 'Charging Bull.' The bull has glowing red eyes. It is haloed in a starbust of red radiating light. Image: Sam Valadi (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/132084522@N05/17086570218/ CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr

I'm about to sign off for the year - actually, I was ready to do it yesterday, but then I happened upon a brief piece of writing that was so perfect that I decided I'd do one more edition of Pluralistic for 2025.

--

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/2025/12/18/self-licking-ice-cream-cone/#job-creators

1/

The Earth from space. Standing astride it is the Wall Street 'Charging Bull.' The bull has glowing red eyes. It is haloed in a starbust of red radiating light. Image: Sam Valadi (modified) https://www.flickr.com/photos/132084522@N05/17086570218/ CC BY 2.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/
Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr

People are strange.

I just agreed to speak at a big festival. They invited me by contacting my publicist. I told him I'd do it.

They then sent him (not me) an email with an attached PDF, and asked him to forward it to me, and to instruct me to check page two of the PDF for a link to a Microsoft Form to complete my RSVP.

Surely there is a better way.

Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: America's collapsing consumption is the world's disenshittification opportunity; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/16/k-shaped-recovery/

#Pluralistic

1/

Uncle Sam staring into a funhouse mirror that has made him painfully thin. The reflection is wearing a Trump wig and has orange skin. He stands atop a map of the world that stretches to infinity. In the background is a shantytown with the TRUMP logomark rising in the sky over it.
Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr

"The logical end point of that claim is that Netflix isn’t a monopoly because people can always shut their eyes and sleep."

-David Dayen, Netflix Aims for Entertainment Domination

https://prospect.org/2025/12/05/netflix-warner-bros-entertainment-domination/

That feels pretty anti-competitive, and should draw a merger challenge. Netflix is likely going to follow the claims that Meta made in dodging a monopolization challenge: that it competes with a multitude of other claims on people’s time, from YouTube to social media. But this is ridiculous; the logical end point of that claim is that Netflix isn’t a monopoly because people can always shut their eyes and sleep. There’s clearly a market in paying a company a monthly fee to watch produced entertainment, and Netflix is consolidating it.
Cory Doctorow
@pluralistic@mamot.fr

Today's threads (a thread)

Inside: The Reverse Centaur’s Guide to Criticizing AI; and more!

Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/pop-that-bubble/

#Pluralistic

1/

https://pluralistic.net/2025/12/05/pop-that-bubble/#u-washington The staring red eye of HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey. In the center is the poop emoji from the cover of the US edition of 'Enshittification,' with angry eyebrows and a black, grawlix-scrawled bar over its mouth. The poop emoji's eyes have also been replaced with the HAL eye. Image: Cryteria (modified) https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HAL9000.svg CC BY 3.0 https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en