Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: All laws are local; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/05/contingency/
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Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: All laws are local; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2026/02/05/contingency/
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@pluralistic look on my works, ye mighty, and despair
All laws are local: And no law knows how evitable it is.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116018263546046976
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Hey look at this
* The Scourge of Online Sports Betting https://prospect.org/2026/02/04/feb-2026-magazine-sports-scourge-online-betting-fanduel-draftkings/
* ICE has offices in 5 Canadian cities. Here’s what it can — and can’t — do https://www.cbc.ca/lite/story/9.7073273
* RIP, Fobazi M Ettarh https://bsky.app/profile/fobettarh.bsky.social/post/3me34k3rtvc2j
* The Roots of the Youth Sports Gold Rush https://prospect.org/2026/02/05/feb-2026-magazine-youth-sports-private-equity/
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#20yrsago UK nurses want to supply clean blades and cutting advice to self-harmers https://web.archive.org/web/20060206205108/http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,2087-2025748,00.html
#20yrsago PC built into whisky bottle https://web.archive.org/web/20060210043104/https://metku.net/index.html?sect=view&n=1&path=mods/whiskypc/index_eng
#15yrsago Startups of London’s “Silicon Roundabout” https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2011/feb/06/tech-startup-internet-entrepreneurs
#15yrsago Antifeatures: deliberate, expensive product features that no customer wants https://mako.cc/copyrighteous/antifeatures-at-the-free-technology-academy
#15yrsago Steampunk Etch-a-Sketch https://www.reddit.com/r/pics/comments/erbnf/a_steampunk_etchasketch_we_made_for_a_friend_this/
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#10yrsago There’s a secret “black site” in New York where terrorism suspects are tortured for years at a time https://web.archive.org/web/20160205143012/https://theintercept.com/2016/02/05/mahdi-hashi-metropolitan-correctional-center-manhattan-guantanamo-pretrial-solitary-confinement/
#10yrsago Error 53: Apple remotely bricks phones to punish customers for getting independent repairs https://www.theguardian.com/money/2016/feb/05/error-53-apple-iphone-software-update-handset-worthless-third-party-repair?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other
#10yrsago Toronto City Council defies mayor, demands open, neutral municipal broadband https://www.michaelgeist.ca/2016/02/toronto-city-council-sides-with-crtc-in-rejecting-mayor-torys-support-of-bell-appeal/
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#5yrsago Amazon's brutal warehouse "megacycle" https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/05/la-bookseller-royalty/#megacycle
#5yrsago AT&T customer complains…via WSJ ad https://pluralistic.net/2021/02/05/la-bookseller-royalty/#go-aaron-go
#1yrago MLMs are the mirror-world version of community organizing https://pluralistic.net/2025/02/05/power-of-positive-thinking/#the-socialism-of-fools
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Yesterday's threads: Justin Key's "The Hospital at the End Of the World"; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/116013262073774456
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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."
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Upcoming appearances:
* #SaltLakeCity: Enshittification at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (Tanner Humanities Center), Feb 18
https://tanner.utah.edu/center-events/cory-doctorow/
* #Montreal (remote): Fedimtl, Feb 24
https://fedimtl.ca/
* #Victoria: 28th Annual Victoria International Privacy & Security Summit, Mar 3-5
https://www.rebootcommunications.com/event/vipss2026/
* #Berkeley: Bioneers keynote, Mar 27
https://conference.bioneers.org/
* #Berlin: Re:publica, May 18-20
https://re-publica.com/de/news/rp26-sprecher-cory-doctorow
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