[Plura-list] Farewell (for the moment)

Fri May 30 10:13:55 EDT 2025

Read today's issue online at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/05/30/gone-fission/

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HEY SEATTLE! I'm appearing at the Cascade PBS Ideas Festival THIS SATURDAY (May 31) with the folks from NPR's On The Media!

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

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Today's links

* Farewell (for the moment): See you in mid-June!

* Hey look at this: Delights to delectate.

* Object permanence: 2005, 2015, 2020, 2024

* 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.

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🍴 Farewell (for the moment)

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 Schmuer? 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 June 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

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🍴 Hey look at this

* Musk and Zuck ‘Use Our Love for Each Other to Hold Us Hostage’

*  overwhelmingly votes to certify union in historic election

* Senate Democrats Have Been Handed a Tool to Stop the Big Beautiful Bill

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🍴 Object permanence

#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

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🍴 Upcoming appearances

* Seattle: Cascade PBS Ideas Festival, May 31
https://www.cascadepbs.org/festival/speaker/cory-doctorow

* Virtual: Fediforum, Jun 5
https://fediforum.org/2025-06/

* PDX: Teardown 2025, Jun 20-22
https://www.crowdsupply.com/teardown/portland-2025

* PDX: Picks and Shovels with bunnie Huang at Barnes and Noble, Jun 20
https://stores.barnesandnoble.com/event/9780062183697-0

* Tualatin Public Library, Jun 22:
https://www.tualatinoregon.gov/library/author-talk-cory-doctorow

* London: How To Academy with Riley Quinn, Jul 1
https://howtoacademy.com/events/cory-doctorow-the-fight-against-the-big-tech-oligarchy/

* Manchester: Picks and Shovels at Blackwell's Bookshop, Jul 2
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/an-evening-with-cory-doctorow-tickets-1308451968059

* Manchester: Co-operatives UK Co-op Congress keynote, Jul 4
https://www.uk.coop/events-and-training/events-calendar/co-op-congress-2025-book-your-place

* New Orleans: DeepSouthCon63, Oct 10-12, 2025
http://www.contraflowscifi.org/

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🍴 Recent appearances

* The Rideshare Guy
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKeoCxJWVVE

* Kick 'Em In the Dongle (Understood)
https://www.cbc.ca/listen/cbc-podcasts/1353-the-naked-emperor/episode/16148346-kick-em-in-the-dongle

* The Big Story
https://www.seekyoursounds.com/podcasts/the-big-story/cory-doctorow-explains-who-broke-the-internet

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🍴 Latest books

* * Picks and Shovels: a sequel to "Red Team Blues," about the heroic era of the PC, Tor Books (US), Head of Zeus (UK), February 2025 (https://us.macmillan.com/books/9781250865908/picksandshovels).

* 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#/.

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🍴 Upcoming books

* 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

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🍴 Colophon

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

This work - excluding any serialized fiction - is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 license. That means you can use it any way you like, including commercially, provided that you attribute it to me, Cory Doctorow, and include a link to pluralistic.net.

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Quotations and images are not included in this license; they are included either under a limitation or exception to copyright, or on the basis of a separate license. Please exercise caution.

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