Today's threads (a thread)
Inside: Semantic drift versus ethical drift; and more!
Archived at: https://pluralistic.net/2025/07/14/pole-star/
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@pluralistic I like the post. I just wanted to point out the similarity between your last paragraph where you write "we still lack a word to express what we're for." with this paper from Orwell https://orwellfoundation.com/george-orwell/by-orwell/essays/can-socialists-be-happy/ . We know what's wrong with the current state, eg anti-this and anti-that, but defining (and Naming) the future state is hard.
@pluralistic
Happy Bastille Day. 🇫🇷
Happy Bastille Day. 🇫🇷
@pluralistic I ran a poll on that a couple of months go. Don't know if I worded it well enough, and it's not a huge sample size, but it's there for what it's worth.
Support me this summer in the Clarion Write-A-Thon and help raise money for the Clarion Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers' Workshop! This summer, I'm writing "The Reverse-Centaur's Guide to AI," a short book for Farrar, Straus and Giroux that explains how to be an effective AI critic:
https://clarionwriteathon.com/members/profile.php?writerid=293388
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Semantic drift versus ethical drift: Locking things open vs locking in freedom.
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114851733343150073
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Hey look at this
* Who Goes MAGA? https://www.techdirt.com/2025/07/08/who-goes-maga/
* Using Signal groups for activism https://micahflee.com/using-signal-groups-for-activism/ (h/t Bruce Schneier)
* What To Do When You See ICE in Your Neighborhood https://theintercept.com/2025/07/12/ice-neighborhood-watch-la/
* Fintech Dystopia https://fintechdystopia.com/
* Wet Leg: Moisturizer https://wetleg.bandcamp.com/album/moisturizer
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#15yrsago New York Times and other papers use deceptive death-notice company https://idlewords.com/2010/07/the_great_legacy.com_swindle.htm
#15yrsago Riepl’s Law: how future media compost the past https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riepl's_law
#15yrsago Online video patents: an impassable thicket? https://web.archive.org/web/20100706012619/https://oti.newamerica.net/blogposts/2010/video_prison_why_patents_might_threaten_free_online_video-33950
#15yrsago Canadian copyright astroturfers own up: front for US labels https://web.archive.org/web/20100705133038/http://www.michaelgeist.ca/content/view/5164/125/
#10yrsago Fracketeering: Life in a capitalist sci-fi horror story https://www.theguardian.com/money/2015/jun/30/fracketeering-capitalism-power-hosing-estate-agents-cakeage
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#10yrsago How the NSA searches the world’s intercepted private communications https://theintercept.com/2015/07/01/nsas-google-worlds-private-communications/
#10yrsago Judge hires lawyer to threaten court over jury summons https://www.loweringthebar.net/2015/07/some-judges-show-some-dont.html
#10yrsago The next Librarian of Congress: a Librarian of Progress? https://librarianofprogress.com/
#10yrsago 1930s ice-cream parlour hidden in Cincinnati’s art deco railway station https://thoughtandsight.com/the-1930s-ice-cream-parlor-tucked-away-in-cincinnatis-union-terminal/
#5yrsago 1000+ accidental trigger-phrases for smart speakers https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/02/big-river/#triggered
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#5yrsago Hong Kong law threatens people all over the world https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/02/big-river/#be-water
#5yrsago A grifter's border wall is about to fall into the Rio Grande https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/02/big-river/#god-hates-walls
#5yrsago Roller derby's brilliant re-opening plan https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/02/big-river/#derby
#5yrsago Don't Believe Proven Liars https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/02/big-river/#big-lie
#5yrsago Unauthorized seat https://pluralistic.net/2020/07/02/big-river/#beemers
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July 3's threads: Trump's not gonna protect workers from forced labor; and more!
https://mamot.fr/@pluralistic/114788657920212514
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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 next nonfiction book is "Enshittification: Why Everything Suddenly Got Worse and What to Do About It," out from MCD/Farrar, Straus and Giroux on October 7:
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374619329/enshittification/
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My ebooks and audiobooks (from 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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