“Founder mode” is a euphemism for monarchism/authoritarianism. It’s why so many user-centered roles in design,CX, and research have been cut in recent years. No need to listen when the “great leader” dictates everything. The world is too complex for any one *man* to assume they know what’s best.

@proton.me what is going on? total global outage due to one datacenter cooling issue? rather shocking. please explain more.

I logged on this crypto backed cyberlibertarian platform just to share this. Notable

Gil Durán@gilduran.com · last mo.

We did it! “The Nerd Reich” is a New York Times Instant Bestseller! My book debuts at #3 on the non-fiction list. Thanks to all who pre-ordered /bought the book—or requested it at the public library or promoted it on social. Without you, I’m just an unemployed guy with a laptop. But with you…

@jerrybrewer.bsky.social Excellent truth speaking piece today after nihilistic utilitarian ends-justifying posts from others at the Athletic blog and all over. It’s seems many need to hear the timeless lesson about King Midas and his “golden touch”. From Knicks to USMNT the touch is rotten. #nokings

Great news! If anyone deserves a re-publish, it’s Paulina Borsook. She saw it all coming, before Golumbia, Morozov, and Wired magazine’s redirection. – cc @greglindsay.org – cc @nickkauf.bsky.social – cc @daniel-latorre.bsky.social – cc @grantennis.bsky.social – cc @movito.bsky.social

Gil Durán@gilduran.com · 5mo ago

Remember when y'all made this thread on Paulina Borsook go viral? Well, that resulted in her getting a deal to re-publish her book in the USA, the UK & Commonwealth, Belgium, France, and Switzerland! Coming Sept. 15—with a foreword by some guy named Gil Duran. Pre-order! www.cyberselfish.com

Most democratic (small d) New Yorkers really needed to hear that fiery yet humanistic victory speech in Brooklyn last night. I wager so do most Americans if they haven't already.

My free Stop the Presses newsletter is giving out letter grades to news outlets, based on their level of truth-telling to expose the MAGA assault on our democracy. The Guardian: A Associated Press: B+ New York Times: C CNN: C- Washington Post: D- CBS News: F See more grades and my rationale here.

I’m handing out pro-democracy grades to the media

The Guardian gets an A, the NY Times gets a C, CBS gets an F

stopthepresses.news

@beehiiv.com 1st time user, trying to create account. Can't due to "Email is not valid. Code: [464]" error. Dumb "AI" bot can't help. Support site: zero results. Dumb "AI" bot is programmed to offer support ticket but can't create it since it expects beehiv user's email despite what I just told it.🙄

Just in case there are any municipalities considering contracting out accessibility services to US tech platforms like Uber, maybe consider this, among many other issues. #Hamilton www.cnn.com/2025/09/11/t...

US sues Uber, alleging disability discrimination | CNN Business

The US government on Thursday sued Uber Technologies, accusing the ride-sharing company of discriminating against passengers with disabilities.

cnn.com

A bit slow on the uptake? Still boggled by seeing people active on Twitter.

WIRED@wired.com · last yr.

Academics once loved Twitter—but in the age of X they’ve abandoned it in droves. www.wired.com/story/bluesk...

Where has wisdom gone? For our cities, democracies, planet? Seeking all who already know we need post-cyberlibertarian and post-technocratic ways for anything wise to regrow. youtu.be/A_XtNQSmf-M?...

Make It Rain

YouTube video by The KLF - Topic

youtu.be

Ever wonder why Vance quotes Medieval church sayings. Catholic/Orthodox Traditonlaism: “Its public face online is largely female: the “trad wife” influencers. But make no mistake: Despite its TikTok and Instagram aesthetics, this is primarily a men’s movement.” www.vox.com/politics/405...

The hidden religious divide erupting into politics

The “cradle” vs. “convert” fight comes to Washington.

vox.com

Keep pressuring all you know to stop using Twitter. By my last Twitter stat report I saw over 50% of accounts I follow are inactive. Pre-Musk it was maybe 5%, so let's keep up the pressure to hit 80%. (I still have my twitter account for monitoring, I just don't use it.)

Waleed Shahid@waleedshahid.bsky.social · 2y ago

The top 25 political and news accounts on X in the past 30 days.

Fred Lambert at Electrek has his own wild story arc. He was basically Musk’s biggest fan in the world for a decade, promoting Tesla incessantly. Then in Sept 2024, just before the election, he said he didn’t trust Musk anymore and sold all his Tesla shares. Now he writes very bluntly about Musk.

onion person@junlper.beer · 2y ago

this is CRAZY

Is this the speculative fiction people need to understand the right wing nature of Cyberlibertarianism? #foresight #designfiction #futurism

James Medlock@jdcmedlock.bsky.social · 2y ago

Imagine explaining this to someone in the 1940s

I hope America is as lucky as the delta jet - everyone survives but the right wing explodes

Best audio interview with @beccalew.bsky.social about her recent article on the misogyny at the heart of techno utopianism & cyberlibertarianism. Save it now and listen. soundcloud.com/this-is-hell...

Becca Lewis / How Technofacism is Rooted in Silicon Valley

Disinformation and far-right digital media scholar Becca Lewis, who posted The Guardian article, “‘Headed for technofascism’: the rightwing roots of Silicon Valley.

soundcloud.com

@hypervisible.bsky.social good to see you here! Haven’t been on twitter since Musk took over! Perhaps now people will get what we’ve long talked about.

"What's closer to the truth is that [Big Tech folks] have been right-wingers all along, and that the so-called 'u-turn' – because they haven't received enough praise – is a very convenient fiction." – @hypervisible.bsky.social discusses David Golumbia's last book Cyberlibertarianism

The Problem With Cyberlibertarianism w/ Chris Gilliard

Podcast Episode · Tech Won't Save Us · 01/30/2025 · 58m

podcasts.apple.com

What if I told you the core Cyberlibertarian ethos of the digital culture is right-wing? That anything made from this ethos furthers right wing paths? That the deeper problem isn’t just big tech, or platforms, or protocols, but the core anti-democratic ethos itself?

Mike Masnick@masnick.com · 2y ago

Have another big post today on the importance of Bluesky/ATprotocol/decentralization, but also hoping to get people to understand the path forward is taking control over their own social media experience... www.techdirt.com/2025/01/27/e...

Any major change in media ecologies also changes social structures. Because: interdependence is the nature of our vast reflexive web of being. The challenge is can we change more consciously? More wisely? Or just let the 1% unwisely do whatever they want? All choices matter.

Renee DiResta@noupside.bsky.social · 2y ago

Altman seems unambiguously more accurate here? If the changes are as profound as he, Andreessen, & the people talking up AI investment claim- particularly on the jobs front, which doesn’t get enough attention -there’s no way there isn’t a major structural societal shift. There would have to be, no?

Help us get the #placemaking conversation going here. Some #PlacemakingX leaders to follow and engage with: bsky.app/profile/did:... #PublicSpace #Cities #UrbanPlanning #Urbanism

Many parallels are being drawn with Nazi Germany right now, as if that is the nadir of human evil. I worry this blinds us to the many signals that our current trajectory will take us someplace far worse still — potentially underestimating dangers by orders of magnitude.

Been advising all since 2018 to stop using Facebook as a form of harm reduction for all civic public realm work. And I've effectively stopped using Instagram a year ago. Signal is better and safer than WhatsApp. There's only more reasons now to move off of *all* Zuck's apps.

kottke.org@kottke.org · 2y ago

oh shit new logo just dropped

"The main task for a philosophy of technology, according to Winner, is “to examine critically the nature and significance of artificial aids to human activity” (Winner, 1986, p. 4). Since the underlying purpose is positive, criticism in technology should afford the same value as in any other area."

As someone who spent years reporting on Zuckerberg, I've struggled to find something coherent to say about today. Then @cwarzel.bsky.social reminded me of my old reporting. This is what a FB employee said to me in 2020 after Zuckerberg addressed workers following FB-enabled violence in Kenosha, WI.

New blog from Dave Troy aptly named as we face a hard reboot one way or another due to zombie neoliberalism and other anti-democratic media ecology realities. Wise leadership needed more than ever.

Dave Troy@davetroy.com · 2y ago

NEW: "Without Sky: Social Media and the End of Reality" Users are flocking to Bluesky in droves, but creators and users should think critically about the possibility of capture by potentially hostile investors. america2.news/without-sky-...