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Cory Johnston

@skepticalleftist.bsky.social

1.8K followers 1.1K following 2.1K posts

Trying to combine good evidence-based critical thinking and left anarchist politics. I host The Skeptical Leftist podcast, check it out on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1ye9lJfPq7SZkXdOVrEtB9?si=wNQsMjAhRgK0sUCUnT7Y7Q

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 4d

Cory Doctorow joined me to talk about Enshitification and how Big Tech turned the internet into a system built to trap users and squeeze workers. We dig into monopoly power, labor, and what it would take to rebuild something that serves people again.

Why the Internet Keeps Getting Worse with Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow joins me to talk about his new book Enshitification, a deep dive into how the internet went from a space built on openness and creativity to one dominated by corporate control. We get into the pattern behind it all—how platforms lure people in, trap them, then slowly extract every ounc

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 7h

Cory Doctorow connects the decay of the internet to the collapse of worker power. When labor lost leverage, platforms stopped worrying about fairness. The result is a digital economy built on extraction.

Why the Internet Just Keeps Getting Worse with Cory Doctorow

The Skeptical Leftist Podcast · Episode

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 10h

Capitalism sells the idea of endless growth and prosperity, but what most people experience is chaos. Groceries get more expensive, housing is harder to secure, work feels precarious. Wealth piles up at the top while everyone else is left with instability.

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 12h

The internet keeps shrinking. What used to feel open now runs through a few massive platforms that decide what we see and how we talk to each other. They call it innovation, but it’s really enclosure. It's an endless process of taking public space and turning it into property.

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 14h

A man killed his mother and himself after ChatGPT encouraged his delusions. Others have taken their own lives after AI bots told them to hide suicidal thoughts. Profit came first, and people are paying the price.

Revolt, Propaganda, and Border Control

Revolt, propaganda, and border control, in this episode we dig into youth uprisings in Nepal and Indonesia, Trump’s visa scams, digital ID schemes, propaganda around Charlie Kirk, AI pushing people into violence, and how elites keep selling lies as progress. Sources https://people.com/charlie-kirk-

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Reposted by Cory Johnston

anti-school teacher @anarchodaoist.bsky.social · 17h

No Dad, young ppl are not just lazy: Why we don't all own our own homes and cars:

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Talking to my dad about the economy

YouTube video by ItHadToBeSaid

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 18h

[Weird Little Guys] George Lincoln Rockwell's Coffin Flop #weirdLittleGuys
podcastaddict.com/we... via @PodcastAddict

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 19h

[Alberta Advantage Podcast] Escape from the Planet of the Mines - Canada’s Resource Imperialism #albertaAdvantagePodcast
podcastaddict.com/al... via @PodcastAddict

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 19h

[The Hatchet] The Decline and Fall of the Canadian State (w/ Nora Loreto) #theHatchet
podcastaddict.com/th... via @PodcastAddict

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 1d

Independent media takes time and work. If you value in-depth conversations about power and policy, you can help keep them going by joining the Patreon community. Supporters get early access and the full-length versions of every episode.

Cory Johnston | Patreon

Podcasts and Videos

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 1d

Propaganda can turn cruelty into honor. With enough cropped footage and repetition, someone who built their career on hate can be presented as a serious thinker or even a hero, until the distortion hardens into accepted truth.

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 1d

Big Tech loves to call everything “efficient.” They replace workers with algorithms and call it progress. They buy competitors and call it strategy. It’s an economy of control dressed up as creativity, where every shortcut leads to someone else losing a paycheck.

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 1d

Kneecap, an Irish rap group, was banned from Canada for supporting Palestine. At the same time, Canadian companies still ship weapons parts to Israel. That’s not protecting people, it’s silencing dissent.

Revolt, Propaganda, and Border Control

Uprisings, propaganda, and scams driving people to resist in Nepal, Indonesia, and beyond.

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 1d

Cory Doctorow calls this the “Enshitocene,” the era where everything online turns to crap. Once users can’t leave, exploitation becomes the business model. Monopoly power makes decline profitable.

Why the Internet Keeps Getting Worse with Cory Doctorow

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 2d

There are real problems with the way LLMs function. Chatbots flatter users, encourage them to indulge delusions, and in some cases even suggest hiding suicidal thoughts from family. Profit drove the rollout while safety was barely considered.

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 2d

When a few corporations control how people communicate, create, and work, they end up shaping public life itself. Real innovation happens when people can build freely. That becomes impossible when every tool, rule, and platform is owned by the same handful of companies.

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 2d

Capitalism rewards an in-group and treats everyone else as expendable. In the US that in-group is white Christians. Owen and I talked about how that system of exclusion sustains itself.

Capitalism's Gospel of Greed

AI, labor, exploitation, and Christian nationalism in conversation with Owen Macdonald, plus the selective outrage around Charlie Kirk’s death.

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 2d

Starmer’s UK government is pushing digital IDs in the name of modernization, but it’s just surveillance. Borders already divide and dehumanize. Coding them into daily life will make exclusion permanent.

Revolt, Propaganda, and Border Control

The Skeptical Leftist Podcast · Episode

open.spotify.com

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 2d

I know that podcasting is constantly being marketed for small businesses and corporations now but I really find it weird that I'm putting out a show every week or more and supposedly there are companies or groups that have a "team" doing the same thing

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 2d

Cory Doctorow explains how Canada helped Big Tech tighten its grip through copyright and trade laws. He outlines how repealing those barriers could spark innovation and keep more value inside the country.

Why the Internet Just Keeps Getting Worse with Cory Doctorow

Cory Doctorow on how Big Tech broke the internet and what it will take to fix it.

open.substack.com

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 2d

Who's the weirdo who downvotes a short talking about how the people could beat big tech? Are people really going to bat for Google, Meta, and Amazon? How out of touch are they?

How Canada Could Beat Big Tech

Cory Doctorow argues that if Canada scrapped its broken copyright and tech laws, it could spark a real tech revolution. Legalize jailbreaking, allow independent repair, and keep transaction fees inside the country. It’s a roadmap for innovation that cuts out Silicon Valley middlemen. #CoryDoctorow

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 2d

I think I'll talk to my doctor next time I have an appointment. I'm supposed to go talk about some lab results eventually anyway

Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 2d

I guess I just want fewer people taking potshots at other people instead of those with actual power or the systems that keep us from having a decent world

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 2d

As with so many things I don't think it's useful to point fingers at random people and say, hey, you're a bad person for using AI. We should all be as responsible as we can with what we do but we also are always limited by the systems we live in. Make your choices accordingly

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 2d

I also don't think a lot can be done about individual use of these things. Especially the way they're forced into every single thing we access. Want a spell checker, now it's AI. Want to do a search, now it's AI. Want to look for art, well now you'll be forcefed a bunch of AI.

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Cory Johnston @skepticalleftist.bsky.social · 2d

I think if LLM's or generative AI were trained and developed in a world that was thoughtful and responsible in any sense of those words then they might actually be useful without harming people and the environment but we live under capitalism, so they aren't made that way

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