It shouldn't be underestimated how serious it is that these companies are not just bad but evil. Try getting a phone in the US that doesn't run on an Android or Apple operating system (yes, I know that's called iOS).
Yep, I'll wait. And while I'm planning on pitching my smartphone again, 2FA makes it practically a requirement. (2FA, necessary in part because sites are trying to protect against AI/scraping bots.)
Wix
WordPress...both added because they are pushing their AI tools pretty hard
Graphene
The reason I need to put this list up is because I know I missed something even as I was typing this up. I can't keep up, which is maybe part of the design.
But it shouldn't be this way, and it doesn't have to be.
Framework...which brings me to a certain someone who made a couple of recommendations that ended up being on this list. You know who he is. If you see him recommending anything, treat with caution.
Omarchy...but that's a Linux distribution, and eh, you already had a problem
Mullvad...someone want to list a good VPN that isn't fascist adjacent or corrupted with AI? Please?
Stripe
PayPal...This one is *special*, and maybe should have been on the first list
Discord! They are moving to "age verification", and that is going to go really badly, I promise you. But why believe me when you can just look at tumblr?
VIM
Shopify
And now we start to have a little fun, because as you scratch a little closer, you find that the things you thought were "ethical" alternatives really aren't, and you have to admit to yourself that you don't have options.
Proton
LibreOffice
Tuta
Kagi
Mozilla
Brave
Linux...this was when it started to get really fun
Internet Archive....this was when you might have stopped breathing
Wikipedia...which we could have suspected because Wales brags about being a libertarian, so not liking unions tracks
Other stuff you mostly already know and that you can live without
OpenAI
Twitter/X/whatever you want to call them
BlueSky
Anthropic
Substack*
*This is a good time to mention that anything that is fascist or Nazi-adjacent qualifies for this list. And if you court Nazis, you definitely qualify.
The OG/corps you already know about.
Microsoft
Google
Apple
Meta
Amazon
You can also think of them as much of what is ginning up the American stock market. And if you're not alarmed by that, what have you been doing with your life since 2008?
Bad Tech!
Well, here I go. This is going to be a long thread. I invite people to contribute.
Hoping to avoid people complaining about me putting the tech they love on this list. Please go start your own.
I can only do 500 characters at a time, FYI, which is why some, er, entries might be pithier than they should be.
I'll put in links as I find them.
I'm using https://pivot-to-ai.com/ by @davidgerard and this list as references https://drewdevault.com/weird-guys/
Please share others
People were talking about the temptation of AI today. I'm on a different planet. I just see grift after grift over something that can't do addition.
Crypto grifts, I get. Money laundering vehicles need to be creative. Spicy autocorrect? Just, no.
If you were tutoring adults who could read but hadn't done much of it, which books would you suggest? Assume intellectual curiosity, but possibly somewhere between a third to sixth grade level of exposure.
Books should not be long, but they could be fiction or non-fiction. PLEASE, no self-help books.
RE: https://apobangpo.space/@dnkboston/117215947260678984
I guess I have to start this list. (Did I mention how underqualified I am? But sure, why not?)
My list of #tech that *doesn't* suck is very short, and I'm assuming it will get shorter:
- NewsBlur
- IronFox
- LibreWolf
- Mastodon!
- Signal
- Element
- Audiomack*
- Pidgin
Please add; this does not have to be exclusively in the US or Europe.
Can't wait to hear about how even this list is too long.
*Edited to add. Only music streaming I could find that Len Blavatnik wasn't part of.
People keeping a list of tech companies, developers, and organizations that are fascist, fascist-adjacent, or garden-variety sellouts are probably exhausted at this point.
So how about just the list of tech and developers that *don't* suck? Because I'm sure that will be shorter.
I used #Smashwords as my distribution platform for my ebooks. (I do not sell anything on Amazon.) #Draft2Digital merged with SW, and I should have known something like this would happen.
I don't sell a lot--I haven't marketed in years--and I can afford the fee. But this is a sign of worse to come. Should I just sell on my website? Or is there another similar service?
https://goodereader.com/blog/digital-publishing/draft2digital-is-going-to-implement-fees
Hit me with your best #classical #music suggestions. (Please!)
I'm so glad Bondi is gone. I'll still see her at Nuremberg.
Blue Bottle (Nestle) has refused to negotiate a contract for over a year. Please join #BBIU and boycott Blue Bottle until Nestle signs a contract. (My daughter is a barista at one of the #Boston stores, so you'd better believe this is personal to me.)
https://actionnetwork.org/petitions/tell-blue-bottle-no-contract-no-customers
The climate organization I volunteer with would like to start moving our videos off of YouTube for obvious reasons. I'm looking at #PeerTube It would probably be more than we could handle to install our own instance. Does anyone have a PeerTube instance that we could hop onto? We have a lot of content. We'd be willing to pay a fee along the lines of what YouTube is charging.
Boosts appreciated 🙏
Can we really depend on Jeffries not to fold?
https://www.cnn.com/2025/11/09/politics/government-shutdown-reopen-deal-senate
One of the highlights of my life is geeking out with Ivan over his *No Bullshit Guide to Math & Physics* while I was homeschooling my sons during the pandemic, and thus I am happy to share his latest, *No Bullshit Guide to Statistics*. I'm almost sad that my sons already finished their Stats class, but if you're looking for a reference, pick this up.
**As with any endorsements I make, I get absolutely nothing for this, so buy in good conscience**