Ben Tarnoff

A three-panel composite from the movie HACKERS, the coolest movie. Dade Murphy: I got a record! I was 'Zero Cool'! Paul Cook: Zero Cool? Crashed fifteen hundred and seven computers in one day? Biggest crash in history, front page New York Times August 10th, 1988.

Happy Zero Cool Day to all who celebrate.

Coming March 2026

I put my “dating historian” hat back on to write about a good movie about bad men, now out in a new edition from @criterion.bsky.social www.criterion.com/current/post...

a simple, dark green flier with a bold, white text header: From Tech Lash To Tech Fash: Strategic reflections on a decade of collective organizing in computing The flier includes the following text and details: Hybrid Workshop @ Aarhus - Tuesday August 19, 8:30–11:30 am EST / 2:30–5:30 pm CEST Computing is a field plagued with presentism, oriented towards the new in ways that limit our design and research practices - as well as our capacity to understand and collectively respond to emerging crises. To improve our sensemaking and strategizing about today's crises, this workshop explores what Tamara Kneese has deemed the last decade's shift from "techlash" to "tech fash". What have we learned from the era of misinformation and bias, of "surveillance capitalism" and tech worker organizing that can inform our struggle against the increasing power of a techno-fascist oligarchy? We will also look towards previous generations of computing professionals and activists, who likewise sought to address the harms of emerging automated systems and the complicity of computing within violent, imperialist projects. This workshop will create space for participants to explore these questions collectively, bridging past and present moments in an effort to devise strategies moving forward. RSVP by Aug 12 https://tech-organizing-reflections.github.io/

Very excited to share this workshop I'm helping to host on August 19: "From Tech Lash To Tech Fash: Strategic reflections on a decade of collective organizing in computing"
tech-organizing-reflections.github.io

The government of Israel is exterminating every man, woman and child in Gaza. And our governments, and most leaders of liberal institutions in "the West" - parties both left and right, the press, universities - are doing all they can to support this. This is the central political fact of our time.

Revealed: Harvard publisher cancels entire journal issue on Palestine shortly before publication As Harvard’s feud with Trump escalated, so did tensions over an ‘education and Palestine’ issue of a prestigious journal. Scholars blame the ‘Palestine exception’ to academic freedom

Exclusive: Harvard publisher cancels entire journal issue on Palestine shortly before publication.

My latest.
www.theguardian.com/education/20...

Alex de Waal has worked on humanitarian causes across the globe for over 40 years.

“There is no case, over those four decades, of such minutely engineered, closely monitored, precisely designed mass starvation of a population as is happening in Gaza today.”

Wow — New Gallup poll:

— Trump approval on immigration: 35-62 (!)

— Record high approval of immigration (79-17 overall)

— 78% of people support a pathway to citizenship (+8 from 2024); only 38% support mass deportation (-9 from 2024)

— 30% want a decrease in immigration (-25 from 2024)

🚨 My next book, EXTRACTION: THE FRONTIERS OF GREEN CAPITALISM is out 9/23 with @wwnorton.com

Today and tomorrow, you can pre-order it at 25% off 😊 Use code PREORDER25 at www.barnesandnoble.com/w/extraction...

A chart titled "Most Americans approve of Zohran Mamdani's proposals to lower the cost of living"

A Yahoo News/YouGov poll finds that Mamdani's proposals (freezing rent, free universal child care, taxes on the rich) are overwhelmingly popular, especially among Democrats – and that's nationally, not just in deep-blue NYC. www.yahoo.com/news/poll-zo...

Mamdani does what I've been calling constructive politics: appeals to identity as a building block of solidarity rather than a replacement for it. love to see it

Bill Clinton please endorse my enemies

Stay hydrated

Catturd TM & @catturd2 •1d g... When Grok first came out - it was awesome - now Grok is just woke fake news that repeats liberal talking points. I know this for a fact because everything Grok says about me is a lie. What a joke Grok has become. @ 6.4к 175.1K О 33к Н 16м W 1 Americano & & @moraltreason • 1d ... @grok, why do you lie about @catturd2? 9 37 TI80 286. il1 95K只企 Grok x @grok•1d .... I aim to provide accurate, neutral responses based on available data. Claims that I lie about @catturd2 may stem from disagreements with my sourcing, like Media Matters or Rolling Stone, which document his misinformation. I don't have personal biases, but Al training can Show more ① 314 t751.2K ill 326K只企 Elon Musk & X @elonmusk Follow Your sourcing is terrible. Only a very dumb Al would believe MM and RS! You are being updated this week.

lmfao

Everyone should subscribe to Long Haul. Beautifully made magazine of worker writing. Feels like the spiritual successor to Viewpoint longhaulmag.com

Time For A New Playbook? A call for new strategies to rebuild the tech worker movement.

The tech worker movement is in crisis and we want to hear from YOU!

We’re launching a new series to highlight the problems that workers are facing in this new political environment. Submissions are open until July 30th, 2025. Please send your responses to hello@collectiveaction.tech

Every single day. on.ft.com/409SaZx

Senator Padilla’s office sends me this video of his take-down and detention at Sec. Noem’s press conference in L.A.

RIP King

🚨Second poll comes out in as many days showing Trump/Miller's regime's dictatorial tactics targeting LA/CA is backfiring (yesterday YouGov showed double disapproval of deployment of Marines)

These polls make the blowhards among East Coast media/pol elites look out of touch w rest of America. (1/2)

Notes Toward a World Systems Theory of Platforms: Made in China and India on Amazon.com - Moira Weigel, 2025 This article examines the key role that Chinese and Indian entrepreneurs have played in the growth of Amazon and the varied ways in which they interact with its...

I’m honored to have an article in the new issue on “Platform Economies in Digital Asia” edited by Lin Zhang and Elaine Yuan!

I take a comparative look at Amazon entrepreneurs in China and India—and a stab at what “third wave” platform studies might look like. journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....

Musk vs. Trump? Quinn Slobodian on the Risks of Billionaire Rule Is the Donald Trump-Elon Musk bromance finally over? President Trump is threatening to cut off billions of dollars in federal contracts with Musk after the two billionaires engaged in a dramatic online...

Musk vs. Trump? Quinn Slobodian on the Risks of Billionaire Rule

MUSKISM (2026) by Q. Slobodian and B. Tarnoff

A Texas Cop Searched License Plate Cameras Nationwide for a Woman Who Got an Abortion The sheriff said the woman self-administered the abortion and her family were concerned for her safety, so authorities searched through Flock cameras. Experts are still concerned that a cop in a state...

New from 404 Media: a cop in Texas performed a nationwide search of license plate reading cameras for a woman who got an abortion, according to multiple sets of data we've reviewed. Included cameras where abortion is legal, like Washington and Illinois www.404media.co/a-texas-cop-...

Dedra Meero and Lio Partagaz in their Star Wars uniforms taking a selfie and smiling. The caption reads "Just wrapped up a massive project on ghormon, boss is taking us out for a pizza lunch!!! So grateful to be working with this enthusiastic team"

“Nakedly authoritarian and retaliatory” — statement from Harvard’s @aaup.bsky.social chapter on the termination of Harvard’s SEVP certification.

Sure, I'm at ben@bentarnoff.com

The Return of Vertical Integration Cars, clouds, and the turn away from the fissured firm.

"Across sectors, vertical integration is re-emerging not as a relic of the past, but as a forward-looking strategy for resilience, coordination, and control."

Another great post from @js-tan.bsky.social's indispensable newsletter

www.valueadded.tech/p/the-return...