ben tarnoff

I'm a tech worker, writer, and co-founder of Logic Magazine.
My email address is ben AT bentarnoff.com.
My Twitter is @bentarnoff.
I also have a very irregular newsletter.
You can find a complete list of my pieces below. If you're looking for a place to start, I'd recommend "From Manchester to Barcelona." It's probably the most complete distillation of my thinking about technology so far.

2019

  • From Manchester to Barcelona, Logic, December 7, 2019.
  • A Socialist Plan to Fix the Internet, Jacobin, November 30, 2019.
  • Internet for All, Tribune, November 14, 2019.
  • To decarbonize we must decomputerize: why we need a Luddite revolution, The Guardian, September 18, 2019.
  • Hey, Jeff Bezos: I work for Amazon – and I'm protesting against your firm's climate inaction, The Guardian, September 10, 2019.
  • How to Be an Anticapitalist in the 21st Century by Erik Olin Wright – review, The Guardian, August 29, 2019.
  • The Stark Political Divide Between Tech CEOs and Their Employees, The New Republic, February 7, 2019.

    • 2018

  • Next left: Corbyn, Sanders and the return of socialism, The Guardian, December 17, 2018.
  • Building Socialism from Below: Popular Power and the State, Socialist Forum, November 2018.
  • Weaponised AI is coming. Are algorithmic forever wars our future?, The Guardian, October 11, 2018.
  • Can Silicon Valley workers rein in big tech from within?, The Guardian, August 9, 2018.
  • Tech Workers Versus the Pentagon, Jacobin, June 6, 2018.
  • Mistaken Identity by Asad Haider review – the best criticism of identity politics, The Guardian, May 31, 2018.
  • Why Silicon Valley can’t fix itself, The Guardian, May 3, 2018.
  • A Socialist Silicon Valley, Jacobin, April 18, 2018.
  • Coding and Coercion, Jacobin, April 11, 2018.
  • Big data for the people: it's time to take it back from our tech overlords, The Guardian, March 14, 2018.
  • The Data Is Ours!, Logic, Spring 2018.
  • Data is the new lifeblood of capitalism – don't hand corporate America control, The Guardian, February 1, 2018.

    • 2017

  • The new cold war: how our focus on Russia obscures social media's real threat, The Guardian, December 14, 2017.
  • Time to release the internet from the free market – and make it a basic right, The Guardian, November 29, 2017.
  • Empathy – the latest gadget Silicon Valley wants to sell you, The Guardian, October 25, 2017.
  • World Without Mind by Franklin Foer review – the turn against Big Tech, The Guardian, October 25, 2017.
  • Tech's push to teach coding isn't about kids' success – it's about cutting wages, The Guardian, September 21, 2017.
  • Silicon Valley siphons our data like oil. But the deepest drilling has just begun, The Guardian, August 23, 2017.
  • Bill Gates Won’t Save Us, Jacobin, August 15, 2017.
  • Home Invasion, Logic, Summer 2017.
  • How social media saved socialism, The Guardian, July 21, 2017.
  • How privatization could spell the end of democracy, The Guardian, June 21, 2017.
  • The Dark Web's Dark Prince, a review of American Kingpin: The Epic Hunt for the Criminal Mastermind Behind the Silk Road by Nick Bilton, The Wall Street Journal, June 12, 2017.
  • America has become so anti-innovation – it's economic suicide, The Guardian, May 11, 2017.
  • Trump's Tech Opposition, with Matt Schaefer and Kristen Sheets, Jacobin, May 2, 2017.
  • The new status symbol: it’s not what you spend – it’s how hard you work, The Guardian, April 24, 2017.
  • The Role of the Working Class, a response to Wolfgang Streeck, Inference, April 7, 2017.
  • Socialize the Internet, Jacobin, April 4, 2017.
  • Robots won't just take our jobs – they'll make the rich even richer, The Guardian, March 2, 2017.
  • Trump needs tech to achieve his vision. But Silicon Valley isn't having it, The Guardian, January 24, 2017.

    • 2016

  • The Attention Merchants review – how the web is being debased for profit, The Guardian, December 26, 2016.
  • Neoliberalism turned our world into a business. And there are two big winners, The Guardian, December 13, 2016.
  • Four Futures: Life After Capitalism review – will robots bring utopia or terror?, The Guardian, November 24, 2016.
  • The triumph of Trumpism: the new politics that is here to stay, The Guardian, November 9, 2016.
  • The future: where borrowing is the norm and ownership is luxury, The Guardian, October 17, 2016.
  • Gaffes, ignorance and PR nightmares: why it's so easy to hate the tech industry, The Guardian, September 15, 2016.
  • The Internet Should Be a Public Good, Jacobin, August 31, 2016.
  • Donald Trump, Peter Thiel and the death of democracy, The Guardian, July 21, 2016.
  • How the Internet was invented, The Guardian, July 15, 2016.
  • Tech billionaires got rich off us. Now they want to feed us the crumbs, The Guardian, May 16, 2016.
  • Techies for Bernie: why some best-paid workers are supporting a socialist, The Guardian, April 18, 2016.

    • 2011-2014

  • Mark Twain, Writing Coach and Role Model, The Daily Beast, April 19, 2014.
  • #CancelColbert, Meet "The Heathen Chinee", Politico, April 8, 2014.
  • How Mark Twain Became Mark Twain, Salon, March 22, 2014.
  • "As for Me, I Sell Abuse", Lapham's Quarterly, Feb. 15, 2014.
  • Once Upon a Time in the West, Lapham's Quarterly, Jan. 1, 2014.
  • Mark Twain's Eternal Chatter, The New Yorker, Nov. 13, 2013.
  • A Counterfeiting Conspiracy?, The New York Times, March 27, 2012.
  • The Worst Business in the World, Lapham's Quarterly, Oct. 20, 2011.
  • Magical Thinking, Lapham's Quarterly, Oct. 1, 2011.
  • The Man Who Financed the Civil War, The New York Times, July 16, 2011.
  • Money for Nothing, The New York Times, March 14, 2011.