Quinn Norton

Freelance Journalist at Freelance

Writer, migrant, burn out, cat servant. Trying to forget more about the internet than you'll ever know. b. 329 ppm FYI I can't spell.

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Articles

Digital Fascism is Still Just Fascism

1 month ago | emptywheel.net | Quinn Norton

The Death of the Internet and Karim Khan’s InboxThe International Criminal Court’s chief prosecutor Karim Khan is not having a good year, and neither is the ICC in general. It was never an easy job, going after people who commit Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity. The ICC tries to prosecute crimes in opposition to regimes like Russia, who do things like murder whole cities and steal children so routinely it’s like doing the laundry for them.
Despite Pete Hegseth, Signal is Good

1 month ago | emptywheel.net | Quinn Norton

Why you should use Signal (But maybe ditch Whatsapp?)The Secretary of Defense and Fox Host Pete Hegseth keeps using Signal to talk about war plans with people he’s not supposed to be talking with at his day job. He also gets caught, because he’s bad at security as well as his job. Hegseth uses his personal phone for Department of Defence business, including killing a lot Yemenis.
When We Take The Streets

2 months ago | emptywheel.net | Quinn Norton

Protesting Safer in AmericaIt’s not looking good out there, and a lot of people in the coming months (and maybe years) will be taking the streets to show the government their displeasure. Protesting the Trump Administration is still legal, but there’s a lot you should know before you take your rights out for some exercise. You need a lot more than your funny sign ready before you head out for a protest. First and foremost, you need to have a plan.
NOAA: The Biggest Little Agency in America

Mar 6, 2025 | emptywheel.net | Quinn Norton

What We are Quietly Losing in All the TumultLast week the ghouls of DOGE came to gut NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) by firing all the probationary employees, because they were the easiest to fire. It was terrible, but it won’t be their last visit.
What We Talk About When We Talk About AI (Part Two)

Feb 21, 2025 | emptywheel.net | Quinn Norton

The Other Half of the AI relationshipWhen trying to understand AI, and in particular Large Language Models, we spend a lot of time concentrating on their architectures, structures, and outputs. We look at them with a technical eye. We peer so close and attentively to AI that we lose track of the fact that we’re looking into a mirror. The source of all AI’s power and knowledge is humanity’s strange work. It’s human in form and content, and only humans use and are used by it.
JD Vance at the Munich Security Conference: A Speech by Gaslight

Feb 18, 2025 | emptywheel.net | Quinn Norton

How Vance unsettled the EuropeansWhile Musk was ripping through the US government like a 10 tonne toddler on cocaine, Vice President JD Vance was dispatched to the Munich Security Conference last week to tell Europeans how to run their democracies. His 19 minute speech, coupled with Trumps’ announcement that peace in Ukraine would be decided in a meeting between the US and Russia only, has swept the legs out from under Europe, NATO, and the post-war transatlantic consensus.
What We Talk About When We Talk About AI (Part one)

Feb 14, 2025 | emptywheel.net | Quinn Norton

A Normal Person’s Explainer on What Generative AI is and Does“Are you comfortably seated? Yes, well, let’s begin.” *Clears throat theatrically*“Our experience, in natural theology, can never furnish a true and demonstrated science, because, like the discipline of practical reason, it can not take account of problematic principles.
"A Farce, or a Tragedy, or Perhaps Both."

Nov 22, 2024 | emptywheel.net | Quinn Norton

The making of the electorate Trump just won, and thusly the United States we have now, started decades ago in school. The Conservative Takeover of America was not secret, it was worse than secret; it was boring and bureaucratic. The conservatives worked slowly, patiently, and persistently to not merely change our institutions, but to hobble the next generation, and the next after that.
Ukraine, Russia, and the Long Shadow of Nuclear Proliferation

Aug 23, 2024 | emptywheel.net | Quinn Norton

A Cold War History and a Too-Hot FutureIt is hard to overstate the significance of the square at the heart of Kyiv, Ukraine, now called the Maidan Nezalezhnosti. The stones of the Maidan have silently endured generations of trouble and fights over what Ukraine should be.
The Second Round of Macron's Insane Election

Jul 6, 2024 | emptywheel.net | Quinn Norton

Take a deep breath, because here we go again. The French legislative election is on Sunday. As the clock turns over to early Saturday morning, we entered Silence électoral, or the blackout period, when media coverage and campaigning stops ahead of Election Day.