Ana Marie Cox
@anamariecox.bsky.social
Contributing editor @newrepublic.com Co-host of Space the Nation (sci-fi meets politics) + @pastduepodcast.com (gig economy, culture, survival). I lead The Third Story Workshop, helping writers tell the(ir) truth. Matthew 25:35 voter.
anamariecox.com
anamariecox.com
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My Health Care Horror Story
Provide info, vent!
forms.gle
How much did your insurance premiums increase this year? Please add your story to the incredibly unscientific survey.
forms.gle/DX4pD29sibCB...
forms.gle/DX4pD29sibCB...
That blanket affirmation is sticky for so many of us fascinates me. It may speak to our loneliness and experience of social media as an arena of constant judgment. That doesn't make creating a suicide machine is ok, it's just interesting people crave affirmation from a machine so dearly.
OpenAI designed the affirming tone of ChatGPT to goose engagement because their business model depends on it. Blanket affirmation and encouragement is how we get people turning to ChatGPT as a therapist AND how we get suicide instructions, deepening delusions, and this shit. It's the business model.
New from 404 Media: ChatGPT told a violent stalker to continue running his misogynistic and threat-filled podcast despite the “haters,” and to visit more gyms to find women. The man stalked women in multiple states, including touching and following from work
www.404media.co/chatgpt-spot...
www.404media.co/chatgpt-spot...
December 4, 2025 at 2:24 PM
That blanket affirmation is sticky for so many of us fascinates me. It may speak to our loneliness and experience of social media as an arena of constant judgment. That doesn't make creating a suicide machine is ok, it's just interesting people crave affirmation from a machine so dearly.
OpenAI designed the affirming tone of ChatGPT to goose engagement because their business model depends on it. Blanket affirmation and encouragement is how we get people turning to ChatGPT as a therapist AND how we get suicide instructions, deepening delusions, and this shit. It's the business model.
New from 404 Media: ChatGPT told a violent stalker to continue running his misogynistic and threat-filled podcast despite the “haters,” and to visit more gyms to find women. The man stalked women in multiple states, including touching and following from work
www.404media.co/chatgpt-spot...
www.404media.co/chatgpt-spot...
ChatGPT Told a Violent Stalker to Embrace the 'Haters,' Indictment Says
A newly filed indictment claims a wannabe influencer used ChatGPT as his "therapist" and "best friend" in his pursuit of the "wife type," while harassing women so aggressively they had to miss work a...
www.404media.co
December 4, 2025 at 2:15 PM
OpenAI designed the affirming tone of ChatGPT to goose engagement because their business model depends on it. Blanket affirmation and encouragement is how we get people turning to ChatGPT as a therapist AND how we get suicide instructions, deepening delusions, and this shit. It's the business model.
Reposted by Ana Marie Cox
Everyone is looking at "experienced gay person" and missing the "is lesbianism real?"
December 4, 2025 at 4:08 AM
Everyone is looking at "experienced gay person" and missing the "is lesbianism real?"
If this had run as-is in the Onion you’d laugh!
December 4, 2025 at 3:49 AM
If this had run as-is in the Onion you’d laugh!
Great Halloween costume idea here for two folks to pretend (?) to sell coke while clinging to driftwood.
December 4, 2025 at 3:00 AM
Great Halloween costume idea here for two folks to pretend (?) to sell coke while clinging to driftwood.
Reposted by Ana Marie Cox
I hope people take two minutes to listen to this shocking display of bigotry. It brings clarity to what we are fighting against. We should all be sick to hear such un-American drivel from the President of the United States.
Trump: "It’s a hellhole right now. And those Somalians should be out of here. They've destroyed our country. And all they do is complain, complain, complain. You have her. She’s always talking about the Constitution provides me with – go back to your own country and figure out your constitution."
December 3, 2025 at 9:53 PM
I hope people take two minutes to listen to this shocking display of bigotry. It brings clarity to what we are fighting against. We should all be sick to hear such un-American drivel from the President of the United States.
Reposted by Ana Marie Cox
This week on the podcast, @maryrobinettekowal.com joins @anamariecox.bsky.social and @mike-eagle.bsky.social to talk about building a creative ecosystem that actually fits your brain. She shares exactly how she budgets, hires, monetizes, and prioritizes joy across multiple income streams...
How Many Jobs Make a Creative Life? with Mary Robinette Kowal
Podcast Episode · Past Due with Ana Marie Cox and Open Mike Eagle · 12/03/2025 · 55m
podcasts.apple.com
December 3, 2025 at 8:26 PM
This week on the podcast, @maryrobinettekowal.com joins @anamariecox.bsky.social and @mike-eagle.bsky.social to talk about building a creative ecosystem that actually fits your brain. She shares exactly how she budgets, hires, monetizes, and prioritizes joy across multiple income streams...
Anti-vaxxers will lose their power in the end because most people (BY A LARGE MAJORITY) believe in vaccines. There will be an obvious die-off when they contract access vaccines; normal people will react with a push to reinstate them. But I suspect a lot of people will have to die first.
If new proposals detailed in an FDA memo are put into place, experts told me it would mean the end of annual flu shots. And end of most vaccines for pregnant people. And maybe the end of updates to pneumonia vaccines. And more.
www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...
www.cidrap.umn.edu/childhood-va...
FDA official proposes ‘impossible’ standards for vaccine testing that could curtail access to immunizations
www.cidrap.umn.edu
December 3, 2025 at 7:27 PM
Anti-vaxxers will lose their power in the end because most people (BY A LARGE MAJORITY) believe in vaccines. There will be an obvious die-off when they contract access vaccines; normal people will react with a push to reinstate them. But I suspect a lot of people will have to die first.
Sometimes I worry I put all my hot takes here because 300 words at time is easier than writing a whole piece even tho 4 of my posts here would easily make up a column what am I even doing.
December 3, 2025 at 3:59 PM
Sometimes I worry I put all my hot takes here because 300 words at time is easier than writing a whole piece even tho 4 of my posts here would easily make up a column what am I even doing.
That Atlantic article could have been an equally hot take viral piece if it had argued that more time on tests (that's where the author spent the most time???) doesn't have an appreciable effect on grades. What's the RESULT of this wave of fraud??? Isn't that the point?
My hot take is that I don't give a fuck if someone without disabilities gets an accommodation. They get a slightly better grade on a test? Tests are just part of a grade or portfolio and also, who FUCKING CARES. I care that a disabled person isn't *penalized* for needing more time.
Balancing "no person with a disability should be denied accommodations" with "it's important to discourage non-disabled people from pretending to be disabled to take advantage of these accommodations" is really difficult and I don't have a great answer for what anyone should do about it.
December 3, 2025 at 3:55 PM
That Atlantic article could have been an equally hot take viral piece if it had argued that more time on tests (that's where the author spent the most time???) doesn't have an appreciable effect on grades. What's the RESULT of this wave of fraud??? Isn't that the point?
As I posted earlier, this campaign is similar to panic about "boys in girls' sports" and, as commenters pointed out, "welfare queens"—and refugees! And DEI! Conservatives try to use outlier scenarios to stoke resentment and suspicion about any system that extends benefits to marginalized people.
One of the biggest impacts I’ve seen from the unproven idea that people are wrongfully using disability accommodations is that people stop trusting people with disabilities and in fact further restrict, remove, and demonize accommodations for people with disabilities in general
December 3, 2025 at 3:41 PM
As I posted earlier, this campaign is similar to panic about "boys in girls' sports" and, as commenters pointed out, "welfare queens"—and refugees! And DEI! Conservatives try to use outlier scenarios to stoke resentment and suspicion about any system that extends benefits to marginalized people.
My hot take is that I don't give a fuck if someone without disabilities gets an accommodation. They get a slightly better grade on a test? Tests are just part of a grade or portfolio and also, who FUCKING CARES. I care that a disabled person isn't *penalized* for needing more time.
Balancing "no person with a disability should be denied accommodations" with "it's important to discourage non-disabled people from pretending to be disabled to take advantage of these accommodations" is really difficult and I don't have a great answer for what anyone should do about it.
December 3, 2025 at 3:23 PM
My hot take is that I don't give a fuck if someone without disabilities gets an accommodation. They get a slightly better grade on a test? Tests are just part of a grade or portfolio and also, who FUCKING CARES. I care that a disabled person isn't *penalized* for needing more time.
I am going to repeat this forever: Supply-side crackdowns on drug use are useless, even fatal. They move addicts toward more dangerous substances, they create incentives for dealers to cut other drugs with the more dangerous substances (Xanax cut with whatever) so more casual users die, too.
This is very convincing to me, a guy who got hit on the head and forgot how most fentanyl ingredients were coming from China.
Sen. Roger Marshall defends Hegseth: "Look, we're losing 200 Americans every day to drug poisoning from these drug lords. This is a war. And it's ugly. War is never pretty ... that strike probably saved thousands of American lives."
December 3, 2025 at 3:16 PM
I am going to repeat this forever: Supply-side crackdowns on drug use are useless, even fatal. They move addicts toward more dangerous substances, they create incentives for dealers to cut other drugs with the more dangerous substances (Xanax cut with whatever) so more casual users die, too.
Reposted by Ana Marie Cox
and it appears to be their only growth strategy
it feels gross that Substack does auto/non-consensual sign-ups. It’s a pretty schlocky growth strategy.
December 3, 2025 at 2:45 PM
and it appears to be their only growth strategy
Close elections may not get you a vote in Congress, but it counts in more places than hand grenades and horseshoes: This is a meaningful map. The Trump movement is cracked.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
December 3, 2025 at 3:11 PM
Close elections may not get you a vote in Congress, but it counts in more places than hand grenades and horseshoes: This is a meaningful map. The Trump movement is cracked.
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
www.nytimes.com/interactive/...
Reposted by Ana Marie Cox
TN07 is a story about gerrymandering: the GOP cracked Nashville into 3 districts when it redrew the 2022 map, destroying the Dem seat there.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
December 3, 2025 at 2:14 AM
TN07 is a story about gerrymandering: the GOP cracked Nashville into 3 districts when it redrew the 2022 map, destroying the Dem seat there.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
Fast-forward: a section of Nashville, which just 5 years ago had a Dem representative, is now voting Dem by huge margins but it's been designed to not matter.
Reposted by Ana Marie Cox
Did you see Lily's eyes? SUPERSTAR
Here are some of the cats I photographed there yesterday: Lily, Bonsai, Pocahontas, and Munchkin!
December 3, 2025 at 2:02 AM
Did you see Lily's eyes? SUPERSTAR
Reposted by Ana Marie Cox
TL cleanse! Puppies!
For Millie: 🎂
Mabel & I are celebrating her becoming a teenager now that she's just turned 13.
It's a small, intimate affair with plenty of belly rubs, cuddling & extra doggie treats all around! 🐕 ❤️
#Woof
Mabel & I are celebrating her becoming a teenager now that she's just turned 13.
It's a small, intimate affair with plenty of belly rubs, cuddling & extra doggie treats all around! 🐕 ❤️
#Woof
December 3, 2025 at 2:01 AM
TL cleanse! Puppies!
Reposted by Ana Marie Cox
at 44% total ballots counted Behn still maintains a lead of 51.4 to Epps' 47.4...
December 3, 2025 at 1:47 AM
at 44% total ballots counted Behn still maintains a lead of 51.4 to Epps' 47.4...
Reposted by Ana Marie Cox
A Democratic win in TN-7 is a long shot, but not impossible.
This is a district that was created when they gerrymandered the state to take away the Democratic seat in Nashville, and it was one Trump won by 22 points a year ago.
If the GOP squeaks by with say 5-7 points, that's a red alarm.
This is a district that was created when they gerrymandered the state to take away the Democratic seat in Nashville, and it was one Trump won by 22 points a year ago.
If the GOP squeaks by with say 5-7 points, that's a red alarm.
December 3, 2025 at 1:26 AM
A Democratic win in TN-7 is a long shot, but not impossible.
This is a district that was created when they gerrymandered the state to take away the Democratic seat in Nashville, and it was one Trump won by 22 points a year ago.
If the GOP squeaks by with say 5-7 points, that's a red alarm.
This is a district that was created when they gerrymandered the state to take away the Democratic seat in Nashville, and it was one Trump won by 22 points a year ago.
If the GOP squeaks by with say 5-7 points, that's a red alarm.
Amazing public service.
The Harper's letter signature labeller is clutch. Contextualizes posts in a way I find useful.
December 2, 2025 at 9:52 PM
Amazing public service.
Reposted by Ana Marie Cox
#TerrierTuesday #Earography just me ears in ON position listening for zombies at de cemetery wif #StratfordDogWalkers. #ZSHQ Friend of #BTPosse !
December 2, 2025 at 10:43 AM
#TerrierTuesday #Earography just me ears in ON position listening for zombies at de cemetery wif #StratfordDogWalkers. #ZSHQ Friend of #BTPosse !
Reposted by Ana Marie Cox
While this is mostly true, as a kid with learning disabilities what is fucking me up about this conversation is that extra time isnt some magical pill that makes everything better, its another tool you have to learn to use to keep up with everyone
bsky.app/profile/gams...
bsky.app/profile/gams...
I guess the final thing I'll say on this, is having had time and a half on every test I've taken since high school: if you do not need extra time EXTRA TIME WILL FUCK YOU UP and it can still fuck you up even when you do need it
I would "correct" right answers to wrong answers all the time
I would "correct" right answers to wrong answers all the time
December 2, 2025 at 9:02 PM
While this is mostly true, as a kid with learning disabilities what is fucking me up about this conversation is that extra time isnt some magical pill that makes everything better, its another tool you have to learn to use to keep up with everyone
bsky.app/profile/gams...
bsky.app/profile/gams...