It’s that time of year when we see endless lists of the best gifts to buy for friends and families, but we rarely see warnings about the worst present to give. It turns out that this year, we might have a clear winner. The most unwanted gift of 2025: More Reality. Just a few short years ago, nonfiction books were all the rage. But these days, we’re as sad as hell and we’re not going to take it anymore. Selling nonfiction books could be the toughest sale of all this season, with the category seeing an 8.4% year over year sales decline. Nonfiction is becoming a nonstarter. My own reading habits have definitely followed the trend. I exclusively read fiction these days and, as someone who consumes a lot of news, even the most depressing novels tend to cheer me up. The Guardian: Are we falling out of love with nonfiction? “Speaking to publishing insiders and readers, one word that cropped up repeatedly was escapism. The world is exhausting, so readers are seeking refuge rather than clarity. Some are disillusioned; the voracious reading of the past decade didn’t transform the world as many hoped. ‘I think there is definitely a sense of fatigue,’ says Holly Harley, head of nonfiction at publisher Head of Zeus. ‘The news is terrible. People feel overloaded. That escapism is why we’re seeing such a rise in romantasy.’” (I hate to toot my own horn for always being ahead of the curve, but my nonfiction booksold pretty poorly back when the nonfiction market was still going gangbusters.) 2All Health Breaks Loose“The stunning move comes after House Republican leaders pushed ahead with a health care bill that does not address the soaring monthly premiums that millions of people will soon endure when the tax credits for those who buy insurance through the Affordable Care Act expire at year’s end. The action sets the stage for a renewed intraparty clash over health care in January.” 4 Republicans defy Speaker Johnson to force House vote on extending ACA subsidies. (It’s stunning that it’s considered stunning when only 4 House GOP members don’t want to let health care costs skyrocket, an eventuality that is both cruel and a terrible political move.) 3Hunger StrikesThis is a simple and simply terrible story that, even when drowning in today’s nonstop news deluge, needs to be told until people really understand the scope of the depravity. American officials, from the wildly inexperienced chainsaw wielders to the very top of the State Department, were repeatedly warned that USAID cuts would lead to violence and starvation. They lied about those warnings, they lied about the cuts, and the warnings materialized. ProPublica: Inside the Trump Administration’s Man-Made Hunger Crisis. All this to save what amounts to a rounding error on a rounding error in our foreign aid budget, and so the worst humans can pat themselves on the back for starving the most vulnerable ones. 4Whack Hack“A hacker group that includes members of the collective that hacked Ticketmaster last year says it has collected user data from P-rnHub and is demanding the company pay an undisclosed amount or it will release detailed information about its users.” Hackers breach Pornhub, threaten to expose users’ viewing habits. (I swear, I only go to P-rnhub for the articles...) 5Extra, ExtraForecasting a Shadow: “The center, founded in 1960, is responsible for many of the biggest scientific advances in humanity’s understanding of weather and climate. Its research aircraft and sophisticated computer models of the Earth’s atmosphere and oceans are widely used in forecasting weather events and disasters around the country, and its scientists study a broad range of topics, including air pollution, ocean currents and global warming. But in a social media post announcing the move late on Tuesday, Russell Vought, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, called the center ‘one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.’” NYT (Gift Article): Trump Administration Plans to Break Up Premier Weather and Climate Research Center. 6Bottom of the News“For decades, physicists dismissed it as beautiful nonsense—a prop master’s fever dream. But now the math has caught up to the dream.” A faster-than-light spaceship would actually look a lot like Star Trek’s Enterprise. (Too bad the Enterprise’s engines have been repurposed and are now powering an AI data center.)
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Wednesday, December 17, 2025
Prose and Cons
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