Melissa Cosgrove
@melissacosgrove.bsky.social
Writer & Systems Thinker
Developing The Care Paradigm — a body of work that merges lived experience, philosophy, and systems thinking into a unified grammar of relation. Based in Chicago.
https://cosgrove.substack.com/ | https://linktr.ee/melissacosgrove
Developing The Care Paradigm — a body of work that merges lived experience, philosophy, and systems thinking into a unified grammar of relation. Based in Chicago.
https://cosgrove.substack.com/ | https://linktr.ee/melissacosgrove
Pinned
New here? Welcome!
I’m Melissa — writer, philosopher, and systems thinker. Disabled, AuDHD, and chronically ill. I write about care, rupture, and repair across disability, parenting, culture, and politics. I say the quiet parts out loud and make patterns visible.
I’m Melissa — writer, philosopher, and systems thinker. Disabled, AuDHD, and chronically ill. I write about care, rupture, and repair across disability, parenting, culture, and politics. I say the quiet parts out loud and make patterns visible.
New essay out today. 📝 It starts with Iowa-80 and ends with the story underneath it: who cares for this country and who gets overlooked. Hope you read it.
🔗 bit.ly/4i2qddZ
🔗 bit.ly/4i2qddZ
The Cathedral of the Road
How the world's largest truck stop reveals the hidden scaffolding of American life
bit.ly
November 13, 2025 at 9:17 PM
New essay out today. 📝 It starts with Iowa-80 and ends with the story underneath it: who cares for this country and who gets overlooked. Hope you read it.
🔗 bit.ly/4i2qddZ
🔗 bit.ly/4i2qddZ
A system that turns hunger into policy has already abandoned the social contract. Care is what gives order meaning. Except America never made care structural, and the cost is unfolding in real time. Hope ya'll are ready.
November 4, 2025 at 1:01 AM
A system that turns hunger into policy has already abandoned the social contract. Care is what gives order meaning. Except America never made care structural, and the cost is unfolding in real time. Hope ya'll are ready.
Life keeps committing to the bit: rupture, repair, repeat.
A few days ago, someone with a platform told me I didn’t belong in the conversation. Today, my first paper was accepted — anonymously peer-reviewed — for an academic conference on feminism and myth.
A few days ago, someone with a platform told me I didn’t belong in the conversation. Today, my first paper was accepted — anonymously peer-reviewed — for an academic conference on feminism and myth.
October 15, 2025 at 7:33 PM
Life keeps committing to the bit: rupture, repair, repeat.
A few days ago, someone with a platform told me I didn’t belong in the conversation. Today, my first paper was accepted — anonymously peer-reviewed — for an academic conference on feminism and myth.
A few days ago, someone with a platform told me I didn’t belong in the conversation. Today, my first paper was accepted — anonymously peer-reviewed — for an academic conference on feminism and myth.
The Atlantic calls it commerce. I see recursion. Taylor is performing the cycle of attention and appetite that defines modern art itself. She’s not the product; she’s the proof. My essay → bit.ly/48XsG6O
cc @theatlantic.com @skornhaber.bsky.social
cc @theatlantic.com @skornhaber.bsky.social
Taylor Swift’s new chart topper is an achievement of e-commerce, not music, argues @skornhaber.bsky.social:
Buy This Album. Now Buy It in Green.
Here’s how Taylor Swift’s The Life of a Showgirl just shattered sales records.
bit.ly
October 12, 2025 at 1:41 AM
The Atlantic calls it commerce. I see recursion. Taylor is performing the cycle of attention and appetite that defines modern art itself. She’s not the product; she’s the proof. My essay → bit.ly/48XsG6O
cc @theatlantic.com @skornhaber.bsky.social
cc @theatlantic.com @skornhaber.bsky.social
Defector calls Showgirl bad because it’s “about greed.”
Of course it is. It’s about us. My essay → bit.ly/48XsG6O
cc @mckinneykelsey.bsky.social @defector.com
Of course it is. It’s about us. My essay → bit.ly/48XsG6O
cc @mckinneykelsey.bsky.social @defector.com
October 12, 2025 at 1:29 AM
Defector calls Showgirl bad because it’s “about greed.”
Of course it is. It’s about us. My essay → bit.ly/48XsG6O
cc @mckinneykelsey.bsky.social @defector.com
Of course it is. It’s about us. My essay → bit.ly/48XsG6O
cc @mckinneykelsey.bsky.social @defector.com
Everyone’s dissecting The Life of a Showgirl like it’s confession.
It’s not. It’s confrontation.
→ bit.ly/48XsG6O
It’s not. It’s confrontation.
→ bit.ly/48XsG6O
The Mirrorball Cracked
On the Life of a Showgirl and the Collapse of the Crowd
bit.ly
October 11, 2025 at 11:15 PM
Everyone’s dissecting The Life of a Showgirl like it’s confession.
It’s not. It’s confrontation.
→ bit.ly/48XsG6O
It’s not. It’s confrontation.
→ bit.ly/48XsG6O
If Glass House I was about being seen,
Glass House II is about what sees us back.
A reflection on light, distance, and the transparency of the universe; how the cosmos itself is a kind of relation.
🔗 bit.ly/4nCrCtx
Glass House II is about what sees us back.
A reflection on light, distance, and the transparency of the universe; how the cosmos itself is a kind of relation.
🔗 bit.ly/4nCrCtx
October 6, 2025 at 5:44 PM
If Glass House I was about being seen,
Glass House II is about what sees us back.
A reflection on light, distance, and the transparency of the universe; how the cosmos itself is a kind of relation.
🔗 bit.ly/4nCrCtx
Glass House II is about what sees us back.
A reflection on light, distance, and the transparency of the universe; how the cosmos itself is a kind of relation.
🔗 bit.ly/4nCrCtx
We think of being seen as vulnerability, and seeing as power.
But what if they’re the same thing?
Glass House I explores the quiet reciprocity between sight and exposure — the way illumination reveals us all.
🔗 bit.ly/4mNGO5S
But what if they’re the same thing?
Glass House I explores the quiet reciprocity between sight and exposure — the way illumination reveals us all.
🔗 bit.ly/4mNGO5S
October 4, 2025 at 11:54 PM
We think of being seen as vulnerability, and seeing as power.
But what if they’re the same thing?
Glass House I explores the quiet reciprocity between sight and exposure — the way illumination reveals us all.
🔗 bit.ly/4mNGO5S
But what if they’re the same thing?
Glass House I explores the quiet reciprocity between sight and exposure — the way illumination reveals us all.
🔗 bit.ly/4mNGO5S
News about the Flotilla today is not just geopolitical — it’s temporal. This is about who claims time.
I wrote The Tempo of Relation to name precisely that: how dominance accelerates fracture, how relation returns time to us.
🔗 bit.ly/3IRQy10
I wrote The Tempo of Relation to name precisely that: how dominance accelerates fracture, how relation returns time to us.
🔗 bit.ly/3IRQy10
October 2, 2025 at 8:56 PM
News about the Flotilla today is not just geopolitical — it’s temporal. This is about who claims time.
I wrote The Tempo of Relation to name precisely that: how dominance accelerates fracture, how relation returns time to us.
🔗 bit.ly/3IRQy10
I wrote The Tempo of Relation to name precisely that: how dominance accelerates fracture, how relation returns time to us.
🔗 bit.ly/3IRQy10
Duct tape on glasses. A broken laptop screen. A frayed charger. Sometimes survival and creation share the same tools.
September 30, 2025 at 8:20 PM
Duct tape on glasses. A broken laptop screen. A frayed charger. Sometimes survival and creation share the same tools.
Reposted by Melissa Cosgrove
Since the Ezra & Ta-Nehisi discussion is still happening: the main point I think most are missing is that Klein is saying the role of the journalist-intellectual is to do strategic politics, whereas Coates says the role of the journalist-intellectual is to tell the truth
September 30, 2025 at 2:28 PM
Since the Ezra & Ta-Nehisi discussion is still happening: the main point I think most are missing is that Klein is saying the role of the journalist-intellectual is to do strategic politics, whereas Coates says the role of the journalist-intellectual is to tell the truth
Today’s writing partner, Archer. 🐈⬛ 📝
September 29, 2025 at 7:02 PM
Today’s writing partner, Archer. 🐈⬛ 📝
September 29, 2025 at 6:57 PM
I’m writing this in the dark. Our power was shut off today with a $602.19 price tag to turn it back on. This is what collapse feels like in real time.
🔗 bit.ly/4mQTlG0
🔗 bit.ly/4mQTlG0
Today Without Electricity
The day my book proposal went out and my power went off
bit.ly
September 29, 2025 at 6:29 PM
I’m writing this in the dark. Our power was shut off today with a $602.19 price tag to turn it back on. This is what collapse feels like in real time.
🔗 bit.ly/4mQTlG0
🔗 bit.ly/4mQTlG0
This is modern art.
ICE attempted
and failed to disappear a food delivery guy.
It needed to be scored.
and failed to disappear a food delivery guy.
It needed to be scored.
September 29, 2025 at 1:54 PM
This is modern art.
Faouzia - UNETHICAL (Official Music Video)
YouTube video by Faouzia
youtu.be
September 28, 2025 at 9:32 PM
Hey, it’s Sunday morning. Here’s a thought: avoiding labels isn’t neutral — it’s ableist.
→ bit.ly/46HLqVo
#Neurodiversity #Ableism #DisabilityRights
→ bit.ly/46HLqVo
#Neurodiversity #Ableism #DisabilityRights
Why “Avoiding Labels” Is Ableist
Why Refusing Labels Protects Power, Not People
bit.ly
September 28, 2025 at 2:57 PM
Hey, it’s Sunday morning. Here’s a thought: avoiding labels isn’t neutral — it’s ableist.
→ bit.ly/46HLqVo
#Neurodiversity #Ableism #DisabilityRights
→ bit.ly/46HLqVo
#Neurodiversity #Ableism #DisabilityRights
“Avoiding labels” protects power, not people.
In workplaces, in schools, in families — silence is rewarded because care is costly.
I wrote about why neutrality isn’t neutral in my new piece:
cosgrove.substack.com/p/why-avoidi...
#Ableism #Neurodiversity #DisabilityRights #AutismAcceptance
In workplaces, in schools, in families — silence is rewarded because care is costly.
I wrote about why neutrality isn’t neutral in my new piece:
cosgrove.substack.com/p/why-avoidi...
#Ableism #Neurodiversity #DisabilityRights #AutismAcceptance
Why “Avoiding Labels” Is Ableist
Why Refusing Labels Protects Power, Not People
cosgrove.substack.com
September 27, 2025 at 1:44 AM
“Avoiding labels” protects power, not people.
In workplaces, in schools, in families — silence is rewarded because care is costly.
I wrote about why neutrality isn’t neutral in my new piece:
cosgrove.substack.com/p/why-avoidi...
#Ableism #Neurodiversity #DisabilityRights #AutismAcceptance
In workplaces, in schools, in families — silence is rewarded because care is costly.
I wrote about why neutrality isn’t neutral in my new piece:
cosgrove.substack.com/p/why-avoidi...
#Ableism #Neurodiversity #DisabilityRights #AutismAcceptance
The Constitution held no care. Not for food, not for shelter, not for health, not for survival. It was only built to exclude.
The Democratic Party cannot save us because it is tethered to that foundation.
#AmericanPolitics #DemocraticParty #Constitution
New essay →
The Democratic Party cannot save us because it is tethered to that foundation.
#AmericanPolitics #DemocraticParty #Constitution
New essay →
The Democratic Party Can’t Save Us
Why We Must Build What the Constitution Never Gave
cosgrove.substack.com
September 25, 2025 at 1:50 AM
The Constitution held no care. Not for food, not for shelter, not for health, not for survival. It was only built to exclude.
The Democratic Party cannot save us because it is tethered to that foundation.
#AmericanPolitics #DemocraticParty #Constitution
New essay →
The Democratic Party cannot save us because it is tethered to that foundation.
#AmericanPolitics #DemocraticParty #Constitution
New essay →
They’re all pedophiles. Not just the ones exposed, but the ones who knew, who stayed quiet, who chose power over children.
Elon Musk’s father, Errol Musk, has been accused of sexually abusing five of his children and stepchildren since 1993, a New York Times investigation found. Family members have appealed to Elon Musk for help. nyti.ms/3W5glG0
September 23, 2025 at 3:29 PM
They’re all pedophiles. Not just the ones exposed, but the ones who knew, who stayed quiet, who chose power over children.
Reposted by Melissa Cosgrove
It's weird how Tylenol caused autism (first diagnosed in 1943) before it was even invented (1955). What a clever drug.
September 23, 2025 at 1:29 AM
It's weird how Tylenol caused autism (first diagnosed in 1943) before it was even invented (1955). What a clever drug.
Black lives still don’t matter. And that’s the ugliest truth of this.
I like Jimmy Kimmel. I really do. I have no issues with him.
I'm talking about something very different.
Kimmel was only suspended. But he's back now. Karen Attiah and all the other Black journalists are still fired.
Y'all do know how to fight, when you want to.
But you don't really want to. 🤷🏿♂️
I'm talking about something very different.
Kimmel was only suspended. But he's back now. Karen Attiah and all the other Black journalists are still fired.
Y'all do know how to fight, when you want to.
But you don't really want to. 🤷🏿♂️
September 23, 2025 at 3:27 PM
Black lives still don’t matter. And that’s the ugliest truth of this.
Today, as an autistic person, I will not be engaging with discourse on the “cause” of autism. Thank you.
#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticVoices #Neurodiversity #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs #DisabilityJustice #Neurodivergent
#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticVoices #Neurodiversity #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs #DisabilityJustice #Neurodivergent
September 22, 2025 at 4:02 PM
Today, as an autistic person, I will not be engaging with discourse on the “cause” of autism. Thank you.
#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticVoices #Neurodiversity #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs #DisabilityJustice #Neurodivergent
#ActuallyAutistic #AutisticVoices #Neurodiversity #NothingAboutUsWithoutUs #DisabilityJustice #Neurodivergent