Em dash

Stupid.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

It was a momentary slip. It didn’t mean anything. This is not who I am.

Yet I’m now a social pariah.

My colleagues avoid me. My friends lecture me. And my students …

Who knew they could be so cruel?

But the pity’s worse.

The occasional sympathetic half smile. The assurances that it’ll eventually blow over. The damningly patronizing faux empathy.

Stupid.

Stupid, stupid, stupid.

All for one seemingly-insignificant little em dash.

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Author’s Note

I suspect my views come through loud and strong here on the nonsensical use of meaningless ‘tells’ to try and differentiate human from AI writing — and the maivety of assuming that good writing is no longer effective just because you’ve seen AI use some of the same mechanics. Ironically, when I posted this in an AI subreddit I was flamed for being an AI — because I used an em dash :)