Scott Stossel
@stossel.bsky.social
National Editor, The Atlantic. Author of My Age of Anxiety and Sarge: The Life and Times of Sargent Shriver. Bostonian in DC.
"In a more sensible and serious world (and, yes, I know this is not the one we live in right now), Hegseth would be fired—and Kelly would take Hegseth’s job as secretary of defense."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Senator Mark Kelly Is in the Wrong Job
He should be secretary of defense.
www.theatlantic.com
November 25, 2025 at 10:01 PM
"In a more sensible and serious world (and, yes, I know this is not the one we live in right now), Hegseth would be fired—and Kelly would take Hegseth’s job as secretary of defense."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
"Trump's demand to punish anybody who merely endorses the Constitution vindicates the charge that he is the document’s greatest enemy."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Trump and Hegseth’s Hysterical Reaction to an Ad
For the president and his minions, loyalty is more important than legality.
www.theatlantic.com
November 25, 2025 at 4:31 PM
"Trump's demand to punish anybody who merely endorses the Constitution vindicates the charge that he is the document’s greatest enemy."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Scott Stossel
2/ so many gutting moment but this was among the first, from one of the world’s leading scientists on vaccines and immunology:
November 24, 2025 at 2:43 PM
2/ so many gutting moment but this was among the first, from one of the world’s leading scientists on vaccines and immunology:
"Kennedy is a 'liar' and a 'terrible human being,' Paul Offit told me. 'If he has data showing he’s right, then fucking publish it. He can’t, because he doesn’t have those data.'"
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Why Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So Convinced He’s Right?
How an outsider, once ignored by the public-health establishment, became the most powerful man in science
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2025 at 9:18 PM
"Kennedy is a 'liar' and a 'terrible human being,' Paul Offit told me. 'If he has data showing he’s right, then fucking publish it. He can’t, because he doesn’t have those data.'"
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
"The Trump era, at its core, is the product of the replacement of thinking with propaganda. Trump demands a kind of mindless loyalty because he’s not only impulsive, inconsistent, and petty, but also a compulsive liar."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
The Conservative Movement’s Intellectual Collapse
Trump is both a product and a cause of the decline in intellectual standards on the right.
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2025 at 6:10 PM
"The Trump era, at its core, is the product of the replacement of thinking with propaganda. Trump demands a kind of mindless loyalty because he’s not only impulsive, inconsistent, and petty, but also a compulsive liar."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Scott Stossel
1/ This is a devastatingly good article on RFK Jr by @michaelscherer.bsky.social. Even if you’re someone, like me, who has followed this arc and his devastating impact on public health, it’s a must read. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Why Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So Convinced He’s Right?
How an outsider, once ignored by the public-health establishment, became the most powerful man in science
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2025 at 2:41 PM
1/ This is a devastatingly good article on RFK Jr by @michaelscherer.bsky.social. Even if you’re someone, like me, who has followed this arc and his devastating impact on public health, it’s a must read. Gift link: www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Thank you! And Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.
November 24, 2025 at 1:07 PM
Thank you! And Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.
"Kennedy is a 'liar' and a 'terrible human being,' Paul Offit told me. 'If he has data showing he’s right, then fucking publish it. He can’t, because he doesn’t have those data.'"
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Why Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So Convinced He’s Right?
How an outsider, once ignored by the public-health establishment, became the most powerful man in science
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2025 at 1:00 PM
"Kennedy is a 'liar' and a 'terrible human being,' Paul Offit told me. 'If he has data showing he’s right, then fucking publish it. He can’t, because he doesn’t have those data.'"
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
"To most of its adherents, liberalism means free speech, due process, rule of law, separation of powers, and evidence-based inquiry. It doesn’t join the quest for meaning and dignity that haunts our civilization."
www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...
An Anatomy of the MAGA Mind
Under Trump, post-liberal intellectuals have abandoned tradition for radicalism and scholarship for vulgarity.
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:58 PM
"To most of its adherents, liberalism means free speech, due process, rule of law, separation of powers, and evidence-based inquiry. It doesn’t join the quest for meaning and dignity that haunts our civilization."
www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...
"Such a movement might begin with Plato, but it will inevitably lead to Nick Fuentes."
www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...
An Anatomy of the MAGA Mind
Under Trump, post-liberal intellectuals have abandoned tradition for radicalism and scholarship for vulgarity.
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2025 at 12:57 PM
"Such a movement might begin with Plato, but it will inevitably lead to Nick Fuentes."
www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/books/2025/1...
Reposted by Scott Stossel
This part from a new profile on RFK Jr. tells you everything you need to know about him.
And a reminder that Cassidy voted to confirm Kennedy.
Full Story: bit.ly/49DjOnu
And a reminder that Cassidy voted to confirm Kennedy.
Full Story: bit.ly/49DjOnu
November 24, 2025 at 3:08 AM
This part from a new profile on RFK Jr. tells you everything you need to know about him.
And a reminder that Cassidy voted to confirm Kennedy.
Full Story: bit.ly/49DjOnu
And a reminder that Cassidy voted to confirm Kennedy.
Full Story: bit.ly/49DjOnu
"He suggested that he regretted agreeing to talk with me, and compared our relationship to the fable of the scorpion who asks the frog for help crossing a river, only to sting and kill the frog after it does."
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Why Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So Convinced He’s Right?
How an outsider, once ignored by the public-health establishment, became the most powerful man in science
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:36 AM
"He suggested that he regretted agreeing to talk with me, and compared our relationship to the fable of the scorpion who asks the frog for help crossing a river, only to sting and kill the frog after it does."
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
“'Will I see dinosaurs?' Kennedy told me he asked the person offering him the LSD. 'I had a deep interest in paleontology,' he explained to me. That was perhaps the first time this particular reason has ever been given for deciding to take psychedelics."
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Why Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So Convinced He’s Right?
How an outsider, once ignored by the public-health establishment, became the most powerful man in science
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:26 AM
“'Will I see dinosaurs?' Kennedy told me he asked the person offering him the LSD. 'I had a deep interest in paleontology,' he explained to me. That was perhaps the first time this particular reason has ever been given for deciding to take psychedelics."
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
“'From my perspective as a scientist and someone who has done this her entire career, he has a lot of blood on his hands,' Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, a top adviser on COVID vaccines for the CDC, who resigned in response to Kennedy’s new policy, told me."
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Why Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So Convinced He’s Right?
How an outsider, once ignored by the public-health establishment, became the most powerful man in science
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:22 AM
“'From my perspective as a scientist and someone who has done this her entire career, he has a lot of blood on his hands,' Lakshmi Panagiotakopoulos, a top adviser on COVID vaccines for the CDC, who resigned in response to Kennedy’s new policy, told me."
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
“'To stay on course despite that jeering really tells you a lot about his messianic self-regard,' Mark Green, another former friend of Kennedy’s, told me. 'He is sadly off his rocker to argue that Biden was more anti-speech and fascist than Donald Trump.'"
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Why Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So Convinced He’s Right?
How an outsider, once ignored by the public-health establishment, became the most powerful man in science
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:19 AM
“'To stay on course despite that jeering really tells you a lot about his messianic self-regard,' Mark Green, another former friend of Kennedy’s, told me. 'He is sadly off his rocker to argue that Biden was more anti-speech and fascist than Donald Trump.'"
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Reposted by Scott Stossel
"Kennedy is a 'liar' and a 'terrible human being,' Paul Offit told me. 'If he has data showing he’s right, then fucking publish it. He can’t, because he doesn’t have those data.'"
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Why Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So Convinced He’s Right?
How an outsider, once ignored by the public-health establishment, became the most powerful man in science
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:16 AM
"Kennedy is a 'liar' and a 'terrible human being,' Paul Offit told me. 'If he has data showing he’s right, then fucking publish it. He can’t, because he doesn’t have those data.'"
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
"Kennedy is a 'liar' and a 'terrible human being,' Paul Offit told me. 'If he has data showing he’s right, then fucking publish it. He can’t, because he doesn’t have those data.'"
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Why Is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. So Convinced He’s Right?
How an outsider, once ignored by the public-health establishment, became the most powerful man in science
www.theatlantic.com
November 24, 2025 at 3:16 AM
"Kennedy is a 'liar' and a 'terrible human being,' Paul Offit told me. 'If he has data showing he’s right, then fucking publish it. He can’t, because he doesn’t have those data.'"
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
Reposted by Scott Stossel
Over many interviews, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Michael Scherer about how he plans to remake America’s public-health system. Can he lead the scientific establishment he’s spent much of his life crusading against?
Read more in our new cover story:
Read more in our new cover story:
The Most Powerful Man in Science
Why is Robert F. Kennedy Jr. so convinced he’s right?
bit.ly
November 24, 2025 at 2:41 AM
Over many interviews, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. told Michael Scherer about how he plans to remake America’s public-health system. Can he lead the scientific establishment he’s spent much of his life crusading against?
Read more in our new cover story:
Read more in our new cover story:
Reposted by Scott Stossel
This story alone may have completely justified my annual subscription
Police spent more than 50 days searching a lake for Ryan Borgwardt, a kayaker they assumed had drowned. Then they told his wife that they’d come to believe something different. Jamie Thompson spoke with the people involved in the case that rattled a Wisconsin town. theatln.tc/EpGemzk9
November 22, 2025 at 2:49 PM
This story alone may have completely justified my annual subscription
Thirty years ago, we launched theatlantic.com—before the New York Times or the Washington Post had websites. And, yes, we really did use **HTML for Dummies** to learn coding and we looked into having monks digitize our archive.www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...re
https://theatlantic.com—before
November 21, 2025 at 6:15 PM
Thirty years ago, we launched theatlantic.com—before the New York Times or the Washington Post had websites. And, yes, we really did use **HTML for Dummies** to learn coding and we looked into having monks digitize our archive.www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...re
"Trump has proved himself time and again to be entirely self-seeking, totally amoral, cruel by nature, and impossibly fragile. And the rewards he’s gained in the process have emboldened others to be just as unabashedly themselves as he is."
www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025...
www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025...
President Piggy
This is what consequence-free misogyny looks like.
www.theatlantic.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:16 PM
"Trump has proved himself time and again to be entirely self-seeking, totally amoral, cruel by nature, and impossibly fragile. And the rewards he’s gained in the process have emboldened others to be just as unabashedly themselves as he is."
www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025...
www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025...
"A set piece in which the bad guy, under suspicion of misogynistic conduct and consorting with a trafficker of teenage girls, launches a sexist attack on an inquisitive female journalist would be too ham-handed even for the writers at the Hallmark Channel."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Trump’s Toddler Response to the Epstein Saga
The president baits, deflects, and chews the scenery in a drama that just won’t die.
www.theatlantic.com
November 20, 2025 at 4:05 PM
"A set piece in which the bad guy, under suspicion of misogynistic conduct and consorting with a trafficker of teenage girls, launches a sexist attack on an inquisitive female journalist would be too ham-handed even for the writers at the Hallmark Channel."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Scott Stossel
Josh really doesn't get enough credit as a digital journalism pioneer — and as an entrepreneur who built something meaningful and lasting.
PHOTOS: TPM Celebrates Our 25-Year Anniversary in NYC talkingpointsmemo.com/gallery/phot...
PHOTOS: TPM Celebrates Our 25-Year Anniversary in NYC
We rang in our 25th anniversary in style last week, hosting a...
talkingpointsmemo.com
November 19, 2025 at 8:47 PM
Josh really doesn't get enough credit as a digital journalism pioneer — and as an entrepreneur who built something meaningful and lasting.
"All of the best parts everyone would have loved were cut by my psychotic editor... I’m not worried about him reading these words, because a low-class butcher like that doesn’t possess enough humanity to subscribe to The Atlantic"
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Pennies Are Trash Now
The government has no plan for America’s 300 billion pennies.
www.theatlantic.com
November 17, 2025 at 1:01 PM
"All of the best parts everyone would have loved were cut by my psychotic editor... I’m not worried about him reading these words, because a low-class butcher like that doesn’t possess enough humanity to subscribe to The Atlantic"
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
"Moral clarity is perishable and—at least in practice— subjective. Many of the protesters who assaulted police officers in the summer of 2020, for example, did so with the same ethical certitude as those who stormed the Capitol in January 2021."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
The Left’s New Moralism Will Backfire
Under Trump, progressives have embraced the rhetoric of “moral clarity.” It won’t help their cause.
www.theatlantic.com
November 13, 2025 at 1:59 PM
"Moral clarity is perishable and—at least in practice— subjective. Many of the protesters who assaulted police officers in the summer of 2020, for example, did so with the same ethical certitude as those who stormed the Capitol in January 2021."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...