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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel
@stossel.bsky.social
21K followers 2.2K following 400 posts
National Editor, The Atlantic. Author of My Age of Anxiety and Sarge: The Life and Times of Sargent Shriver. Bostonian in DC.
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 6d
"He never left the house without a book. He never left the house without a gun. Both were equally unthinkable.”

www.smithsonianmag.com/arts-culture...
Two Years After Cormac McCarthy's Death, Rare Access to His Personal Library Reveals the Man Behind the Myth
The famously reclusive novelist amassed a collection of thousands of books ranging in topics from philosophical treatises to advanced mathematics to the naked mole-rat
www.smithsonianmag.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 9d
"It’s no longer an interesting question as to why Trump is an almost perfect inversion of the moral teachings of Jesus...What is an interesting question is why those who claim that the greatest desire of their life is to follow Jesus revere such a man?"

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Fully MAGA-fied Christianity
Politics, especially culture-war politics, now provides many fundamentalists and evangelicals with a sense of community and a common enemy.
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 12d
"The Justice Department should never have brought such an astoundingly shoddy case. The decision to do so, under intense pressure from the president to harass his old enemy, is an indication of how thoroughly Trump has been able to corrupt the department."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The Comey Indictment Is an Embarrassment
The Justice Department should never have brought such a shoddy case.
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 13d
"As it turns out, you can’t sell your soul to Trump and keep your spine; they’re a package deal."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Lower Than Cowards
The surrender of America’s elites
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 13d
"One by one, American leaders supposedly committed to principles of free speech, due process, democracy, and equality have abandoned those ideals when menaced by the Trump administration."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Lower Than Cowards
The surrender of America’s elites
www.theatlantic.com
2 7 18
stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 14d
"What can we do to prevent authoritarianism from becoming our way of life? How can we change the habits of our heart and our society?"

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
America’s Zombie Democracy
Its trappings remain, but authoritarianism and AI are hollowing out our humanity.
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 14d
"Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us that, after two and a half centuries—about the length of the Roman republic in its glory—American democracy is disappearing."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
America’s Zombie Democracy
Its trappings remain, but authoritarianism and AI are hollowing out our humanity.
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 14d
"Perhaps it shouldn’t surprise us that, after two and a half centuries—about the length of the Roman republic in its glory—American democracy is disappearing."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
American Tyranny
Free-speech hypocrisy is a symptom of the democratic decay that leads to authoritarianism.
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 14d
"We are living in an authoritarian state....

It sometimes seems as if the only check on Trump’s power is his own attention span."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
American Tyranny
Free-speech hypocrisy is a symptom of the democratic decay that leads to authoritarianism.
www.theatlantic.com
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Reposted by Scott Stossel
theatlantic.com
The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 16d
Most Fed experts “have never contemplated what could happen if an institution with so much unchecked power came under the control of one man,” Rogé Karma writes. “Perhaps it’s time to start imagining.”
Taking Over the Fed Could Give Trump Unimaginable Power
If Donald Trump takes over the central bank, he will have extraordinary power to reward his friends and destroy his enemies.
bit.ly
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 16d
"Richard Nixon’s attorney general, John Mitchell, served 19 months in prison for his crimes during Watergate. If Trump’s hold on power loosens, Pam Bondi could share Mitchell’s fate."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Trump Might Be Losing His Race Against Time
The president is gambling that he can consolidate authority before the public turns too sharply against him.
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 16d
"The idea that the Democrats can take back the Senate in 2026 without fielding candidates who are willing to publicly renounce some left-wing orthodoxies is delusional."

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
Democrats Don’t Seem Willing to Follow Their Own Advice
Party leaders know they need to moderate on cultural issues to win back working-class voters—so why don’t they?
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 19d
50 percent lower risk of reincarnation!

(Autocorrect strikes again)
chrisaikenmd.bsky.social
Chris Aiken, MD @chrisaikenmd.bsky.social · 19d
Should we start meds for #opioid use disorder like buprenorphine in jail?

Yes. Associated with 50% lower overdose risk and lower risk of reincarnation:
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/40929...

Evidence grade: Moderate (5/10)
chrisaikenmd.com/ebm/

▪ 13% of US jails provide it
Art: Van Gogh
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 19d
"Goldberg suggested in his interview with David Letterman that Jimmy Fallon was a less 'sharp-tongued' critic of Trump than other late-night hosts. Letterman shot back, 'Why do you think that is? Has something to do with IQ, is that what you’re saying?'”

www.theatlantic.com/culture/arch...
David Letterman’s Jimmy Kimmel Reaction: ‘We All See Where This Is Going, Correct?’
The comedian spoke about Kimmel’s suspension from late-night TV at The Atlantic Festival.
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 20d
Robert McNamara "was a war proponent in the Johnson administration and a war opponent in private, at once driven by a lust to succeed in the president’s eyes and horrified by the human toll of what he came to see as an unwinnable war."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The War Hawk Who Wasn’t
Newly discovered documents reveal Robert McNamara’s private doubts about Vietnam.
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 20d
"What happened to Jimmy Kimmel is not about one comedian who said something he should not have said. The Trump administration and its enforcers want to control your speech, your behavior, even your public expressions of mourning."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The Constitution Protects Jimmy Kimmel’s Mistake
Free speech is under assault.
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 20d
"Seeing a real left-wing American killer, motivated by ideology, is like seeing a passenger pigeon or a saber-toothed tiger. The rarity of left-wing political violence is well established."

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
Why People Fell for an Outlandish Charlie Kirk Theory
Political violence is a curse for which both the left and right have, at different times, been responsible.
www.theatlantic.com
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Reposted by Scott Stossel
theatlantic.com
The Atlantic @theatlantic.com · 25d
After Utah Governor Spencer Cox pleaded for calm in his address to the nation yesterday, Donald Trump called him with a warning. McKay Coppins spoke with the Utah governor: https://theatln.tc/hPTN16Aw
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 25d
“You know, the type of person who would do something like that to Charlie Kirk would love to do it to us,” Cox says Trump told him. Trump went on to recite statistics suggesting that the presidency was “one of the most dangerous jobs on the planet.”

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
Trump Has a Warning for Spencer Cox
Utah’s grieving governor opens up about his state, the country’s dangerous spiral, and a haunting conversation with the president.
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 25d
"Christopher Rufo took six months to contradict his own advice."

For the right, cancel culture is in now.

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
The Right Is Changing the Rules of the Culture War
For conservatives, cancel culture is in.
www.theatlantic.com
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Reposted by Scott Stossel
stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · Aug 26
"Fuentes has said that Hitler was 'really fucking cool' and posited that 'we need to go back to burning women alive.'"

Nick Fuentes, who makes Laura Loomer look like a model of restraint, has 730k followers on X, acolytes at DHS, and has dined with Donald Trump
www.theatlantic.com/technology/a...
Is There a Line That Nick Fuentes Won’t Cross?
No matter how far the 27-year-old influencer pushes his bigotry, his influence continues to rise.
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 28d
Kamala Harris on whether Dems should have let Joe Biden stay in the 2024 race so long: "I think it was recklessness. The stakes were simply too high. This wasn’t a choice that should have been left to an individual’s ego, an individual’s ambition."

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
The Constant Battle
The first excerpt from 107 Days
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 29d
"The big secret of intellectual right-wing authoritarianism is that it’s just not very intellectual."

www.theatlantic.com/politics/arc...
The Intellectual Vacuity of the National Conservatives
The post-liberal American right set out to destroy the guardrails that restrained anti-Semitism, without giving any thought to what might happen next.
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · 29d
"The overall effect is like Judy Blume filtered through David Lynch or William S. Burroughs: **Are You There, God? It’s Me, Nicholas, Having a Panic Attack While My Friends Trip on Acid.**"

-From my review of Michael Clune's **Pan**

www.theatlantic.com/books/archiv...
The Metaphysics of Panic
A new novel keenly describes the symptoms—and more important, the existential stakes—of extreme anxiety.
www.theatlantic.com
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stossel.bsky.social
Scott Stossel @stossel.bsky.social · Sep 4
How to reduce your anxiety by reframing it as a "Kierkegaardian Adventure." (A name I should trademark for an existential amusement park.)

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archiv...
How to Turn Anxiety Into Adventure
The secret is to turn your feeling of dread into the excitement of opportunity.
www.theatlantic.com
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