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.
"A platitude is a placebo for the mind; an aphorism is a wake-up call."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Aphoristic Intelligence Beats Artificial Intelligence
It’s not just okay for some things in life to be hard—it’s essential.
www.theatlantic.com
January 3, 2026 at 1:27 AM
"A platitude is a placebo for the mind; an aphorism is a wake-up call."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
"Literature doesn’t make you a better citizen or a more successful person. A passion for reading can even make life more difficult."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
Reading Is a Vice
Being a reader means cultivating a relationship with the world that, by most standards, can seem pointless and counterproductive.
www.theatlantic.com
January 2, 2026 at 4:57 PM
"Literature doesn’t make you a better citizen or a more successful person. A passion for reading can even make life more difficult."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2026/0...
"The veneer of civilization is always thin, even at Costco, as one is reminded before major holidays, or in the vicinity of the samples."
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
The Cult of Costco
Its consistency is its superpower.
www.theatlantic.com
January 1, 2026 at 3:53 PM
"The veneer of civilization is always thin, even at Costco, as one is reminded before major holidays, or in the vicinity of the samples."
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
"On Sunday, J. D. Vance was presented with the simplest moral test: denounce commentators who traffic in medieval blood libels, who deny the Holocaust, and who endlessly harp on evil Jewish cabals." He failed.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
J. D. Vance Fails a Simple Moral Test
The vice president welcomes anti-Semites into the Republican coalition.
www.theatlantic.com
December 23, 2025 at 11:57 PM
"On Sunday, J. D. Vance was presented with the simplest moral test: denounce commentators who traffic in medieval blood libels, who deny the Holocaust, and who endlessly harp on evil Jewish cabals." He failed.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
"Donald Trump’s appetite for flattery appears as insatiable as the supply of bootlickers among his followers appears inexhaustible."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
The Pitiful Childishness of Donald Trump
The president’s appetite for plastering his name on every available surface appears insatiable.
www.theatlantic.com
December 22, 2025 at 2:31 PM
"Donald Trump’s appetite for flattery appears as insatiable as the supply of bootlickers among his followers appears inexhaustible."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Scott Stossel
For 20 minutes, Americans watched Donald Trump address the nation, “drenched in pure panic as he tried to bully an entire nation into admitting he’s doing a great job,” @radiofreetom.bsky.social argues: theatln.tc/Du4KkLTo
December 20, 2025 at 5:00 PM
For 20 minutes, Americans watched Donald Trump address the nation, “drenched in pure panic as he tried to bully an entire nation into admitting he’s doing a great job,” @radiofreetom.bsky.social argues: theatln.tc/Du4KkLTo
"One of the minor annoyances of being an incorrigible pervert is that you risk having your own bookshelf testify against you."
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
What Jeffrey Epstein Didn’t Understand About Lolita
Everything.
www.theatlantic.com
December 20, 2025 at 2:37 PM
"One of the minor annoyances of being an incorrigible pervert is that you risk having your own bookshelf testify against you."
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
www.theatlantic.com/magazine/202...
"I can only imagine America’s enemies in Moscow and Beijing and Tehran smiling with pleasure as they watched a president losing his bearings, berating his own people, and demanding that they absolve him of any blame when things get worse."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
This Is What Presidential Panic Looks Like
Donald Trump delivered a fear-drenched rant live from the White House.
www.theatlantic.com
December 18, 2025 at 4:12 PM
"I can only imagine America’s enemies in Moscow and Beijing and Tehran smiling with pleasure as they watched a president losing his bearings, berating his own people, and demanding that they absolve him of any blame when things get worse."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
"Trump’s malignant narcissism is the most essential thing to understand about him. Heraclitus taught that character is destiny. In Trump’s case, his sociopathy is destiny."
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Trump’s Inferno of Hate Is Intensifying
When a man with the president’s personality feels besieged and abandoned, he becomes more desperate and more dangerous.
www.theatlantic.com
December 16, 2025 at 10:37 PM
"Trump’s malignant narcissism is the most essential thing to understand about him. Heraclitus taught that character is destiny. In Trump’s case, his sociopathy is destiny."
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
Grade inflation and the rise of AI are making it impossible for employers to evaluate recent graduates.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
The Entry-Level Hiring Process Is Breaking Down
Grade inflation and the rise of AI are making it impossible for employers to evaluate recent graduates.
www.theatlantic.com
December 16, 2025 at 4:42 PM
Grade inflation and the rise of AI are making it impossible for employers to evaluate recent graduates.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
"In moments when the country looks up for orientation, Trump does not steady the room. He destabilizes it. He does not merely break norms; he erodes the conditions that make shared meaning possible. "
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Trump Widens the Breach
The country mourned a beloved filmmaker. Trump’s first instinct was to desecrate.
www.theatlantic.com
December 16, 2025 at 1:10 PM
"In moments when the country looks up for orientation, Trump does not steady the room. He destabilizes it. He does not merely break norms; he erodes the conditions that make shared meaning possible. "
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
"This National Security Strategy is not really a strategy document. It is a suicide note. If the ideas within it are really used to shape policy, then U.S. influence in the world will rapidly disappear, and America’s ability to defend itself will diminish."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
The Longest Suicide Note in American History
The Trump administration’s new National Security Strategy targets liberal democracy itself.
www.theatlantic.com
December 16, 2025 at 1:09 PM
"This National Security Strategy is not really a strategy document. It is a suicide note. If the ideas within it are really used to shape policy, then U.S. influence in the world will rapidly disappear, and America’s ability to defend itself will diminish."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
"If 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' is the tendency to become irrationally obsessed with Donald Trump and project that obsession onto everyone else, then somebody is indeed deranged, and it wasn’t Rob Reiner."
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
Trump Blames Rob Reiner for His Own Murder
This morning’s Truth Social post was nauseating even by the president’s standards.
www.theatlantic.com
December 15, 2025 at 9:48 PM
"If 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' is the tendency to become irrationally obsessed with Donald Trump and project that obsession onto everyone else, then somebody is indeed deranged, and it wasn’t Rob Reiner."
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
Lessons on happiness from a saint who advocated executing heretics by burning them alive.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
How to Be Happy Like Thomas Aquinas
Modern social science finds that the 13th-century theologian’s recipe for “imperfect happiness” turns out to be perfect.
www.theatlantic.com
December 11, 2025 at 9:30 PM
Lessons on happiness from a saint who advocated executing heretics by burning them alive.
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
"Why does a night that should be Donald Trump’s greatest triumph feel so much like he revived the Honors from the Pet Sematary?"
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
Trump’s Very Weird Night at the Kennedy Center Honors
The president and I both got our heart’s desire. But something felt wrong.
www.theatlantic.com
December 9, 2025 at 6:07 PM
"Why does a night that should be Donald Trump’s greatest triumph feel so much like he revived the Honors from the Pet Sematary?"
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
www.theatlantic.com/newsletters/...
"The Pentagon’s top watchdog has concluded that the information Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared in the chat could have put the mission, U.S. personnel, and national security at risk had it fallen into the wrong hands."
www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...
www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...
Hegseth Risked Endangering Troops With Signal Messages
An inspector-general report finds that the defense secretary violated his department’s policies.
www.theatlantic.com
December 3, 2025 at 6:56 PM
"The Pentagon’s top watchdog has concluded that the information Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared in the chat could have put the mission, U.S. personnel, and national security at risk had it fallen into the wrong hands."
www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...
www.theatlantic.com/national-sec...
Reposted by Scott Stossel
"Formal power and personal incompetence." I'd like to write as pointedly well as Tom Nichols. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Pete Hegseth Needs to Go—Now
A man with such contempt for the military should not run the Pentagon.
www.theatlantic.com
December 2, 2025 at 2:23 PM
"Formal power and personal incompetence." I'd like to write as pointedly well as Tom Nichols. www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Reposted by Scott Stossel
Early-career journalists: @theatlantic.com's amazing fellowship program will be back starting in 2026! Apply now!! www.theatlantic.com/careers#open...
The Atlantic: Careers
Inform, Challenge, Elevate.
www.theatlantic.com
December 2, 2025 at 9:53 PM
Early-career journalists: @theatlantic.com's amazing fellowship program will be back starting in 2026! Apply now!! www.theatlantic.com/careers#open...
"The dramatic arc of the work teaches us to resist any totalizing doctrine promising a utopian future."
www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025...
www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025...
Tom Stoppard Made a Spectacle of History
In a career of magnificent plays, The Coast of Utopia stands out for its humor, its characters, and its warnings about ideological fervor.
www.theatlantic.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:40 PM
"The dramatic arc of the work teaches us to resist any totalizing doctrine promising a utopian future."
www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025...
www.theatlantic.com/culture/2025...
"Journalists obviously shouldn’t sleep with their sources, although luckily most of us are so hideous, the subject simply doesn’t arise."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Olivia Nuzzi’s Tell-Nothing Memoir
Can “American Canto” turn scandal into literature?
www.theatlantic.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:36 PM
"Journalists obviously shouldn’t sleep with their sources, although luckily most of us are so hideous, the subject simply doesn’t arise."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
"Hegseth is unqualified and incompetent, and he should have been fired months ago."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Pete Hegseth Needs to Go—Now
A man with such contempt for the military should not run the Pentagon.
www.theatlantic.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:35 PM
"Hegseth is unqualified and incompetent, and he should have been fired months ago."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
"This morning, I went whale watching, and the guide recommended that we 'keep our eyes on the horizon and look for blow.' (This is also a good way to find RFK Jr.)"
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Olivia Nuzzi’s Tell-Nothing Memoir
Can "American Canto" turn scandal into literature?
www.theatlantic.com
December 2, 2025 at 1:30 PM
"This morning, I went whale watching, and the guide recommended that we 'keep our eyes on the horizon and look for blow.' (This is also a good way to find RFK Jr.)"
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
"If there was a single way to describe Trump’s institutional targets in the first year of his second term, it might be 'David Rubenstein’s Rolodex.' What had long been Rubenstein’s instrument of immense power and influence is now a liability."
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
The End of Soft Power in Washington
David Rubenstein was the quintessential symbol of wealth and influence in the capital. Then Donald Trump returned to the White House.
www.theatlantic.com
December 1, 2025 at 2:10 PM
"If there was a single way to describe Trump’s institutional targets in the first year of his second term, it might be 'David Rubenstein’s Rolodex.' What had long been Rubenstein’s instrument of immense power and influence is now a liability."
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
www.theatlantic.com/politics/202...
"There are costs to performatively deploying members of the military—one of which is the risk of endangering them."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
A Terrible and Avoidable Tragedy in D.C.
Trump was warned that members of the military could be attacked.
www.theatlantic.com
November 27, 2025 at 3:43 PM
"There are costs to performatively deploying members of the military—one of which is the risk of endangering them."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
"Whatever the reason, Witkoff is prolonging the conflict. He is not promoting peace....If this were a normal American administration, he would be fired immediately. But nothing about this negotiation, or this administration, is normal at all."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
Why Does Steve Witkoff Keep Taking Russia’s Side?
Trump’s envoy isn’t promoting peace. His interventions are helping Vladimir Putin.
www.theatlantic.com
November 27, 2025 at 3:37 PM
"Whatever the reason, Witkoff is prolonging the conflict. He is not promoting peace....If this were a normal American administration, he would be fired immediately. But nothing about this negotiation, or this administration, is normal at all."
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...
www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...