The Atlantic’s Nervous Breakdown

Commentary ^ | Jan 2022 | Christine Rosen

[Rummyfan]

The Atlantic is one of the most prestigious magazines in the nation—and almost certainly its most lavishly funded. When Laurene Powell Jobs (whose net worth is approximately $22 billion) bought former owner David Bradley’s stake in the magazine in 2017, she ushered in an era of almost unimaginable expansion for a publication created before the Civil War. Under its editor, Jeffrey Goldberg, the Atlantic has added 100 new staff jobs. The once-staid monthly is now a round-the-clock Web content provider that releases dozens of new items a day.

The Atlantic’s prominence and seriousness—and the bottomless pockets of its multibillionaire owner—have made it a dream come true for literally hundreds of liberal American journalists who spent most of the past 20 years in a panic about the financial viability of their chosen profession. So why is the Atlantic an emotional train wreck of a publication? If the New Yorker’s annual cover model, the monocle-bearing dandy Eustace Tilley, is supposedly its personification, the Atlantic’s should be Munch’s Scream. Therein lies a tale.

[Rummyfan]

The Atlantic reader who visits the website rather than simply journeying there through social-media links is turned into a doom-scroller, confronted time and again as she journeys down the homepage with headlines like this one: “America Is Running Out of Time.” Note how the title lacks specificity; it doesn’t need specificity, because this is what nearly every article in the Atlantic is about. (A recent feature in the January/February print issue of the magazine was titled, simply, “Are We Doomed?”)

“Bring Back the Nervous Breakdown,” urged a 2021 article. And so Goldberg’s Atlantic has. An astonishingly large number of stories in both the print and online versions of the magazine now focus on the irrational feelings of a very particular and privileged class of people—elite, left-of-center, educated people who ironically believe themselves too sophisticated to be emotionally manipulated like the unwashed Fox-viewing masses they abhor.

[Rummyfan]

Never read it.... I group it with The New republic and The Nation.... Nothing worth reading.

[ConservativeMind]

“…This Eeyore-meets-Nietzsche tone now dominates much of the magazine's coverage.”

Nicely described!

[cgbg]

Magazines of the left have censorship on a scale that would make the old Soviet Union proud.

The list of topics that may not be discussed—ever—is virtually endless.

The writers need to check Wikipedia every day to make sure they fully understand the latest Party Line.

[x]

“…This Eeyore-meets-Nietzsche tone now dominates much of the magazine's coverage.”

If that were a movie, I'd watch it. If that were a book, I'd read it. It turns out it is a Pinterest page with links to a Tumblr page that seems to be more Eeyore-meets-Kierkegaard.

[chuckee]

Atlantic, the land of polysyllabic stupidity. Once Ms Jobs dumps this economic albatross, the folks living off her will be lucky to get jobs working the fryer at McDonalds.

[Grampa Dave]

The magazine nowall ways focused on the irrational feelings of a very particular and privileged class of people—elite, left-of-center, educated people who ironically believe themselves too sophisticated to be emotionally manipulated like the unwashed Fox-viewing masses they abhor.

The Atlantic has been spewing this crap forever. I'm in my 80's and stopped even scanning Atlantic articles in my mid 20's.

Subtract about 10 years from my FR sign on date to calculate when, I stopped reading Newsweak, Slime, Ny Slimes, USA Today, and Wash ComPost.

That, was when I also, gave up on the fake TV news.

[AndyJackson]

Eeyore-meets-Nietzsche

Intellectual desuetude as the genesis for the modern American nihilism of the elite. Explains RINOism pretty well.

[mware]

Stephan Talbot, who writes for The Nation played Gilbert in Leave it to Beaver.

[Soul of the South]

Lauren Jobs won the marriage lottery and is using the wealth created and accumulated by her husband to promote the progressive agency to fundamentally transform the nation. Not unlike Joan Kroc who spent her husband Ray’s fortunate after his death on progressive causes. Theresa Heinz Kerry is another heiress who acquired the Heinz fortune on the death of her husband, GOP Senator John Heinz. She married John Kerry and has devoted her life to promoting his political career and progressive causes.

Notice a trend here?

[freefdny]

I like that.
That which does not kill us makes us stronger. Oh bother.

[Rummyfan]

Yeah but I’ll keep mum about it. Don’t want to upset FR women.

[gloryblaze]

Atlantic, the land of polysyllabic stupidity....

Right on. Plus, the usual arrogance. There were a couple of their writers interviewed on NPR this morning about Republican voter suppression. Straight from another planet.

[VTenigma]

It’s not that they are from another planet, they know exactly what they are doing. They promote leftist propaganda by gaslighting the public. The left are in lockstep in reinforcing the lie that republicans are undermining democracy. Journolist has gone on steroids. The repetition of the lies are right out of “Rules for Radicals”.

[ChildOfThe60s]

Well written, and while quite accurate, it’s also rather entertaining to read.

The Atlantic and its readership are quite easy to mock. Which doesn’t make them less dangerous to normal people.

[LibertyWoman]

Telling the truth never upsets FR women. However, if you’re going to be a pig; paint broad strokes and lump all women together while chanting ‘repeal the 19th’, or some such utter stupidity, then there may be some cause for concern.

[Luke21]

It was Trump hating garbage throughout 2020.

[Honorary Serb]

A VERY long time ago I used to subscribe to and enjoy “The Atlantic”. Now I wouldn’t touch it with a ten-foot pole!!!! Even the article titles I see online sicken me!!!!

Laurene Powell Jobs is a radical leftist enemy who is almost as bad as Zuckerbird!!!! Her nefarious activities are one more consequence of Steve Jobs’ EXTREMELY bad choice of medical care for his cancer!!!!

[matthew fuller]

Here is a very prophetic article from the Atlantic, 2009 concerning the worthless influenza vaccine du jour-

https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2009/11/does-the-vaccine-matter/307723/

[daniel1212]

From the magazine that 7 years ago printed the exceptional article,

The Coddling of the American Mind

In the name of emotional well-being, college students are increasingly demanding protection from words and ideas they don’t like. Here’s why that’s disastrous for education—and mental health.

By Greg Lukianoff and Jonathan Haidt

Two terms have risen quickly from obscurity into common campus parlance. Microaggressions are small actions or word choices that seem on their face to have no malicious intent but that are thought of as a kind of violence nonetheless. For example, by some campus guidelines, it is a microaggression to ask an Asian American or Latino American “Where were you born?,” because this implies that he or she is not a real American. Trigger warnings are alerts that professors are expected to issue if something in a course might cause a strong emotional response. For example, some students have called for warnings that Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart describes racial violence and that F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby portrays misogyny and physical abuse, so that students who have been previously victimized by racism or domestic violence can choose to avoid these works, which they believe might “trigger” a recurrence of past trauma.