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This is something of a bummer, but it confirms some pet theories. I was a happy paid subscriber to the Atlantic for some years, but circa 2022 I grew extremely disillusioned with "actually pandemic such-and-such"--they're free to write and print those articles, and I'm free to stop paying for them.

All of that is to say--dangit, I wish shoddy feelingsball crap didn't get published. Some otherwise-good organizations have already fallen because they published such crap. More will follow. It sucks.

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The anxiety porn around COVID was actively harmful to my mental health. I spent two years thinking that these hypochondriacs and neurotics were going to lock me in my house for the rest of my life because every other article was about how the pandemic wasn't over and we needed to enforce more mask rules and This Is the New Normal. I can't be the only one.

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I have subscribed to the Atlantic for 30 years. Always liked it until the past few years. Their last issue was nothing but rants against Trump which is making me think of canceling. I don’t like Trump and most of the anti Trump articles were spot on but that is not what I like about The Atlantic. I don’t want an issue of ranting. I can get anti Trump screeds from MSNBC or CNN.

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The Atlantic has veered hard woke and hard trans since publishing Jesse's seminal article in 2018.

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You are so correct. It pains me because it was a great magazine.

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The good content is (was) still really good! That's what makes (made) evaluating the quotient so hard.

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I agree. I won’t be canceling my subscription right away but that total anti Trump issue really rocked me. There was no need for The Atlantic to devote an entire issue to ranting against Trump.

Why? Because, you dumb asses at The Atlantic, no one who is a MAGA Trumper reads your magazine! All you did was piss off and bore guys like me who don’t like Trump in the first place.

I just want your insightful articles about all kinds of things. Open mindedness. Yes that was The Atlantic I loved. I will cancel if it doesn’t get back to where it was. Unfortunately this Katz issue shows it may not.

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Paid media-generation organizations need to differentiate themselves. If you want to be a generic Trump-bad shitposter (and I agree 100,000% with that notion), I can get that for free on Shitter.

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And on the comment section on every Washington Post article, even ones which have nothing to do with Trump.

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One hundred percent agree with you. The Atlantic covered itself in shit.

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I've been a reader for 20 years, and a subscriber for maybe 10. I enjoyed the open-minded perspectives and thoughtful articles. Didn't agree with all of them, but they were rarely ever poorly written and I felt like I'd learned something even in disagreement.

I just canceled my sub after reading this. This incompetence when it comes to simple facts is totally unacceptable, and they doubled-down on this with another piece about it ostensibly "reporting" on the controversy. That piece was poorly-thought-through and misleading.

Hopefully they'll manage to right the ship and earn my trust once again.

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I hope you are right that they will right the ship but I am afraid the Atlantic is sinking.

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I feel exactly the same way.

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