Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s core strategy for MAHA is the same one Michelle Obama used for “Let’s Move!”—and it will likely fall short for the same reason hers did a decade ago, Tom Bartlett argues.
Replies
What fresh bullshit is this? No, I don’t want to pay to read it
sep 1, 2025, 5:30 pm • 1 0 • view
Are you incapable of parsing the difference between urging parents to raise healthy children and encouraging the deaths of children in preventable epidemics? Of course not. This is pure both-side-ism, the very thing the MSM has used to help endanger democracy.
sep 2, 2025, 1:52 am • 1 0 • view
What the hell is this.
sep 1, 2025, 1:35 pm • 10 0 • view
OMG Atlantic, what happened to you ? WTF is wrong with you? You are dead to me now
sep 1, 2025, 9:21 pm • 1 0 • view
Moronic headline. Seriously?
sep 1, 2025, 10:29 pm • 1 0 • view
Are y'all being serious with this?
sep 1, 2025, 5:54 pm • 3 0 • view
She wasn't minister of health
sep 1, 2025, 7:50 pm • 1 0 • view
Dismantling modern medicine is not the same as encouraging kids to exercise.
sep 1, 2025, 1:32 pm • 104 5 • view
I understand we are looking at program strategies but please don’t compare Michelle with RFK. One tried to help while his bat shit health initiatives are going to kill people.
sep 1, 2025, 1:44 pm • 7 0 • view
Who greenlit this garbage? Peter Thiel and Curtis Yarvin?
sep 1, 2025, 9:17 pm • 1 0 • view
More like a decade and a half ago. And where exactly is the similarity between Obama and Kennedy? Do we really need to remind you folks that Obama was an *unpaid volunteer* while Kennedy is running HHS, including all its sub-agencies? Holy cow Atlantic, I honestly expected quite a bit more from you.
sep 2, 2025, 1:49 am • 1 0 • view
This is a ridiculous premise. MAHA is anti-vaxx, anti-trans, anti-health research, anti-evidence-based medicine, anti-public health, anti-food safety, and anti-life.
sep 1, 2025, 11:24 pm • 2 0 • view
I don't remember her making it harder for me to get a vaccine I want and have been able to easily get for the past few years.
sep 1, 2025, 1:54 pm • 15 1 • view
She made me build a vegetable garden in my backyard with my kids because she had one at the WH. A raccoon ate my daughter’s pumpkin she was growing. Damn her
sep 1, 2025, 6:42 pm • 3 0 • view
You guys are incredible. Just incredible. Stupid as fuck and massive dipshits, but incredible
sep 1, 2025, 5:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Thanks for the reminder of why I terminated my subscription.
sep 1, 2025, 1:38 pm • 4 0 • view
The biggest difference is one of those people had no authority to dismantle our entire healthcare system. Why does our news media have to constantly fall short in these perilous times?
sep 1, 2025, 2:50 pm • 3 0 • view
And getting kids to exercise by dancing to music couldn’t cause an uncontrollable pandemic
sep 1, 2025, 6:48 pm • 3 0 • view
It might cause an uncontrollable pandemic of rhythm, and then where would we be? /s
sep 1, 2025, 8:02 pm • 0 0 • view
This comparison isn't apples to oranges, it's apples to horseshit. Y'all should be ashamed of yourselves.
sep 2, 2025, 12:36 am • 1 0 • view
The comparison is tortured. And this article is embarrassing for you. Just stop.
sep 1, 2025, 2:48 pm • 2 0 • view
Not the same...
sep 1, 2025, 2:06 pm • 0 0 • view
So The Atlantic has fallen too? There is no comparison between the two.
sep 1, 2025, 6:27 pm • 0 0 • view
I'm no fan of the Obamas but for FFS she wasn't an actual Cabinet Member with broad responsibilities like Bobbie Jr. Encouraging kids to exercise as a PR campaign is nothing like gutting the core of HHS by replacing science backed policy with AI slop vibes and conspiracy theories.
sep 1, 2025, 2:24 pm • 3 1 • view
She made my kids force me into building a vegetable garden in the backyard because she did a video showing hers at the WH. I loved watching those vegetable garden updates videos she did. My kids did too.
sep 1, 2025, 6:46 pm • 1 1 • view
Truly psychotic clickbait, homies. A+
sep 2, 2025, 1:13 am • 2 0 • view
And further to the point: bsky.app/profile/agaw... C'mon Atlantic. If I wanted milqutoast bothsiderism, I'd watch CNN.
sep 1, 2025, 1:35 pm • 22 1 • view
FFS. One is an autocratic fiat to kill Americans by destroying access to medicine, doctors, and science. The other was a nice fitness initative.
sep 1, 2025, 1:33 pm • 51 2 • view
Whatever happened to The Atlantic? Sickening piece of MAGA synchophant behavior
sep 1, 2025, 10:11 pm • 1 0 • view
BREAKING NEWS: Actual news journal scoops the satire industry with hilariously fallacious and dangerous headline
sep 1, 2025, 1:39 pm • 20 1 • view
Completely deranged take. You’re comparing a program by a First Lady to encourage children to exercise w/ a rogue unqualified cabinet secretary purging public health experts and blocking access to potentially life-saving vaccines?As a subscriber, I can’t believe The Atlantic published this crap.
sep 1, 2025, 3:41 pm • 2 0 • view
Unsubscribe asap. It’s the only thing they’ll listen to
sep 1, 2025, 5:58 pm • 2 0 • view
That’s cute. Now talk about how dangerous Mr. Rodger’s was.
sep 1, 2025, 1:35 pm • 5 0 • view
He talked to a goldfish. That’s about it.
sep 1, 2025, 6:57 pm • 1 0 • view
I assume you're living on another planet with this headline / article title. Don't become part of the MSM problem. Do better.
sep 1, 2025, 11:04 pm • 1 0 • view
Reallly ????
sep 1, 2025, 2:30 pm • 2 0 • view
Disgusting. 🤡🤡🤡 Everyone at @theatlantic.com should be embarrassed and deeply ashamed by this. The editor who permitted this should resign in shame. U.S. Media are FAILING Americans. #RFKJrIsKillingUs #MedSky #RepublicansAreKillingUs #MAHA #CDC
sep 1, 2025, 8:36 pm • 5 1 • view
Delete this horseshit.
sep 1, 2025, 9:06 pm • 1 0 • view
Oh fuck off….there is NO ACTUAL similarity.
sep 1, 2025, 7:48 pm • 0 0 • view
My argument is that Tom Bartlett is a moron and probably thinks horses and snakes are the same thing.
sep 1, 2025, 9:23 pm • 1 0 • view
Number of times Michelle Obama said she could tell who has been vaccinated just by looking at them.... Zero. Just who is this Tom Bartlett idiot-person anyways?
sep 1, 2025, 7:51 pm • 2 0 • view
Jagoff. Never mention Michelle Obama in the same whatever as that jagoff. Oh, and you are a jagoff.
sep 1, 2025, 7:02 pm • 1 0 • view
You’re a fucking joke.
sep 1, 2025, 5:37 pm • 0 0 • view
Really, The Atlantic, you're comparing First Lady Michelle Obama [Let's Move] to a Republican GOP Secretary of Health Road Kill Eating Kennedy Jr., who thinks swimming in polluted water is a health regime? Please!
sep 1, 2025, 2:35 pm • 2 0 • view
RFK Jr. Is Black? I didn't know that.
sep 1, 2025, 7:52 pm • 0 0 • view
Ok whatever you say Yom Fartlet. My phone autocorrected his name and I’m not changing it. I’ll just add this 🥴🥴🥴🥴🙄🤥
sep 2, 2025, 1:13 am • 1 0 • view
Give me a break? So disrespectful to Michelle. He is an ignorant evil moron.
sep 1, 2025, 2:59 pm • 2 0 • view
Right. 🙄 Just keep normalizing this bullshit like he's NOT a roadkill eating, brainworm addled, steroid addicted antivax lunatic. Same way you pretend Rotting Pumpkin Head isn't a degenerate moronic carny barker pedophile. I'm sure that'll work out just great for all of us. 😑
sep 1, 2025, 7:58 pm • 1 0 • view
A ridiculous take on the serious health crisis unfolding under RFK.
sep 1, 2025, 6:44 pm • 1 0 • view
I got a subscription to The Atlantic this year to avoid reading “both sides” journalism. Encouraging kids and families to exercise, improving school nutrition is not the same as what RFKjr and his fellow quacks and grifters are doing to public health & medicine in this country. Do better Atlantic.
sep 1, 2025, 6:48 pm • 3 0 • view
They won't. This is the same magazine which once tried to hire Kevin Williamson for Libertarian takes. Apparently they didn't know (or care) that he advocates for any woman who got an abortion to be hung from a lamp post (really).
sep 1, 2025, 8:06 pm • 2 0 • view
BS.. at least Michele Obama didn’t want to wipe out a huge swath of the world’s population due to fucking ignorance…full stop.
sep 1, 2025, 3:29 pm • 4 0 • view
Well, since Michelle was never the cause of our country getting sicker, worsening healthcare, and banning life saving vaccines, I’d say the two are not the same 🙄
sep 1, 2025, 7:37 pm • 3 0 • view
Remember that time Michelle Obama stopped vaccine research and said she could diagnose children with "mitochondrial challenges"? Yeah, me neither.
sep 1, 2025, 7:17 pm • 3 0 • view
Uh, I don't remember Michelle being anti vaccine. I question whether "movement" is RFK Jr's "core strategy"
sep 1, 2025, 1:58 pm • 5 0 • view
bsky.app/profile/rich...
sep 1, 2025, 7:44 pm • 2 0 • view
Reported. This is an absolute mess and wrong on so many levels. You should know better.
sep 1, 2025, 7:36 pm • 3 0 • view
Same. Reported for political and medical disinformation. Need more people to join in.
sep 1, 2025, 7:54 pm • 2 0 • view
Last I checked, Michelle Obama was not a cabinet secretary responsible for managing the health care policies of the nation who amplifies pseudoscience.
sep 1, 2025, 1:48 pm • 33 2 • view
Fuck off.
sep 1, 2025, 6:38 pm • 0 0 • view
Can you assholes stop for just a couple minutes?
sep 1, 2025, 7:53 pm • 0 0 • view
@theatlantic.com You and Tom Barrett cannot be serious with this egregiously pathetic take. When did Michelle Obama try to end pediatric cancer research, do with MRNAs and life-saving vaccines, and replace science with cult-like babble? Who greenlit this moronic article and why?
sep 1, 2025, 6:43 pm • 3 1 • view
'do away'
sep 1, 2025, 7:01 pm • 1 0 • view
Wut?
sep 1, 2025, 11:54 pm • 1 0 • view
Did you know that you don’t HAVE to try and find a “both sides” angle for everything? It’s true! There are other things you can do!
sep 1, 2025, 6:44 pm • 4 0 • view
What the heck is this?? His core strategy for all of us, is to destroy the CDC! In hospitals, when there was infection that none of us had seen before, we could always call CDC and get the best help in the world. Now, there is no one there at CDC to answer the phone. This hurts all of us.
sep 1, 2025, 9:30 pm • 1 0 • view
Counterpoint: fuck you! She should sue you for every penny you ever looked at. Jesus Christ! She had way better knowledge about health, wasn't in charge of literally Americas hhs and he's destroying America's health! I'm going to have a stroke!
sep 1, 2025, 11:00 pm • 1 0 • view
It's trash like this that reminds me why I don't subscribe. Seriously, MAHA is not the same as what Michelle Obama was doing. *rolls eyes*
sep 1, 2025, 11:15 pm • 2 0 • view
i hope tom bartlett shits his pants in traffic
sep 2, 2025, 2:12 am • 0 0 • view
Fuck you @theatlantic.com WTAF? Could you go any fuckin lower on this? Leave Michelle alone and report that RFK Jr is destroying decades of research and progress
sep 1, 2025, 1:53 pm • 6 0 • view
sep 1, 2025, 5:32 pm • 8 1 • view
MO encouraged kids to eat healthy & exercise, an initiative backed by decades of evidence-based research. RFKJ spews conspiracy theories, rejects science, and has single-handedly destroyed America's public health infrastructure in less time than it takes to say, "this is a stupid essay."
sep 1, 2025, 11:44 pm • 2 1 • view
The Atlantic: Yes...RFK Jr is a sociopathic, power mad quack--whose policies will kill many people--but hey---he's a white guy--so let's both sides this and also blame the Black woman who was not in government--and suggested people eat vegetables--instead of shooting up with heroin.🙄
sep 1, 2025, 5:40 pm • 11 1 • view
I bet Tom Bartlett is about a week out from writing a “bluesky is dying bc everyone made fun of my dogshit opinion” piece
sep 1, 2025, 6:07 pm • 8 1 • view
Huh?
sep 1, 2025, 1:40 pm • 0 0 • view
The article is about pressuring the food industry to create healthy options instead of actually regulating it, which is similar to “Let’s Move” (I guess). Really poor timing to draw this parallel while RFK is decimating the CDC and vaccine research, completely unlike the Obama administration.
sep 1, 2025, 1:46 pm • 6 0 • view
Except Michelle wasn't actually in charge of the FDA so had no power to change or enforce regulations. RFK does have that power. It's like saying "your mayor's plan for police reform will fail for the same reason your neighborhood watch's plan fails" one has very different authority than the other
sep 1, 2025, 2:28 pm • 8 0 • view
Wow, this is jaw-dropingly stupid.
sep 1, 2025, 6:29 pm • 5 0 • view
This statement is false and full of baloney.
sep 1, 2025, 5:03 pm • 2 0 • view
My usual response to a conservative is "you don't have to lie on the Internet. There are so many better things to do. Knit. Take a walk. Play with your kids." It seems like I have to do that with The Atlantic now. The only thing Michelle Obama has in common is both of them are alive (RFK maybe).
sep 1, 2025, 7:51 pm • 2 0 • view
I know I should read this before judging, but my initial reaction to this headline is AYFKM?
sep 1, 2025, 1:35 pm • 30 0 • view
FLOTUS: “hey, maybe consider increasing your physical activity and eating more fresh foods. Imma plant a garden at the White House too.” VS RFK JR: “I can see the mitochondria (sp?) in the children I’m observing at the airport. Let’s get rid of vaccines and inspire a massive walkout at the cdc!”
sep 1, 2025, 1:46 pm • 35 3 • view
What the hell is this BS clickbait headline? One person wants to get rid of vaccines and modern medicine and have everyone drinking raw milk. The other person just wanted people to exercise..... big fucking difference.
sep 1, 2025, 4:05 pm • 8 0 • view
My question without reading the article is if he thinks both their efforts to reduce obesity or help people get healthier are pointless does he propose an alternative or is he just saying we should resign ourselves to it being our society’s reality.
sep 1, 2025, 11:00 pm • 0 0 • view
RFK jr “I have a dead worm in my brain” “I have brain damage due to long term usage of meth” “my lies and discredited information got 60 kids killed in a preventable measles outbreak”
sep 1, 2025, 6:40 pm • 1 0 • view
THEY ARE LITERALLY THE SAME RFK - Make Measles and Polio great again. Use discredited studies to show vaccines are more dangerous than actual outbreaks. Fire scientists who won’t sign off on study as being official CDC stance. t
sep 1, 2025, 6:35 pm • 0 0 • view
MO- Let’s get kids up and moving through dance and song. Plant a garden and show kids how to plant their own vegetable garden like I have right here at the WH. You can be healthy by eating the vegetables you grow.
sep 1, 2025, 6:37 pm • 1 0 • view
Makes perfect sense that Michelle Obama failed with a staff of twelve while RFK Jr staff of 64000 is being held back by the deep state, or something…
sep 1, 2025, 6:46 pm • 2 0 • view
sep 1, 2025, 6:49 pm • 0 0 • view
And here I thought that Michelle Obama WASN’T a homicidal maniac.
sep 1, 2025, 7:55 pm • 1 0 • view
Seriously? Do your job.
sep 1, 2025, 2:16 pm • 1 0 • view
Fancy even putting Michelle Obama and the lunatic fringe dweller in the same article? Bloody journalists need to understand their country is sinking fast and trying to make a story from both sides of politics is the reason America might never come back from this. So stupid.
sep 1, 2025, 1:59 pm • 3 0 • view
Have y’all just completely lost your minds?
sep 1, 2025, 6:16 pm • 4 0 • view
Tom Bartlett wins the award for vapid and harmful both sides-ism. Take Michelle Obama’s name out of your mouth you f’ing tool.
sep 1, 2025, 6:14 pm • 9 1 • view
Many people are saying Tom Bartlett is just trying to present an enlightened centrist take, while others say this is a blatant racist attack on Michelle Obama.
sep 1, 2025, 7:57 pm • 1 0 • view
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?
sep 1, 2025, 8:26 pm • 1 0 • view
The journalist is mistaken. Michelle Obama never said that other public health protections were ineffective. She offered health promoting choices that were not replacements for vaccines, medications, etc. but complements. Please never align the Obamas with an ignoramus. It is an insult to them.
sep 1, 2025, 1:43 pm • 26 1 • view
This whole idea for an article never should have made it through to print
sep 1, 2025, 11:29 pm • 3 0 • view
Oh, this must be the Ridiculous Take of the Month article. Nothing will top “Girl Who Thinks Everyone Wants to Hear Her Be Loud,” though.
sep 1, 2025, 5:33 pm • 1 0 • view
Why are you like this and what would have to happen for you to realize and stop?
sep 1, 2025, 7:48 pm • 2 0 • view
This has got to be a joke article, right? With all the crap RFK Jr has done, continues to do, and has yet to do- this is the article written? Do better @tombartlett.bsky.social & @theatlantic.com.
sep 1, 2025, 10:58 pm • 1 0 • view
🤡
sep 1, 2025, 8:27 pm • 1 0 • view
What an absolute waste of space. Clueless writer and editor.
sep 1, 2025, 11:22 pm • 2 0 • view
Comparing Bobby Kennedy to Michelle Obama is a total insult. Bobby parrots what’s already known about exercise/food additives.. (many companies already started to improve products) It’s Bobby’s warped dangerous ignorance regarding public health/research/vaccines.. that can/will kill many Americans!
sep 1, 2025, 1:49 pm • 11 0 • view
This reads like satire. Kennedy is the head of HHS flirting with banning vaccines which will kill thousands of children. Michelle wanted children to exercise and eat better. Do better you utter fools.
sep 1, 2025, 1:36 pm • 63 2 • view
Well I remember republicans raging “how dare she tell my kids about healthy foods and getting up and moving around for 30 minutes a day. It’s not your business to teach MY kids healthy habits.
sep 1, 2025, 6:54 pm • 7 0 • view
Atlantic, you have lost me. She wanted people to eat veggies and move around. He’s killing people. These are not the same.
sep 1, 2025, 8:28 pm • 2 0 • view
You had a good run. Thanks for the laughs. @nytpitchbot.bsky.social
sep 1, 2025, 1:42 pm • 18 1 • view
Couldn’t possibly criticize a white man on his own standing, you have to shit on an accomplished black woman as a form of deflection.
sep 1, 2025, 7:46 pm • 3 0 • view
This absurdity prompted me to cancel my subscription.
sep 1, 2025, 7:47 pm • 1 0 • view
Tom: How can I use criticism of a white guy to attack a black woman? Hmmmmm...
sep 2, 2025, 2:54 am • 1 0 • view
How much did the Trump administration pay to get this story planted? Are you fucking kidding me? Are you REALLY making this comparison? This is like comparing Newton's apple to an asteroid burning in the atmosphere. Sure, they're both examples of gravity, but they are not the same.
sep 1, 2025, 6:04 pm • 5 0 • view
Damn, what LLM-based editor let this stupid shit get published?!?
sep 1, 2025, 7:46 pm • 1 0 • view
Holy crap… so encouraging kids to eat healthy is equal denying kids life saving vaccines. No wonder we are here now…
sep 2, 2025, 3:55 am • 0 0 • view
It takes fact-stretching of incredible magnitude to even begin equating what Michelle Obama did with what RFK Jr is trying to do.
sep 1, 2025, 10:15 pm • 2 0 • view
sep 1, 2025, 7:36 pm • 0 0 • view
This is some fucking bullshit. Wat?
sep 1, 2025, 8:09 pm • 1 0 • view
Oh fuck RIGHT off with that false equivalence bullshit. RFK Jr.'s JOB is to improve American public health, and he’s a vaccine-denying quack. Dragging Michelle Obama into this is beyond silly ... it's craven.
sep 1, 2025, 7:47 pm • 9 0 • view
Your headline should be RFK Jr dismantles CDC and endangers the health and well being of all Americans.
sep 1, 2025, 1:39 pm • 14 1 • view
RFK's meaning- Let's move children to re-education centers....I mean exercise camps.
sep 1, 2025, 1:54 pm • 3 0 • view
Fuck you.
sep 1, 2025, 7:43 pm • 0 0 • view
Good god this an unhinged, completely devoid of reality, take.
sep 1, 2025, 1:43 pm • 6 0 • view
You should all be fired. No, wait, sorry, I mean, you should all be set on fire.
sep 1, 2025, 8:41 pm • 1 0 • view
It’s BS like this that made me say NO when my sister asked if she should subscribe to the Atlantic. This is such absolute garbage
sep 1, 2025, 5:57 pm • 4 0 • view
Glad I already don’t pay for this shit but I still feel like you owe be money for having to see it.
sep 1, 2025, 6:25 pm • 0 0 • view
The Atlantic: "this headline and lede will definitely get people to read the article!"
sep 1, 2025, 5:50 pm • 2 0 • view
By normalizing what RFK Jr is doing you are complicit in the death toll he’s going to be responsible for as he undermines the foundations of public health in this country. Y’all should be ashamed of yourselves for publishing this.
sep 2, 2025, 4:01 am • 0 0 • view
Obama promoted exercise & healthy food. RFK is ending vaccinations & child cancer research which will kill MILLIONS of children. Go fuck yourselves Atlantic you pedophile protecting, Trump administration ass kissing traitors!
sep 1, 2025, 7:13 pm • 1 0 • view
Michelle Obama never warred against science. Never engaged in conspiratorial denialism. Never said trusting experts was fascist. Never said moving made medicine irrelevant. Never headed the HHS, or any other agency. Fuck - and I cannot stress this vehemently enough - you.
sep 1, 2025, 6:51 pm • 9 0 • view
Clown shit for morons.
sep 1, 2025, 1:39 pm • 3 0 • view
“Immortan Joe Is Repeating Lieut T.E. Lawrence’s Mistakes”
sep 1, 2025, 8:41 pm • 0 0 • view
sep 1, 2025, 7:43 pm • 50 1 • view
Not at all the same!
sep 1, 2025, 8:10 pm • 5 0 • view
Digital communications are very different now than then. Even if the approaches are analogous, the results won't be.
sep 2, 2025, 1:34 am • 0 0 • view
Jesus Christ
sep 1, 2025, 6:14 pm • 2 0 • view
Wow look at the fucking tripe you published here
sep 1, 2025, 10:08 pm • 1 0 • view
Seriously, this is some bullshit.
sep 1, 2025, 7:43 pm • 1 0 • view