Quillette‘s Jonathan Kay talks to Brian Amerige, a former software engineer at Facebook, about the company’s content moderation policy and why it is making a mistake in trying to prohibit hate speech.
Quillette‘s Toby Young talks to Matthew Goodwin, professor of politics at the University of Kent and co-author of National Populism: The Revolt Against Liberalism, about Brexit, Trump, the rise of national populism in Europe and America, and what its impact is likely to be on the future of social democracy.
Introduction — John P. Wright, Ph.D. John Paul Wright is a professor of criminal justice at the University of Cincinnati. He has published widely on the causes and correlates of human violence. His current work examines how ideology affects scholarship. Follow him on Twitter @cjprofman. Thirteen years in the making, the American Psychological Association (APA) released the newly drafted “Guidelines for Psychological Practice for Boys and Men.” Backed by 40 years of science, the APA claims, the guidelines boldly pronounce that “traditional masculinity” is the cause and consequence of men’s mental health concerns. Masculine stoicism, the APA tells us, prevents men from seeking treatment when in need, while beliefs rooted in “masculine ideology” perpetuate men’s worst behaviors—including sexual harassment and rape. Masculine ideology, itself a byproduct of the “patriarchy,” benefits men and simultaneously victimizes them, the guidelines explain. Thus, the APA committee advises therapists that men need to become allies to feminism. “Change men,” an author of the report stated, “and we can change the world.” But if the reaction to the APA’s guidelines is …
Canadian editor Jonathan Kay talks to Kat Rosenfield, young-adult author and prolific vlogger and journalist, about Amélie Wen Zhao, a YA writer who’s withdrawn her debut novel Blood Heir after being mobbed for allegedly breaching various politically correct protocols that all YA authors, including people of color, are expected to observe. Kat has written about the affair for Vulture.
Canadian editor Jonathan Kay talks to Bill Kristol, founder of the Weekly Standard, on the future of journalism, conservative politics and the stars who emerged from his magazine’s pages, including David Brooks, John Podhoretz and Christopher Caldwell.
The following statement was published in Le Point on 28 November, 2018 and is reprinted here with their kind permission. Translation by Holly Haahr. The militant initiatives of the “decolonial” movement and its related associations1 are multiplying at the rate of several university and cultural events per month. These different groups are hosted in the most prestigious academic institutions,2 theatres and museums.3 One such example was the seminar “Gender, Nation, and Secularism,” hosted by the Maison des sciences de l’Homme at the beginning of October, which was presented with the racialist references “gender coloniality,” “white feminism,” “racialization,” and “gendered racial power” (i.e: the power exercised by “whites,” which is systematically prejudicial to the individuals they call “racialized”). However, while presenting themselves as progressive (anti-racists, decolonizers, feminists…), for the last several years these movements have been diverting their efforts away from individual emancipation and freedom in favor of objectives that are completely at odds with republican universalism: racialism, differentialism, and segregationism (according to skin color, sex, and religious practice). They go so far as to invoke feminism to legitimize …
Listen to highlights from the speeches made at Quillette‘s party in Toronto by Quillette founder Claire Lehmann, stand-up comic Jamie Kilstein, Skeptic editor Michael Shermer, Quillette‘s Canadian editor Jonathan Kay, author and philosopher Christina Hoff Sommers and Quillette‘s associate editor Toby Young. Thanks to Holding Space Films for supplying us with the audio.
Canadian editor Jonathan Kay talks to Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker about his book Enlightenment Now and why the critics who took him to task for celebrating the Enlightenment are wrong. Professor Pinker has also written a piece for Quillette on the same subject.
Canadian editor Jonathan Kay talks to Jesse Singal, a New York-based writer, about the reaction to his controversial cover story for The Atlantic about transgender adolescents. Among other things, Singal interviewed a number of adults who have “detransitioned” – had a change of heart about switching genders after undergoing irreversible medical procedures. This provoked accusations of “transphobia” from trans activists, who argued that highlighting these cases would make parents and mental health professionals needlessly sceptical when reacting to children’s self-diagnoses of gender dysphoria and make it more difficult for those children to get medical treatment.
Associate editor Toby Young talks to Jeff McMahan, professor of moral philosophy at Oxford and co-founder of the Journal of Controversial Ideas, a new academic periodical in which contributors will be given the option of publishing their papers pseudonymously. Professor McMahan talks about why he believes the journal is needed, how “controversial” ideas will be defined and responds to some of the criticisms that have greeted the idea, both from the Social Justice Left and the liberal centre.
