Quillette (Page 89)

We Need to Talk About Abortion

It’s not only conservatives who are changing the subject.

Dilan Esper

10 May 2022 · 7 min read

Is Moral Expertise Possible?—A Roundtable

Is moral expertise really a thing—normatively, theoretically, or metaphysically? All three major Western schools of moral philosophy seem to think so, including virtue ethics, deontology, and consequentialism.

Geoffrey Miller, Oliver Traldi, Spencer Case, and Bo Winegard

10 May 2022 · 19 min read

What Explains Women's Fascination With BDSM Fiction?

Every generation or so (i.e., roughly every 25 years) a woman (it’s always a woman) writes a book about kinky sex—and a very specific type of kinky sex.

Robert King

9 May 2022 · 10 min read

When Disagreement Becomes Trauma

How does one deal with those who claim that debate itself represents an agony beyond human endurance?

Jonathan Kay

8 May 2022 · 8 min read

Quillette Podcast #188: How Elon Musk Can Promote Free Speech—Without Turning Twitter Into One Big ‘Dumpster Fire’

Veteran technology expert Jim Rutt tells Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay about the hard lessons he’s learned over four decades of creating and implementing content-moderation standards on numerous social-media platforms. Image below: The GameB Home Rules and Norms on Jim Rutt’s GameB site, as cited in this week’

Quillette / Jim Rutt

8 May 2022 · 1 min read

The Limits of Narrative

Societal crises of self-confidence can result from distorted and oversimplified narratives.

James Jeffrey

7 May 2022 · 8 min read

Weekly Roundup + Invitation to the Quillette Social

Dear Quilletters, Thanks to everyone who has already bought tickets to our Quillette Social event in Sydney. We have already almost sold out of tickets in just a few days, so to avoid disappointment, grab yours today. This week, just for our paid members, don't miss our editorial

Zoe Booth

7 May 2022 · 6 min read

The Tragedy of American Diplomacy: A Rebuttal

Williams, W. A. (1962). The Tragedy of American Diplomacy. New York: Dell Pub. Co. When the Democratic Socialists of America (DSA) pinned Putin’s recent invasion of Ukraine on NATO’s “imperialist expansionism,” many policymakers and journalists on both sides of the political spectrum lambasted the organization for its half-hearted

Niranjan Shankar

6 May 2022 · 15 min read

Building a Better Twitter

Twitter’s current policy on content isn’t one dimensional: It serves up both false positives and false negatives—wrongly banning certain accounts for thoughtcrimes while permitting others to continue on the platform despite engaging in grotesquely abusive behavior.

The Quillette Editorial Board

6 May 2022 · 5 min read

Get Ready for the Return of the Abortion Novel

The abortion novels that proliferated in the late 1960s were filled with characters who are forced by carelessness and circumstance to make the most agonizing of personal choices.

Kevin Mims

5 May 2022 · 26 min read

When Animals Shed Their Wings

Worker ants can sprout wings—but don’t. Ant and termite queens destroy theirs after mating. Many island birds evolve into flightlessness. Can evolution explain why?

Richard Dawkins

5 May 2022 · 7 min read

Revolution Betrayed

A review of The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism by Matthew Continetti, Basic Books, 496 pages (April 2022) “So inevitable and yet so completely unforeseen” was Alexis de Tocqueville’s verdict on the French Revolution. Much the same can be said of Donald Trump’s hostile takeover of

Brian Stewart

4 May 2022 · 15 min read

Academic Exile, Two Years On

Academia has become an intellectual prison, and many incarcerated professors are compelled to live a dual existence.

Bo Winegard

4 May 2022 · 13 min read

The Aztec Way of Empire

Six imperial rulers expanded the Mexica domain from 1430 until 1519, until the Spaniards first set foot in Tenochtitlan and disrupted the Aztec imperial agenda.

Frances F. Berdan

2 May 2022 · 11 min read

Orwell and Dalrymple on English Class

Ever since Marx, the concept of class has been foundational to sociology—as well as to almost everything else. This would not have surprised the German economist, for class, as he saw it, determines all: one’s motivations, one’s social position, even one’s consciousness. Britain, where Marx’s

Laurie Wastell

2 May 2022 · 12 min read