Quillette (Page 97)

A Student Sleuth Found Evidence that Our University Practices Reverse Racism. Here’s Why I Advised Him Not to Publish It

At the American university where I teach, one of my assigned tasks is to advise undergraduates—mostly freshmen and sophomores. This essay describes a conversation I had in 2017 with one of those advisees. I will call him Daniel. Daniel was a sophomore at the time. He had been an

Keith David

17 Feb 2022 · 10 min read

PJ O’Rourke—A Tribute

The thing about PJ O’Rourke, who passed away on Tuesday at the age of 74, was that everyone wanted to be around him. By “everyone,” I don’t just mean the right-wingers I hang out with, most of whom share PJ’s classical-liberal politics, but also neoconservatives like Bill

Charles Murray

16 Feb 2022 · 2 min read

The Problem of Sex Discrimination in Indigenous Archaeology

In January, as reporters were celebrating the first woman—and also the first transgender person—to win more than a million dollars on Jeopardy!, I was reading up on the discrimination still faced by biological women who toil away in my own fields of endeavor: anthropology and archaeology. This discrimination

Elizabeth Weiss

16 Feb 2022 · 8 min read

Weekly Roundup and Ukraine in the Balance

Dear Reader, This week's dispatch focuses on the unfolding situation in Eastern Europe. We have three pieces for you on the subject, one from Chris Miller, a Grand Strategy expert, analysing Putin's strategic intentions in What Putin Really Wants, another from regular Quillette contributor, Brian Stewart,

Claire Lehmann

15 Feb 2022 · 7 min read

Quillette Podcast #180: Canada’s ‘Freedom Convoy’ Protesters, in Their Own Words

Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay speaks with David Paisley and Jay VanderWier, two of the many ordinary working-class Canadians who’ve assembled in Ottawa to protest restrictive government COVID policies.

Quillette

15 Feb 2022 · 1 min read

The New Eurasian Century

The current crises in eastern Europe reflect more than just Kremlin mischief-making—they reflect the first fruits of an emerging world order that spans the vastness from Beijing to Berlin. Unlike the longstanding liberal status quo, with its roots in classical civilization and the Enlightenment, this emerging alternative draws upon

Joel Kotkin

15 Feb 2022 · 9 min read

Ukraine in the Balance

As I write this, Vladimir Putin has moved more than 100,000 troops to Russia’s Ukrainian border, and has strongly implied that he will invade absent an ironclad guarantee that Ukraine will never be permitted to join NATO. Although the Biden administration has rejected that demand, a chorus of

Brian Stewart

14 Feb 2022 · 10 min read

What Putin Really Wants

On Russian President Vladimir Putin’s desk sits a bronze statue of Peter the Great, the tsar who spent his four decades in power waging war on neighbors to establish his country as a great power in Europe. Peter would have understood the nature of the current conflict in Eastern

Christopher Miller

14 Feb 2022 · 8 min read

It’s Time to Start Treating High School Math Like Football

As a skinny, unathletic nerd, I had no desire to play high-school football. Fortunately, no one compelled me to do so. Even if I could have become an adequate player by expending massive effort, much of the time I spent playing would have come at the expense of learning things

James D. Miller

13 Feb 2022 · 6 min read

“A Pleasure to Burn”: We Are Closer to Bradbury’s Dystopia Than Orwell’s or Huxley’s

For decades, it has been common to call authoritarian new laws, norms, or government actions “Orwellian.” In 1984, George Orwell so brilliantly portrayed a nightmarish future that his name became synonymous with almost anything one wishes to describe as oppressive. Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, meanwhile, provided a rather

David S. Wills

12 Feb 2022 · 9 min read

To Fight Wokeness, the GOP Should Embrace Immigrant Voters

The rise of ultra-progressive ideologies and the decline in patriotic sentiment are two broad cultural trends that worry American conservatives. Some may be tempted to imagine that these two phenomena are connected to immigration and the resulting ethnic and racial diversity—especially since opposition to immigration is common among conservatives

Alex Nowrasteh

11 Feb 2022 · 7 min read

Didion in El Salvador

While Joan Didion felt compelled to write about Latin American culture and politics because everyone else was doing it, she didn’t understand them very well.

Charlotte Allen

11 Feb 2022 · 17 min read

A Desister’s Tale

How many trans-identified children “desist”? That is, how many identify as transgender for a time, and then eventually stop doing so, prior to medical intervention (as distinct from detransitioners, who return to identifying with their natal sex after undergoing some form of medical transition)? The answer is that no one

Lisa Selin Davis

11 Feb 2022 · 9 min read

How Social Justice Killed Anti-Racism

One of the early signs of trouble for the British anti-racism movement was a tweet sent by Lee Jasper in April 2013, in which he declared that black people are incapable of being racist, and offered to publicly debate anybody who disagreed. I offered to debate him, as did a

Jerry Barnett

9 Feb 2022 · 11 min read

Identity Mania

A review of The Identity Myth by David Swift. Constable, 320 pages (June 2022). In recent decades, anxieties afflicting Western democracies have arisen from new beliefs and conflicts about how citizens relate to each other—their relative status in society, notions of mutual respect, and the patterns that the past

John Lloyd

9 Feb 2022 · 7 min read