The Science Misinformation Gap
The transatlantic battle over social media and censorship.
Jon Entine
· 8 min read
Censorship
A collection of 34 posts
Can Blackface Be Anti-Racist?
In her early comedy career, Sarah Silverman mocked bigots by impersonating them. What could possibly go wrong?
Jacques Berlinerblau
· 10 min read
A History of Morality Clauses
The century-old moral panics and persecutions by Anthony Comstock and the Society for the Suppression of Vice are echoed today by cancellation campaigns from the moralistic Left and Right.
E. Lily Yu
· 14 min read
The New Information Wars
Generative AI, disinformation, and the dangerous temptation of benevolent censorship.
John Aziz
· 7 min read
Podcast #309: Is There a ‘War on Science’? (And if so, Who’s Waging It?)
Jonathan Kay speaks with theoretical physicist and cosmologist Lawrence Krauss about his latest book project, in which renowned scholars speak out about threats to open inquiry and the scientific process.
Quillette, Lawrence M. Krauss
· 20 min read
Making Fiction Boring
The ideological capture of college writing programs has ushered in an age of didactic, anodyne, and tedious books.
Adam Szetela
· 14 min read
How Cancel Culture and Sensitivity Readers Are Shaping the Publishing Industry and Silencing Dissent | Quillette Cetera Ep. 51
As literary gatekeeping intensifies in the age of social media, author and Harvard fellow Adam Szetela joins Zoe to unpack how moral panics, elite ideology, and institutional cowardice are transforming publishing—and why the culture wars are being fought sentence by sentence.
Zoe Sankey, Adam Szetela
· 27 min read
The Sensitivity Era
Amid literary subcultures, competition has always been fierce and unrelenting and has become even more so in our age of elite overproduction. On social media, these embittered rivalries play out in public amid a chorus of backbiting worthy of Chekhov.
Robert Huddleston
· 8 min read
Podcast #288: Enforced Ideological Conformity Among British Artists
Dancer and choreographer Rosie Kay talks to Quillette podcast host Jonathan Kay about the three radioactive political topics that can derail an artist’s career.
Quillette
· 1 min read
When Do Scholarly Retractions Become a Form of Censorship?
Focusing on the handful of papers that are retracted for political reasons can obscure the more important problems afflicting the field of academic publishing.
Ivan Oransky
· 12 min read
Four Years. Zero Graves. Now What?
In 2021, Canadians were told that the remains of 215 Indigenous children had been found at a former school. The story turned out to be false—but no one in authority seems to know how to walk it back.
Jonathan Kay
· 13 min read
Culture of Complaint and the New Deal Murals
Art in public spaces will always be scrutinised for the propriety of its iconography, and it will remain under attack as long as its guardians are willing to pander to the narcissistic impulses of the activists.
Julia Friedman
· 7 min read
Podcast #243: The Freedom to Blaspheme
Jonathan Kay speaks to fellow podcast host Kushal Mehra about the ‘eerie similarities’ between censorship campaigns in India and Canada.
Quillette
· 18 min read
What My Soviet Life Taught Me About Censorship
Censorship obscures our view of reality and impedes our society’s ability to function.
Izabella Tabarovsky
· 13 min read
Stifling Free Speech Online: Australia’s Misinformation Bill
Every censorship regime in history has claimed to be protecting the public. But no regime can have prior knowledge of what is true or good. It can only know what the approved narratives are.
Toadworrier
· 12 min read