Language - Quillette

An anatomical head with the brain exposed and eyes closed.

How Words Influence Us

With its thousands of problem-solving, information-discarding, thought-terminating conventional categories, a language is a great collection of off-switches for the mind.

Nick Enfield

22 Aug 2024 · 8 min read

Podcast #244 : Language vs Reality with Nick Enfield

Iona Italia interviews linguistic anthropologist Nick Enfield about why language is good for lawyers and bad for scientists.

Quillette

24 Jul 2024 · 37 min read

A young blonde woman with a COVID mask and worried eyes attends a BLM protester.

The Rise of a Mega-Movement

We have lost the words that we could once call upon to justify diversity of thoughts, desires, viewpoints, and policy preferences, as opposed to a diversity of demographic groups.

Russell Blackford

21 May 2024 · 8 min read

Words Don’t Matter

We have power over words, not vice versa.

Lawrence M. Krauss

13 Mar 2023 · 6 min read

A Conspiracy Theory of Connotations

The obsessive policing of language in the name of progress relies on magical thinking.

Oliver Traldi

24 Feb 2023 · 7 min read

The Society of Cultural Anthropology’s Campaign to Present American Populism as Fascism

The January 6th riot does make for a visually dramatic backdrop to an exploration of the fascistic strain in modern populist politics.

Matthew Porter

5 Aug 2021 · 8 min read

The Incoherence of Gender Ideology

To understand the coherence and moral import of transgender rights claims, we must first define what it is that we mean by “transgender.”

Michael Robillard

4 Aug 2021 · 21 min read

Rescuing the Radicalized Discourse on Sex and Gender: Part Two of a Three-Part Series

Our choice of words affects the way we think. That’s why we spend so much time fighting over which terms to use, whether it’s “undocumented immigrants” versus “illegal aliens,” “foetuses” versus “unborn babies,” or “militants” versus “terrorists.” In recent years, the question of word choice has figured prominently

Allan Stratton

27 Jul 2021 · 17 min read

Sorry, Demi Lovato: You Can't Fight Sexism by Opting Out of Womanhood

It’s true that hair is a definitive socially-constructed characteristic of femininity (and masculinity) in many cultures.

Mary Kate Fain

31 May 2021 · 9 min read

The Misguided Campaign Against Journalistic Objectivity

Even historians, who have many years to consider the object of their study, inhabit “the twilight of probability.” How can those journalists tasked with writing “history’s first draft” imagine that they know which way true “harm” lies?

Lorraine Clark

1 Oct 2020 · 7 min read

At the NHS and BBC, Important Steps Toward Restoring Balance in the Gender Debate

The fierce onslaught she received has served as a wake-up call, even for those who have not been following the debate closely.

Julian Vigo

5 Aug 2020 · 10 min read

Publicly Shaming a Musician for Calling a Composition by Its Name

The silencing of a voice does not lead to discourse, in art or in politics.

Kurt Gottschalk

27 Jun 2019 · 7 min read

How the 'Underground Grammarian' Taught Me to Tell Reason from Rubbish

Clear language engenders clear thought, and clear thought is the most important benefit of education.

Mark Andre Alexander

10 Jun 2019 · 13 min read

On Its 70th Anniversary, Nineteen Eighty-Four Still Feels Important and Inspiring

Nineteen-Eighty Four, whose first publication took place 70 years ago today, is itself a sort of anti-novel, one that undermines its own dramatic tension in a way that might now be described as postmodern.

Jonathan Kay

8 Jun 2019 · 15 min read

Tolkien—A Review

The real-life Tolkien, who loathed trite allegory, would have cringed.

Charlotte Allen

24 May 2019 · 7 min read