Top Stories - Quillette (Page 28)

Oscar Wilde’s UtopiaOscar Wilde’s Utopia

The novel’s composition is a bit cobbled, which Amis acknowledges when he says that he pities the reviewer who has to cross the whole thing front-to-back, recommending instead that the book be taken up at random and read in leaps and snatches.

Jared Marcel Pollen

25 Sep 2020 · 9 min read

Rallying to Protect Admissions Standards at America’s Best Public High School

The activists seeking to eliminate TJ’s meritocratic admissions systems attribute this latter result to systemic racism.

Asra Q. Nomani and Glenn Miller

23 Sep 2020 · 10 min read

One Billion Americans—A Review

Yglesias proposes that the United States ensure its position as global hegemon by tripling its population over the course of this century.

Clayton Trutor

23 Sep 2020 · 7 min read

Microbes on Venus May Herald Human Extinction (Though Not in the Way You Think)

Many of these cultures surely had their share of Elon Musks—beings who wished to colonize other worlds.

James D. Miller

23 Sep 2020 · 8 min read

L.A.'s Failed Homeless Policies Turned My Home Into a Prison

I support helping the homeless—but with meaningful measures that have been proven to work, as opposed to policy that’s heavy on virtue signaling and ultimately short on humanitarian substance.

Amy Alkon

23 Sep 2020 · 18 min read

Saudi Arabia: The Pragmatic Case for Constructive Engagement

The ideology that inspired this insurrection hasn’t disappeared. Various kings have dealt with the fire of fundamentalism either through granting concessions or enacting purges.

Tal Tyagi

22 Sep 2020 · 31 min read

Dr. Norman C. Wang and Selective Outrage

Our profession functions well because constructive criticism, the need for empirical data, and a willingness to change have hitherto been so deeply entrenched.

Zachary Robert Caverley

22 Sep 2020 · 10 min read

As City Budgets Shrink, It's Time to Rethink Recycling Programs

Instead of relying on impractical edicts from politicians, and the costly labor of municipal employees who gather a jumble of mostly worthless material that needs to be sorted, let the market determine what’s worth recycling, and let private operators figure out how to collect it efficiently.

Howard Husock and John Tierney

21 Sep 2020 · 6 min read

How the Nonbinary Trend Hurts Those with Real Gender Dysphoria

Some nonbinary people will say that they don’t like labels such as “gay” or “lesbian” because they are binary terms; attraction to a man or a woman, even in the context of being gay, is still considered attraction to a binary gender.

Debra Soh

19 Sep 2020 · 6 min read

Postmodernism: Some Corrections and Clarifications

Compared to the titans of modernism, postmodernists—despite a handful of interesting thinkers like Barthes and Derrida—are no more than garden gnomes.

Elena Shalneva

18 Sep 2020 · 8 min read

The Dishonest and Misogynistic Hate Campaign Against J.K. Rowling

And it turns out that she was, because despite the best efforts of her critics, she hasn’t yet been truly cancelled.

Louise Perry

18 Sep 2020 · 7 min read

Black Lives Matter and the Mechanics of Conformity

Left unrestrained, they can get completely out of hand. The sudden conformity produced by an availability cascade can result in reflexive demands for urgent government action without any proper discussion or consideration of trade-offs, consequences, or even necessity.

Matthew Blackwell

17 Sep 2020 · 17 min read

Corruption and Remorse—The Novels of a Watergate Conspirator

As an avid reader of pop fiction, I’m more partial to the Nixon administration than any other White House. The Reagan years may have produced more crooks, and the Trump years may have produced more chaos, but there is one measure by which the criminal and criminal-adjacent members of

Kevin Mims

17 Sep 2020 · 19 min read

Don’t Listen to the Outrage. ‘Cuties’ Is a Great Film

Allan Stratton

17 Sep 2020 · 12 min read

Lessons of the Pinker Affair: The Problem with the Academy is False Beliefs, Not Intolerance

The correct response to the cancellers is not simply to say that they should respect free speech. Rather, one must say to them that you are attacking people for stating things which are true, while you are stating things which are false.

Richard Hanania

16 Sep 2020 · 7 min read