Top Stories - Quillette (Page 9)

Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe—A Review

A review of Doom: The Politics of Catastrophe by Niall Ferguson. Allen Lane, 496 pages (May 2021) Viewed from a certain angle, history appears to be the legacy of our errors—the record of humanity risking too much and anticipating too little, getting things wrong and getting them wrong all

Jared Marcel Pollen

6 May 2021 · 10 min read

Identity and the Self in 'Hamlet'

“Who’s there?” These are the two words that begin Shakespeare’s Hamlet. It is primarily this question, and not “To be or not to be?” with which Hamlet wrestles throughout the play. The two words are spoken from one soldier to another; Elsinore’s castle guards are on the

Marilyn Simon

6 May 2021 · 13 min read

Gaslighting the Concerned Parents of Trans Children—A Psychotherapist’s View

I first met Jo and Carol in Manchester two years ago, when I spoke as a clinician on a panel at what is believed to be the first conference dedicated to the issue of detransitioners (people who once presented themselves as transgender, but then decided to live in accordance with

Stella O’Malley

4 May 2021 · 15 min read

When Journalism Blurs Into Activism—A Canadian Case Study

This all began with an imaginary teachers’ manual. It ended with us challenging Canada’s self-described “national newspaper” about a range of stories in which ideologically-driven narratives seemed to trump fact. We are two long-in-the-tooth Canadian journalists who began our careers in the 1980s. We’ve written investigative pieces about

Paul Benedetti and Wayne MacPhail

3 May 2021 · 12 min read

James Baldwin and the Trouble with Protest Literature

“The hardest thing in the world to do,” wrote Ernest Hemingway in a 1934 article for Esquire, “is to write straight honest prose on human beings. First you have to know the subject; then you have to know how to write. Both take a lifetime to learn and anybody is

Samuel Kronen

2 May 2021 · 24 min read

Why Climate Science Is Like the Rest of Science

Recent White House initiatives suggest that addressing climate change has risen to the policy forefront of government at the presidential level for the first time in US history. Last week President Biden convened an online international meeting of heads of state on the issue and committed the US to a

Lawrence M. Krauss

1 May 2021 · 6 min read

Emotional Realism and The Enduring Art of Caravaggio

At a small auction house in Madrid there briefly appeared a very dark, very brown painting of Christ being presented to the people before his crucifixion: “ecce homo”, says Pilate—behold the man. A dirty old varnish obscures many of the painting’s finer details; but even so, art dealers

Jacob Willer

1 May 2021 · 9 min read

When Will Activists (and the Media) Get Honest About Police Shootings?

Minutes before Derek Chauvin was convicted on all three counts of murder and manslaughter, Ma’Khia Bryant, a black teenage girl in Columbus, Ohio, was shot dead by police. Almost immediately, enraged protestors gathered outside police headquarters. “Say Her Name!” they chanted. The New York Times reported that the girl’

Arthur Jeon

30 Apr 2021 · 14 min read

When Men Behave Badly—A Review

A review of When Men Behave Badly: The Hidden Roots of Sexual Deception, Harassment, and Assault by David M. Buss, Little, Brown Spark, 336 pages (April 2021) Professor David M. Buss, a leading evolutionary psychologist, states in the introduction of his fascinating new book that it “uncovers the hidden roots

Rob Henderson

30 Apr 2021 · 12 min read

The Hard Problems of Vegetarianism

Humans are gratuitously inflicting pain and suffering on intelligent, sentient creatures for no other reason than because they enjoy the taste of their meat, the texture of their skin, or the softness of their fur.

Daniel Issing

29 Apr 2021 · 12 min read

Remembering John Ball, the Writer Who Gave Us Virgil Tibbs

Sidney Poitier, who retired from acting 20 years ago, turned in many unforgettable screen performances over a career that spanned the entire second half of the 20th century. But his best known is almost certainly his portrayal of police officer Virgil Tibbs, the protagonist of Norman Jewison’s 1967 film

Kevin Mims

27 Apr 2021 · 20 min read

Interrogating Jane

In fact, the single most common technique for insisting that Austen is anti-slavery is for the critic to draw an equivalence between slavery and her depiction of social class, or her portrayal of the status of women.

Lona Manning

26 Apr 2021 · 12 min read

Grade Inflation Is Ruining Education

Rampant grade inflation has made grades less useful while, ironically, making them the entire point of school.

Shane Trotter

24 Apr 2021 · 8 min read

The White of the AI

The essence of AI is not white oppression, racism, sexism, and colonialism, it is the automation of mathematics and logic.

Sean Welsh

23 Apr 2021 · 9 min read

Podcast 146: Michael Shellenberger on Nuclear Power, Progressive Hypocrisy on Energy Policy, and His New book, ‘Apocalypse Never’

Quillette founder Claire Lehmann talks to author and activist Michael Shellenberger about how environmental alarmism and ideological blind spots often prevent us from having a rational discussion about the best way to address climate change while growing national economies.

Quillette / Michael Shellenberger

23 Apr 2021 · 1 min read