Quillette

''Quillette'' () is an online magazine founded by Australian journalist Claire Lehmann. The magazine primarily focuses on science, technology, news, culture, and politics. It also has a podcast, hosted by Jon Kay.

''Quillette'' was created in 2015 to focus on scientific topics, but has come to focus on coverage of political and cultural issues concerning freedom of speech and identity politics. It has been described as libertarian-leaning. A 2021 study found ''Quillettes website to be the 14th most influential internet domain in Australia.

History

''Quillette'' was launched in October 2015 in Sydney, Australia, by Claire Lehmann. It is named after the French word " quillette" which means a withy cutting planted so that it takes root—used here as a metaphor for an essay. Lehmann stated that ''Quillette'' was created with the aim of "setting up a space where we could critique the blank slate orthodoxy" – a theory of human development which assumes individuals are largely products of nurture, not nature – but that it "naturally evolved into a place where people critique other aspects of what they see as left-wing orthodoxy".

In August 2017, ''Quillette'' published an article written by four academics in support of James Damore's "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber" memo. ''Quillette'' website was temporarily disabled. According to Lehmann, this was caused by a DDoS attack after publishing the piece.

In a profile of ''Quillette'', ''Politico'' reported that Lehmann knew about the grievance studies affair before it was first reported in October 2018, and was part of planning how to "fan the flames" of that controversy with the magazine's subsequent story defending the hoax.

In May 2019, ''Quillette'' published an article that alleged connections between antifa activists and national-level reporters who cover the far-right based on the accounts these reporters followed on Twitter. Shane Burley and Alexander Reid Ross, who were mentioned in the article, said that they and other journalists received death threats after the claims were published.

In August 2019, ''Quillette'' published a hoax article titled "DSA Is Doomed" submitted by an anonymous writer claiming to be a construction worker named Archie Carter who was critical of the organisation Democratic Socialists of America. The magazine retracted the article after the hoax was brought to its attention. According to socialist magazine ''Jacobin'', the hoax brought ''Quillette'' fact-checking and editorial standards into question.

Quillette has, controversially, published articles supporting the "Human Biodiversity Movement" (HBM). HBM refers to beliefs that human behaviors are impacted by inherited genes, and certain predispositions are unique to certain ethnic groups. Quillette published articles supporting Noah Carl. Quillette has been accused of promoting eugenics.

Podcasts

''Quillette'' publishes two podcasts: ''Quillette'' that began in 2018, and a second podcast, ''Wrongspeak'', launched in May 2018 and hosted by ''Quillette'' associate editor Jonathan Kay and Debra W. Soh. ''Wrongspeak'' is about "the things we believe to be true but cannot say".

Guests have included Jordan Peterson, Coleman Hughes, James Damore, Lindsay Shepherd, Susan Bradley, Ed the Sock, Adrienne Batra, Steven Pinker, Bill Kristol, Michael Shermer, Matthew Goodwin, Irshad Manji, Sir Roger Scruton, Claire Fox, Francis Fukuyama, Peter Boghossian, Douglas Murray, Brian C. Kalt, and David Frum.

Reception

In an article for '' The Outline'', writer Gaby Del Valle classifies ''Quillette'' as "libertarian-leaning", "academia-focused" and "a hub for reactionary thought." In the Seattle newspaper '' The Stranger'', Katie Herzog writes that it has won praise "from both Steven Pinker and Richard Dawkins", adding that "most of the contributors are academics but the site reads more like a well researched opinion section than an academic journal". In an opinion piece for ''USA Today'', columnist Cathy Young describes ''Quillette'' as "libertarian-leaning". An article in ''Vice'' described ''Quillette'' as a "libertarian magazine".

''Politico ''and ''Vox'' reported that ''Quillette'' has been associated with the " intellectual dark web", a term used, according to ''Politico'', to describe "a loose cadre of academics, journalists and tech entrepreneurs who view themselves as standing up to the knee-jerk left-leaning politics of academia and the media." Writing for ''The New York Times'', Bari Weiss referred to Claire Lehmann as a figure in the "intellectual dark web".

Writing for ''The Guardian'', Jason Wilson describes ''Quillette'' as "a website obsessed with the alleged war on free speech on campus". Writing for ''The Washington Post'', Aaron Hanlon describes ''Quillette'' as a "magazine obsessed with the evils of 'critical theory' and postmodernism". Writing for ''New York'' magazine's column ''The Daily Intelligencer'' Andrew Sullivan described ''Quillette'' as "refreshingly heterodox" in 2018. In a piece for ''Slate'', Daniel Engber suggested that while some of its output was "excellent and interesting", the average ''Quillette'' story "is dogmatic, repetitious, and a bore". He wrote that it describes "even modest harms inflicted via groupthink—e.g., dropped theater projects, flagging book sales, condemnatory tweets—as 'serious adversity'", arguing that various authors in ''Quillette'' engage in the same victim mentality that they attempt to criticise. In an article for ''The Daily Beast'', writer Alex Leo described ''Quillette'' as "a site that fancies itself intellectually contrarian but mostly publishes right-wing talking points couched in grievance politics".

References

Works cited

*

External links

* {{Official website

2015 establishments in Australia
Australian news websites
Internet properties established in 2015
Libertarianism in Australia
Libertarian publications
Magazines established in 2015
Magazines published in Sydney
Online magazines