Quillette

Quillette was founded in October 2015 in Sydney, Australia, by Claire Lehmann.{{Cite news |url=https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/huge-gap-in-the-market-the-local-publisher-winning-where-others-won-t-tread-20190428-p51hz8.html |title='Huge gap in the market': the local publisher winning where others won't tread |last=Duke |first=Jennifer |date=1 May 2019 |work=Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=3 June 2019 |archive-date=2 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302063536/https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/huge-gap-in-the-market-the-local-publisher-winning-where-others-won-t-tread-20190428-p51hz8.html |url-status=live }}

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.{{cite web|url=https://quillette.com/2018/07/07/from-the-editor/|title=From the Editor|last1=Lehmann|first1=Claire|author-link1=Claire Lehmann|date=7 July 2018|website=Quillette|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001150408/https://quillette.com/2018/07/07/from-the-editor/|archive-date=1 October 2018|access-date=1 October 2018|quote=In French, a synonym for quillette is bouture d'osier, which is a type of wood off-cutting used to grow new trees. An off-cutting planted in the ground that grows into a tree – this seemed to me a great 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".{{Cite journal|last=Lester|first=Amelia|title=The Voice of the 'Intellectual Dark Web': Claire Lehmann's online magazine, Quillette, prides itself on publishing 'dangerous' ideas other outlets won't touch. How far is it willing to go?|url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/11/intellectual-dark-web-quillette-claire-lehmann-221917|journal=Politico Magazine|issue=November/December 2018|issn=2381-1595|quote=Contributors often shared Lehmann's interest in debunking the “blank slate” theory of human development, which postulates that individuals are largely products of nurture, not nature. But, Lehmann told me, it quickly grew beyond that topic. In "setting up a space where we could critique the blank slate orthodoxy," she says, Quillette "has naturally evolved into a place where people critique other aspects of what they see as left-wing orthodoxy.|access-date=12 November 2018|archive-date=17 May 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200517150722/https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2018/11/11/intellectual-dark-web-quillette-claire-lehmann-221917|url-status=live}}

In August 2017, Quillette published an article in which five academics expressed support for James Damore, author of the "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber" memo. According to Politico, Quillette{{'s}} website crashed because of the popularity of the article. Lehmann was told by her tech staff the cause may have been a DDoS attack.{{Cite news |url=https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/huge-gap-in-the-market-the-local-publisher-winning-where-others-won-t-tread-20190428-p51hz8.html |title='Huge gap in the market': the local publisher winning where others won't tread |last=Duke |first=Jennifer |date=1 May 2019 |work=Sydney Morning Herald |access-date=3 June 2019 |language=en |archive-date=2 March 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210302063536/https://www.smh.com.au/business/companies/huge-gap-in-the-market-the-local-publisher-winning-where-others-won-t-tread-20190428-p51hz8.html |url-status=live }} In its profile of Quillette, Politico reported that Lehmann knew about the grievance studies affair before it was first reported in October 2018. In response, Quillette again published comments from five like-minded academics.{{Cite web|url=https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Academy-s-New-Favorite/246351|title=Opinion: The Academy's New Favorite Hate-Read|last=Bartlett|first=Tom|date=22 May 2019|website=The Chronicle of Higher Education|language=en|access-date=9 January 2020|archive-date=8 June 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190608101712/https://www.chronicle.com/article/The-Academy-s-New-Favorite/246351|url-status=live}}

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.{{cite news |last=Lenihan |first=Eoin |title=It's Not Your Imagination: The Journalists Writing About Antifa Are Often Their Cheerleaders |url=https://quillette.com/2019/05/29/its-not-your-imagination-the-journalists-writing-about-antifa-are-often-their-cheerleaders/ |newspaper=Quillette |date=29 May 2019 |access-date=11 January 2020 |archive-date=2 January 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200102045947/https://quillette.com/2019/05/29/its-not-your-imagination-the-journalists-writing-about-antifa-are-often-their-cheerleaders/ |url-status=live }} Alexander Reid Ross and another journalist who were mentioned in the article said that they and other journalists received death threats after the claims were published.{{Cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/alt-right-antifa-death-threats-doxxing-quillette-a8966176.html|title=Opinion: What happened when I was the target of alt-right death threats|last1=Burley|first1=Shane|last2=Ross|first2=Alexander|date=19 June 2019|website=The Independent|language=en|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190619230718/https://www.independent.co.uk/voices/alt-right-antifa-death-threats-doxxing-quillette-a8966176.html|archive-date=19 June 2019|access-date=19 June 2019}}

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.{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/08/16/how-right-wing-fell-its-own-fables-about-working-class/|title=How the right wing fell for its own fables about the working class|last=Freedman|first=Aaron|date=16 August 2019|newspaper=The Washington Post|language=en|access-date=14 January 2020|archive-date=1 December 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20191201143309/https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2019/08/16/how-right-wing-fell-its-own-fables-about-working-class/|url-status=live}} The magazine retracted the article after the hoax was brought to its attention. According to socialist magazine Jacobin, the hoax brought Quillette{{'s}} fact-checking and editorial standards into question.{{cite web| url=https://www.jacobinmag.com/2019/08/archie-carter-quillette-dsa| title=Exclusive: We Found Archie Carter| last=Freedman| first=Aaron| date=8 August 2019| newspaper=Jacobin| access-date=9 August 2019| archive-date=9 August 2019| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190809042619/https://jacobinmag.com/2019/08/archie-carter-quillette-dsa| url-status=live}}

Quillette has published articles supporting the concept of human biodiversity (HBD),{{Cite web |date=2016-06-23 |title=On the Reality of Race and the Abhorrence of Racism |url=https://quillette.com/2016/06/23/on-the-reality-of-race-and-the-abhorrence-of-racism/ |access-date=2023-12-26 |website=Quillette |language=en |archive-date=26 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231226175641/https://quillette.com/2016/06/23/on-the-reality-of-race-and-the-abhorrence-of-racism/ |url-status=live }}{{Cite web |date=2016-08-09 |title=On the Reality of Race & the Abhorrence of Racism Part II: Human Biodiversity & Its Implications |url=https://quillette.com/2016/08/09/on-the-reality-of-race-the-abhorrence-of-racism-part-ii-human-biodiversity-its-implications/ |access-date=2023-12-26 |website=Quillette |language=en |archive-date=26 December 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20231226175639/https://quillette.com/2016/08/09/on-the-reality-of-race-the-abhorrence-of-racism-part-ii-human-biodiversity-its-implications/ |url-status=live }} which concerns ideas widely considered to touch on eugenics and the pseudoscientific scientific racism belief.{{cite news |last1=Minkowitz |first1=Donna |title=Why Racists (and Liberals!) Keep Writing for 'Quillette' |url=https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/quillette-fascist-creep/ |access-date=30 April 2023 |work=The Nation |date=5 December 2019 |archive-date=17 April 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230417225618/https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/quillette-fascist-creep/ |url-status=live }} HBD refers to beliefs that human behaviors are affected by inherited genes, and certain predispositions are unique to certain ethnic groups.{{Cite web |last1=Jones |first1=Sarah |date=2 January 2020 |title=Will the 2020s Be the Decade of Eugenics? |url=https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/01/eugenic-ideas-never-really-went-away.html |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230222003336/https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/01/eugenic-ideas-never-really-went-away.html |archive-date=22 February 2023 |access-date=21 February 2023 |website=New York Magazine}}{{Cite book |last1=Richards |first1=Imogen |title=Contemporary Far-Right Thinkers and the Future of Liberal Democracy |last2=Jones |first2=Callum |publisher=Routledge |year=2021 |isbn=978-1003105176 |location=London |pages=126–127 |chapter=Quillette, classical liberalism, and the international New Right}} Quillette published articles supporting Noah Carl who "was excluded from a Cambridge University

fellowship over his alleged links to far-right organizations, including collaborating

in writing projects with far-right activist Emil Kirkegaard, and for engaging in

unethical and dishonest research supporting eugenicist views".{{Cite web |date=2018-12-07 |title=Academics' Mobbing of a Young Scholar Must be Denounced |url=https://quillette.com/2018/12/07/academics-mobbing-of-a-young-scholar-must-be-denounced/ |access-date=2025-03-15 |website=Quillette |language=en}}

== Reception ==

{{Libertarianism sidebar}}

In an article for The Outline, writer Gaby Del Valle classifies Quillette as "libertarian-leaning", "academia-focused" and "a hub for reactionary thought."{{cite web|url=https://theoutline.com/post/2307/quillette-claire-lehmann-conservative-snowflakes?zd=1&zi=m4ggsxp6|title=Conservatives love playing the victim|last1=Del Valle|first1=Gaby|date=22 September 2017|website=The Outline|archive-url=https://archive.today/20170923154229/https://theoutline.com/post/2307/quillette-claire-lehmann-conservative-snowflakes|archive-date=23 September 2017|url-status=live|access-date=20 June 2018|quote=In an interview with Psychology Today last week, Claire Lehmann, the founder of the libertarian-leaning, academia-focused digital magazine Quillette, suggested that the website was a refuge from the political correctness and leftist bias that allegedly plague both academia and the mainstream media.}} 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".{{Cite news|url=https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2018/05/31/26879132/wrong-speak-is-a-safe-space-for-dangerous-ideas|title=Wrongspeak Is a Safe Space for Dangerous Ideas|last=Herzog|first=Katie|date=31 May 2018|work=The Stranger|access-date=2 October 2018|archive-url=https://archive.today/20180608230641/https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2018/05/31/26879132/wrong-speak-is-a-safe-space-for-dangerous-ideas|archive-date=8 June 2018|url-status=live|language=en|quote=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".{{cite web |last=Young |first=Cathy |author-link=Cathy Young |title=Googler fired for diversity memo had legit points on gender |publisher=USA Today |date=8 August 2017 |url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/08/08/googler-fired-diversity-memo-had-point-researchers-agree/548518001/ |access-date=17 August 2017 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170808231823/https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/2017/08/08/googler-fired-diversity-memo-had-point-researchers-agree/548518001/ |archive-date=8 August 2017 }} An article in Vice described Quillette as a "libertarian magazine".{{cite web|url=https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/evzjww/here-are-the-citations-for-the-anti-diversity-manifesto-circulating-at-google|title=Here Are the Citations for the Anti-Diversity Manifesto Circulating at Google|last1=Matsakis|first1=Louise|last2=Koeblerand|first2=Jason|date=7 August 2017|website=Vice|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180930054236/https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/evzjww/here-are-the-citations-for-the-anti-diversity-manifesto-circulating-at-google|archive-date=30 September 2018|url-status=live|access-date=20 June 2018|quote=The author also used news articles from outlets like The Wall Street Journal, The Atlantic and The New Yorker, as well as smaller publications like libertarian magazine Quillette.|last3=Emerson|first3=Sarah}}

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."{{Cite news|last=Beauchamp|first=Zack|date=3 July 2019|title=The assault on conservative journalist Andy Ngo, explained|work=Vox|url=https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/7/3/20677645/antifa-portland-andy-ngo-proud-boys|url-status=live|access-date=10 August 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190807132917/https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/7/3/20677645/antifa-portland-andy-ngo-proud-boys|archive-date=7 August 2019}} Writing for The New York Times, Bari Weiss referred to Claire Lehmann as a figure in the "intellectual dark web".{{Cite news|last=Weiss|first=Bari|author-link=Bari Weiss|date=8 May 2018|title=Meet the Renegades of the Intellectual Dark Web|language=en|work=The New York Times|url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/opinion/intellectual-dark-web.html|access-date=1 October 2018|quote=Other figures in the I.D.W., like Claire Lehmann, the founder and editor of the online magazine Quillette, and Debra Soh, who has a Ph.D. in neuroscience, self-deported from the academic track, sensing that the spectrum of acceptable perspectives and even areas of research was narrowing.|archive-date=20 May 2018|archive-url=https://archive.today/20180520125047/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/opinion/intellectual-dark-web.html|url-status=live}}

Writing for The Guardian, Jason Wilson describes Quillette as "a website obsessed with the alleged war on free speech on campus".{{cite web|url=https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/18/how-the-right-trolls-the-left-college-campus-outrage|title=How to troll the left: understanding the rightwing outrage machine|last1=Wilson|first1=Jason|date=18 March 2018|website=The Guardian|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180906155448/https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2018/mar/18/how-the-right-trolls-the-left-college-campus-outrage|archive-date=6 September 2018|url-status=live|access-date=20 June 2018|quote=Nevertheless, along with spreading the video, Ngo wrung from the evening an article for Quillette, a website obsessed with the alleged war on free speech on campus.}} {{anchor|postmodernism}}Writing for The Washington Post, Aaron Hanlon describes Quillette as a "magazine obsessed with the evils of 'critical theory' and postmodernism".{{Cite news|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/postmodernism-didnt-cause-trump-it-explains-him/2018/08/30/0939f7c4-9b12-11e8-843b-36e177f3081c_story.html|title=Postmodernism didn't cause Trump. It explains him.|last=Hanlon|first=Aaron|date=31 August 2018|newspaper=The Washington Post|language=en|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180930192408/https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/postmodernism-didnt-cause-trump-it-explains-him/2018/08/30/0939f7c4-9b12-11e8-843b-36e177f3081c_story.html|archive-date=30 September 2018|url-status=live|access-date=2 October 2018|quote=In Quillette — an online magazine obsessed with the evils of 'critical theory' and postmodernism — Matt McManus reflects on 'The Emergence and Rise of Postmodern Conservatism.'}}

Writing for New York magazine's column The Daily Intelligencer Andrew Sullivan described Quillette as "refreshingly heterodox" in 2018.{{Cite news|url=https://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/09/andrew-sullivan-america-land-of-brutal-binaries.html|title=America, Land of Brutal Binaries|last=Sullivan|first=Andrew|date=21 September 2018|work=New York|access-date=3 October 2018|language=en|quote=As Claire Lehmann, the founding editor of the refreshingly heterodox new website Quillette has put it, 'the Woke Left has a moral hierarchy with white men at the bottom.'|archive-date=4 October 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181004110305/http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2018/09/andrew-sullivan-america-land-of-brutal-binaries.html|url-status=live}}

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 criticize.{{cite web |url=https://slate.com/technology/2019/01/quillette-claire-lehmann-intellectual-dark-web.html |title=Free Thought for the Closed-Minded |last=Engber |first=Daniel |date=8 January 2019 |website=Slate |access-date=9 January 2019 |archive-date=27 November 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201127104951/https://slate.com/technology/2019/01/quillette-claire-lehmann-intellectual-dark-web.html |url-status=live }} 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".{{Cite news|url=https://www.thedailybeast.com/quillette-ben-shapiro-and-the-myth-of-conservative-facts|title=Quillette, Ben Shapiro, and the Myth of Conservative 'Facts'|last=Leo|first=Alex|date=23 March 2019|work=The Daily Beast|access-date=20 June 2019|language=en|archive-date=16 November 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201116183745/https://www.thedailybeast.com/quillette-ben-shapiro-and-the-myth-of-conservative-facts|url-status=live}}

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