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1 month ago | 
lawliberty.org | Robert Thornett |Richard Samuelson |Helen Dale
In his 1859 treatise On Liberty, John Stuart Mill observed that one reason for protecting free speech is that there is value in arguing with false opinions. It brings about “the clearer perception and livelier impression of truth, produced by its collision with error,” he wrote. For example, arguing with “Flat Earthers” helps to bring about a better understanding of geodesy, the science of measuring and representing Earth’s shape.
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1 month ago | 
lawliberty.org | Mike Gonzalez |Robert Thornett |Richard Samuelson |Helen Dale
Five years ago, cities across America faced an upheaval inspired by an ideology now called “wokeism.” Combining progressive notions of social justice with critical race theory and calls for revolutionary political action, it rapidly became a major force in American life. Just as suddenly, though, it now seems that “wokeism” is fading away. In this symposium, two Law & Liberty contributors explore the origins and demise of this ideology.
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2 months ago | 
quillette.com | Robert Thornett |Graham Daseler |Joan Smith |Jonathan Kay
Kodiak Island is one of America’s most remote places. Located off the southwest coast of Alaska, it has only 12,500 residents but receives over 60,000 tourists per year. They come for the scenic green coastlines, which have given Kodiak the nickname the “Emerald Isle,” as well as activities like coho salmon fishing, watching Kodiak bears and whales, and kayaking.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
quillette.com | Andrew Glover |Matt Johnson |Brian Stewart |Robert Thornett
In 2022, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) of Australia implemented a new policy to improve “gender equity” in its grant-funding scheme. (Lawrence Krauss reported on this at the time for Quillette.) The policy was adopted followed sustained pressure by gender equity advocates, who claimed that the previous grant funding processes systemically disadvantaged women.
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Oct 10, 2024 | 
quillette.com | Matt Johnson |Brian Stewart |Robert Thornett |Oscar Clarke
There’s a devastating civil war and vast humanitarian crisis unfolding in Sudan right now, and it barely makes the headlines. Since April 2023, a conflict between the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and a paramilitary group called the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) has claimed tens of thousands of lives and displaced more than ten million people.
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
quillette.com | Brian Stewart |Robert Thornett |Oscar Clarke |John Aziz
We seem to have reached a hinge moment in the long-running battle against the Islamic State. In recent months, the jihadist outfit has been mustering forces in Syria’s Badiya desert, recruiting and training a new band of holy warriors to resurrect its dream of ruling a caliphate. The rallying of jihadist forces and the corresponding outburst of violence have not been out of the ordinary in this vast ungoverned space, but they may yet prove combustible enough to engulf Syria and parts of Iraq.
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Oct 9, 2024 | 
quillette.com | Zoe Booth |Brian Stewart |Robert Thornett |Oscar Clarke
Until recently, David Benatar was a Professor of Philosophy at the University of Cape Town in South Africa, where he also directed the university’s Bioethics Centre. He is widely known for his controversial and challenging views on topics like antinatalism—captured in his groundbreaking book Better Never to Have Been: The Harm of Coming into Existence—which argues that bringing new life into the world inevitably leads to suffering.
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Oct 8, 2024 | 
quillette.com | Robert Thornett |Oscar Clarke |John Aziz |Iona Italia
Introduction: My guest this week is Megan Gafford. Megan is an artist, teacher, and writer. She publishes visual essays on her Substack “Fashionably Late Takes.” She is also a frequent contributor to Quillette.
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Oct 8, 2024 | 
quillette.com | Robert Thornett |Oscar Clarke |John Aziz |Iona Italia
“Civility prevails,” read the headline of the Spanish newspaper El País. “Walz and Vance embrace an endangered species: agreement,” reported the Guardian. Such responses to the recent US vice-presidential debate between Republican J.D. Vance and Democrat Tim Walz were a world away from those that followed the bitter Trump–Biden and Trump–Harris debates in the preceding months.
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Sep 11, 2024 | 
lawliberty.org | Robert Thornett |Steven Hayward |Richard Samuelson
In the last lines of Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville says that in writing the book, “I did not mean either to serve or to contest any party; I undertook to see, not differently, but further than the parties; and while they are occupied with the next day, I wanted to ponder the future.”Seeing further than the prevailing culture is often difficult.
