{{Short description|Online magazine}} {{confused|Quileute}} {{Use Australian English|date=December 2025}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2025}} {{Infobox magazine | title = Quillette | logo = Quillette.svg{{!}}class=skin-invert | logo_size = 200 | image_file = <!-- cover.jpg (omit the "file:" prefix) --> | image_size = <!-- default is 180px --> | image_alt = Quillette's logo: large bold letters saying "Quillette", with a comma serving as the tail of the letter ''Q''. | image_caption = Quillette's logo | editor_title = Editor-in-chief | editor = Claire Lehmann | editor_title2 = Senior editor, London | editor2 = Jamie Palmer | editor_title3 = Canadian editor, Toronto | editor3 = Jonathan Kay | category = {{hlist | Politics | culture | science | technology<ref name="politico1">{{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|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}}</ref>}} | founder = Claire Lehmann | founded = {{start date and age|2015}} | firstdate = <!-- {{start date and age|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | finaldate = <!-- {{end date|YYYY|MM|DD}} --> | finalnumber = | country = Australia | based = Sydney | language = English | website = {{official URL}} }}
'''''Quillette''''' ({{IPAc-en|k|w|ɪ|ˈ|l|ɛ|t}}) is an online magazine founded by Australian journalist Claire Lehmann. The magazine primarily focuses on science, technology, news, culture, and politics.
''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.<ref name="Del Valle 2017"/><ref name=young/><ref name=vice/> The ''Columbia Journalism Review'' has called ''Quillette'' "the right wing's highly influential answer to ''Slate''",<ref>{{Cite web |last=Thielman |first=Sam |date=2019 |title=Villains |url=https://www.cjr.org/special_report/villains-disinformation-steve-brodner.php/ |access-date=5 June 2023 |website=Columbia Journalism Review |language=en |archive-date=6 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230606113801/https://www.cjr.org/special_report/villains-disinformation-steve-brodner.php |url-status=live }}</ref> Holly High and Joshua Reno have criticised it as an "anti-PC soapbox",<ref>Holly High and Joshua Reno. "Actually existing anarchist anthropology," in Holly High and Joshua Reno (eds.), ''As if already free: Anthropology and Activism after David Graeber'' (pp. 79-95). London: Pluto Press: 2023), p. 89.</ref> and Sarah Jones of ''New York''{{'}}s ''Intelligencer'' has described it as "reflexively contrarian".<ref>{{Cite web |last=Jones |first=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 |access-date=15 March 2025 |website=Intelligencer |language=en}}</ref>
== History == ''Quillette'' was founded in October 2015 in Sydney, Australia, by Claire Lehmann.<ref>{{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 }}</ref> It is named after the French word "quillette", a withy cutting planted so that it takes root—used here as a metaphor for an essay.<ref>{{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.}}</ref> 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".<ref name="Del Valle 2017"/><ref>{{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}}</ref>
In August 2017, ''Quillette'' published an article in which five academics expressed support for James Damore, author of the memo "Google's Ideological Echo Chamber". According to Politico, ''Quillette''{{'s}} website crashed because of the popularity of the article. Lehmann was told by her tech staff that the cause may have been a DDoS attack.<ref name="politico1"/><ref>{{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 }}</ref> 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.<ref name="politico1" /><ref>{{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}}</ref>
In May 2019, ''Quillette'' published an article alleging connections between antifa activists and national-level reporters who cover the far-right, based on the accounts these reporters followed on Twitter.<ref>{{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 }}</ref><ref name=":5" /> 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.<ref name=":5">{{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}}</ref>
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.<ref>{{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}}</ref> The magazine retracted the article after the hoax was brought to its attention.
''Quillette'' has published articles supporting the pseudoscientific human biodiversity movement (HBD), by writers such as Brian Boutwell and John Paul Wright, HBD being a euphemism for eugenics and scientific racism.<ref>{{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 }}</ref> ''Quillette'' published articles supporting Noah Carl who "was excluded from a Cambridge University fellowship over his alleged links to far-right organisations, including collaborating in writing projects with far-right activist Emil Kirkegaard, and for engaging in unethical and dishonest research supporting eugenicist views".<ref>{{Cite web |date=7 December 2018 |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=15 March 2025 |website=Quillette |language=en}}</ref><ref name="jones_20200102">{{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}}</ref><ref name="richards_2021">{{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}}</ref>
== Reception == {{Conservatism in Australia|Media}} In an article for ''The Outline'', writer Gaby Del Valle classifies ''Quillette'' as "libertarian-leaning", "academia-focused" and "a hub for reactionary thought."<ref name="Del Valle 2017">{{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://web.archive.org/web/20180104073409/https://theoutline.com/post/2307/quillette-claire-lehmann-conservative-snowflakes |archive-date=4 January 2018|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.}}</ref> 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".<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|url=https://www.thestranger.com/podcasts/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://web.archive.org/web/20220808101154/https://www.thestranger.com/podcasts/2018/05/31/26879132/wrong-speak-is-a-safe-space-for-dangerous-ideas |archive-date=8 August 2022 |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.}}</ref> In an opinion piece for ''USA Today'', columnist Cathy Young describes ''Quillette'' as "libertarian-leaning".<ref name=young>{{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 }}</ref> An article in ''Vice'' described ''Quillette'' as a "libertarian magazine".<ref name=vice>{{cite web|url=https://www.vice.com/en/article/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}}</ref>
Amelia Lester of ''Politico Magazine ''and ''Vox'' have reported that ''Quillette'' has been associated with the "intellectual dark web", a term used, according to Lester, 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."<ref name="politico1" /><ref name="Vox-Ngo">{{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}}</ref> Writing for ''The New York Times'', Bari Weiss referred to Claire Lehmann as a figure in the "intellectual dark web".<ref name="politico1" /><ref>{{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=9 May 2018|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180509131617/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/05/08/opinion/intellectual-dark-web.html |url-status=live}}</ref>
Writing for ''The Guardian'', Jason Wilson describes ''Quillette'' as "a website obsessed with the alleged war on free speech on campus".<ref>{{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.}}</ref> {{anchor|postmodernism}}Writing for ''The Washington Post'', Aaron Hanlon describes ''Quillette'' as a "magazine obsessed with the evils of 'critical theory' and postmodernism".<ref>{{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.'}}</ref>
Writing for ''New York'' magazine's column ''The Daily Intelligencer'' Andrew Sullivan described ''Quillette'' as "refreshingly heterodox" in 2018.<ref>{{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}}</ref>
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".<ref name=slate/> 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.<ref name=slate>{{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 }}</ref> 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".<ref>{{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}}</ref>
== See also ==
* Contrarianism * Heterodox Academy * {{slink|Helen Pluckrose|Areo Magazine}}
== References == {{reflist}}
== External links == * {{Official website}} {{Online news in Australia}} Category:2015 establishments in Australia Category:Australian news websites Category:Conservative magazines Category:Conservative media in Australia Category:Conservative websites Category:Criticism of political correctness Category:Internet properties established in 2015 Category:Libertarianism in Australia Category:Libertarian publications Category:Magazines established in 2015 Category:Magazines published in Sydney Category:Online magazines