# Quillette: the thinking racist's magazine **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [June 17, 2019, 7:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636 "2019-06-17T07:53:39Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [June 18, 2019, 6:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/61 "2019-06-18T18:42:41Z")
I don’t know how much more clearly to make this. This is scientific racism. It is bunkum. None of it holds up to scientific scrutiny. It is merely a viewpoint that starts with racism and then looks for proof. Science works the other way: look at evidence, then make arguments. I know, it sucks. You’re reading something, think it makes sense, then you find out it’s all bullshit. But you’ve put in so much effort into believing it that it takes a lot of effort to change. It often seems easier to just find a band-aid and fix it. But it just doesn’t work. Racism isn’t some secretly true thing that the scientific authorities are trying to hide from you. It’s just false. White people are not special. We just have a mutation that allowed us to adapt to climates with less sun exposure. We also lost our epicanthic folds, likely for similar reasons: wider eyes get in more light. It’s just due to where we live, and nothing more. While I normally don’t recommend it as an oversimplification of reality, go read _Guns, Germs and Steel._ Location alone explains so much of any actual differences in ethnicities or races. Not some sort of genetic superiority. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 12:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/62 "2019-06-19T00:09:57Z")
I have read GGT and that is the book that proceeds from its conclusions. ---
**Author:** ![Chingon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chingon/32/17645_2.png) [@Chingon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chingon)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/63 "2019-06-19T01:14:51Z")
…and irony meters across the world burst into flame. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 1:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/64 "2019-06-19T01:59:32Z")
Oops, GGS ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/65 "2019-06-19T06:40:49Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > to spot bad or shaky writing doesn’t require reading a whole book. It doesn’t even require reading a whole chapter, for that matter. For some Dan Brown shit, sure. For something more complex, like Jemisin? Well, we can see how well that review strategy works out by all that egg on your face… > [@](#): > > Funny you should frame it that way. I have ranked and rated nearly 1500 films You … you don’t really _hear_ yourself as you type, do you? You actually think saying this kind of thing makes you seem…what? Cultured? Experienced? _Not_ weird and sad? > [@](#): > > Do you really I had hopes… > [@](#): > > , or was this some kind of dry joke? (No, I have thus far only read the free sample of Andy’s book, just as I initially did with NKJ.) …but they were short-lived. :rolleyes: You know what I think one of your (many) problems is? This is going by your preference for podcasts, and reaching sweeping conclusions on only the first chapters of things : you want to _appear_ like some sort of erudite, well-read intellectual, but you’re fundamentally _too damn lazy_ to do the actual work that really takes. Typical, really. ---
**Author:** ![SlackerInc](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slackerinc/32/275_2.png) [@SlackerInc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SlackerInc)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 7:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/66 "2019-06-19T07:44:13Z")
If being a cinephile makes one “weird and sad”, there are an awful lot of us—and we are having a grand old time while you pity us. :rolleyes: Of course, the reality is that you are simply applying a blatantly hypocritical double standard. If some other cinephile who had the “correct” politics mentioned rating/ranking that many films (hell, ten times as many!), somehow they would not be judged “weird and sad”. Funny how that works. ETA: Hilarious BTW that you think a self-described slacker will feel insulted by being called lazy! I run into this surprisingly often. Do people think my screen name was chosen by my enemies, or by a sorting hat or something? 😕 ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [June 19, 2019, 8:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/67 "2019-06-19T08:07:00Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > If being a cinephile makes one “weird and sad”, …because that’s what I said. :rolleyes: No, I did not - I like films a lot, myself. There’s nothing weird or sad about liking films. Except using the word _cinephile_ to describe yourself - that’s just only a hair less fucking pretentious than _cineaste_. See what I mean about you being a _pretend_ intellectual? “Liking films a lot” was not the weird and sad thing I was highlighting in your post. > [@](#): > > If some other cinephile who had the “correct” politics mentioned rating/ranking that many films (hell, ten times as many!), somehow they would not be judged “weird and sad”. No, they totally would be. If anyone (who didn’t review films at least semi-professionally) posted the words you did, I would say it came across as weird and sad. Not _very_ weird or sad, we’re not talking cataloguing your toenail clippings here. But just a little bit _anorak_. > [@](#): > > Hilarious BTW that you think a self-described slacker will feel insulted by being called lazy I wasn’t trying to _insult_ you. You know I can do a lot better than “lazy” if I want to insult you. I was trying to tell you why your pretence at any intellectual standing is laughable. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/68 "2019-12-05T19:32:06Z")
Interesting article on Quillette: [https://www.thenation.com/article/quillette-fascist-creep/](https://www.thenation.com/article/quillette-fascist-creep/) ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/69 "2019-12-05T20:21:02Z")
Did you \*have \*to, **andy**? The little racist creep had been mercifully keeping his head low for a while now, and now you’ve likely gone and summoned him… ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 5, 2019, 10:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/70 "2019-12-05T22:11:14Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Did you \*have \*to, **andy**? The little racist creep had been mercifully keeping his head low for a while now, and now you’ve likely gone and summoned him… Oops… we’ll see! ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/71 "2019-12-06T16:35:07Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Correct. “Pittsburgh” is a more meaningful biological category, in terms of genetic variation, than “black people” (i.e. people in Pittsburgh, or any randomly chosen city, have more genetic similarity, on average, than random “black people” do, on average). Cite? IIRC Pittsburgh has a lot of blacks as well as people of other races. > [@](#): > > I’m less than convinced this is actually a supposition in Saini’s book – let’s see a cite that the book says this. Presumably skin color is a superficial trait? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/72 "2019-12-06T17:01:56Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Cite? > > IIRC Pittsburgh has a lot of blacks as well as people of other races. You need a cite that “black people”, a category which contains well over a billion people, including the vast majority of the most genetically variable region on Earth (sub-Saharan Africa), as well as ancestry from every part of the planet (all the mixed-background people that society shoehorns into the “black people” category), has more genetic variation than a single medium-sized city? ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 5:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/73 "2019-12-06T17:37:24Z")
> [@SlackerInc](#): > > Andy, your virtue signaling is duly noted. It’s what you are good at. (Actually, you do also seem to be good at writing science fiction, which—at least in the sample I read—surprised me by not reeking of performative wokeness.) TO me virtue signaling always had an element of disingenuity. Acting virtuous when in fact you are just trying to humblebrag about how woke you are. It was the woke version of holier than thou attitudes. I don’t think blacks can really “virtue signal” about anti-black racism, no one thinks better of them for it nor does it identify them as an ally or anything like that. Most virtue signalers are privileged liberals who get offended on behalf of all the oppressed people they don’t actually know in real life. ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 5:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/74 "2019-12-06T17:40:13Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Fuck you, you racist piece of shit. Disagreeing with you, or with Sam Harris, is not “virtue signaling”. > > EDIT: Thank you for the kind words about my sci-fi writing. Sci-fi writing? ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/75 "2019-12-06T17:44:00Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > Sci-fi writing? Click my signature! If you’re a sci-fi fan, I’d be happy to send you a free copy of the e-book (an offer I extend to any Doper who likes to read sci-fi novels, regardless of past disagreements). ---
**Author:** ![Damuri\_Ajashi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Damuri\_Ajashi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Damuri_Ajashi)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/76 "2019-12-06T17:53:50Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > You need a cite that “black people”, a category which contains well over a billion people, including the vast majority of the most genetically variable region on Earth (sub-Saharan Africa), as well as ancestry from every part of the planet (all the mixed-background people that society shoehorns into the “black people” category), has more genetic variation than a single medium-sized city? I thought you were saying that 300,000 randomly chosen blacks had more genetic variability than the 300,000 Pittsburgh residents. Which doesn’t really seem self evident. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/77 "2019-12-06T17:57:57Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > I thought you were saying that 300,000 randomly chosen blacks had more genetic variability than the 300,000 Pittsburgh residents. Which doesn’t really seem self evident. I’m making the point that “black people” is no more valid (and even significantly _less_ valid) a biological indicator, in terms of genetic ancestry, than “Pittsburghese” (or sub in another random city). Take sets of two random “black” people on Earth, and sets of two random Pittsburghese folks, and chances are the Pittsburghese are going to have more in common, in terms of genetic ancestry, than the sets of black folks. Probably by a helluva lot. ---
**Author:** ![GIGObuster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gigobuster/32/421_2.png) [@GIGObuster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GIGObuster)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/78 "2019-12-06T18:04:51Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > TO me virtue signaling always had an element of disingenuity. Acting virtuous when in fact you are just trying to humblebrag about how woke you are. It was the woke version of holier than thou attitudes. > > I don’t think blacks can really “virtue signal” about anti-black racism, no one thinks better of them for it nor does it identify them as an ally or anything like that. > > Most virtue signalers are privileged liberals who get offended on behalf of all the oppressed people they don’t actually know in real life. Well, as minority living in the full of bigots red state of Arizona, I will have to say that you are just spewing bullshit. ---
**Author:** ![Slash1972](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/slash1972/32/6461_2.png) [@Slash1972](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Slash1972)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/79 "2019-12-06T19:13:33Z")
> [@iiandyiiii](#): > > Click my signature! If you’re a sci-fi fan, I’d be happy to send you a free copy of the e-book (an offer I extend to any Doper who likes to read sci-fi novels, regardless of past disagreements). Dammit man, I paid for that! 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [December 6, 2019, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636/80 "2019-12-06T19:50:58Z")
> [@Damuri\_Ajashi](#): > > TO me virtue signaling always had an element of disingenuity. Acting virtuous when in fact you are just trying to humblebrag about how woke you are. It was the woke version of holier than thou attitudes. > > I don’t think blacks can really “virtue signal” about anti-black racism, no one thinks better of them for it nor does it identify them as an ally or anything like that. > > Most virtue signalers are privileged liberals who get offended on behalf of all the oppressed people they don’t actually know in real life. Your projection is duly noted, fucko. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/quillette-the-thinking-racists-magazine/835636.md?page=5)