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by tomhoward 2833 days ago
My point is that it's not fair or accurate to call describe it as "highly partisan libertarian-right".

I'm with you on the axe-grindiness of Quillette, and since you mention it, that's probably why I don't read it much anymore.

"Libertarian" can mean all kinds of things these days, but in the comment to which I was replying, the description connotes associations with things like: extreme positions against state welfare and gun control, extreme laissez-faire economic policy, social Darwinism, Ayn Rand, the Tea Party, etc.

In my (admittedly limited) experience, these themes seem to appear quite frequently in Reason Magazine, and they certainly do on Fox News.

They aren't a focus for Quillette, however, which in my experience, generally embraces more moderate/centrist (i.e., classical liberal) positions on economic and social issues.

The axe-grindiness to which you refer would stem from the fact that a big part of its raison d'ĂȘtre is to confront what it sees as the ideological corruption of academia.

I agree it can be quite histrionic in its coverage of this issue, and it doesn't hold much interest for me.

But it still matters to demarcate between "highly partisan libertarian-right" and more moderate, sober ideological positions.

1 comments

I broadly agree with your characterization of Quillette, but I'm curious (genuinely, not in a gotcha way) if you see publications like HuffPo or Vox as similarly having an axe to grind? The thing that makes Quillette stand out IMO is that among many venues with an axe to grind, they get called out for it a lot while publications with equal or worse histories of partisan priorities get a pass as "mainstream web media".
Yeah I think that's fair.