A lively debate has unfolded in Quillette over how the West should think about China. D. Marshall and Aaron Sarin clash on whether US conservatives underestimate or misread Beijing’s power—and what that means for Taiwan and global security. 🧵 First, the contenders: D. Marshall is a writer, educator, and veteran observer of China. He’s lived in Taiwan, taught at Peking University, and published widely on communism and Chinese history. His essay: “Getting China Wrong” (July 2025).
quillette.com/2025/07/28/get…

Bestselling gay author John Boyne is being cancelled for defending J.K. Rowling. Gender activists still dominate the arts—even as their influence fades elsewhere. What does this say about the state of free expression in publishing? 🧵 Boyne’s novel Earth was longlisted for the 2025 Polari Prize, an LGBT literary award in the UK. But as soon as the list was announced, backlash began—not over the book, but over Boyne’s views.

Since 2023, Gaza has been at the centre of repeated famine claims. Harrowing images circulate daily, and advocacy groups speak of an enclave on the brink.

Yet both Israeli and UN figures show vast amounts of aid entering the Strip.

If so much food is going in, why are so many people still going hungry? Ex-British Army officer and Middle East analyst @Mr_Andrew_Fox explains. 🧵 From late 2024 onwards, daily convoys were bringing in enough food to feed the population. During ceasefires, warehouses inside Gaza filled to capacity. On paper, there was no reason for widespread starvation. And yet, in many neighbourhoods, families were still scavenging for scraps. The problem was never sheer supply—it was that the system for getting food to the people who needed it most had broken down.

France, Britain, and Canada have recently declared support for recognising a Palestinian state. Our editorial stance is firmly against it. Here's why:

🧵 Nurturing an alternative power structure in this politically stunted society will take generations. Yet France, Britain, and Canada have rushed to recognise Palestinian statehood, not as a result of real diplomatic progress, but as a reflex to Hamas’s October 7 atrocities and the optics of Israel’s military response.

Francis Fukuyama just gave one of his most substantive interviews in years.

In Quillette, he speaks with @mattjj89 about patrimonialism, populism, meritocracy, China, “vetocracy,” wokeness, and the search for meaning in liberal societies.

Here are 8 key takeaways 🧵 On the George Floyd protests

"I think it was also very much related to COVID because everybody was locked down unexpectedly in March 2020 and George Floyd was killed in May. People had been living at home for several months unexpectedly with no social contact, and all of the sudden this thing occurs... The people that were the most in favour of defunding the police were actually comfortable white liberals who actually didn’t live in neighbourhoods that required a lot of police protection. That just seemed like the thing to do."

To understand this war against the Islamic Republic of Iran, you must understand Twelver Shiism—an apocalyptic ideology that sees Israel’s destruction as divine prophecy. 🧵 Twelver Shiism teaches that a messianic figure—the Hidden Imam, or Mahdi—will return at the end of days.

He will emerge from Jamkaran, Iran.
He will conquer Jerusalem, purifying the world under Islamic rule.
He is often depicted riding a white horse.

An examination of 18 supposedly ‘trans animals’ disproves activist claims that we all live on a non-binary gender ‘spectrum.’

Written by developmental biologist @FondOfBeetles and @jonkay 👇

1. Clownfish (the protagonist in the 'trans animal' debate)

Some male clownfish (typically, the most dominant specimens within a school) change their sex to female. We know they’ve switched sex because they’ve change their gonad tissue, and so start making eggs instead of sperm (which is to say that their gonads are now ovaries instead of testes). As with humans, there are only two gonad types in clownfish, and two gamete types—one male and one female—and nothing in between.

Sexes? Two.

Sex change? Yes, because clownfish are sequential hermaphrodites.

Could I be a hermaphodite trapped in a mammalian body? Very doubtful.

Camille Paglia's call for a new map of the gender world was our
our 10th most read article of 2018 quillette.com/2018/11/10/cam… PewDiePie's Battle for the Soul of the Internet came in at #9
quillette.com/2018/12/20/pew…