Quillette Website Attacked After Promoting Scientists That Support The Google Memo
Cassandra Fairbanks
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Quillette Magazine was hit with a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) cyber-attack on Tuesday as an article they published featuring four scientists backing the infamous Google memo on diversity in tech went viral.
The internal diversity memo had been branded “sexist” by writer James Damore’s co-workers despite the thoughtful and scientific content — and made massive waves online after the “Googlers” began complaining about it on social media. The text was ultimately leaked to Gizmodo, and the rest of liberal media and activists grabbed their pitchforks and began calling for his termination.
The scientific community appeared to have another opinion on his musings, and Quillette Magazine gathered responses from four distinguished scientists from various backgrounds.
“The author of the Google essay on issues related to diversity gets nearly all of the science and its implications exactly right,” Rutgers University Professor Lee Jussim said of the memo. “Its main points are that: 1. Neither the left nor the right gets diversity completely right; 2. The social science evidence on implicit and explicit bias has been wildly oversold and is far weaker than most people seem to realize; 3. Google has, perhaps unintentionally, created an authoritarian atmosphere that has stifled discussion of these issues by stigmatizing anyone who disagrees as a bigot and instituted authoritarian policies of reverse discrimination; 4. The policies and atmosphere systematically ignore biological, cognitive, educational, and social science research on the nature and sources of individual and group differences.”
https://twitter.com/Timcast/status/895060126306099201
University of New Mexico Professor Geoffrey Miller shared a similar sentiment, saying that the author’s claims are “well-supported by large volumes of research across species, cultures, and history.”
“Among commentators who claim the memo’s empirical facts are wrong, I haven’t read a single one who understands sexual selection theory, animal behavior, and sex differences research,” Miller wrote. “For what it’s worth, I think that almost all of the Google memo’s empirical claims are scientifically accurate. Moreover, they are stated quite carefully and dispassionately. Its key claims about sex differences are especially well-supported by large volumes of research across species, cultures, and history.”
The report quickly went viral, gaining coverage from multiple media outlets and being shared heavily on social media. Since the story was so viral, it was initially assumed that their servers had simply crashed from the overwhelming amount of readers.
Quillette began retweeting people who were noticing the crash and suggesting that people contribute to their site to upgrade the servers.
https://twitter.com/clairlemon/status/895038737062559746
Unfortunately, around 6 p.m. EST, Quillette learned that the reason the site was down was far more sinister.
“We have been informed that our website is down due to DDoS attack,” they announced in a tweet.
We have been informed that our website is down due to DDoS attack
— Quillette (@Quillette) August 8, 2017
Following the viral outrage, the author of the manifesto, James Damore, was also fired by Google for “perpetuating gender stereotypes.”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai also sent a company-wide memo on Tuesday responding to the controversy, in which he asserted that Damore’s manifesto had in fact violated company policy.
“Portions of the memo violate our Code of Conduct and cross the line by advancing harmful gender stereotypes in our workplace,” Pichai wrote. “To suggest a group of our colleagues have traits that make them less biologically suited to that work is offensive and not OK.”
It appears that diversity comes above all else at Google, except diversity of thought — which is precisely the point that Damore was trying to make in his memo.
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