Ben Bayer

I'm excited to release a new in-depth piece that's been in the works for a long time. It's also the final chapter of a new book of my essays that will soon be released. new-ideal.aynrand.org/p/how-to-build…

@Meme49plus9 Good to know. How would you answer the actual question?

Bro, I get that Paxton is a piece of shit. But when you say no one should crowdsource a cancer case and then say taxpayers should fund, that’s—sourcing the money from a crowd. It’s just a crowd that didn’t agree to it. Why is it wrong to source from people who consent but not to people who don’t?

No one should have to crowdfund their cancer treatment. My team and I are in the Rio Grande Valley supporting Cindy Banda, a mother of six fighting cancer — and thousands in medical bills. I’ll fight to lower healthcare costs for everyone — because healthcare is a human right.

@jimsparks_ @Nikos_17 I don’t remember that. Will have to check out again.

@BenBayer @Nikos_17 In the final film of that trilogy, Bruce Wayne goes on strike. Interesting parallel…

In a universe where I'm billionaire, I'm harassing Nolan 6 times a day to do an Atlas Shrugged trilogy, with open-ended budget. Just picture Fransisco aura-farming at Rearden's party and Jim Taggart's wedding.

@voicereason05 Calling it a misstep is a complete whitewash. At minimum it’s enormously self-destructive of US credibility. But it’s worse because other people’s lives were pegged to that credibility and now they are dead. And he has no remorse.

@BenBayer Trump has made missteps. The blame for their deaths lies with the IRGC—& those international institutions & governments that economically & morally support & celebrate the IRGC. If the US military could have mobilized earlier it may have been different, though I doubt it.

Three points on Professor Bayer's post: 1. If all the allegations in the case prove to be true then they would be worth fathoming—and morally condemning. Until then they remain allegations and not certainties, and should be evaluated as such. 🧵

@voicereason05 Then he shouldn’t have asked them to rise up against the mullahs. But he did, and didn’t deliver on what he promised to do. But they did rise up and thousands died, without his assistance. That’s betrayal, Mark.

2. As for the "betrayal of Iranians" Trump is the US President, and not Iranian president. The purpose of the U.S. military is not to put U.S. boots on the ground in order to die to free Iranians. Trump's allegiance is first and foremost to American citizens.

Was very pleased to do this podcast as we continue to reflect on the 250th of American Independence.

If you thought Trump's betrayal of Iranians who opposed their regime was bad enough, now fathom the overt evil of American government officials who would contact agents of the Iranian regime to deport Iranians who had fled the very enemy we were about to go to war with!

With the predictable collapse of the latest ceasefire, the Iran conflict has now become fully Gaza-fied. We will now cycle between Iranian attacks, American "mowing the lawn," temporary ceasefires--broken every time by Iran. Just remember Gaza's cycle ended with October 7.

@curtis_yarvin “Leftist” and “rightist” were meaningless enough. You’ve catapulted meaninglessness to jungle noise.

The US was created by a leftist revolution in the 1770s, then recreated by a rightist counterrevolution in the 1780s. The new 1790s state was run as a national monarchy by the revolution’s general and his top aide, working as cofounders. Basically no one knows these basic facts

Finding myself in New Orleans for Independence Day, I sought out the most patriotic spot in the area I could think of: the Chalmette National Cemetery. It’s adjacent to the Chalmette battlefield, where Andrew Jackson fought off a British Invasion some days after the conclusion of the war of 1812. The park was closed. There was no one else at the cemetery, (apart from a few brave joggers in 100 degree heat). It’s a moving place to visit. There are 15,000 soldiers buried here, with war dead from the Civil War to Vietnam. The Civil War dead are exclusively Union, as the city was occupied early in the war and converted to a Union base for invading further north. Of greatest interest to me, at least, are the 1,900 or so U.S. Colored Troops (with graves marked “U.S.C.T.”). One history blogger describes them as follows: “They were citizens of the free states. Some were the sons and grandsons of slaves. Their ancestors escaped from the South. So, they made lives for themselves in the Northern states…. Their soldiers didn’t live anywhere near where the unit was raised. So, when these men died in action in the Deep South, the survivors and the locals had no idea who they were.” Think about that. Raised in freedom, these men volunteered to fight for a country that had so long spurned them and their ancestors. They took their fight to the belly of the beast, the home of the plantation system that had kept their ancestors in bondage. And they never went home again. There are those who say that it’s one’s descent from Anglo-American ancestors that makes one a “heritage American” and so makes one know more about what it means to really be an American. These boys had no such ancestry. But these boys chose to fight for a country that had only recently offered them freedom. They loved their newfound freedom so much that they chose to risk life to defend it. Goes to show that the only “heritage” that matters a wit is the heritage of values you choose, not where you or your ancestors happened to be born. At the gate there’s a plaque with the Gettysburg address. So recall it: “It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us,that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion, that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom….”

I was born in July 1976 (not long after the 4th). So this month I celebrate my 50th along with America’s 250th. I can celebrate today because an immigrant taught me how. Against great odds she struggled to come here because she thought it was the greatest country in the world, and she could prove it. Patriotism did not need to be a matter of blind faith. For too many Americans it still is blind faith. They should remember it’s not just July 4th but Independence Day. And independence isn’t just political independence. It’s a moral virtue concerned with living and valuing and thinking for oneself, not joining or celebrating or believing whatever the crowd joins or celebrates or believes. And the importance of that virtue is what necessitates political independence and the freedom it makes possible. Whatever you do today take some time to yourself to contemplate what the country means to you, personally. Then rededicate yourself to using the freedom we still have to fight for it. I hope to still be around in 2076 to see America’s 300th and my 100th. I for one won’t stop fighting to make sure it is still worth the celebration—worthier even than it is today. Because it can be.

As the U.S. prepares to mark 250 years since the Declaration of Independence, too little thought is being given to the moral foundation of its greatness. Onkar Ghate argues that capitalism is (still) an unknown ideal👇 📷: Roy Rochlin / Getty Images Entertainment / via Getty Images

Join us on July 3 for a special livestream with Dr. Yaron Brook and Brandon Lisi. Dr. Brook will discuss the themes of his OCON talk, “America: The Nation of the Producer,” followed by the online premiere of the talk itself. The talk will be followed by a special presentation—exclusive to those who register. 📅 Friday, July 3 🕙 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET Register for free: hubs.la/Q04mzZTW0

From my latest for New Ideal: new-ideal.aynrand.org/p/our-iran-app…

"The signers of the Declaration of Independence pledged...to fight a militarily superior enemy...250 years later, the American president signed a 'memorandum of understanding' with Iran — a far weaker and viler enemy." Find out why. 📷:Shutterstock AI

@mattvanswol No you got it wrong. The framers of the 14th Amendment ruled that. The court is just reminding us of this fact.

WAIT WAIT WAIT... So the Supreme Court basically ruled that ANYONE, from ANYWHERE, who came into the country by ANY MEANS... ...can have a baby in the United States and that baby is automatically an American citizen???? What are we even doing here? That is obviously insane.

How often do non-academics take a summer vacation in New Orleans to come to a conference where people spend hours not on Bourbon St, but in lectures, where they line up at mics to ask questions about applying epistemology to real life? Only at #OCON2026