Ben Bayer

ICE tyranny is what democracy looks like Voters made this possible.

From me in the OC Register today:

"The laws Trump is enforcing are not ‘undemocratic.’ But they do violate constitutional rights. Even non-citizens have a right to liberty. Laws restricting immigrant labor violate the freedom to work and engage in trade."

www.ocregister.com/2026/02/16/i...

Here Sam Weaver and I discuss @tamu.bsky.social's deletion of philosophy from the philosophy curriculum because Plato is too "woke." First Amendment violations are unavoidable in public education; a "fairness doctrine" would be less destructive then A&M's ham-handed approach.

It’s Time to Rethink “Cancel Culture” Ostracizing antisemites like Nick Fuentes is necessary and just. The “cancel culture” concept only obscures what’s wrong with today’s political culture

To discuss tonight, among other things:
new-ideal.aynrand.org/p/its-time-t...

YouTube video by Yaron Brook Conversation with Ben Bayer -- Rethink “Cancel Culture” and More | Yaron Brook Show

I'll be on the Yaron Brook show at 7pm ET to discuss tribalism, "cancel culture" and other related topics (probably including this past weekend's events):
www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbu8...

This is a cause for despair, or hope.

If our leaders do express our nation's moral standards, we are "accelerating to destruction."

But if they've exceeded their mandate, if propaganda doesn't function to obscure it—as it can't if there's still free speech—they will lose power.

Another shooting in Minneapolis. Much of the analysis in this podcast still applies. The main issue is not about the particulars of the shooting, but about the context leading up to it and the administration’s reaction. Watch to see how a real thinker processes this.

Here I argue that we must abandon the "cancel culture" concept: the debate over antisemitism in the GOP shows how it obscures the basic unity between woke activists and MAGA antisemites. Both are faith-driven witch hunters. That's the only concept we need.

Why there needs to be more moral support for the Iranian protestors — and why almost no one is offering it.

This point also cuts the other way.

Root for the Iranian protesters if you're critical of ICE. If Trump intervenes because of the repression of protesters, he'll have to explain how he can bomb another country's repressive Gestapo while creating his own. Freedom for Iran could help American freedom.

"Mamdani has...done us a favor: he’s used the most accurate name for his ideology and for the idea that’s taken more seriously in both of today’s political camps. 'Collectivism' is the broad category that covers socialism, fascism, and any other system that sacrifices the individual to some group."

Here Elan Journo, Onkar Ghate and I use the f-word quite liberally. No, the really bad f-word.

Texas A&M philosophy professor ordered to remove Plato reading or be reassigned Professor Peterson said the discussion about love and biological sexes from Plato’s Symposium is what the administration red-flagged.

I'll never forget the day a professor in grad school defended socialized medicine against the idea it would tyrannize doctors by saying "as the employee of a state university, I don't feel my liberty is violated."
www.kbtx.com/2026/01/07/t...

YouTube video by Ayn Rand Institute The Dramatic Injustice of the January 6th Pardons

This is still true. Trump opened his second term with an act of pure dishonesty and wicked contempt for the rule of law when he did a blanket pardon of all Jan 6ers. I laid out the case last January.
youtu.be/fEOGBX9R05w?...

YouTube video by Ayn Rand Institute Steven Pinker's Weak Defense of Enlightenment Values vs. Religion

Onkar Ghate and I comment here on a recent essay by Steven Pinker and Marian Tupy. What is the threat that Enlightenment values are really up against, and what will it take to save those values?
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ClmX...

One last push to promote my upcoming live course at ARI, Objectivism through Ayn Rand's Fiction!

Official start date is Jan 8, but the 1st live meeting isn't until the following week--so there's still time to enroll.

Use discount code Ben10 for 10% discount off tuition

Some say I'm a "Heritage American" because I have a Mayflower ancestor (the 1st one born in the New World)!

But I descend from the line that fled to Canada as loyalist opponents of the Revolution.

Heritage is meaningless. Americans are Americans "by choice and conviction."

YouTube video by Ayn Rand Institute RFK Jr.’s Irrational Anti-Vaccine Policies: Interview with Dr. Amesh Adalja

RFK Jr.’s Irrational Anti-Vaccine Policies: Interview with Dr. Amesh Adalja

Samantha Watkins interviews Dr. Amesh Adalja about the alarming trend of vaccine conspiracism, now not just being spread by online conspiracy theorists, but also by the leaders of the nation’s top scientific institutions.

I've said it before, I'll say it again. Donald Trump is the living embodiment of tribal lone wolf type of amoralist skewered by Ayn Rand in this essay. Far from caring of nothing but himself, he has no self to care for.
courses.aynrand.org/works/selfis...

Here Elan Journo and I take apart the case for war the Trump administration is ginning up against Venezuela. There’s zero self defense rationale here.

This is the course I'll be leading for ARI Live Courses (based on both my and Onkar Ghate's lectures) in January. You should join!

To get a 10% discount off tuition, use the discount code Ben10.

YouTube video by Ayn Rand Institute ICE Raids vs. Rule of Law: Interviewing Institute for Justice’s Josh Windham

A very important interview between Agustina Vergara Cid and Josh Windham. You'll be shocked what Trump's ICE is getting away with it, and you ought to cheer the great work the folks at IJ are doing to fight against it. youtu.be/1KEOmlA-YRo?...

YouTube video by Ayn Rand Institute Tucker Carlson, Nick Fuentes, Heritage, and Conservatism's Moral Decay

Here Nikos Sotirakopoulos, Elan Journo, Onkar Ghate and I unpack the meaning of the conservative civil war about antisemitism.

youtu.be/kgur8cEOpnk?...

The Lawyers Defending Trump’s Tariffs Know They’re Un-American. Here’s How We Can Tell Legal scholars who cherry pick American history to ignore the American revolution aren’t making an accidental oversight

"Defenders of the president’s new powers may seek to justify his tariffs by citing details of English history or obscure American pamphlets. But. . .they do it in a way that blatantly ignores the founders’ love for liberty and hatred of unchecked tyranny."
new-ideal.aynrand.org/p/the-lawyer...

The oral arguments about Trump's tariffs exposed so many ways in which the emperor has no clothes.

Republishing another classic New Ideal piece.

YouTube video by Ayn Rand Institute Mamdani's Socialist War on Gifted Kids

Here Samantha Watkins and I dissect one of the bigger scandals of the incoming Mamdani administration that not nearly enough people are talking about.

youtu.be/A1sggf9exTQ?...

Here's a discussion I had with Mike Mazza, Tristan de Liege and Professor Jim Lennox about a fascinating book on the questions in philosophy of biology that condition a naturalistic value theory

The President Has No “Foreign Policy” Discretion To Impose Sweeping Global Tariffs The president’s real foreign policy discretion over trade applies only in wartime against specific belligerents — not in perpetuity and even against our allies

My OCR piece from earlier this week, now on Substack.

new-ideal.aynrand.org/p/the-presid...