Although Brat largely supports free markets, he does not consistently support them, as Rand did; he disagrees with Rand on important philosophic issues; and he himself recognizes that his views are not Rand’s. As examples, Brat parts ways with Rand dramatically when it comes to immigration and the source of individual rights.

In the big picture, when government violates people’s rights in order to “run” libraries, rail transportation, and the like, it cannot do so without stealing money from the productive and thus precluding them from using that money productively; it cannot do so without destroying wealth and blocking or pushing out private alternatives.

When today’s leftists speak of “white privilege,” their goal is not to abolish overtly racist laws—those were abolished in part by Lincoln and his supporters in the Civil War and virtually in full within a century of the Civil War. Nor is the left’s goal to eradicate private bigotry—which today is big news precisely because it is rare (e.g., Donald Sterling).

Martin Luther King, Jr. rightly called on people to judge others not “by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” Radersma is a racist, not because of the color of her skin, but because of the corrupt ideas she chooses to embrace and the malicious words she chooses to speak.

It is absurd to suggest that opening one’s business to the general public somehow obligates one to serve every individual who walks through the doors, regardless of context. Must a cake baker bake a “God Hates Fags” cake for the bigoted Westboro Baptist Church, or a swastika cake for a neo-Nazi group?

“Imagine being able to speak in German, and have your message conveyed grammatically and semantically correct in English. That future is here,” Microsoft touts in a recent video. Microsoft is developing the translator for use with Skype, the web communication platform Microsoft purchased a few years ago.

The so-called Civil Rights Commission did not rule that “the baker was wrong” (he was in fact wrong); rather, it ruled that government will punish the baker if he does not bake cakes for gay couples. There is a world of difference between a private individual condemning some action as immoral, and the government punishing that action.

According to Sunstein, although the Chinese government was not uniformly successful, “the new curriculum greatly affected students’ thinking” in various ways. Sunstein writes that the Chinese government indoctrinated students (among other things) to view the government as legitimate and democratic and to view free markets with suspicion.

As Rand points out, the tribal lone wolf mentality has nothing to do with genuine, rational, life-promoting selfishness. A rationally selfish individual, far from “living” (or killing and dying) by the opinions of others, lives by his own independent judgment and for his own self-achieved happiness, creating values and trading value for value with others.

Rather than appreciate the joys and challenges of his work managing film negatives for Life magazine, ask a woman he likes out on a date, go on adventures, or stick up for himself when insulted or mistreated, Mitty frequently “zones out” and vividly imagines himself doing heroic things and going to interesting places.

The modern left is so ideologically bankrupt that its representatives will blame a mass murder—even one perpetrated by an explicit and thoroughgoing collectivist—on individualism, and call for more collectivism as the “solution” to the problem. The murderer in question was an anti-individualist in every essential way.

Imagine if you could relive yesterday. What would say that you did not say? What would you do that you did not do? Now imagine you could relive any day in your past until you made it a perfect day. That is the premise of the 2013 film written and directed by Richard Curtis, About Time.

Egalitarianism encourages people to express envy toward the most successful producers and to seek to publicly shame them. A rational morality treats producers at whatever level, to the degree they pursue rationally selfish goals to the best of their ability, as moral heroes deserving admiration and praise.

The Monuments Men saved such cultural treasures as The Adoration of the Lamb by Jan van Eyck and Madonna of Bruges by Michelangelo. Among many other operations in which the unit was involved, it assisted with the recovery of artworks stored by the Nazis in the Austrian salt mines of Altausee.

It can be perfectly appropriate to discuss Lincoln’s flaws and errors. What is not rationally defensible is to demonize Lincoln by quoting him selectively and ignoring relevant historical context and facts, such as the critical fact that the Confederacy fought to preserve and strengthen the most horrifically evil institution in America’s history.