Blog Roundup

A Friday Hodgepodge

1. "9/11 -- 25 Years Later: Objectivism, Islamic Totalitarianism, and America's Crisis of Ideas," by Elan Journo, Onkar Ghate, and Yaron Brook (New Ideal):

September 11, 2001 -- and America's response to it -- shaped the 21st century. Confidence in America's ability to win wars cracked, trust in leadership and experts went down, and, in response, populism, nihilism, and conspiracism raised their ugly heads. From day one, the Ayn Rand Institute's experts grasped the meaning of the attacks and the significance of a proper response. They called for war with Iran and opposed Bush's altruistic wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Their advice was not followed, but their predictions held.

In this special livestream marking the 25th anniversary of 9/11, Yaron Brook, Elan Journo, and Onkar Ghate -- the Institute's three leading experts on the attacks -- trace what went wrong in its lead-up and aftermath, and how Ayn Rand's philosophy let them foresee what most people still struggle to understand.

2.25 hour podcast

2. "After 9/11, What Went Wrong? ," by Elan Journo (New Ideal):

Since September 11, 2001, the Ayn Rand Institute has commented extensively (via articles, books, interviews, lectures, and podcasts) on why the 9/11 attacks happened, how America should have responded, and why -- 25 years and three wars later -- the United States still fails to confront Islamic totalitarianism.

ARI's analysis of 9/11 and its aftermath has proven tragically accurate. To mark 25 years since the attacks, we are pleased to announce the publication of the third, expanded edition of Failing to Confront Islamic Totalitarianism, which includes short essays on October 7 and the war in Iran, and we invite you to join us for two special events.

1820 words/6 minutes

3. "Election Fraud: Information vs. Propaganda," by Peter Schwartz (Peter Schwartz):

If someone says to you "7 times 3 equals 21," you can judge that statement as true. Which means that it is a successful effort at cognition, a successful attempt to grasp reality. But if you hear those same words being uttered by a parrot, you cannot judge them as either true or false. The squawking of a parrot is outside the realm of cognition. The parrot is not trying to name a truth. It is just emitting sounds.

The same applies to Trump's statements about election fraud. He does not care whether his assertions are actually true. So one's initial response should not be to grant his arbitrary claims a cognitive status, any more than one would to the parrot's squawkings. Rather, one should ask: What is Trump's purpose?

600 words/2 minutes

4. "Died Of, Died With, Died in a Vacuum," by Amesh Adalja (Tracking Zebra):

If I were teaching public health communication, I would use this week as the case study in how not to do it. It is an unforced error, and it is much better to be transparent than to spend the week trying to score points against Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

My stake in this is not abstract. I am an infectious disease, emergency medicine, and critical care physician who takes care of patients in Pittsburgh and Butler County hospitals, and I spend a large part of every week explaining this virus -- to reporters, to audiences, and to people who are not ideologues but are genuinely unsure what to believe. This week made every part of that job harder. The anti-vaccine movement is emboldened, and it did not have to earn it. Pennsylvania's health officials now look to a substantial portion of the public like people who were being either dishonest or manipulative, which is corrosive in a way that outlasts this outbreak by years. And the person who was merely hesitant last month has now watched a governor, a coroner, and the Secretary of Health and Human Services contradict each other about whether two people died, which is precisely the kind of spectacle that converts hesitancy into conviction. That conviction does not stay in the exam room. It becomes unvaccinated kindergarteners, and unvaccinated kindergarteners become measles cases, and measles cases eventually become the thing everyone this week has been arguing about whether we actually had.

1950 words/6 minutes

-- CAV