Welcome to the Summer 2026 issue of The Objective Standard, the rational alternative to conservatism and regressivism. Read the full issue here: theobjectivestandard.com/p/t…

SpaceX and @elonmusk have completely transformed the space industry, opening up a new era of human flourishing, as @tomwalker22 explains: theobjectivestandard.com/p/c…

July 4, 1776 was the beginning of the first moral country on earth—a country in which individual rights were to be explicitly recognized and protected. Read more: theobjectivestandard.com/p/w…

What makes America beautiful is its founding principle: individual rights—the idea that each individual has a moral prerogative to take the actions necessary to support and further his life (the right to life); to act in accordance with his own judgment, free from coercion (liberty); to keep and use the product of his effort (property); and to pursue the values and goals of his choice (the pursuit of happiness). What could make America more beautiful is for Americans to better understand and protect rights. Read more: theobjectivestandard.com/p/a…

Celebrate 250 years of freedom by diving into the stories of the great men who made it happen: James Madison: theobjectivestandard.com/p/t… Thomas Jefferson: theobjectivestandard.com/p/t… Alexander Hamilton: theobjectivestandard.com/p/a… Benjamin Franklin: theobjectivestandard.com/p/b… John Quincy Adams: theobjectivestandard.com/p/j… Thomas Paine: theobjectivestandard.com/p/t…

America is beautiful. But why? What makes it beautiful? And what could make it even more beautiful? theobjectivestandard.com/p/a…

Like Michael Jackson himself, "Michael" has both adoring fans and apoplectic critics—and like Jackson, the film is something that everyone should experience at least once. theobjectivestandard.com/p/i…

Because Earth Day is intended to further the cause of environmentalism—and because environmentalism is an anti-human ideology—on April 22, those who care about human life should not celebrate Earth Day; they should celebrate Exploit-the-Earth Day. theobjectivestandard.com/p/e…

The musical landscape of the 1970s was filled with artistic rule breakers, and singer-songwriter Lowell George was certainly one of them. His devotion to creative freedom shaped his entire body of work and produced one of rock ’n’ roll’s most innovative, original bands: Little Feat. theobjectivestandard.com/p/n…

Carolyn Merchant’s #TheDeathofNature was the first systematic work to develop an area of academia that became known as “ecofeminism” and is still influential among leftist feminists and environmentalists. By understanding its ideas we can understand the movements it helped create. theobjectivestandard.com/p/t…

The flight of #ArtemisII shines a spotlight on a critical question: Why has it taken so long to return to the Moon? And now that we’re going back, will we stay this time? Answering these questions reveals serious problems with the Artemis Program and how successful this attempt at lunar colonization is likely to be. theobjectivestandard.com/p/a…

Love Christmas. You earned it. theobjectivestandard.com/p/f…

Welcome to the Winter 2025 issue of The Objective Standard, which rounds out two decades of crystal clear commentary from an Objectivist perspective. Read more: theobjectivestandard.com/p/t…

From everyone at The Objective Standard to everyone who thinks, produces, trades, and thereby creates the values on which human life and happiness depend: Thank you. Thank you, profit-seeking businessmen, for producing and selling everything from groceries to computers to automobiles to electricity. Your work—although often condemned—is, in fact, supremely noble and heroic. Thank you, scientists and engineers, for discovering and harnessing the elements and laws of nature, thus making possible the countless processes and goods—from air-conditioning to chemotherapy to fracking to fighter jets—that enable us to live and flourish. Thank you, rational philosophers (especially Aristotle and Ayn Rand), for discovering, clarifying, and communicating crucial facts about the nature of reality, of knowledge, and of the good. Without your thought and work, people would still be in the Dark Ages. Thank you, American Founders, for establishing a country based on the principle of individual rights and infused with checks and balances that have kept even the barbarians within our gates substantially at bay. Thank you, rational economists, for elucidating the nature of free markets; the social conditions required for maximal production, trade, and prosperity; and the practicality of capitalism. Thank you, rational parents, for raising your children with logic and love, and encouraging them to choose and pursue their own creative aims and courses in life. Thank you, rational teachers, for helping students to learn the essential skills and facts they need in order to become life-loving, independent adults. Thank you, rational workers of all stripes, for providing the countless specialized services—from janitorial to managerial—that make production and trade possible. Thank you, military men and women, for protecting the innocent, defending freedom, and eliminating the savages who seek to kill us. Thank you, rational artists, for producing great literature, movies, music, and all the arts that challenge our minds and fuel our souls. And thank you readers of TOS for your business and support; we couldn’t do what we do without you. Have a wonderful, joy-filled Thanksgiving.

As William F. Buckley’s 100th birthday nears, conservatives will pretend that he was a man of principle, civility, dignity, honor. He was not. Buckley was cowardly, dishonest, unjust, and racist. Read more: theobjectivestandard.com/p/w…

This World Philosophy Day is a great time to learn about some of Ayn Rand's contributions to the field, including her identifications of "package deals" and "anti-concepts." Read more: theobjectivestandard.com/nav…

The principle of individual rights is not a gift from “God” or the government, nor is it a matter of mere preference or opinion. Rather, it is a truth that anyone can grasp—if he observes reality, uses reason, and refuses to pretend that feelings, faith, or consensus are means of knowledge. Although there is no evidence to support the notion that murdering people or initiating force against them is good, a world of evidence supports the idea that in order to survive and thrive as human beings, we must use reason, produce life-serving goods and services, trade value for value by mutual consent to mutual benefit, and refrain from initiating force against one another—so that everyone can live his life as he sees fit. theobjectivestandard.com/p/t…

As has every iteration of Marxist collectivism, East German communism succeeded only at destroying human life. On November 9, 1989, after twenty-eight years, the virtual prison created by the Berlin Wall was opened, and Germans—East and West—rejoiced. theobjectivestandard.com/201…

On this day in 1864, Abraham Lincoln was reelected for a second term. Was he, as most Americans believe, a defender of individual rights, a foe of slavery, and a savior of the American republic—one of history’s great heroes of liberty? Or was he a tyrant who turned his back on essential founding principles of America, cynically instigated the bloody Civil War to expand federal power, and paved the way for the modern regulatory-entitlement state? theobjectivestandard.com/201…