Analyzing Paul Krugman’s New York Times Smear of Ayn Rand

In this special episode of New Ideal Live, Onkar Ghate and Elan Journo discuss Paul Krugman’s recent column in the New York Times smearing Ayn Rand and claiming that she’s responsible for the death of thousands of people during the pandemic. The column, which purports to stand up for facts and science, exhibits serious intellectual dishonesty about Rand’s ideas.

Among the topics covered:

• Krugman’s attempt to smear Rand by lumping her together with Donald Trump and others who ignore science;
• Krugman’s distortion of Rand’s ideas, and his subsequent admission that he caricatured Rand;
• Krugman’s history of distorting Rand’s views (in spite of knowing better);
• Why Krugman fears engaging with Rand’s actual ideas, the only ones that challenge his moral premises;
• Rand’s actual opinion on the role of the government in infectious disease, which is radically different from what Krugman implies;
• Krugman’s deeply mistaken conception of freedom as opposed to Rand’s principled perspective;
• An open invitation for Krugman to debate ARI intellectuals.

Mentioned in the discussion are Rand’s audio on her perspective on quarantines and Onkar Ghate’s paper “A Pro-Freedom Approach to Infectious Disease.” Additionally, here’s ARI’s letter to the editor of the New York Times.

Podcast audio:

“It’s not every day that the New York Times accuses the person after whom your institute is named of mass murder,” says CEO Tal Tsfany in this short video based on the arguments made in the podcast. Tsfany not only condemns Krugman’s attack on Rand but challenges him to debate an ARI intellectual on the merits: