What Jonah Goldberg’s Rejection of Ayn Rand Reveals

In this episode of New Ideal Live, Elan Journo and Onkar Ghate discuss Jonah Goldberg’s public rejection of Ayn Rand, and what that shows about the conservative movement.

Among the topics covered:

Why Goldberg’s comments matter;
How Goldberg’s adamant rejection of Ayn Rand betrays his ambivalence about the value of freedom;
Why Goldberg says Rand doesn’t belong in the conservative movement;
Whittaker Chambers’s dishonest, anti-American article about Atlas Shrugged;
Why Ayn Rand’s opposition to religion threatens conservatives;
The irrationality of Goldberg’s conservative view that everyone must respect religion;
The anti-intellectuality of Goldberg’s reaction to Ayn Rand;
How conservative critics of Trump fail to see him as essentially religious;
Ayn Rand’s response to a question about similarities with William Buckley.

Mentioned in the discussion are the book Essays on Atlas Shrugged and Ayn Rand’s talk A Nation’s Unity.

This podcast was recorded on November 3, 2021. Listen to the discussion below. Listen and subscribe from your mobile device on Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Spotify or Stitcher. Watch archived podcasts here.