Since my last blog post, on October 30, I have been immersed in long-range projects in the two greatest normative domains: a project in artificial intelligence, applying my work in epistemology; and a book on ethics.

While President Trump was being sworn in on January 20, I was attending a small reading group that is studying my book, A Validation of Knowledge. It is gratifying to see such interest in my epistemology. And it is a pleasant surprise and a relief to me that the Democrats failed to steal the presidential election this time.

Everything that President Trump said in his inaugural address was a step in the right (as opposed to left and wrong) direction. In my judgment, his most important statement was this one, because it addressed the issue in which the conflict between reason and anti-reason is starkest:

As of today, it will henceforth be the official policy of the United States government that there are only two genders: male and female.

 See also this article  (despite the excuse-making and self-effacing amorality of the last three paragraphs) on President Trump’s executive order Protecting Children From Chemical And Surgical Mutilation.

Overall, I am not optimistic about America, but I am hopeful.

I am not optimistic, because the policies of the new administration seem to be to roll back the evil of the last eight years, but no further, and maybe not even that far. Case in point is the policy regarding health care. No one in the new administration talks about repealing Obamacare, whereas that goal was explicit in 2016. Indeed, during the 2024 vice presidential debate, J.D. Vance embraced the foundational idea of Obamacare: the self-contradictory notion of insurance for pre-existing conditions, as though a dead person should be issued life insurance.

Also, the Deep State still lives. (See the first half of “The State of the Union . . . and What You Can Do About It,” an excellent essay by C. Bradley Thompson.)

 Also, almost half the country is still Leftist. They undoubtedly have booby traps in the works—not that today’s political Right is incapable of booby trapping itself (for example, conservatives rejecting classical liberalism; Bitcoin and other crypto-currencies).

“America First” is a nice slogan and a good policy. But we are a world away from the right principle underlying that corollary—“Self First”; or at least “My Family First.”

Nevertheless, I am hopeful, for the following reasons.

1. There is more free speech than at any other time in my lifetime, and perhaps in the past 100 years. Although the government still colludes with the mainstream media, most Americans now know enough to distrust the mainstream media; and there now are plenty of other sources for news and commentary. Here are my main sources, in order of interest to me:

C. Bradley Thompson, The Redneck Intellectual — also see his new book.

Victor Davis Hanson

HardmoneyJim — also see his new book.

Just the News

Blaze TV — Glenn Beck

The Epoch Times

Jonathan Turley

X — find me here.

New Discourses — James Lindsay

The Free Press

Sharyl Attkisson

2. Most Americans now know enough to distrust mainstream education and academic institutions, from kindergarten to universities. And now there are plenty of other options, from homeschooling to new college and university programs. (See the second half of “The State of the Union . . . and What You Can Do About It,” that excellent essay by C. Bradley Thompson.)

In short, most Americans now know that mainstream academia and media are mostly wrong, and that there are other options. But everyone has more to learn about what is right. That question, “What is right?” has always been the question I have focused on—and now more than ever.

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Happy Ayn Rand’s Birthday! Later this February 2nd, I will post a passage I read at random from The Fountainhead in celebration.