Being selfish is innate. Look at a little boy; “I want this” or that. It’s not until they learn that sharing has positive aspects. So, that means it’s nurture, not nature. All species and biological life is selfish, it tries to do the least and get the most, conserves its energy, all life does that, is it just the way of things? This is the philosophy of Ayn Rand ‘radical’ no, I would say that it is simply obvious. It’s observable, repeatable, and it’s a viable observation of life, from leafy plants trying to outcompete other plants for sunlight, roots for water: bacteria feeding on the host or working with the host for its best interests: the same virus. Watch? It is natural and normal.
The best thing for the individual is to work as a team: packs of wolves, packs of gazelles, packs of lions, schools of fish, flocks of birds. Sometimes the best thing for humans is to work together and help each other, and they do, in groups large and small. However, when it comes to things like diversity, equality, and other socialism buzzwords, Ayn Rand isn’t saying that working together isn’t a good thing, but she is warning us of the unholy alliances that always happen in socialism. Where the group takes from the individual and redistributes, which may sound egalitarian but is anything but fair.
If we are going to have “equality” before the law, we must demand full freedom from the individual, as long as he does not choose to restrict the freedom of another in pursuit of his wishes.
Be careful with the term “Social Justice” because those who use this phrase are trying to undermine logic and appeal to your sensibilities; We know this because those who use the “Social Justice” motif modify their definition of this phrase to include whatever. It’s what they want to convince you of. For example, he could use it now to manipulate you by simply saying; “Social justice means respecting the individual above all else” and you can’t argue with me now, because it is about SOCIAL JUSTICE.
Or you could say, “We need social justice, so we must take the wealth that the rich have earned and give it to the poor and destitute.” Both cases are diametrically opposed points of view, but I can use “social justice” in both cases to try to get you to see my point. I don’t buy the social justice gimmick, and neither should you.