The false basis of collectivism laid bare.

I would love to have the ability to shove down the throats of the congress and president quotes from Ayn Rand. The only problem is they wouldn't understand them.

Excellent. I just read that chapter today. Virtually every sentence is a quotable quote.

Actually any autonomous intelligent entity with equal or better intelligence that thrives or not base on the use of its intelligence has precisely the same objective basis for rights as we do. This will be true of any that come into existence such as possibly self aware artificial general intelligence.

It is also true of any species that may be less individualized as our but is equally intelligent. The unit that rights adhere to would simply be different in this hypothetical case.

But if by rights you mean "individual rights", that is the rights of an individual, then the statement is pretty much a truism.

I agree. Rights are that which is afforded by nature, not man and collectively we do not possess any additional rights as a results. However...we are not anyone's collection. We have choice and at times we will gather as a community and sometimes can and will reach a consensus as needed. Unless of course the necessary information has been withheld or clouded. The latter is what we are dealing with a present.