Words Matter

The Left have shanghaied the language and they have told the big lies so long, that their words, their accusations and their labels are accepted as true and obvious, even by conservatives, that should know better.

Altruists argue that human pride and selfishness are the embodiments of moral and spiritual evil, and  even Rand succumbs to their verbal tyranny. Look at her book, The Virtues of Selfishness. She uses their word selfishness, but defines it as a virtue, not a vice. As a fellow egoist, I would substitute the word selfishness with self-interest or enlightened self-interest.

Bernard Mandvilles critics accused him of supporting vices (selfish or personal intests) and amorality, and e seemed to have ceded the point to them. I suggest that he should argue that he supported egoist virtue at the expense of altruist vice.
Mandeville really was for capitalism and the pursuit of self-interest, bot of which ina fre-wheeling society leds to detectable vices, but also liberty, prosperity and happiness, and these satisfied feelings among the masses well serves the public good, and that is a most desirable ethical end.

By not naming altruism and group-living openly, clearly and directly as the primary strongholds of demonic evil on earth, altruism remains the ethical norm of most humans, whether or not they are hypocrites, or living up to their ideal.