(Re)introducing the Rational Standard amidst press decay

In 2015, Rational Standard burst onto an empty scene as the lone explicit voice of liberalism and libertarianism in South Africa...

After some time of inactivity, we are excited to announce that the Rational Standard is back.

Founded in 2015 – briefly under a different name – by what was then a group of university students across South Africa, the Rational Standard (RS) was born to some degree as a response to the “fallism” that gripped the country at the time.

Fallism was an ideology of terror and destruction that the press media largely accepted, uncritically, as the legitimate grievances of marginalised students. For the students behind RS, the usual silence, but not uncommon approval, of journalists was eerie, however.

Radicals on campuses torched students’ and staff’s cars and other property, and engaged in acts of intimidation, all premised on lies, fallacies and, of course, the discredited religion of Critical Social Justice.

Ordinarily, one would rightly have expected the press to provide balanced reporting. But while some journalists did take note of instances of physical violence being utilised, the underlying values of fallism were never in doubt. In fact, they were celebrated.

So deep was this endorsement that on 9 April 2025 – a decade hence – the University of Cape Town decided to commemorate the Rhodes Must Fall movement. One would have hoped that the time that has elapsed since 2015 would have given UCT the necessary distance to finally take responsibility, be honest, and set the record straight. But the spinelessness it displayed back then – putting the lives of students and staff in danger – remains, unchecked, today.

The university has clearly and decisively taken the side of the terrorisers – though I should not pretend that this was not clear back in 2015 – evidenced by displaying fallist propaganda films and hosting a panel of “RMF activists, the Student Representative Council, staff representatives, the Black Academic Caucus, and the UCT Association of Black Alumni.”

Hardly an event representative of all the perspectives on fallism. Not one press outlet has reported critically on this event.

In 2015, Rational Standard burst onto an empty scene as the lone explicit voice of liberalism and libertarianism in South Africa’s publications landscape at a time when Critical Social Justice was asserting its dominance.

The scene is not so empty today, but compared to the largely discredited mainstream press, much work remains to be done to fully and finally revolutionise the press environment. RS hopes to play a role in this process.

Here on RS, you can expect to find thought-provoking analysis and insights from voices that dissent from the artificial and politically contrived “consensus” that exists in the public discourse. These perspectives – whether premised on a classically liberal, classically conservative, libertarian, or centrist foundation – will be united around a shared love of liberty.

Martin van Staden is Editor in Chief and co-founder of the Rational Standard, and Head of Policy at the Free Market Foundation.