The Truth About GOP Hero Ayn Rand

From Think Progress via AlterNet:

The philosophy, such as it was, which Rand laid out in her novels and essays was a frightful concoction of hyper-egotism, power-worship and anarcho-capitalism. She opposed all forms of welfare, unemployment insurance, support for the poor and middle-class, regulation of industry and government provision for roads or other infrastructure. She also insisted that law enforcement, defense and the courts were the only appropriate arenas for government, and that all taxation should be purely voluntary. Her view of economics starkly divided the world into a contest between "moochers" and "producers," with the small group making up the latter generally composed of the spectacularly wealthy, the successful, and the titans of industry. The "moochers" were more or less everyone else, leading TNR's Jonathan Chait to describe Rand's thinking as a kind of inverted Marxism. Marx considered wealth creation to result solely from the labor of the masses, and viewed the owners of capital and the economic elite to be parasites feeding off that labor. Rand simply reversed that value judgment, applying the role of "parasite" to everyday working people instead. On the level of personal behavior, the heroes in Rand's novels commit borderline rape, blow up buildings, and dynamite oil fields -- actions which Rand portrays as admirable and virtuous fulfillments of the characters' personal will and desires. Her early diaries gush with admiration for William Hickman, a serial killer who raped and murdered a young girl. Hickman showed no understanding of "the necessity, meaning or importance of other people," a trait Rand apparently found quite admirable. For good measure, Rand dismissed the feminist movement as "false" and "phony," denigrated both Arabs and Native Americans as "savages" (going so far as to say the latter had no rights and that Europeans were right to take North American lands by force) and expressed horror that taxpayer money was being spent on government programs aimed at educating "subnormal children" and helping the handicapped. Needless to say, when Rand told Mike Wallace in 1953 that altruism was evil, that selfishness is a virtue, and that anyone who succumbs to weakness or frailty is unworthy of love, she meant it.

More here.

In short, Ann Rand was a vicious, amoral, barbaric, bloodthirsty, Nazi cunt.

Anybody who takes her seriously, you know, as a philosophical guru, is in the same category. Her vision of humanity and human relationships is dystopian, at the very least, and a man-made Hell at worst. For Ann Rand and her foolish acolytes, if you're not rich, you're dirt. To hold her views up as something desirable is an affront to the human race.

Nonetheless, she suckers in unsuspecting and ill-educated youth, generation after generation, who are seduced by her mythic narrative of the "genius" who is unappreciated by the masses--young artists, actors, and musicians are particularly susceptible to her bullshit, for obvious reasons. Being the first seemingly intellectual material to which these kids are exposed, some of them feel like they've had some sort of epiphany, and become Ann Rand devotees for the rest of their lives. Former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board Alan Greenspan is one such idiot. Libertarian and Tea Party hero Ron Paul is another, as is his dumbfuck son Rand who bears the Nazi cunt's last name as his first.

Indeed, it appears that lots of conservatives are in her cult. And if they really do believe her pseudo-intellectual and cruel hogwash, they have just as much evil in their hearts as she did. Yeah, that's right, evil. Human beings, even the poorest and most despicable, have innate value simply because they are human. To deny this self-evident truth is an act of evil. That's why so few of her fans in public life are willing to really admit it: they know telling voters that they're worthless scum who should be ground up for fertilizer might backfire.

Of course, there are many conservatives who aren't Ann Rand fans, who simply believe in small government, or old fashioned sexual morality, or that welfare is bad for the economy or individual psychology. But they tend to vote in lockstep with the Randists who want to chew your veins and suck your blood.

And that's a big fucking problem.

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