122 upvotes, 11 direct replies (showing 11)
View submission: Curtis Yarvin Says Democracy Is Done. Powerful Conservatives Are Listening.
The writings of Ayn Rand were nothing but her attempt to exorcize the demons living rent-free in her head after the Communist revolution. She was a teenager at the time, her family lost everything, got thrown out of their prosperous house, wandered around the country nearly starving occasionally, and when she tried to get a good start in life as a smart young woman she encountered many obstacles due to her "unhealthy origin" (bourgeois family i.e. not poor). She ran away at the first opportunity, and started her writing career in America.
The amazing entrepreneurs in her books are just idealized, worshipful images of her dad, the pharmacy business owner. The "looters" are the dumb, brutish mobs (I mean "revolutionary brigades", lol, sorry comrade Lenin, please don't shoot me) that kicked them out of their house. Her "philosophy" is just Communism naively flipped over, made opposite in every single way.
She was like someone who nearly drowned while swimming, got PTSD, and then went around telling people how water is evil, and they should never take a bath, never wash their hands, run inside when it's raining, and don't even drink water, it's evil! She tried to conjure up the opposite in every way of the ideology that kicked her family out of their house, even when the opposite makes no sense, even when the opposite is just as evil as the original.
There are no good guys in her life story, it's bad guys all the way down, including her, since she became a major factor in normalizing ideas that ended up jettisoning ethics and the moral compass out of the American political discourse.
I grew up in the Eastern Bloc, and I'm familiar with the stories of the horrific abuse that followed the communist takeover. And yes, some people were never again right in the head, as a result. She's one of them.
It's a very sad, depressing story all around.
Comment by Just_Philosopher_900 at 20/01/2025 at 00:06 UTC
18 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Thanks for this insight
Comment by Proper_Locksmith924 at 20/01/2025 at 17:42 UTC
14 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Emma Goldman and Alexander Berkman (Emma being from Russia) both went back Russia during the revolution, saw how the revolution was being betrayed and power consolidated, and instead of turning into right pro capitalist shit heels reinforced their previous anarchist thought.
Rand, was not smart, and she definitely idolized the child murderer she based John Galt after, she said this in interview after interview about how she loved his lack of empathy or care for societorial norms. She definitely had heroes, they were just very bad people.
Comment by oceanicArboretum at 19/01/2025 at 20:46 UTC
23 upvotes, 1 direct replies
This is an excellent take.
Comment by 327Stickster at 20/01/2025 at 19:04 UTC
8 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Thanks for this - I always sensed she had an axe to grind but didn't know her back story. Thanks to your posting, it all fits together.
Comment by Fart_Knickers at 20/01/2025 at 14:56 UTC
5 upvotes, 0 direct replies
What you said
Comment by bswan206 at 21/01/2025 at 05:39 UTC
2 upvotes, 0 direct replies
Wow. Great synopsis.
Comment by Ambitious-Theory9407 at 21/01/2025 at 17:00 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
And as the cherry on top, the last years of her life were spent depending on the very public assistance she railed against.
Comment by SketchSketchy at 22/01/2025 at 16:10 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
The Ayn Rand Institute took the PPP
Comment by Epicurus402 at 20/01/2025 at 12:11 UTC
1 upvotes, 0 direct replies
This.
Comment by Potential-Zucchini77 at 20/01/2025 at 01:48 UTC
-6 upvotes, 2 direct replies
Thanks for the write up. Communism really is an evil that needs to be stamped out of society…hopefully sooner rather than later
Comment by jdmarcato at 20/01/2025 at 02:28 UTC
-7 upvotes, 3 direct replies
all good points except the main one, water is not evil but communism is. It requires the devaluing of the individual and is reprehensible. Go peddle this failed filth elsewhere. And yes, I know capitalism has flaws, but stfu already.