Ayn Rand is the philosophical mascot of capitalism. Fans consider her work not just serious, but definitive and foundational (although remarkably few of the religious ones seem to have noticed she was also a frothing atheist who liked to call Christianity a "cult of death").
Atlas Shrugged could've been a decent scifi novel, if it was about 400 pages shorter-- but the author keeps preaching in long, repetitive screeds. I stopped to count the pages of her hero's climactic radio speech when I just couldn't take slogging through it anymore. 56 pages.
She was young in Russia when the revolution hit, so her whole identity was based on hating communism.
The idea is that greed is virtuous, ambition should run completely unfettered, and successful businessmen are genius captains of industry who naturally triumph because they are superior, they know best, and everyone should just be grateful to bask in the shadow of their benificent leadership and glory. All social relationships are transactional, and anyone weak or needy is a vile parasite.
Notably, she was never a parent (probably never experienced a single drop of unconditional love in her entire life) and wound up on social security.
...And she utterly failed to consider how many tycoons are conmen who would sooner shoot John Galt and smash his machine than let free energy threaten their profits.
Violet Madder
npub1mv…fpkp6
2026-08-22 20:38:52 UTC
in reply to nevent1q…8l3u
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npub1mvca9te2eel85c6k3rtr4qu94rcwzxjxy086zy420vpfnyyhsf9qrfpkp6Published at
2026-08-22 20:38:52 UTCEvent JSON
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