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#aynrand — Public Fediverse posts

Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #aynrand, aggregated by home.social.

  1. Pues he visto la película "El Manantial" (King Vidor, 1949) y no paraba de imaginarme a Ayn Rand durante el rodaje asintiendo con la cabeza a cada frase panfletaria que soltaban los personajes.Como el Jack Nicholson de abajo.

    #ElManantial #TheFountainhead #AynRand #Panfleto #xp

  2. Pues he visto la película "El Manantial" (King Vidor, 1949) y no paraba de imaginarme a Ayn Rand durante el rodaje asintiendo con la cabeza a cada frase panfletaria que soltaban los personajes.Como el Jack Nicholson de abajo.

    #ElManantial #TheFountainhead #AynRand #Panfleto #xp

  3. I think my goal is to specifically see what I can do to integrate both a collectivist and individualist sensibility in my philosophical view. I think to really have a complete philosophy, both of these things have to be considered: individuals cannot properly understand the consequences of actions taken at the personal level without understanding how those actions fit into and will be responded to by larger societal frameworks. At the same time, we cannot achieve collective benefit without considering how collective actions affect individuals.

    I do not yet fully know what philosophical and political frameworks would best help me construct this philosophy, excepting that I think communist theory will undoubtedly be a big part of it, and it will most certainly be very different than Objectivism, excepting the respect for personal bodily autonomy.

    Rand was not a feminist, in fact she decried feminism, but she was pro-bodily automomy and supported the right to abortion and in general the right of women to work the same types of jobs as men. I think the thing that Ayn Rand and other right libertarians crucially misunderstand is that a larger social dynamic like misogyny will prevent women from having individual bodily autonomy. They don't understand it because they imagine the world as it is as a meritocracy where only the best rise to the top, and so they imagine the preponderence of men in high social positions is due to the inherent superiority of those men rather than misogynistic favoring of men regardless of ability. They don't understand that women will simply not be allowed bodily automomy in a deeply misogynistic society, that individual bodily autonomy in general will never be allowed most individuals in a capitalist society.

  4. I've read about Ayn Rand, and I've read short extracts from "Atlas Shrugged", supposedly her magnum opus.

    Those extracts did not inspire me to plough through the whole of "Atlas Shrugged", but I thought to be fair I ought to read a complete work of hers, so I picked up a copy of her 1938 novella "Anthem".

    In a repressive, techophobic, collectivist dystopia, a young man rebels, rediscovers electricity, and then escapes from captivity to be joined by his female lover. He hopes to rebuild a society based on individualism -- "Anthem" concludes with the protagonist determined to carve into the stone portal of his fort the "sacred word EGO".

    Rand's writing is lifeless, with both characters and setting being little more than vehicles for the author's ponderous didacticism. The slight romance narrative smacks of sub-Hollywood teenage fantasy, with the protagonist renaming his lover "The Golden One", followed by her dubbing him 'The Unconquered".

    The concluding pages are supposed to be a poetic invocation of egoism. Instead, they come across as Rand attempting to club the reader into submission.

    I am pained to learn that this book is frequently assigned in US high schools, as it is devoid of literary merit and of no great significance in literary or cultural history. If teachers or school districts want to assign a mid 20C "antitotalitarian" work, why not press copies of "1984" into students' hands?

    Nevertheless my afternoon was not entirely wasted, as I can now get through the rest of my life without having to read another word of this tiresome crank, yet have a clear conscience when I describe her as possessing not a shred of literary talent, because my judgment is based on a first hand acquaintance with her writing.

    #Books #Literature #USLiterature #AmericanLiterature #AynRand #Anthem #RightWing

  5. I figured something out this month that I’ve missed for 34 years.

    I’ve been measuring whether I’m “enough” as a person—whether the chooser is adequate—rather than evaluating my choices. That’s a category error. There is no yardstick for myself qua myself. Only for things I do.

    The Trap

    From #AynRand’s Atlas Shrugged, Galt’s speech:

    Man has no choice about his need of #SelfEsteem, his only choice is the standard by which to gauge it. And he makes his fatal error when he switches this gauge protecting his life into the service of his own destruction, when he chooses a standard contradicting existence and sets his self-esteem against reality.

    I’ve been measuring myself instead of my choices. Asking “Am I rational enough?” instead of “Am I exercising rationality in this choice?” Treating the volitional entity—the chooser—as if it were subject to pass/fail evaluation.

    But you can’t be “wrong in person.” You can only make wrong choices. The chooser is the precondition for those concepts to mean anything.

    The Invariant

    The concept comes from topology: an invariant remains unchanged when a structure is transformed. @gregeganSF’s Diaspora explores this for consciousness—what persists across memory edits, substrate changes, simulated deaths.

    The invariant isn’t the contents of consciousness. It’s the structure of being the thing that experiences. The observer. The integrator. The chooser.

    Applied to #identity: I am an existent with volitional consciousness. That’s my identity, metaphysically. Not “I have consciousness” (dualism), but “I am” this integrated entity.

    The invariant is the volitional structure itself. Everything else—memories, achievements, mistakes, consequences—is what that structure produces.

    What I Wrote Before I Understood It

    From my story “La Petite Mort”:

    She wanted to keep being Thalindra. Wanted to keep having thoughts, even painful ones. Wanted to keep waking up every morning, tired and aching and alone, because waking up meant she was still there to do the waking. Wanted existence as what she was—this particular configuration that was specifically hers.

    The preference was immediate. Simple. Undeniable. Hers.

    And it was enough.

    I gave my character what I couldn’t give myself: acceptance of the invariant without audit.

    Now I have it too.

    The Correction

    I am the standard by which my choices are measured, not the thing being measured.

    You evaluate actions. Not the volitional entity that generates them.

    If you accept your choices as yours—made with what you knew, under your constraints—you can accept yourself. Not because you’ve proven worthiness. Because you are the chooser, and that’s A is A applied to you.

    Clear. Weightless. Real.

    #philosophy #Objectivism

  6. #AynRand’s original introduction to The Virtue of Selfishness is now online--and it directly contradicts most of the claims people make about her #ethics.

    If your picture of Rand comes from social media threads, YouTube rants, or second-hand “hot takes,” this is the text that breaks the spell.

    Let’s clear out the biggest straw men right away:

    • ❌ “Rand said selfishness means hurting people.”


      No. She argues that rational self‑interest forbids coercion, exploitation, and parasitism. Predators aren’t “selfish”—they’re short‑range, self‑destructive, and irrational.

    • ❌ “It’s just an excuse to do whatever you want.”


      She draws a hard boundary between whim and #reason. Her ethics demands long‑range thinking, integrity, and principled action — the opposite of impulse.

    • ❌ “#Objectivism celebrates cruelty.”


      The introduction explicitly rejects cruelty as irrational. Benevolence is not only compatible with #egoism—it’s a natural expression of a rational, confident person.

    • ❌ “Rand denies moral principles.”


      She denies sacrifice as a moral ideal. She does not deny #morality. She argues for a code rooted in reality, reason, and the requirements of human life.

    If you want to understand the argument instead of the mythology, read the primary source--it’s short, sharp, and surprisingly accessible.

    Read more for context on the full book, editions, and themes.

    #philosophy #individualism #reading #nonfiction #ideas #bookstodon

  7. Die #TechElite des SiliconValley träumt von einer Zukunft jenseits der Demokratie – und die ideologischen Wurzeln reichen von #AynRand über #apokalyptischeVisionen bis hin zum „DarkEnlightenment".

    Was das mit SocialScoring, #ElonMusk und der neuen #TrumpAdministration zu tun hat, habe ich auf #LinkedIn zusammengefasst.

    👉 t1p.de/1zfkl

    #Technofaschismus #SiliconValley #SocialScoring #Demokratie #KI #DarkEnlightenment

  8. Die #TechElite des SiliconValley träumt von einer Zukunft jenseits der Demokratie – und die ideologischen Wurzeln reichen von #AynRand über #apokalyptischeVisionen bis hin zum „DarkEnlightenment".

    Was das mit SocialScoring, #ElonMusk und der neuen #TrumpAdministration zu tun hat, habe ich auf #LinkedIn zusammengefasst.

    👉 t1p.de/1zfkl

    #Technofaschismus #SiliconValley #SocialScoring #Demokratie #KI #DarkEnlightenment

  9. Wild Speculation...

    What if the guys who made the #AtlasShrugged #movies were trying to pull a "Springtime for Hitler" scam, like in #TheProducers, and succeeded because they didn't hire Lorenzo to play John Galt?

    This theory assumes they were film-literate enough to have seen and understood The Producers, and is thus incompatible with the predominant theory that they simply did not understand enough to make a good movie based on #AynRand's already wild and unrealistic scifi fantasy plot.

  10. I updated various descriptions around TheBeautifulPrison.com to better reflect the “philosophical noir” tone I’m going for.

    Philosophical, because everything is carried by the intellectual rigor of #AynRand’s #philosophy of #Objectivism.

    #Noir, because it respects both the darkness and the light.

    Neither promise easy resolution or virtue rewarded automatically. Both insist that clarity matters, even when reality seems difficult to navigate.

    A self under pressure reveals what it’s made of.

  11. Proposal: a version of the speech at the end of the #AynRand novel #TheFountainhead, but instead of defending blowing up a public building, #HowardRoark is defending sending unsolicited #dickpics (illegal in many places now).

    (He would totally send unsolicited dickpics to Dominique)

    Waste: "A man is entitled to the sweat of his own brow!"

    Based: "A man is entitled to send a pic of his own dick!"

    #Literature #libertarianism #dick

  12. So‑called “selfish” #capitalism — grounded in voluntary exchange — has united people across borders more than any “One‑World” scheme.

    What *remains* of capitalism today is under attack — from politicians, intellectuals, the media. If we want to uphold #liberty in the marketplace, we need to defend it on moral grounds.

    Discover #AynRand’s moral case for capitalism: aynrand-19886644.hs-sites.com/

    #politics #ethics #philosophy #Objectivism

  13. #AynRand is quoted, misquoted, praised, and vilified — often by people who haven’t read her.

    _The Ayn Rand Reader_ offers excerpts from her #fiction and #nonfiction: her ideas, her voice, her terms.

    If you’re serious about understanding her — whether to agree or disagree — start here: aynrand.org/novels/the-ayn-ran

    #philosophy #books #bookstodon #literature #AynRand #Objectivism

  14. The only difference between #fascism, #communism, and #socialism is the degree to which the state pretends there is private property. Everything else is just arguing over the color of the jackboots.

    courses.aynrand.org/lexicon/fa

    #politics #philosophy #statism #AynRand #Objectivism

  15. @julf @cstross Allison was an #AynRand fan, sure — he would give out copies of “Atlas Shrugged” to employees, even. But just because he jumped to #Cato doesn’t make Cato “linked” to ARI.

    ARI's mission is to advocate Rand’s full philosophy of #Objectivism as a whole system, not just politics. Rand herself blasted #libertarianism for reducing her ideas.

    Allison’s stint at Cato reflects the same mistake that libertarians make in using Rand to justify their politics. It has nothing to do with ARI.

  16. When speech is treated as violence, violence becomes inevitable. And #PoliticalViolence becomes normalized.

    In this #AynRand Institute #Podcast, Onkar Ghate & Nikos Sotirakopoulos examine the murder of #CharlieKirk, tracing the erosion of the speech/force line — from 9/11 to “speech = violence” — and why **zero tolerance for force** is the only rational standard.

    newideal.aynrand.org/charlie-k

    #Objectivism #FreeSpeech #politics #USpolitics #philosophy #culture #IdeasMatter #reason

  17. @bakerjohnj You’re in luck! #AynRand has an entire *essay* about man’s rights: courses.aynrand.org/works/mans

    But briefly: Rights aren’t an afterthought to “sharing power”—they’re its foundation. Without individual rights, calls to “share power” amount to enforced obligation, not genuine cooperation.

    #philosophy #politics #Objectivism

  18. What’s left of #capitalism today is under attack—from politicians, intellectuals, the media.

    If we want to uphold #liberty in the marketplace, we need to defend it on *moral* grounds.

    Discover #AynRand’s moral case for capitalism: buff.ly/3lTePNd

    And read Rand’s full article here: buff.ly/43cRdlx

    #philosophy #ethics #politics #economics #Objectivism

  19. @europesays #GlennCarle’s #AynRand critique is the usual straw man built by the same #libertarians he attacks.

    Her #philosophy of #Objectivism is an integrated hierarchy:
    • Reality is independent of consciousness—facts are facts.
    • Reason is man’s only means of knowledge—no faith or feelings.
    • Rational self-interest guided by logic is the moral standard.
    • Laissez-faire #capitalism secures individual rights by banning force.

    Remove any link and it’s empty sloganeering. getmona.app/rich_text/67327457

  20. As a teenager in Soviet Russia, #AynRand began drafting an untitled precursor to #AtlasShrugged—what she called “the story of the strike.” These early notes reveal a raw, radical phase of her thinking, where moral clarity and creative defiance were still taking shape.

    A rare glimpse into the architecture of #Objectivism before it had a name: newideal.aynrand.org/the-lost-

    #bookstodon #philosophy #indIvidualism #LiteraryHistory #CreativeProcess

  21. 👋 Hi everyone, I’m Mark, and this is my #introduction!

    I’m a #SoftwareEngineer who codes mostly in #Perl, enjoys discussing #AynRand’s #philosophy of #Objectivism, and shares thoughts on #ballroom #dance, #cosplay, and playing #music on #BassGuitar.

    I attend #DragonCon in #Atlanta, as well as #DeltaHCon and #Comicpalooza right here in #Houston.

    You may know me from my previous #fediverse / #Mastodon accounts. Sorry about all the jumping around.

  22. Episode 98 of The Secular Foxhole. Did you see a flying Christ on Ascension Day? Blair is going through the news sandwich, and I am talking about value 4 value, trader principle, gift giving, etc.

    episodes.fm/1529242825/episode

    #podcast #podcasting #Value4Value #AscensionDay #philosophy #AynRand

  23. Elon Musk und seine geistige Ziehmutter Ayn Rand verdammen Empathie als Schwäche.

    Für ein privates Forschungsprojekt (a.k.a. ich plane ein #Lied darüber) interessiert mich in dem Zusammenhang:

    Könnt ihr euch an einen Moment erinnern, in dem ihr Empathie - bei euch, bei anderen um euch herum oder woanders - erlebt habt? Wie war das? Wie sah Empathie aus, wie klang sie? Wie roch, schmeckte & fühlte sich Empathie an?

    #ElonMusk #AynRand #Empathie #Sinnlichkeit #Sinne #Gefühl #Musik

  24. A few thoughts that relate to the above poem (tanka).

    The late Erik Naggum was a controversial figure as a user of programming language Common Lisp and markup language SGML because he was often unreasonably and mercilessly unkind to people he regarded as stupid or people (often newbies) who were unwilling to educate themselves from resources he felt would rescue them from ignorance. I won't make apologies for that. It was beyond rude.

    Nonetheless, he was brilliant thinker and I am not one to ignore useful thought because of its source. That is itself a controversial position but it's one I strongly hold to. To do otherwise puts important thought at risk by manufacturing truths or even discovering legit truth about any author. If you were told Homer or Shakespeare or Thomas Jefferson or Maya Angelou or Mark Twain or MLK or AOC or Bernie Sanders was morally flawed, are you then obliged to disclaim or remove their writing. Society would be forever hostage to reputation peddlers. I maintain that the goodness of writing must be judged by the words of the writing, not the author. It's an uncomfortable but necessary truth, as I see it.

    Indeed, to read even the thoughts of Hitler or Ayn Rand, neither of whom I thonk well of, can be important. To understand the world and its history, it matters to hear all kinds of people [1].

    As I undertand it, Naggum was originally an objectivist. That's how he seemed to present himself to me, as an ex-objectivist. At one time a fan of Ayn Rand and her philosophies. But at some point he had a falling out and came to be a very lucid critic [2], with the sharpness and clarity of one disillusioned by deep and contemplative thought.

    His writing is blunt and sometimes intolerant but makes strong points. I found slogging past the unncomfortably phrased parts useful. There's a lot of interesting stuff there.

    But one thing he, a Norwegian, once said to me was that he felt the really unique and valuable thing about the American capitalist system was its degree of forgiveness. Elsewhere, he said, if you make a mistake and, you are done, sacked with debt you cannot return from, and given no second chance. The American system of bankruptcy means people can recover and learn from mistakes.

    Plainly some do not learn, as one of our co-presidents shows clearly. And you can still do horrible harm that you should not be forgiven for, a problem the other co-president is poster boy for. But there is a place for forgiveness and just tolerance.

    Yet instead, having gotten into the treehouse, the co-presidents are not seeking to bring others along, just to pull up the ladder so that no one else can get in, at least not without paying dearly.

    Naggum also speaks (and this much is in the referenced essay [2]) of the need to accomodate change and diversity and unfortunate circumstances, which he seems to assert is part of the fabric of society that bring intolerant people to sufficient success that they can start to build a society that espouses no need for such.

    These things which are in stark contrast with the writings of Yarvin (the apparent philosophical leader of Vance and the Project 2025 crowd), who seems scarily comfortable with death and suffering [3] [4].

    [1] netsettlement.blogspot.com/200

    [2] nhplace.com/kent/Writing/OS/Na (yes, it has some broken links but the important part is the long embedded quote from email he sent me)

    [3] thenerdreich.com/curtis-yarvin

    [4] netsettlement.blogspot.com/202

    #objectivism #objectivist #AynRand #forgiveness #USPolitics

  25. @tg9541 They get it from the “Atlas Shrugged” novels written by #Russian emigrée #AynRand (where the ‘hero’ is a character named John Galt). Her hyper-rationalist #Objectivism philosophy (#empathy is a sin) was perversely melded into the ethos of so-called fundamentalist #Christians already worshipping #prosperity in the #UnitedStates.

    I saw an excellent essay on this #American phenomenon entitled “Who is #Jesus Galt?” that has since been ‘disappeared’. 🤷🏻‍♂️

    #Resist #DoNotComply

  26. Astute takedown of the Silicon Valley villains in their own language. [The Bulwark, Substack]: Elon Musk Thinks He’s an Ayn Rand Hero. Nope: He’s One of Her Villains.

    Recent years have revealed the Silicon Valley venture capitalists and tech entrepreneurs who worship Rand to be racists, fraudsters, and looters. By Paul Crider, March 10, 2025

    open.substack.com/pub/thebulwa

    #elonMusk #aynRand #jamesTaggert #marcAndreesen #peterThiel #villains

  27. Mike Mazza argues that Karl #Popper was wrong to reject scientific induction in favor of merely disproving hypotheses: youtu.be/ad5KEuKz1a8

    Popper’s “falsificationism” claims #science differs from #religion and pseudo-science in its rational *lack* of certainty. But this only serves to undercut the rationality of science!

    Lecture recorded live at #OCON 2024 on June 16 in Anaheim. Come to Boston this summer for OCON 2025! events.aynrand.org/ocon/

    #philosophy #Objectivism #AynRand

  28. @openculture I'd rather read about #AynRand heroes than #FlanneryOConnor’s grotesque characterizations.

    O'Connor, like most of her contemporaries and intellectuals since, probably didn't read Rand and instead parroted the repeated misrepresentations of a few ideological axe-grinders.

    #literature #bookstodon

  29. @openculture I'd rather read about #AynRand heroes than #FlanneryOConnor’s grotesque characterizations.

    O'Connor, like most of her contemporaries and intellectuals since, probably didn't read Rand and instead parroted the repeated misrepresentations of a few ideological axe-grinders.

    #literature #bookstodon

  30. "É a partir do #neoliberalismo que começa a ser criada nova figura do outro do capitalismo: o #homoeconomicus, que em nossos dias é chamado de #empreendedor. Essa figura, cujo principal criador foi o teórico #Schumpeter, mas também figura ficcionalmente na obra de #AynRand, é o empresário individualizado que deve abrir seu próprio negócio.
    O empreendedor se torna central para o capitalismo…pq com o neoliberalismo há uma passagem do capital a lucro para o capital a juro."

    aterraeredonda.com.br/os-outro