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Joined 2 years ago
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Cake day: July 12th, 2023

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  • Rand’s fans are MAGAs, that’s why. Argue that they don’t understand the material, and I’ll agree with you, but that doesn’t change that the philosophy does make you think that money is equivalent to value. And robs you of the tools to identify the “leeches” as Rand called them. “Since they argue for smaller government, they must be the good guys”

    I was formerly an objectivist (I got better) and that was the same fucking thing I fell for.


  • No, the problem is that she props up this idea of the Ubermensch as an answer to the problem of oligarchy, but there’s no such thing as these super men. Most of human achievement is incrementalism with labor providing the engine of progress. Her philosophy is a retort to Marxism, because she was a victim of the Bolshevik Revolution, but her solution solves literally nothing. An oligarchy of capital owners instead of politicians with no system of controls to stop them. Which would make everything so much worse. Sure, no one would have a monopoly of violence, but that would only make violence far more prevalent rather than less.

    Edit: it’s why she’s so popular with fascists. She created this myth of the Ubermensch they can envision themselves as and sell to others, while throwing away the pesky “anti-religion” and “anti-oligarch” part of the philosophy.


  • Oh! That’s the confusion. The Death Star wouldn’t be able to cancel out is orbital velocity in any meaningful time frame, but I get what you’re saying. Its engines are tiny compared to its size.

    It’s comparable to saying the ISS is a mobile space station because it can use the engines on the Soyuz to adjust its orbit (in terms of thrust to weight, not mechanics, since the Death Star has its own engines)