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Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists

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kityglitr
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
My friend who teaches junior high found one of his 8th graders reading The Fountainhead. He so wanted to give her detention, but instead he took the time to gently tell her that it's basically bullshit masquerading as a philosophy. There is hope for the world, yet.
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TheFormerJuneBronson
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
I've said it before and I'll say it again: when students of mine ask if they can diverge from the assigned writing, they invariably ask if they can write about this. That alone is reason enough for me to detest it, as if the philosophy weren't. And no girl has ever made that request. Only guys. It's just not encouraging.
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Penny_Esq
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
A good friend of mine in law school dated another law student who had a philosophy degree and who LOVED Ayn Rand. Once they got in a fight. He's kind of an... effusive fighter, so he's stomping around her living room and slamming things on her coffee table. Fight concludes. They make up. He apologizes for breaking her coffee table. She jiggles it a little, tells him it's okay, she doesn't think it's broken. He becomes irate, says, "You don't think I broke your fucking coffee table? I'll break your fucking coffee table!" and slams his foot down in the middle of it, thereby breaking her coffee table.

So she sends him packing, but eventually they get back together, and he apologizes again for the coffee table thing, but then tells her that if she hadn't mentioned that the table wasn't broken he never would have gotten angry again. I know dudes who blame their significant others for provoking them/causing them to behave poorly are not exclusively objectivists, but I would also say, if you value your furniture, try to avoid dating them. Trust.

(And. I HAVE read the Fountainhead. And hated it.)
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jrhys
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
Like most thinking women, a guy liking Ayn Rand is a 100% dealbreaker for me, no exceptions- so I can see why the asshats who like her have to group together to get laid. In my college all the little loser boys had the 'Objectivist Club' where they went to and never get laid. Meanwhile their moms would drive in every weekend and do their laundry for them. I guess some things never change!
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aubonpam
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
Great, they gathered all the people I would want to AVOID dating in one place.
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myamphigory
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
Dammit, there already is an objectivist dating site? There go all my plans to launch AtlasHugged.com.
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fulanita
11/20/08

@myamphigory: your name is totes better
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jrhys
11/20/08

@myamphigory: AtlasCuddlepartied.com.
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jrhys
11/20/08

@myamphigory: AsshatsHugged.org
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hellosunshine
11/20/08

@myamphigory: AtlasSnuggled.com?
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emilyanne
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
Rand has always cracked me up. The Fountainhead in particular with it's whole and then I must blow up my building because if my genius is not appreciated then I refuse to allow to be recognised ridiculousness. Rand is a complete joke outside of the US, where inexplicably I occasionally meet people who think she had a point.

Also it's worth reading Florence King's Confessions of A Failed Southern Lady for a brilliant bit on her teen obsession with Rand and how it lead to her downfall (sort of).
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Maulleigh
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
I love The Fountainhead. It's changed my life and I disagree that it's badly written.
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braak: You are, as usual, completely correct.
11/20/08

@Maulleigh: Changed it from what to what?
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braak: You are, as usual, completely correct.
11/20/08

@braak: This is a serious question, really; I don't think I've ever read a book that changed my life, and so I am really interested in understanding the experience of life-changing books, no matter what they are.
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hellosunshine
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
Ugh, the only guy I know who loved this book is a douche who claims to be a libertarian hippie but is, in fact, a pretty hardcore conservative who tried to tell me that no woman should have abortions because his (now-ex) wife decided to have their child when she got pregnant at 19, and if she could do it* then anyone could. No thanks.

*He and his now-ex were living off his parents exclusively since they were 17. He still does at 23.
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rednrowdy
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
i went on a date with an attorney who put in his online dating profile that he was into objectivism. i called him to task on it when we spoke on the phone - he back pedalled considerably. we went on one date. never heard from him again.

thank you Jesus.

'the fountainhead' was on tcm a while back, and i recorded it and burned it to a dvd. i haven't actually watched it, but the cinematography looked awesome. the plot is basically that a guy will do anything to get to the top. in other news, water is wet.
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bifteck-frites
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
A friend of mine came out of the closet and began his objectivist crusade right around the same time. It has been an interesting and not altogether pleasant transformation to watch from the sidelines.
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galalefey
11/20/08

@bifteck-frites: I feel like I know this person. I also feels like this often happens particularly in gay men who suddenly also realize that they despise and disdain all women. I have never met people more misogynist than gay men.
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bifteck-frites
11/20/08

@galalefey: Hmmm! Interesting. And interesting to see that I'm not alone in this experience.
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Vivien Smith-Smythe-Smith
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
I thought Ayn Rand was intended to be used only as contraception?
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braak: You are, as usual, completely correct.
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
I read a bunch of interviews with Ayn Rand, once, and accounts of her. She just seemed like a really unpleasant person. I don't know why anyone would subscribe to a philosophy that means the world would be filled with people like that.

It fails the test of the Categorical Imperative.
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PilgrimSoul
11/20/08

@braak: Is this a parody?
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Cam/ron
11/20/08

@braak: Indeed, she also said some very racist comments about Native Americans during a speech at West Point. An English instructor of mine told me that her professor once met her in NYC and discovered that she lived in complete squalor, in complete contrast to the Ubermensches she worshipped.
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braak: You are, as usual, completely correct.
11/20/08

@PilgrimSoul: No, she really did seem unpleasant. She was always just mean and rude to people that were talking to her, like questioning her philosophies was some kind of horrible insult, and that misinterpretation was the result of a lack of intelligence.
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I, Zombie Normal
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
A born-again egoist? Wha? Well, I am a born-again fetus. See, I used to be a fetus, but I didn't appreciate my status, and bought into the shallow idioms of the born. I was misled, but now I see that I can return, and start over. Someone has to stand up for the grown fetuses (fetii?), and work to restore our rights as the born-again unborn.

End insane tangent.
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Miss Smith Drank Your Vodka
11/20/08

@AbbyNormal: CofTD.
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Cam/ron
11/20/08

In reply to Mamas, Don't Let Your Daughters Date Objectivists
Most of the "Objectivists" I knew in college reminded me of people who spend most of their free time laying on the couch and saying, "You know, one day I'll be a famous millionarie. Um, I don't know how, but I'll make it happen."
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