[CamperBob]

I didn't initially have much respect for Rand or Atlas Shrugged, having read her years ago and concluded that her ideas didn't account for human nature any better than Communism did... but I have to admit, her stock rises in my sight every time someone feels compelled to mod down a post that so much as mentions the unholy words on Reddit or HN.

Someone who pisses off that many hipsters must have done something right. No one has ever received so much revulsion from the so-called intellectual elite without advocating genocide or other atrocities... and perhaps even then. Dangerous ideas are interesting.

[shadowfox]

I think I may be misunderstanding the structure of your argument. Are you saying that your regard for Ayn Rand keeps rising because other people dislike her ideas? And that is the only reason?

[CamperBob]

It's not so much that other people dislike her ideas, but that otherwise-eloquent people react so violently to them that they fail to counter those ideas effectively. The emo philosophy majors who reflexively disparage objectivism and libertarianism in general don't seem to understand that Rand is the monster that Nietzsche warned them about. They end up making themselves look like overindulged children in any online thread where someone brings up the topic. They literally sound just like the gay-bashing Christian politicians who are later caught conducting their own "services" in a public restroom.

Whenever I find myself reacting so defensively to an idea or concept, I try to force myself to look into the matter more closely. Put another way: if Ayn Rand can hold up a rhetorical crucifix and turn me into a puddle of fuming goo, that's my weakness, and not hers.

[maxharris]

monster that Nietzsche warned them about

My philosophy professor (from undergrad) is a Nietzsche scholar, and I'm pretty sure he disagrees. What makes you think this?

[CamperBob]

I'm just referring to the old cliche about taking care when you fight monsters ("objectivist derp"), lest you become what you despise.

It's obviously not precisely what ol' Fred had in mind.