[lanfeust6]

Had read AR as a teen and while I have strong disagreements I do notice a pattern of shallow understanding when she's being discussed in Liberal sphere. It's easier for leftists to attack her character than critique her ideas in good faith (and it's not like there's a lack of kookiness to address). The fringe vocal groups (who leave nothing untouched) also reserve similar treatment for some rationalists, which tells you a lot about their approach and worldview. Anything that doesn't necessarily embrace wholesale collectivism at the door, or is skeptical of Socialism, is treated as a threat. Rand is more explicitly hostile to it.

[SavantIdiot]

You're doing the same thing you are criticizing your straw-person leftists as doing.

As a leftist, it is quite easy to critique her ideas in good faith: she disdains anyone who doesn't confirm to her idea of "productive", abhors the poor, and deifies the upper class as being the ultimate model of humanity. And that's not even being reductive.

[slothtrop]

> And that's not even being reductive.

It would have to be somewhere near the dartboard to be reductive, this is just a weak projection. You mentioned the ease of criticizing her ideas and in the same breath, completely ignore them. The irony is lost on you.

[AzzieElbab]

That is exactly true. Not like AR had the right answers to everything but if Socialists hadn’t made a caricature out her the ideological movement she started could have developed into something intellectually competitive to progressivism. As opposed to harmless conservatism which by definition cannot compete and is only useful to slow things down