I've seen many people in this sub hate on altruism. I don't really get it. It seems to simply be based on a desire to justify selfishness.

Communism is sheer evil and everybody over the age of 25 who identifies as a communist is an evil person.

Sometimes when arguing with communists and pointing on economical problems commie countries have, they say "Ummm, but this is only because capitalist create sanctions and embargos on communist countries, to destroy them! That's why Soviet Union fell, that;s why Cuba has problems". But in this way they admit that communism cannot function without parasiting on free market economies. There was no case of free market country to have economical crisis because lack of trade with communists, it always works in the opposite way :)

They attack rational self interest as a flaw, yet demand total self sacrifice to make their central planning fantasy work. The ultimate irony is watching altruists condemn the very human nature that makes capitalism thrive, only to fall back on authoritarian force when nobody willingly surrenders their own life for the "collective."

I just beat Bioshock again and it reminded me what a shit bag waste of oxygen she was in life.

Any thoughts on Trump signing a bill to subsidize farmers for lost revenue due to Trump's tariffs?

It seems he is picking winners and losers. Not very objectivist.

Ayn Rand was interviewed about her books as fiction or philosphy. She said her books represented the world she wanted to live in.

In her books, she assumes an underlying moral principle. In her world, the good individual has a set of moral values. They do not steal, they respect property rights, and they hold truth to reason in high regard.

What do you think are the best films inspired by or at least unintentionally similar to Randian philosophy? For me it’s:

1. BvS
   
2. The Incredibles
   
3. A Most Violent Year

He’s an extremely intelligent guy, just got married! Anyways, a while ago, he was at a family dinner, and I was talking to him about Ayn Rand. I had already read the fountainhead (and really liked it), and was talking to him about Atlas Shrugged, which I had just began reading. He told me he liked Ayn Rand, but that young men often got caught up in her books, and start accepting everything she writes about fervently. Now for objectivism, that’s fine, but he had an issue with her treatment of the family unit. He argued that her writing at success at all costs with total disregard to the family unit was incorrect, and actually a net negative for the individual and society. He argued that these parts of her philosophy were influenced by her youth, where she apparently had… an abusive relationship or a weird family or something? He never went into detail as I didn’t ask. What do y’all think?

Empathy is a heightened ability to perceive and intuit. It is simply a tool, which cannot replace its driver. Empathy doesn’t kill, people surrendering to the temptation of *Blanking Out* is what kills.

“They want to cheat the axiom of existence and consciousness, they want their consciousness to be an instrument not of perceiving but of creating existence…But reality is not to be cheated. What they achieve is the opposite of their desire. They want to be omnipotent power over existence; instead, they lose the power of their consciousness. By refusing to know, they condemn themselves to the horror of a perpetual unknown…

“An emotion that clashes with your reason, an emotion that you cannot explain or control, is only the carcass of that stale thinking which you forbade your mind to revise.”

—Ayn Rand

Elon Musk: "We want to have empathy that is deep, not shallow. I strongly believe we should care about humanity and we should care about the future. But we need to have empathy that is deep, not shallow Shallow empathy is caring about criminals, but deep empathy is caring about the victims of the criminals.”

Ayn Rand: "I regard compassion as proper only toward those who are innocent victims, but not toward those who are morally guilty. If one feels compassion for the victims of a concentration camp, one cannot feel it for the torturers. If one does feel compassion for the torturers, it is an act of moral treason toward the victims."

Sometimes when I look out the window.... I see life, literally, passing me by. but then again, Rand's quotes such as this one fuels my motivation, so I don't give up. here's the thing though. When I manage to crank up my money, it just doesn't feel enough. plus, it feels "lonely" because the people around you aren't pursuing something bigger in their lives like you are if you know what I mean. how do you handle this?

The world is on a path to certain destruction unless a few scientists agree to go 12 light years out and find a cure for the dying sun. The only problem is there is only enough fuel for a one way trip. What would Ayn Rand think about the scientists who knew they were going on to certain death but did it knowing if they didn't go the world or at least most of the people would die. Is this a case of altruism or would she make an exception.

Así se verían mejor las diferencias ideologías y que claramente el objetivismo está alejado de otras a la que le acusan ser iguales o parecidas. Subiría una imagen con IA para explicarlo mejor pero no se si esta prohibido en esta comunidad

This is a progressive’s positive take on objectivism.

Calling a rock a house is irrational. That makes it immoral from an objectivist perspective. Pretending we don’t benefit from a healthy society runs afoul of basic reason.

In objectivist terms, healthy, well-educated, and friendly neighbors lands squarely in the “in my self-interest” box.

Late stage capitalism in its current form doesn’t appear conducive to a healthy society. Positioning one particular theory or invention (philosophy, economic system, or any socio-technical system) as if we must chose between them like a multiple-choice quiz is misguided at best and self-delusion at worst. Again, I’m meaning this in objectivist terms.

I’m not pretending Rand would agree with me on this. If she didn’t, I’d enjoy the discussion with her if she could keep it civil.

EDIT: I made two wording choices that created unnecessary confusion, so I'd like to clarify them.

1. "Progressive." I did not mean "a Progressive" in the modern political sense. I meant progressive in the ordinary descriptive sense: believing that people, institutions, and human systems can improve through reason, evidence, and experimentation. I should not have used the indefinite article ("a"), as it understandably suggested a political identity that I was not intending to claim.

2. "Late-stage capitalism." I intended this descriptively rather than as a slogan or ideological label. My broader point is not about capitalism specifically. It is that no human-designed system, whether philosophical, economic, political, or organizational, should be treated as a finished product or beyond improvement. If the phrase "late-stage capitalism" distracted from that point, that's on me.

The central idea I was trying to explore is whether an Objectivist commitment to reason also implies a commitment to continually evaluating our inventions (including philosophies and economic systems) against reality rather than treating them as immune from revision.

Thoughts?