{"id":4512,"date":"2011-05-24T14:46:41","date_gmt":"2011-05-24T21:46:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4512"},"modified":"2011-05-24T14:46:41","modified_gmt":"2011-05-24T21:46:41","slug":"why-do-tea-baggers-idolize-ayn-rand","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4512","title":{"rendered":"Why Do Tea Baggers Idolize Ayn Rand?"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have never really understood how the Evanga-publicans, Tea Baggers, and Foxpods could have taken Ayn Rand to their hearts. She is a despicable proponent the most extreme brand of selfishness and Narcissism. (Hmm…maybe it’s not so hard to understand after all). And she is an avowed, nearly militant, atheist. How does that jibe with the Christo-centric rightist movement in America?<\/p>\n

The answer, of course, is that it doesn’t. Rand’s philosophy would be abhorrent to conscious religious conservatives. The problem is that so many of them are closer to catatonic than consciousness. Thankfully, most Americans are more aware and have dismissed Rand and her breed of mean-spirited egoism. The recent film version of her “Atlas Shrugged”<\/em> was a monumental failure<\/a>, creatively and financially.<\/p>\n

But that doesn’t mean that her fans are non-existent or immaterial. So it was nice to see this video from the American Values Network and the accompanying documentation of Rand’s dementia:<\/p>\n

<\/param><\/param><\/param><\/object><\/p>\n

From the American Values Network<\/a> web site:<\/p>\n

Ayn Rand’s novel Atlas Shrugged has been among Amazon’s top 20 best sellers for much of the past year. This year she’s outsold Billy Graham, Joel Osteen, Rick Warren’s The Purpose Driven Life, and The Shack combined! Rep. Paul Ryan\u2013the Republican choice to address the nation following the State of the Union and author of the Republican budget\u2013credits Ayn Rand as the reason he got in to politics, and he requires all his staff and interns to read her books.<\/p>\n

So who is Ayn Rand, and why this spike in interest in her teachings? Ayn Rand has resurfaced in recent years as the philosopher championed by the Tea Party and many prominent Republican leaders. But, as conservative evangelical icon Chuck Colson recently pointed out, Ayn Rand’s strong atheism, absolute rejection of Christ’s teachings, and goal of replacing religion with her belief system stands in total opposition to all that which America’s faith community holds most dear.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

And a few quotes from Rand:<\/p>\n

“I don’t approve of religion.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“[Faith] is a sign of a psychological weakness. . . I regard it as evil to place your emotions, your desire, above the evidence of what your mind knows. That’s what you’re doing with the idea of God.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“What I am fighting is the idea that charity is a moral duty and a primary virtue.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

“It must be either reason or faith. I am against God for the reason that I don’t want to destroy reason.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Feel free to pass this on to anyone you know who has been suckered in by this freak.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have never really understood how the Evanga-publicans, Tea Baggers, and Foxpods could have taken Ayn Rand to their hearts. She is a despicable proponent the most extreme brand of selfishness and Narcissism. (Hmm…maybe it’s not so hard to understand after all). And she is an avowed, nearly militant, atheist. How does that jibe with […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[880,301,534],"class_list":["post-4512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general","tag-ayn-rand","tag-republicans","tag-tea-party"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4Ijg-1aM","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4264,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=4264","url_meta":{"origin":4512,"position":0},"title":"What If Atlas Shrugged And No One Was There To See It?","author":"Mark NC","date":"4\/21\/2011","format":false,"excerpt":"The film version of Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand's soporific paean to malevolent ego-centrism, has finally been released to the throngs of slobbering Tea Baggers desperate for some cinematic validation. Sadly for these pathetic flim(flam) buffs, this flick hardly fills the void in their lost souls. The movie is being released\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Art\/Culture"","block_context":{"text":"Art\/Culture","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=9"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":6345,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=6345","url_meta":{"origin":4512,"position":1},"title":"Ayn Rand Redux: Atlas Shrugged Part 2 Set To Fizzle This Fall","author":"Mark NC","date":"2\/4\/2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The second installment of the threatened cinematic trilogy of Ayn Rand's insipid novel Atlas Shrugged is set for release in October of this year, a month before the presidential election. 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But\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Economy"","block_context":{"text":"Economy","link":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?cat=219"},"img":{"alt_text":"Ayn Rand Wet Dream Act","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/ayn-rand-wet-dream.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/ayn-rand-wet-dream.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/..\/Pix\/Trump\/ayn-rand-wet-dream.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":2642,"url":"https:\/\/www.newscorpse.com\/ncWP\/?p=2642","url_meta":{"origin":4512,"position":3},"title":"RIGHTNETWORK: All That’s Right With The Media","author":"Mark NC","date":"9\/9\/2010","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday marked the launch of an avowedly conservative media platform for all the Tea Baggers, Birchers, Oathkeepers, and fans of Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, and Ayn Rand. 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