>Tillerson reported that Ayn Rand's novel Atlas Shrugged

We're never going to get another proper intellectual in a position of power ever again, are we?

File: ayn rand laughter.jpg (15KB, 375x248px) Image search: [Google]

15KB, 375x248px

>Any white person who brings the elements of civilization had the right to take over this continent,” Ayn Rand proclaimed, “and it is great that some people did, and discovered here what they couldn’t do anywhere else in the world and what the Indians, if there are any racist Indians today, do not believe to this day: respect for individual rights.

>“Let’s suppose they were all beautifully innocent savages, which they certainly were not,” Rand persisted. “What was it that they were fighting for, if they opposed white men on this continent? For their wish to continue a primitive existence, their right to keep part of the earth untouched, unused, and not even as property, but just keep everybody out so that you will live practically like an animal?” she asked.

Based Rand supported BTFOing savages to establish civilization.

>>9359675
>I'm smarter than the CEO of one of the biggest companies in the world and the current secretary of state because I masturbate to dostoevsky

>>9359675
Me desu

>>9359689
I might be, I just don't have the mercenary spirit to be an executive.

File: 1269 - XxlmUx7.gif (52KB, 320x240px) Image search: [Google]

52KB, 320x240px

>>9359721
>I'm smart but lazy

le spam

> the us president is semi-illiterate

>>9359683
Such a commercial-Jewish take on America.

>>9359689
Being smart doesn't make you an intellectual. It's not possible for a businessman to really be one.

>>9360448
The only qualifications for being considered an intellectual in the US are
1) Being in a position of power
2) Having read Atlas Shrugged, Meditations, or The Art of War

>>9359683
This is actually fucking gross. Was Rand a p-zombie? It sounds like she was a machine programmed only to consume and profit.

>>9360455
At least Mattis, to his credit, likes Shakespeare.

This just in: oil man with no political or real world experience likes objectivism

>>9360460
>There are things we should do besides trying to determine and optimize an analytical representation for the utility function of the universe
>>9360465
Does he also like Kind of Blue and Herzog movies?

>>9360460
Rand would be shitposting on 8pol if she were alive today.

>>9360471
>no real world experience
This just in: 4chan shitposter defines what counts as real world experience

>>9359689
being in power doesnt make you smart

>>9360474
>>There are things we should do besides trying to determine and optimize an analytical representation for the utility function of the universe

Yes, exactly, I'm glad you see things my way.

File: pottery.jpg (822KB, 2049x1939px) Image search: [Google]

822KB, 2049x1939px

>>9359673
>Was the CEO of an oil company and under his stewardship the company inflated the value of their stock by booking undeveloped reserves as developed so that executives could enjoy a large payout.
>This was similar to the rampant fraud committed by railroads at the turn of the century.
>Rand viewed railroad tycoons as the ultimate embodiment of her value system.
It's like poetry, it rhymes.

>>9359683

What a disgusting worldview. 'Progress' for progress sake is not true progress. She's basically advocating the right to impose one's own will on others because they do not have the power to resist. Ayn Rand was in need of a whole heap of a lot more humility in life. It's obvious she thought very highly of herself.

>>9360590
>>9360460
Are you cucks trolling or what? Noble savage is a myth and the majority of big Native American tribes were warlike and engaged in slavery. Just because they were poor naked treeniggers doesn't make them morally superior.

>muh one with nature

never was a thing

>>9360587

Middle class people would never have the arrogance to do shit like this. We should be in charge of everything.

Bourgeoisocracy when?

>>9360616
>Middle class people would never have the arrogance to do shit like this.
How naive can you be? These are middle class people, it doesn't mean they are the same as the majority of the middle class but they are middle class.

>>9360611

Not the point. People have the right to live their lives the way they want without someone else coming over and forcing their ideals on you because they believe their worldview is superior to your worldview. Just put yourself on the other end of the spectrum if you can. It only takes a little bit of empathy to see how wrong it is, something Rand clearly lacked. She was a hypocrite and her works are overrated tripe.

>>9360640
So it's fine if one Native American tribe conquers another and enslaves them but if the white men comes and conquers them with superior technology due to a high IQ it's racist.

Why do you hold white people to higher standards? Is it your white guilt complex leading to subtle latent racism?

>>9360640
>People have the right to live their lives the way they want without someone else coming over and forcing their ideals on you
>people
wew lad

>>9360653

Not what I am saying. Rand's whole philosophy is, 'I have the means to do something, therefore it is right for me to do it', something I strongly disagree with.

>>9360611
>majority of big Native American tribes were warlike and engaged in slavery.
There's a huge difference between their conception of war and slavery and the Western counterparts. Read Facing Mt. Kenya to get a similar idea.

Slaves were considered humans and not property, they would become members of the tribe and could have their own families. A better word would be forced adoption, it wasn't good but it was not what we think of as slavery. Some whites were even captured and allowed to return home after being raised by Native Americans, the most famous was Wild Carrot.

I am not surprised in the slightest.

File: crow creek massacre.jpg (232KB, 959x680px) Image search: [Google]

232KB, 959x680px

>>9360640

>Many of the bodies are missing limbs; the attackers may have taken them as trophies, scavenger animals or birds may have carried them away, or some limbs may have been left unburied in the Crow Creek village.[13] Authors Willey and Emerson state that "they had been killed, mutilated, and scavenged before being buried".[14] "Tongue removal, decapitation, and dismemberment of the Crow Creek victims may have been based on standard aboriginal butchering practices developed on large game animals".[15] These are among the mutilations discovered at the Crow Creek site. In addition, scalping was performed, bodies were burned, and there is evidence of limbs being removed by various means. As stated in the Willey’s dissertation, many of the mutilations suffered by the victims of the Crow Creek massacre could have been traumatic enough to result in death.[4]

>A conservative estimate of villagers who suffered scalping is 90%, but it could have been as high as 100%

If this happened today you would be begging for a UN peacekeeping mission to go in and "stop the violence."

File: pinochet leftists.jpg (25KB, 600x425px) Image search: [Google]

25KB, 600x425px

>>9360676
Natural rights are a spook.

>>9360677
>There's a huge difference between their conception of war and slavery and the Western counterparts
>DUDE when white people enslave brown people it's real slavery because slavery is owning humans + INSTITUTIONAL power therefore brown people cannot truly enslave each other just like they can't be racist towards white people

t. shekelstein

>>9360486
Evolutionary speaking, of course it does. The powerful alpha males among any group of creatures live the best lives.

>>9360486
It takes smarts to get to that position of power no?

File: 1422307632708.jpg (111KB, 678x1000px) Image search: [Google]

111KB, 678x1000px

>>9360677

Now do an apologia for the Iroquois practice of torturing war captives to death over a period of several days.

>>9360700
>Americans

>>9360712
>powerful aren't better than me they are just more immoral and opportunistic

slave morality

>>9360676
>therefore it is right for me to do it

Your entire argument hinges on the concepts of "right" and "wrong".

Morality is just a meme, breh

>>9360716
I can tell you went to a shitty university and probably a public school as well. The powerful are more likely to be lucky than immoral or smart.

File: nietzsche (2).jpg (68KB, 430x500px) Image search: [Google]

68KB, 430x500px

>>9360747
>The powerful are more likely to be lucky than immoral or smart.
>I'm inferior because I'm superior morally and full of virtue unlike my masters

>>9360696
>Evolutionary speaking
yeah cause we're all living in the fucking wild
you dolt

>>9360590
She is additionally claiming that to be a more advanced person means you have a superior ability to subjugate others

File: aztec-human-sacrifice-codex-photo-researchers.jpg (177KB, 900x658px) Image search: [Google]

177KB, 900x658px

>>9360677

Come on bro, tell me about how all the natives were peaceful hippies who totally didn't deserve to get oppressed!

Leftists are such fags, I bet you've never even heard of the Partition of Poland but you'll mourn the aboriginals to your last dying breath.

>>9360782
Higher IQ and level of civilization leads to superior technology which is used to dominate inferior races and advance the human race, correct.

It's David and Goliath. David is smart and builds civilization and technology while Goliath(brown people) is a brute.

File: image.jpg (129KB, 600x600px) Image search: [Google]

129KB, 600x600px

>>9360716
>implying master is any better
Wow it is almost as if people don't want to head a large company to obtain power

>>9360788
>dominate inferior races
wow, you're a worthless person

>>9360792
>image.jpg

Posted from an Iphone.

File: molyneux.jpg (28KB, 567x565px) Image search: [Google]

28KB, 567x565px

>>9360801
>leftists think virtue signaling is a valid form of argument

>>9360777
>Thinking you're anything but an upright walking monkey who learned to tie their shoes

Yeah boy, evolution. Why do you suppose you still have the innate urge to stick your willy in a female's slimy hole?

>>9360801

But I thought we were all inherently valuable?

Why isn't he part of the One Big Human Family TM ?

>>9360806
Man is divine.

>>9360772
You can enjoy your Niezschean lifestyle while I enjoy my money and power. Your stubbornness only gives me financial security. You think you understand the powerful because you read some books that help the neo-liberalism go down. I understand the powerful because I was raised by them and educated alongside them. I see stupid people get jobs at companies you can only dream of working for on a daily basis. I am one of the powerful you idolize, I'm surrounded by them, and I'm telling you that you're wrong. Connections and more luck are more important than intelligence. I'd tell you to ask someone who was in a frat, went to a good school or was born into money, but you clearly don't know anyone like that.

>>9360805
Your argument is that dominating inferior races advances the human race. In no way is that true. Nor am I a leftist, that is not an argument

File: post-22522-Brittany-Big-Brother-cringe-gi-RjIc.gif (2MB, 380x285px) Image search: [Google]

2MB, 380x285px

>>9360818

File: aryan women.jpg (14KB, 236x308px) Image search: [Google]

14KB, 236x308px

>>9360829
The most intelligent people subjugate the inferior races and lead them from the darkness of barbarism and into productivity. It is desirable if we are ever to obtain global peace for a master race of genetically superior peoples rule over the lesser beings and guide humanity towards its full potential.

File: image.jpg (204KB, 818x1100px) Image search: [Google]

204KB, 818x1100px

>>9360803
Not an argument

>>9359673
Let's ignore the horrible philosophies and worldview presented by the book for a second.
Atlas Shrugged is a TERRIBLY written book. The protagonists are all presented as flawless Mary Sues, the bad guys are grotesque evil caricatures, the worldbuilding is terrible and makes no sense if you actually think about it, the descriptions are boring and repetitive, the monologues are too fucking long and it takes forever for anything to happen.

>>9359683
That doesn't even begin to describe how racist she was, also she somehow thought that consumers don't matter to the economy and a store would go bankrupt even if it has paying customers because they're all filthy Indians

>Now project the mentality of a savage, who can grasp nothing but the concretes of the immediate moment, and who finds himself transported into the midst of a modern, industrial civilization. If he is an intelligent savage, he will acquire a smattering of knowledge, but there are two concepts he will not be able to grasp: "credit" and "market."

>Then the savage observes that the department stores are full of wonderful goods, but people do not seem to buy them. "Why is that?" he asks a floorwalker. "We don't have enough of a market," the floorwalker tells him. "What is that?" he asks. "Well," his new teacher answers, "goods are produced for people to consume, it's the consumers that make the world go 'round, but we don't have enough consumers." "Is that so?" says the savage, his eyes flashing with the fire of a new idea. Next day, he obtains a check from a big educational foundation, he hires a plane, he flies away—and comes back, a while later, bringing his entire naked, barefoot tribe along. "You don't know how good they are at consuming," he tells his friend, the floorwalker, "and there's plenty more where these came from. Pretty soon you'll get a raise in pay." But the store, pretty soon, goes bankrupt.

>The poor savage is unable to understand it to this day—because he had made sure that many, many people agreed with his idea, among them many noble tribal chiefs, such as Governor [George, not Mitt] Romney, who sang incantations to "consumerism," and warrior Nader, who fought for the consumers' rights, and big business chieftains who recited formulas about serving the consumers, and chiefs who sat in Congress, and chiefs in the White House, and chiefs in every government in Europe, and many more professors than he could count.

>>9362274
So, why exactly does Rand think the store went bankrupt?

>>9362610
They didn't embrace the Objective ideology of producerism and cater only to those who had value in society by becoming a boutique store that sells overpriced goods at low overhead for massive profit.

>>9360851
Tell me then, "enlightened man," what is the one true, objective, totally valid, and comprehensive means of measuring human intelligence?

>>9359689
>I'm an insecure white nerd afraid to admit someone was born into a position of wealth and power and probably call people cucks online

>>9360640
Empathy is nice but it sure as fuck doesn't precede reason.

>>9359689
ITT: George Bush is smarter than Zizek because Zizek wasn't president

>>9363276
Bush isn't an idiot, I think it could be possible he's smarter than Žižek

>>9363269
War

>>9363271
>a powerful person was born into a situation where the acquisition of power was not impossible

bleeding edge leftist rhetoric

>>9363299
>War
Define this, explain how this measures intelligence rather than luck ("I know he's a good general, but is he lucky?"). Unless you're too cowardly to commit to a position, and will instead just rattle off riddles like a mystic.

>>9359683
ok ok. ok. just... wow. ok. I did not want to hear racism on an anonymous bengalese sock-darning forum. seriously? wow. ok.

>>9362274
Is Rand saying that consumers don't matter in the economy? How does that even make sense?
Then again, that does explain a lot about the main characters in Atlas Shrugged and Galt's Gulch.

>>9360724
No, morality is an assertion made by the individual. Ayn Rand and Spooky guy both assert their own morality when they prescribe ways humans should act. I reject their morality and assert my own.

>>9363477
But spooky guy never said how "humans should act," he explicitly rejected a call to blanket egoism:

'When Fichte says, “The ego is all,” this seems to harmonize perfectly with my thesis. But it is not that the ego is all, but the ego destroys all, and only the self-dissolving ego, the never-being ego, the — finite ego is really I. Fichte speaks of the “absolute” ego, but I speak of me, the transitory ego. How natural is the supposition that man and ego mean the same! And yet one sees, e.g., by Feuerbach, that the expression “man” is to designate the absolute ego, the species, not the transitory, individual ego. Egoism and humanity (humaneness) ought to mean the same, but according to Feuerbach the individual can “only lift himself above the limits of his individuality, but not above the laws, the positive ordinances,of his species.”[60] But the species is nothing, and, if the individual lifts himself above the limits of his individuality, this is rather his very self as an individual; he exists only in raising himself, he exists only in not remaining what he is; otherwise he would be done, dead. Man with the great M is only an ideal, the species only something thought of. To be a man is not to realize the ideal of Man, but to present oneself, the individual.'

>>9360696
>alpha males
Pseudoscience.

>>9359721
>I'm poor because of my morals
I bet you're a virgin by choice too, right?

>>9360676
>Rand's whole philosophy is, 'I have the means to do something, therefore it is right for me to do it'
>but taxation is theft goys and the gubbermint don't have the right to take your money

>>9363276
ITT: Random /lit/ neckbeard loser is smarter than Rex Tillerson

>>9363714
I've never talked to the guy, but anyone I've met who cited Atlas Shrugged as their favorite book is the definition of a brainlet.
>hurr anecdotal
As far as I know, there aren't any studies that aim to find a correlation between enthusiasm for Objectivism and low IQ, other than the globally televised reality show known as US politics.

Can we all at least agree the Aztecs deserved to be eradicated?

>>9363730
>correlation between enthusiasm for Objectivism and low IQ, other than the globally televised reality show known as US politics.

Did you even read the book? I'm trying to follow your train of thought between these two observations. You're probably just 2smart4me i guess

>>9363773
Yes, I read the whole book (one of the few regrets of my life).

That's kind of the point; American politicians consistently cite a book that admonishes against all political activity outside of paying for cops, roads, and the fire department as their favorite. They do this in the same breath that the seek to ban things like abortion, which I'm pretty sure Rand was explicitly against. And their constituents lap it up like a brain-damaged miniature poodle laps up shit water.

>>9363801
I think you're taking the notion of "favourite book" a little to far. I've not seen a politician claim to live and act strictly in accordance with the philosophy of her books. Most people have beliefs separate from their favourite art of any given medium.

>>9363611
Then I suppose my argument was really with Rand. I need to read the spooky guy. I was relying on hearsay.

It's Paul Ryan's favorite book as well

>>9363831
Except that when they're asked why they like the book, most (e.g. Paul Ryan, and I would expect the like from Tillerson) will say something like "I agree with its message." And they don't, they're just saying it to garner support from people who do agree with it, namely, idiots.

>>9363835
Always better to go to the source for criticism. But honestly it sounds like you agree with him anyway e.g.
>I reject their morality and assert my own.
Spooky guy also says that any intelligent reading of him will at some points reject what he has to say. I reject e.g. his characterization of "enthusiasm." To me, he seems spooked about being enthusiastic toward anything, whereas I use enthusiasm to my benefit.

>>9360696
>being in power makes you smart
but anon Trump is president.

>>9363902
Really causes me to utilize the ol' neurotransmitters, unironically.

In the same way that "life does not live," I would say power is no longer powerful.

>>9363299
So, since Arabs are successfully supplanting whites in their own country through demographic subversion, Spics are doing the same, and Africans are stealing the "Defender of the Faith" title, would all of this losing make whites the most inferior of races? Or do you have some bullshit excuse that paints your kind in a favourable light?

>>9363902
I bet he accidentally tripped his way to his billions from a million.

>>9364803
If an accident of birth counts, being born rich and inheriting his daddy's wealh, then yes.

>>9359689
>this is your brain on capitalism

The main thing about Ayn Rand I despise is how dismissive she is of the concept of charity.
So she wants to get rid of the government, and she believes that people shouldn't help others if they gain nothing out of it, so that means no charity organizations. What happens to the disabled in her world? Or to orphans?

>>9359675
Intellectuals need to start acting like decent human beings before we've ever got a chance for that to happen.

>>9367011
>she believes that people shouldn't help others if they gain nothing out of it
People always gain something out of helping others, the problem is when people become self-destructive in their helpfulness.

Charity organizations shouldn't be dependent on the government; she wasn't against the concept of charity, but a large percentage of charities use force to extract money from people.

And she didn't want to get rid of the government, she criticized anarchists and libertarians who held this video.

>>9367041
>>she wasn't against the concept of charity
This scene from Atlas Shrugged says otherwise

>“You don’t really care about helping the underprivileged, do you?” Philip asked – and Rearden heard, unable to believe it, that the tone of his voice was reproachful.
>“No, Phil, I don’t care about it at all. I only wanted you to be happy.”
>“But that money is not for me. I am not collecting it for any personal motive. I have no selfish interest in the matter whatever.”
>…Rearden turned away. He felt a sudden loathing: not because the words were hypocrisy, but because they were true; Philip meant them. [p.47]

>>9367011
2spooky4me

>>9367041
>but a large percentage of charities use force to extract money from people.
Such as?

>>9367061
Taxes.

You realize nearly all large charities have a dedicated lobbying wing right? for instance Geldof's accepts cash from African despots and in return he aggressively campaigns for Western countries to increase foreign aid to these despots, he then allows local politicians to use his concerts to push a narrative.

>>9367011
She's also an ungrateful hypocrite
> “No one helped me, nor did I think it was anyone’s duty to help me.”
Completely ignoring how without the help and financial support of her relatives she never would have gotten to America, much less gotten a job as a writer. She never thanked them because doing so qould require admitting that there was a time she relied on others.

>>9367011
She never said that, nor is that part of objectivism. This is why you people need to actually read her works instead of sperging off like some sort of lefty retards.

File: Mia_May_1919-1924_Alexander_Binder_001.jpg (96KB, 620x851px) Image search: [Google]

96KB, 620x851px

>>9367099
?

What are you even talking about, she wrote tons of letters to thank everybody from editors to actors in films she saw in Russia, pic related.

are you just posting from a checklist on how to stump objectivists or something?

>>9367054
A bit of context to that paragraph would be nice. Certainly looks bad when taken out of context though. Then again, reading up to nearly page 50 in atlas shrugged must be hard for someone like you, the book doesn't have any pictures.

File: Striner_love12.png (12KB, 269x187px) Image search: [Google]

12KB, 269x187px

>>9367089
Too bad she wasn't against the lobbying part of charity but of altruism itself

>>9367142
The context is that Hank's family are presented as ungrateful moochers. They are in fact detestable people.


"It was so childishly blatant, thought Rearden, so helplessly crude: the hint and the insult, offered together. It would be so easy to squash Philip by returning the insult, he thought—by returning an insult which would be deadly because it would be true—that he could not bring himself to utter it. Surely, he thought, the poor fool knows he's at my mercy, knows he's opened himself to be hurt, so I don't have to do it, and my not doing it is my best answer, which he won't be able to miss.

What sort of misery does he really live in, to get himself twisted quite so badly?

And then Rearden thought suddenly that he could break through Philip's chronic wretchedness for once, give him a shock of pleasure, the unexpected gratification of a hopeless desire. He thought: What do I care about the nature of his desire?—it's his, just as Rearden Metal was mine—it must mean to him what that meant to me—let's see him happy just once, it might teach him something—didn't I say that happiness is the agent of purification?—I'm celebrating tonight, so let him share in it—it will be so much for him, and so little for me.

"Philip," he said, smiling, "call Miss Ives at my office tomorrow.

She'll have a check for you for ten thousand dollars."

Philip stared at him blankly; it was neither shock nor pleasure; it was just the empty stare of eyes that looked glassy.

"Oh," said Philip, then added, "We'll appreciate it very much."

There was no emotion in his voice, not even the simple one of greed.

Rearden could not understand his own feeling: it was as if something leaden and empty were collapsing within him, he felt both the weight and the emptiness, together. He knew it was disappointment, but he wondered why it was so gray and ugly.

"It's very nice of you, Henry," Philip said dryly. "I'm surprised. I didn't expect it of you."

"Don't you understand it, Phil?" said Lillian, her voice peculiarly clear and lilting. "Henry's poured his metal today." She turned to Rearden. "Shall we declare it a national holiday, darling?"

"You're a good man, Henry," said his mother, and added, "but not often enough."

Rearden stood looking at Philip, as if waiting.

Philip looked away, then raised his eyes and held Rearden's glance, as if engaged in a scrutiny of his own."

""By the way, Henry," Philip added, "do you mind if I ask you to have Miss Ives give me the money in cash?" Rearden turned back to him, puzzled. "You see, Friends of Global Progress are a very progressive group and they have always maintained that you represent the blackest element of social retrogression ha the country, so it would embarrass us, you know, to have your name on our list of contributors, because somebody might accuse us of being in the pay of Hank Rearden."

He wanted to slap Philip's face. But an almost unendurable contempt made him close his eyes, instead"

>>9367155
>she was against altruism itself
Myth, read her letters, she wanted to bring multiple people from Russia to the US on her dime and give them a place to live, including the person that taught her English.

>>9367139
Then why did she say "No one helped me"?
And did she send any of those letters to her Chicago relatives?

File: Atlas Shrugged aftermath.gif (65KB, 790x416px) Image search: [Google]

65KB, 790x416px

>>9367142
>Then again, reading up to nearly page 50 in atlas shrugged must be hard for someone like you, the book doesn't have any pictures.
Getting through Atlas Shrugged is hard because it's so badly written and boring, and because of how infuriatingly stupid it is at times.
Galt's Gulch is a complete fantasy, let's leave aside the infinite energy motor for a second, how the fuck do you grow tobacco in Colorado? How do you operate several mines, farms and factories without hundreds of workers? How do these rich CEOs even know how to do all this stuff?

>>9367165
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=ayn+rand+altruism
At least Striner declares it to be his ego's self interest, not some vague sense of selfishness

>>9359673
>mfw I thought we could've at least avoided war with Syria with this guy in charge.

Jesus christ we will never ever have real politik foreign policy ever again won't we

We're going to invade Iran next aren't we.

>>9367198
That's because this guy isn't actually in charge of anything. Trump is phasing out the State Department and relying on his son-in-law for foreign policy.

>>9359673
>There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs.

>>9367198
>We're going to invade Iran next aren't we.
MsMaster and Mattis are running the military and both have a boner for fucking Iran. A plan was already vetoed that would involve seizing Iranian vessels on their way to supply Houthi rebels.

>>9367271
Even though your joke was corny I couldn't agree more. Atlas Shrugged is unironically more of a tantrum than a work of literature.