That's not what she said, she literally just takes it for granted that because she's decided he's the "bright, exceptional" kind of person, then any of his moral failures are failures of society, and the greater said failure, the greater society's failure Which is fucking insane
-
-
Replying to @arthur_affect @ChristieSmythe
Like, specifically because he's "intelligent" and "exceptional", this means it can't possibly be his own moral failing that he kidnapped and murdered a girl It's society's fault for not giving him sufficient scope to express his genius and keep him from getting bored
3 replies 2 retweets 126 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @ChristieSmythe
This is a diseased point of view, especially because the definition of "intelligent" and "exceptional" is so nebulous -- it's something people just decide to label someone as because they like the guy But of course, you probably know that, or will soon
1 reply 2 retweets 115 likes -
Replying to @arthur_affect @ChristieSmythe
Note that this sort of thing isn't said about people with like, kleptomania or people of colour in general. There's a disturbing trend to try and excuse murderers and serial killers, when they're reasonably articulate passably attractive white men.
2 replies 0 retweets 93 likes -
Replying to @Zendervai @ChristieSmythe
Lol that's what gets me about this, Ayn Rand didn't *generally* sympathize with criminals or think that people all deserve second chances Quite the opposite, she was wholeheartedly in favor of crumpling up huge swathes of the population and throwing them away
2 replies 4 retweets 147 likes -
She is very open about the pathological mindset here -- that she likes evil people as long as they're *smart* and *special*, and if they are smart and special then the more evil they are the more it just adds to their smartness and specialness
3 replies 3 retweets 126 likes -
Even as basic concepts like "Don't murder children" are less important to her than not being *boring* She has nothing but contempt for *boring* people, to be ordinary and dull and decent is to her infinitely worse than being "intelligent", "exceptional" and a serial killer
2 replies 2 retweets 120 likes -
That really is the best summary of Rand's characterization skills, because oh GOD is every single "positive" character in AS a raging dumpster fire, and Rand sure did seem to have a lot of trouble tracking what defined good and not good between one scene and the next.
1 reply 1 retweet 20 likes -
Replying to @CWGaither @arthur_affect and
I think my "favorite" examples of this are the contrast between Dagny's relations with D'Anconia/Hank Rearden/John Galt and James Taggart's relationships with Cheryl/Mrs. Rearden. In Dagny it's a statement of power and her nobility. In James it's terrible + Cheryl's suicide.
2 replies 1 retweet 11 likes -
My favorite example of this is how Ayn Rand felt about cheating on her husband with Nathaniel Branden vs how she felt about Nathaniel Branden cheating on her with Patrecia Scott
2 replies 1 retweet 23 likes
Like you wanna talk about double standards, that's one she carried into her real life in the most destructive possible way for her personal life and for her professional legacy
-
-
Well, the problem is that predicting the impact your actions are going to have on how you are perceived by others requires things like "empathy" and "introspection", and she dedicated all of her writing to the idea that those are the traits of a chump.
0 replies 0 retweets 15 likesThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.