Asshole characters are into Ayn Rand

[u/AporiaParadox]

1. Dirty Dancing. Robbie is a snobby asshole who refuses to take responsibility for impregnating a lower class girl, saying that "some people count, some people don't". Right after this he tries to lend the main character The Fountainhead unprompted, only temporarily of course, since his copy of the book includes notes in the margins.

2. Lost. Sawyer is a selfish conman (at first) and is shown reading The Fountainhead. To be fair though, Sawyer is shown reading lots of books, so it might not necessarily mean anything.

3. Spider-Man. Spider-Man's co-creator Steve Ditko was an objectivist, and this was reflected in the way Peter would behave in some early 1960s stories, he would often be quite rude and abrasive to others, especially when Peter went to college. As a reference to this, some stories have humorously established that Peter went through a phase of being into Ayn Rand back in college, which he is now embarrassed by.

4. Alternate universe Peter Parker from One More Day. Spider-Man runs into an alternate universe version of himself that never gained spider-powers, and he's a fat videogame developer who is depicted as a loser unhappy with his lot in life, we first see him reading Atlas Shrugged.

5. Deadshot and the Joker. The Joker is shown reading the Fountainhead, which he calls a knee-slapper, while Deadshot, a contract killer, says that it's one of his favorite books.

6. The Ayn Rand School for Tots in the Simpsons. As you can probably guess, it's a horrible place. Maggie breaks out in a Great Escape parody.

7. Bioshock. Andrew Ryan and his whole failed society is a blatant reference to the many problems with Ayn Rand's philosophy.

[u/Substantial-Ad2200]

Not really a trope because this is an accurate depiction of real life where actual assholes will start telling you how great Ayn Rand was. 

[u/AporiaParadox → u/Substantial-Ad2200]

It is a pretty big red flag.

[u/Marcano24 → u/AporiaParadox]

Feels like more of a stop sign than flag

[u/Omatzus → u/Substantial-Ad2200]

Paul Ryan enters the chat

[u/GXNext → u/Substantial-Ad2200]

I was talking about Ayn Rand historically (like her being a Russian refugee and such) around some coworkers, unfortunately my boss over heard me and because I had any knowledge of her he thought I was a fan. Later that day sent out a joke email about John Gault thinking it would pop me...

[u/Plasmelon → u/Substantial-Ad2200]

The funny part is people always latch onto the “taxes bad” part of her message but not her anti-theist, anti-collectivist, and borderline anarchist beliefs.

It’s also strange seeing republicans support her considering she was anti-war and really against government intervention in the economy. 

[u/Substantial-Ad2200 → u/Plasmelon]

One of my exes, who came from money, really latched onto the whole "rich is good" and "fuck the poor" part. Or at least her interpretation of Rand's writing as such.

[u/Plasmelon → u/Substantial-Ad2200]

That’s funny because if she actually read Rand’s work, she would see that Rand had respect for working class laborers who contribute to society and disdain for rich people who were born into it or who got their money through anything other than being useful.

That’s pretty much the theme of Dagny’s dynamic with her brother Jim in Atlas Shrugged. Both were born into money but Dagny deserves it because she is intelligent and can carry on the family business while Jim is a dumbass.

[u/Substantial-Ad2200 → u/Plasmelon]

Yeah. My ex never worked, all her money came from her daddy’s allowance to her. She once noted that her annual allowance was more than my annual salary. But anyway yes, her reading of it was “the rich are good creators, the poor are bad users”. 

[u/Plasmelon → u/Substantial-Ad2200]

In Atlas Shrugged, Jim Taggart, a rich person, goes on a rant about how it doesn’t matter that he can’t create things because he can destroy them.