Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Nutty Randians and paranoia

Sorry that I keep on going about the nuttiness of Catallaxy, but when reading this article about a convention for Randians in Las Vegas, I was struck by how this is exactly the same paranoid political philosophy analysis you see continually in threads at that blog: 
“The Left dominates our intellectual world,” Brook declared. And yet, despite its success, the stated aims of the Left are merely a pretext for an agenda far more sinister than anything contained in the Democratic Party’s platform or, for that matter, a Michael Moore movie. Take the professed concern for the growing disparity between the very rich and the rest of America: The liberal impulse to address this gap may seem rooted in a sense of fairness or even a desire to promote social cohesion, but viewing it as such is extremely naïve. Indeed, it takes at face value the rhetoric of the Left, which keeps one from seeing it for what it really is: the language of a decades-long con game. “What they’re really after is not the well-being of anybody,” Brook explained. “They want power. They want to rule us.”

It gets worse. For if “the intellectuals” use fear-mongering around the so-called problem of inequality to seize power, they wield it in favor of a nihilistic vision of the human condition. They aim to systematically undermine and annul the great achievements of heroic men and women, an effort that will not only corrupt the “American sense of life” but one that stabs at the very heart of Ayn Rand’s vision. “We need to tell the truth about these bastards,” Brook said. “We need to reveal them for what they really are. We need to expose them to the American people for what their agenda really is. They’re haters. Their focus is on hatred. Their focus is on tearing down. Their focus is on destroying.” 
It would all be laughable if it weren't for the fact that there are scores of US politicians whose similar paranoia about the "real reason" for the UN wanting action on climate change (it's all a socialist plot, don't you know?) is actually affecting the future of the entire globe. 

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obsessed much about Catallaxy Files?

Steve said...

Train wrecks are like that. So hard to look away from...

Not Trampis said...

Train wreck? Nuthouse more likely

Anonymous said...

Steve

Can you name three conservative pols or columnists that you frequently agree with?

Thanks

Anonymous said...

Naaaa steve isn't obsessed with catallaxy. Whatever would give you that idea?

Steve said...

Can you name three conservative pols or columnists that you frequently agree with?

Three's pushing it, given that conservative pundits have got themselves into a nutty culture war about climate change and economics.

The true home of reasonable conservative-leaning but respectable views is, of course, found primarily here, at this very blog...

Anonymous said...

Stop picking on Steve. It's not his fault if the nutty fruitcake Australian leftist fringe adopts every position he advocates.

Steve said...

I've never supported the Greens, even though it's starting to look like their optimism about the potential for renewables might have been right all along, given the rapidly decreasing cost of solar...

Steve said...

It was also a disgrace that they did not support the Malaysian plan that Labor had; leading to the much worse position under Abbott.

See, the problem is, to a Catallaxy reader, any economist with a more moderate than the IPA cabal is a radical leftist.