Objectivist Roundup


Jonathan

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The bravery of being out of range:

http://www.solopassion.com/node/9757#comment-121874

Gregster posted excerpts from Ghs's How To Defend Atheism, and Michael Moeller replied: "There is some value in George's practical advice, although I'm afraid it would be of practical use against him. He reminds me of a friend's crazy uncle that did too many drugs and drove around in his jalopy hooting at hookers. I'm not sure why, but he does."

I would pay to see a debate between George and Moeller, on any subject. But only in a forum where George couldn't be banned under the typical SOLO excuse that he was posting "in bad faith" because he was kicking Moeller's ass.

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Scott's treacly crush on near-genius Peikoff and his passionate stinky pinky: http://forum.objectivismonline.com/index.php?showtopic=26228#entry314054

Peikoff has more passion than anyone else? How do we objectively measure and compare people's levels of passion? Give anyone else Rand's estate and I think they'd do a much better and more passionate job than Peikoff. Primarily because they wouldn't be excommunicating all brighter minds and silencing potent criticism and dissent.

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Dr. Comrade Sonia, PhD, identifies Ayn Rand's position on the handicapped as "morally monstrous":

http://www.philosophyinaction.com/archive/2013-05-19-Q3.html

Kudos to the Dr. Comrade for recognizing the absolute "viciousness" of the "douchebags" whose hateful mindsets are identical to Rand's.

J

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This kind of 'Roundup' could serve as a potent herbicide, you might want to be careful about using Monsanto's trademark.

I saw the Peikoff-grovel on OO, it was certainly a test of the gag reflex. Funny in a way, except that joke is way overplayed. I mean if it was a joke, which in this case it's not. The other two are off my usual rounds, and don't look like they have the entertainment value that would make the exercise of reading them worthwhile.

Aw hell, I had to click on them. Comrade Sonia doesn't mention Rand's position, and the Sloppers were just being Sloppers. GHS's stuff is good, but I'm pretty sure I've read that excerpt before.

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Aw hell, I had to click on them. Comrade Sonia doesn't mention Rand's position, and the Sloppers were just being Sloppers. GHS's stuff is good, but I'm pretty sure I've read that excerpt before.

Dr. Comrade Sonia, PhD, does mention Rand's position on he handicapped in the podcast, but only very briefly and toward the end. Rand's views are treated as a postscript and casually glossed over as if they were merely incidental to the subject of the treatment of the handicapped from an Objectivist perspective. And of course the Comrade is sweeter and gentler on Rand than on others. She respectfully and dispassionately states her disagreement with Rand's opinions on the issue where she expresses anger and engages in name calling of others who take exactly the same position. Apparently Rand was just a little mistaken, and her views need to be corrected and forgiven, where anyone else who expresses the same opinion -- and perhaps less viciously than Rand did -- is to be harshly condemned.

J

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The bravery of being out of range:

http://www.solopassion.com/node/9757#comment-121874

Gregster posted excerpts from Ghs's How To Defend Atheism, and Michael Moeller replied: "There is some value in George's practical advice, although I'm afraid it would be of practical use against him. He reminds me of a friend's crazy uncle that did too many drugs and drove around in his jalopy hooting at hookers. I'm not sure why, but he does."

I would pay to see a debate between George and Moeller, on any subject. But only in a forum where George couldn't be banned under the typical SOLO excuse that he was posting "in bad faith" because he was kicking Moeller's ass.

_____

Scott's treacly crush on near-genius Peikoff and his passionate stinky pinky: http://forum.objectivismonline.com/index.php?showtopic=26228#entry314054

Peikoff has more passion than anyone else? How do we objectively measure and compare people's levels of passion? Give anyone else Rand's estate and I think they'd do a much better and more passionate job than Peikoff. Primarily because they wouldn't be excommunicating all brighter minds and silencing potent criticism and dissent.

_____

Dr. Comrade Sonia, PhD, identifies Ayn Rand's position on the handicapped as "morally monstrous":

http://www.philosophyinaction.com/archive/2013-05-19-Q3.html

Kudos to the Dr. Comrade for recognizing the absolute "viciousness" of the "douchebags" whose hateful mindsets are identical to Rand's.

J

Some random observations:

1. Lawyer-Moeller looks like he should be a CIA agent or some-such. If I were George, I would probably try to knee-cap him early, especially for that hooker reference.

2. That 12 year old kid with his crush on LP's pinky finger is sorta creepy, no matter how you slice it. Doesn't OO have a policy against teenagers?

3. Comrade Sonia's Profile In Courage about why folks shouldn't make fun of disabled children is a tour de farce, for the reasons mentioned above. That, and it would appear she has been sneaking some carbs from the fridge at night.

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Dr. Comrade Sonia, PhD, does mention Rand's position on he handicapped in the podcast

I'll take your word for it. I have many other priorities to look after before listening to one of the Dr.'s podcasts makes it to the top spot. There's some paint that could bear constant observing as it goes through the drying process, and there's a brick wall that might benefit from repeated forceful applications of pressure with my forehead.
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Dr. Comrade Sonia, PhD, does mention Rand's position on he handicapped in the podcast

I'll take your word for it. I have many other priorities to look after before listening to one of the Dr.'s podcasts makes it to the top spot. There's some paint that could bear constant observing as it goes through the drying process, and there's a brick wall that might benefit from repeated forceful applications of pressure with my forehead.

I know where you're coming from. I can only tolerate listening to the Dr. Comrade when I have a pretty high degree of certainty that there's going to a payoff in unintentional entertainment value, but even then sitting through one of her podcasts is quite a high price to pay.

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Here's an interesting podcast segment from Dr. Comrade Sonia, PhD:

http://www.philosophyinaction.com/archive/2013-09-01-Q4.html

Question 4: Romantic Infatuation (57:04)
In this segment, I answered a question on romantic infatuation.

Is it wrong to indulge romantic infatuation? I am infatuated with a young woman for whom I am not a suitable match, including because I am 30 and she is 16. It is strictly a fantasy; I make no effort to pursue or to make my feelings known to her and have no intention to ever do so. However, in private, I am deeply in love with her and practically worship her like a celebrity and collect all her pictures. (I refrain from masturbating to her because doing so makes me feel guilty.) Due to deficiencies in my life that I consider unfixable, I have low self-esteem and have given up on dating for the foreseeable future, if not indefinitely. Do you think my behavior is creepy, immoral, or bad for my own well being?

My Answer, In Brief: This infatuation is dangerous to yourself and the girl. You need to stop it, immediately. Please seek professional help.

Wow! Is infatuation itself "dangerous" and a symptom of "mental illness" (one of the categories under which non-psychologist Dr. Comrade Sonia, PhD, has filed this question on infatuation)? Or is it dangerous and morally and psychologically bad because the 30-year-old's object of affection is 16? Is infatuation dangerous only when it's unrequited and when it involves a large age difference?

What if they live in a state where the young woman is at or beyond the age of consent?

Does the whole issue come down to how Dr. Comrade Sonia, PhD, emotionally reacts to the situation? Is that how Objectivist philosophy "in action" works?

In her podcast, Hsieh asserts, despite admitting to not being a psychologist, and despite not knowing the two people in question, that the young lady is vulnerable, and therefore that it is creepy and dangerous for the 30-year-old to be attracted to her and to fantasize about her despite the fact that he states that he is not going to pursue her. Shouldn't the same principle also apply to older, powerful women being attracted to younger, powerless men, such as Rand's having been attracted to Branden? Unlike the questioner, who says that his attraction to the young lady is only a fantasy, and that he has no intention of pursing her or even making his feelings known to her, Rand actively pursued a relationship with the naive, vulnerable Branden (and, personally, although I'm not a psychologist, I'm totally creeped out by the fact that a handsome young man would be brainwashed into believing that he should have an affair with an unattractive old woman). Shouldn't Rand's attraction to a much younger man, and her taking sexual advantage of him after having programmed him on the subject of sexual values, also be judged as "creepy, immoral and bad"? Shouldn't those who've bought into Rand's theories of sexuality, and who've excused her abuses, also "seek professional help" so that they can be deprogrammed and get their creepy heads straight?

Additional point of interest: Dr. Comrade Sonia, PhD, provides a link to False Friend/Enemy of Objectivism Nathaniel Branden's book Six Pillars of Self-Esteem! Has be become less Evil lately?

-----

Pigero is proud of ruining dinner parties:

http://www.solopassion.com/node/9725

It's a long time since I ruined a dinner party. That's because people who give dinner parties know I ruin them, and don't invite me. Tonight I went to one, to which some ill-advised person had invited me, and duly ruined it. All because, in response to questions, I ventured the opinion that the Kiwi "accent" (read: "disease") is horrible, and makes one sound uneducated and retarded.

I agree so far. One thing that has always annoyed me about Pigero is his quacky Kiwi accent. It makes him sound uneducated. Especially grating is his backwoods New Zealand habit of pronouncing short e as short i -- his mangled version of "The gentleman lent me his pen" would be "The gintlemin lint me his pin."

Anyway, Pigero continues:

One of the attendees threatened to break my nose after I suggested he would sound better if he didn't speak through his. There followed several minutes of tumult and shouting as another, more civilised, attendee struggled to usher me away from the venue to safety. It was an unedifying reminder that the biggest sin in this day and age is to uphold standards in any realm, to be serious about "the total passion for the total height" in any manner. It pointed up another reason why Orgoism is useless, eschewing as it does Rand's disparagement of barbarism in aesthetics. It pointed up just why my own disparagement of barbarism touches such a nerve, especially among purported Objectivists.

I would think that insulting other guests' accents at a dinner party and hoping to get a rise out of them would be an act of aesthetic barbarism.

"Freedom" is taken to mean freedom to be a barbarian, especially of the headbanging caterwauling variety (which freedom does indeed subsume, but not as its reason for being or most noble manifestation)—whereas in reality, if barbarism dominates—if the culture is defined by Slayer—freedom cannot last long. Orwell understood this. Rand most assuredly did. I now understand it better than ever, having just been manhandled by a barbarian.
On paper this was, indeed, an educated person, of impeccable pedigree, whose grandfather was a knight of the realm, as he repeatedly, very loudly reminded all of us. Yet all he wanted to do was "deck" me, of which process he began the preliminaries. I'm proud to say I looked him straight in the eye as he clenched his fists, foamed at the mouth and pushed and shoved me, and told him this was no way to conduct an argument.
Earlier, he had asserted that the philosophy that it doesn't matter how you sound, as long as you make yourself understood, is the one the education system should be implementing (as indeed it is). I rest my case against the child-molesters of the mind and for the indispensable role of aesthetics and the upholding of excellence in the battle for freedom. The very vehemence of the vitriol directed against one if one upholds excellence is evidence enough that one is on the money.


What a hero!!! Pigero is saving the world by challenging those who speak slightly less retardedly than he does! What an important blow for excellence in aesthetics! (Or perhaps I should say "ixcillince in isthitics.")

J

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lol. I just despaired over this one on KASS KASSED, but the example of your (and the good Doctor's) hardihood in sitting through entire podcasts of Dr Mrs Dr and Dr Pope Peikoff, has re-energized me. I will continue to monitor the situation in Lesser Bavaria, to spare others, as you continue to provide news and analysis from the Orgo-front, at who knows what cost and danger to yourselves.

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Glad to hear the 30 year old horny-guy doesn't masturbate with the 16 year old in mind.

When did Objectivist-types become such a group of sniveling weenies?

Today's would-be Howard Roarks are unwilling to say "but, I don't think of you." Instead we now have "let me check with Dr. Hsieh and get back to you on that one."

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I'm now wondering if the Atlas Shrugged character Francisco as an adult male was "creepy, immoral and bad" for having sex with Dagny when she was not yet an adult. How must Rand be judged for writing such a scene and therefore promoting such perverse fantasies in her fiction? How much damage has Rand's creepy fictional fantasy done in convincing the mentally ill that their dangerous behavior is acceptable?

J

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It is the "perverse fantasies" in her fiction which have kept it so enduringly popular. In her life Rand had to deal with her own interesting psycho-sexuality. Personally I think when she fell in love with Frank's looks she expected the dominant masterful Cyrus to emerge in the bedroom, and I don't think he did. Also I wonder (and doubt) if she had been in the bedroom with anybody before she got married.

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Wow! Is infatuation itself "dangerous" and a symptom of "mental illness" (one of the categories under which non-psychologist Dr. Comrade Sonia, PhD, has filed this question on infatuation)? Or is it dangerous and morally and psychologically bad because the 30-year-old's object of affection is 16? Is infatuation dangerous only when it's unrequited and when it involves a large age difference?

Take it away, Benny!

I bet it was just a troll question. Good chance inspired by this song.

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Nah, Benny Mardones gives us the 'total passion for the total height'. The 'command to rise'. The Ringo and Kiss songs are way too lightweight, they're recreating reality according to some lame ass metaphysical value judgements.

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And Teen Angel - I mean, he is fantasizing about a girl who is not only dead, but was so mentally backward that she ignored an oncoming train to retrieve a piece of jewellery. Indeed, any man who thinks about teenage girls at all, needs immediate treatment. Thank Galt Dr Diana is there to show the way.

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Jeez, were ALL these songs written by creepy middle-aged mentally ill men?

Yeah, and how old are Manon Lescaut and Cio-Cio San (Madama Butterfly) supposed to be? 15!

Totally-er passion for the heightier height!

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It is all so clear now - as the Eureka moment when Peikoff finally got it about Western culture, after the Oscars...

the clear cries for help from Del Shannon and Steve Lawrence...Go Away Little Girl! Young Girl Get out of my Mind!,,

how could we have been so blind?

I see a double PhD. in the bright future of DR SOMEBODY!

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