I wouldn’t say I ever disagreed with her views enough for it to totally pull me out, even where I disagreed. One big thing in Atlas Shrugged is her disinterest in anything that might be considered for the social good, any programs that claim the greater good even if they restrict a little capitalism is bad. It’s when you combine that opinion with “my fellow man should be allowed to die if they can’t afford life’s basic necessities like food, water, and shelter” that feels like it takes it too far. That was most of the politics in this one, too. Not just a viewpoint that opposed my own but opposed them to a very very dangerous societal extreme that she seemed to want to normalize

It’s too late for me, I posted this because I’d finished. To be totally honest anyone that would post your comment. No rational ideas

It totally got there. I was raised weakly in Christian Science and a better one from my grandma and even then I was thinking “wow grandma sounds sane@

Honestly those are 2 of a handful of points where had this not been an audiobook I would have stopped reading. I eventually went from 2x speed to 2.5x to my owner through those

She honestly was offering 0 new for the time period, 0. I say this as someone who had that many people alive at the time doing the same stuff. Open marriage isn’t any more common but it’s there and it was there during her time. Everyone you listed gets credit for offering evidence of what they’d found making them concrete, nothing about Mrs Rand sharing her sex life would have been so scandalous at the time it would have costed her a social life. Had she been cheating it would have been different but when a good chunk of others are doing it it’s not new

Again I’m not seeing anything sexually liberated there either? Like do you see people before this book was published as super Christian “I only had sex in missionary and only in the confines of marriage” kind of deal? You realize we’ve had open marriages, cheating, sleeping around, and porn forever now right? Nothing about Rand was really new or spectacular and I’m not about to make her this weird new “women’s liberation” person. I have a grandmother, grandfather, great aunt, and great uncle who were all doing similar stuff but didn’t need to publicize it like she did to avoid scandal. The only credit anyone can give her is any amount of fame and money she had would have forced her hand into admitting having sex outside of her marriage in ways another woman of her era would not have had to.

I’m sorry but did we read the same book? The only sexually liberated thing in the book is Dagne sleeping with 3 men over the course of a lifetime. My aunt was born the same year and I’m pretty sure every single one of her kids is from a different one of her 4 husbands. Sexual liberation is not “I enjoyed 3 men who were in love with me”.

Corrupt government I’ll give her but at the same time barely. Again it was really really really clear she was afraid of specifically communist ideals here, not all government. The book literally only bashed communism and not every government. I’d argue the book was anti communism but not anti government

Ironic I’ve now read both

Honestly one of the reasons I finished was I wanted to figure out what decision she made

I honestly couldn’t even begin to figure out why this would be some kind of libertarian standout. I also think our government could be doing less but damn not like that

This will likely be the only book of hers I ever read or listen to, too. The political views in this one were too much for me

I feel like this was way too tinfoil hat for even communism though. I can sit down and listen to a survivor of the German Holocaust and that doesn’t sound tinfoil hat to me, it sounds insane that happened but not tinfoil hat. The book had strong “anything and everything done for the public good is 100% wrong”

I’m glad she eventually had a corrected view.

Overcompensation based on upbringing I could understand. Living under that must have been terrible. We’ve seen completely unregulated secularism like her book go very wrong as well. I’m sure she was taught enough history to learn that even the most greedy country will eventually fall if ambition goes unregulated.

It felt like everyone in the story was pretty self obsessed both in and out of the government. Neither should be unchecked

It’s one of very very few ways it could get summed up and none of them make it sound great

Honestly that part was irritating when it was super noticeable. Like guys the dude running your bookstore is important too don’t act like we just need inventors.

They honestly shouldn’t. There was so many terrible political ideas.

That explains a lot about how this book is written. It also explains why she seemed to have a tinfoil hat level of “I hate communism” through so much of the book.

It honestly was 3x longer than it needed to be. I was playing my audiobook at 2.8x speed to keep myself interested.

As a weirdo I would totally 100% purchase a casket to use as like a coffee table or something for awhile if it had a flat top. I’d also purchase this if I knew someone would pass soon and it wouldn’t take up space long.