this post was submitted on 08 Oct 2023
174 points (95.3% liked)

Asklemmy

43417 readers
2464 users here now

A loosely moderated place to ask open-ended questions

Search asklemmy ๐Ÿ”

If your post meets the following criteria, it's welcome here!

  1. Open-ended question
  2. Not offensive: at this point, we do not have the bandwidth to moderate overtly political discussions. Assume best intent and be excellent to each other.
  3. Not regarding using or support for Lemmy: context, see the list of support communities and tools for finding communities below
  4. Not ad nauseam inducing: please make sure it is a question that would be new to most members
  5. An actual topic of discussion

Looking for support?

Looking for a community?

~Icon~ ~by~ ~@Double_A@discuss.tchncs.de~

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[โ€“] richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

She was also an unabashed atheist, which is why she was able to promote the idea of selfishness being good.

What the hell is this non-sequitur?

[โ€“] dingus@lemmy.ml 4 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago) (2 children)

Nearly every religion preaches to be giving and kind to those in need. It's absolutely not a non-sequitor to admit that a large number of atheists don't believe there is any guiding morality to the universe and that we have to come to our own conclusions about morals and ethics. Moral relativism is a generally accepted thing among many atheists. This does not mean all atheists are selfish, I would classify most as Humanists. Rand was mostly an outlier.

She was able to promote the idea that selfishness could be good because she didn't ascribe to any religion that defined that as a sin.

[โ€“] richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

She was able to promote the idea that selfishness could be good because she didnโ€™t ascribe to any religion that defined that as a sin.

So basically she profited from existing bullshit to promote her own brand of bullshit. That's even worse.

[โ€“] dingus@lemmy.ml 1 points 11 months ago* (last edited 11 months ago)

It is indeed worse, I agree.

I do think it is odd she was embraced by Christians.

[โ€“] pinkdrunkenelephants@sopuli.xyz 1 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm not an atheist and even to me, that's a really transparent dig at people who believe something you disagree with. You don't need religion to be altruistic as you are implying.

[โ€“] richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm not implying that, the OP was. (Or so I thought. Apparently they are saying that Rand was riding on that idea.)

[โ€“] dingus@lemmy.ml 2 points 11 months ago (1 children)

I'm a fucking atheist and I think Ayn Rand was a loser sack of shit who leaned on every government assistance she preached against existing.

So yeah, Rand was riding on it. I would like to think most fellow atheists reject her power-worship bullshit wrapped in "Objectivism."

[โ€“] richieadler@lemmy.myserv.one 2 points 11 months ago

To clarify, I agree with you on every word.