I'm shutting down Google+ for the night and quite possibly for the weekend. Why? This stupid #gifwars thing people are so proud of. This Adam Black guy said he doesn't like gifs and now everyone is mass trolling him. Having been mass trolled like this I can relate to him easily enough. Have an opinion and the collective might of Google+'s lower class denizens jump on a bandwagon. I just saw a post where someone wanted to jump on board and had to get clarification she was tagging the proper Adam Black. She wasn't even connected to him ! Nor was she a part of the original discussion. She just wanted to follow the herd. When I called her out of it she claimed, "one gif doesn't make a troll." Perhaps not, but she's contributing to a larger troll effort. One straw doesn't break the camel's back, but thousands will. So, tonight, Google+ disgusts me. It probably will tomorrow as well. And possibly Sunday. I gave up Google+ for two months this spring
Comments
What's so convenient about this is there's no falsification. If you live according to Rand's doctrine and don't achieve then it's not your fault, it's the parasites who leech off your obviously superior talent. One day, though, people like you will stop producing and the entire world will screech to a halt.
It's this self-aggrandizement that makes Rand attractive, and even allows people whom she would probably view as parasites to see themselves as innovators. It provides a ready-made model of haves and have nots, and everyone can easily view themselves as a have being dragged down by have nots. It's the same set of tendencies that makes nationalistic philosophies like facism so attractive, you tell one class they are superior and all their failures are due to the other classes.
(bold mine)
Anyone who comes to the above conclusion has either 1) not thoroughly read Rand or 2) thoroughly read but not understood Rand. It's really tiresome to see her philosophy repeatedly summarized so erroneously like this.