this post was submitted on 15 Jul 2025
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I'd still read the novel. Atlas Shrugged would be my choice. It would be like reading the Mein Kampf. But all for education purposes, and to see how absurd it all really is.
By the way, the First Testament was a fucked up read. So violent. So gory. I still haven't gotten around to read the New Testament, but it's in my to-do list.
FWIW, I was forced to memorize The Gospel, book by book, as punishment. (Parents and church, together) It backfired when it turned out I knew more than the elder members appreciated, and of course my "lack of faith" was the infraction. 🤌🏼
Thus began my journey to anti-theism. (TST does Good works, though)
Reading, truly the harshest punishment to apply to a kid! Then people wonder why "kids don't want to read"...
Hahahahaha! Yeah they like to take passages out of context and give it whatever meaning they want.
When you read it and see the whole work, you realize how bullshit religion really is.
The thing is, though... It's designed that way. The confusion is an essential part of the control —by implying your inability to properly understand, the opposite fallacy is upheld: that there exists an elite few with the skill/talent/"divine gift" of deciphering all the answers.
This is one of the first lies that humans created for themselves.
Eh, the second is a disappointment compared to the first. The third one is great though, Bruce Willis is excellent in it.
Eh? Which book are you talking about?
Die and Resurrect Hard: Jesus' Omen, Jesus and the Goblet of Blood and Jesus' Freaky Adventures in the Women's Prison, respectively
Book of Mormon maybe?
So I can either have a serious, life altering injury, or gain some knowledge that shapes others’ perspectives?
I don’t have to agree with them, but I can understand them a little better and also be able to walk. I don’t think this one’s a tricky decision.
It's not that I'm against reading about opposing views, I've read Murray Rothbard and Hans Herman Hoppe and I will admit, while I don't agree with them (especially Hoppe), it did open my mind a little and it gave me some new perspectives in things. I just really don't like her writing. I tried reading Atlas shrugged, but I couldn't finish it, the story dragged on and the characters were one dimensional and unlikable. Though I will admit, Anthem wasn't that bad.
Though I will admit, Anthem wasn't that bad
I was going to say, that's an easy one as long as you know Ayn Rand had other books besides Atlas Shrugged. Not better books, mind you, but certainly shorter ones
Holy shit, Atlas Shrugged. It was a drag, I wasn't enjoying it, but I could tolerate it. I was young, and had heard that Bioshock drew heavily from it.
Then all of the sudden, around the start of the last 1/4 of the book, Galt (business magnate mcperfectman) just magically hijacks a radio station with no explanation of how and spends more than 30 fucking pages talking in circles repeating the main theme of the entire fucking book. Structured as one single, unbroken monologue. That's it, that's the chapter.
Ayn Rand is definitely not a good writer, but this? If you made it that far in and somehow didn't pick up on the themes she was trying to put down by that far in, you should get checked for brain worms.
Brings what little momentum the whole thing had at that point to a screeching halt. At the third page of it I threw the book across the room and didn't touch it for almost a month. During the time of my life when I was absolutely devouring books.
Also, the woman writes quite possibly the most unsexy sex scenes I've ever laid eyes on. Like grey molassass slowly oozing out of the page. Maybe that was her genius: making sex scenes that evoke the same emotional response of quiet resignation as filling out DMV paperwork.
And those scenes were meant to be the "I'm a liberated woman taking control of my sexuality, I'm free" sex scenes.
Just don't. Not even for curiousity's sake. Just don't.
Think i'd rather read anything interesting from a political adversary than say, Chomsky.
Snap my femurs, please. It would be 500 times less painful.
Assuming no pain killers, the femur snapper.
Hell, even with painkillers.