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Showing Original Post only (View all)Obama Says Ayn Rand Is For Teens [View all]
Source: BuzzFeed
In a new interview with historian Doulgas Brinkley and Rolling Stone executive editor Eric Bates where Obama appears to suggest Romney is a "bullshitter" the president also weighs in on Ayn Rand. His take? Something teenagers read when they are "feeling misunderstood" but should grow out of in adult hood.
Q: Have you ever read Ayn Rand?
Obama: Sure.
Q: What do you think Paul Ryan's obsession with her work would mean if he were vice president?
Obama: Well, you'd have to ask Paul Ryan what that means to him. Ayn Rand is one of those things that a lot of us, when we were 17 or 18 and feeling misunderstood, we'd pick up. Then, as we get older, we realize that a world in which we're only thinking about ourselves and not thinking about anybody else, in which we're considering the entire project of developing ourselves as more important than our relationships to other people and making sure that everybody else has opportunity that that's a pretty narrow vision. It's not one that, I think, describes what's best in America. Unfortunately, it does seem as if sometimes that vision of a "you're on your own" society has consumed a big chunk of the Republican Party
-snip-
Read more: http://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedpolitics/obama-says-ayn-rand-is-for-teens
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I grew up tribal. The whole selfishness of it is a completely evil & alien concept to me
catbyte
Oct 2012
#38
Yeah...Her theory made sense to me for about five minutes -- Then I realized it was bullshit.
whathehell
Oct 2012
#107
I think the joke is that even an idiot who just learned to read knows Atlas Shrugged is terrible /nt
Ash_F
Oct 2012
#131
"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old's life: The Lord of the Rings and
msanthrope
Oct 2012
#7
I think I saw parts of it, or maybe I'm thinking of the Bill Moyers series
Voice for Peace
Oct 2012
#121
she was a satanist - she may not have been yelling "hail satan" but she lived under his law
leftyohiolib
Oct 2012
#11
You forgot to add a forger, armed robber, child kidnapper, serial murderer promoter
fasttense
Oct 2012
#139
The entirety was an understatement, & about something so emotional. Our prez: 1 classy guy. nt
JudyM
Oct 2012
#77
I prefer Virginia Woolf: "There's no there there" (said about the city
coalition_unwilling
Oct 2012
#111
We hosted a foreign exchange student from Thailand a couple of years ago
central scrutinizer
Oct 2012
#23
I read it at 20 and found it interesting, but quickly realized that it didn't fit with the real
truthisfreedom
Oct 2012
#30
Well said, Mr. President! And all too true. The reason Rand rings a bell with teens....
Moonwalk
Oct 2012
#41
Made it through about a third of "The Fountainhead" before I returned it to the library
NICO9000
Oct 2012
#45
I agree. I was hooked in high school. Quickly recalibrated once I enter the real world. nm
rhett o rick
Oct 2012
#58
I read Fountainhead and didn't get it, don't remember anything about it.
Dont call me Shirley
Oct 2012
#64
Best put down of Rand I've ever heard. And I've read everyone of her books.
David Zephyr
Oct 2012
#73
I never thought ANYONES liquidation in a Stalinist death camp would make the world a better place.
infidel dog
Oct 2012
#80
I read Ayn Rand. Then I read Hemingway and F.Scott Fitzgerald and Salinger
MichiganVote
Oct 2012
#81
Something teenagers read when they are "feeling misunderstood" but should grow out of in adult hood.
AlbertCat
Oct 2012
#97
I think all republicans social/mental development stopped in 9th grade. n/t
Bonhomme Richard
Oct 2012
#104
I loved Atlas Shrugged. I was 20 when I read it. That was 47 years ago....
Speck Tater
Oct 2012
#127
You should have included one of the Paul Ryan Pics with the backwards Cap in your post
JI7
Oct 2012
#133
I love that Obama has pointed out something that any thinking person already knows.
Flipper999
Oct 2012
#149