ITT I faux interview some GOPers crazier than shithouse rats

[Phantasee]

Jesus Christ. I can't believe that two of my closest friends like Beck. I'll probably inquire as to why that is so later today.

One of the sad things about life is that one finds it is virtually impossible to go through life without accumulating at least a few friends who believe in some really stupid shit.

The sticking point is that you befriend people long before you realize that they believe in stupid shit, and if you're a nice guy, you're probably reluctant to "de-friend" someone on that basis alone. Most people would just try to avoid any kind of political discussion with such friends in future.

Well, even if you're a politically inclined person, you're likely to have something else you enjoy doing with your friends that have opposing viewpoints (or retarded positions on issues). So you don't always have to de-friend them, just remember the things you do like about them.

[Coyote]

I have friends who are completely polar opposites to me in political views, but we are respectful and see no need to vilify or put down others just because they have those viewpoints. But then, they also tend to be mature and rational people who just see things from a different point of view. I have a hard time being close to anyone who is rabidly this- or that-, even if they're technically on "my side"...

As for March 13th, (today), I have a feeling that it will probably be an announcement of various right-wing bigwigs officially announcing they are "going Galt" or something to avoid paying the "high taxes" being imposed on them. A "strike" by the big money interests. After all, they're being punished for being successful, right? In other words, civil action & disobedience as envisioned by the trust-fund set.

[EDIT]: Here we go-- from the Wikipedia run down on Atlas Shrugged:

The theme of Atlas Shrugged is the role of the mind in man's life and, consequently, presentation of a new morality: the morality of rational self-interest.[4]

The main crux of the book surrounds the decision of the "men of the mind" to go on strike, refusing to contribute their inventions, art, business leadership, scientific research, or new ideas of any kind to the rest of the world. Each man of ability eventually reasons (or is convinced) that society hampers him with unnecessary, burdensome regulations and undervalues his contributions to the world, confiscating the profits and sullying the reputations he has rightfully earned. The peaceful cohesiveness of the world begins to disintegrate as each of these men of ability slowly disappears and society loses those individuals whose mental effort allows it to continue functioning. The strikers believe that they are crucial to a society that exploits them, denying them freedom or failing to acknowledge their right to self-interest, and the gradual collapse of civilization is triggered by their strike. This is not to say that they believed that giving the creators their due would cost civilization. Rather, the strikers believe that the current irrational altruist/collectivist culture impeded them and therefore the rest of society as well. Thus it would serve no one's interest to continue to allow himself to be exploited, although the strike is not primarily motivated by the harm the current state of society does to others as well.

So, they're probably going to "go Galt" today or announce a movement to begin the process.

[Pelranius]

The problem with the "men of the mind" is that they overestimate their importance to society, it's not as if most of these people can't be replaced and additionally, some "men of the mind" might not even care about things like money or acclaim, they're just doing it because they love the job.

[Coyote]

"Going Galt" as they threaten to, seems like a poor way to deal with the situation. Let's see if I understand it correctly--

-The people who fucked us all over promise to stop. Okay...
-The people making $250,000.00 promise to go to $249,000.00 and stop working to avoid the "extra taxes". So...
...that means they have to get rid of all their investments, which is where they really get their money. So...
...that means they have to cut loose all that investment/capital/shares/etc. Which means...
...others out there will scoop it up, in whole or in part, as they can afford it. Which means...
...they will have... redistributed income to the masses voluntarily.

It seems to me that they didn't think this through all the way. In fact, it seems to me that Wile E. Coyote could have thought this through better.

I guess it explains why they think Ayn Rand is a genius.

[General Zod]

The problem with the "men of the mind" is that they overestimate their importance to society, it's not as if most of these people can't be replaced and additionally, some "men of the mind" might not even care about things like money or acclaim, they're just doing it because they love the job.

Anyone who thinks a qualified engineer or scientist is just as easy to replace as a painter or broom pusher is probably a fucking moron.

[PeZook]

Anyone who thinks all engineers and scientists would spontaneously go on strike for a retarded reason is a complete idiot as well

[Raw Shark]

Ender, you just blew my fucking mind. I'm having trouble registering this as being real. Is Chuck Norris actually giving his opinion on how a fight between Jack Bauer and Walker, Texas Ranger, would go down? This is just plain kooky.

It's way better than that: Norris immediately brings in another character he played to rebut Beck's assertion regarding Bauer's ability to defuse a nuclear bomb on the topic of Walker vs Bauer, making it hilariously clear that, in Norris' mind, there is little to no separation between Walker vs Bauer and Norris vs Bauer (or perhaps more accurately Norris' career vs Sutherland's career, but then he has to contend with vampire powers from Lost Boys and all kinds of crap).

[Patrick Degan]

So... In Atlas Shrugged, the "Men of the Mind" all withdraw their intellectual talents and participation in their society, which subsequently collapses, which means there is no longer a society which will sustain their efforts, nobody to pay for their work, which means not only have they all committed professional suicide, they now find themselves in a world governed strictly by the law of the jungle, which none of them could really last in for any length of appreciable time after having grown up in a civilised world knowing a comparatively pampered existence all their lives. And bringing about this state of affairs would benefit the MotM... how, exactly?

[Samuel]

So... In Atlas Shrugged, the "Men of the Mind" all withdraw their intellectual talents and participation in their society, which subsequently collapses, which means there is no longer a society which will sustain their efforts, nobody to pay for their work, which means not only have they all committed professional suicide, they now find themselves in a world governed strictly by the law of the jungle, which none of them could really last in for any length of appreciable time after having grown up in a civilised world knowing a comparatively pampered existence all their lives. And bringing about this state of affairs would benefit the MotM... how, exactly?

Because they are fucking retarded. Think Star Trek, but stupider. Not stupid enough!

Honestly, there is no way to explain the plot of the book. Why are they are working like they are part of a hivemind- workers of the world unite! is more likely.

[Pelranius]

The problem with the "men of the mind" is that they overestimate their importance to society, it's not as if most of these people can't be replaced and additionally, some "men of the mind" might not even care about things like money or acclaim, they're just doing it because they love the job.

Anyone who thinks a qualified engineer or scientist is just as easy to replace as a painter or broom pusher is probably a fucking moron.

Guess I didn't phrase that part well enough (I was thinking more along the lines of those MBA wankers). The problem as I understand with the whole going on strike business is that there's no way you can get all the qualified professionals to disappear. If enough of them disappear, the rest will just stay put since society will be more 'accommodating' to whatever imagined grievances they cooked up, at least temporarily. It's actually not in the interest of the remaining people to join up with the Randroids.

[General Zod]

Guess I didn't phrase that part well enough (I was thinking more along the lines of those MBA wankers). The problem as I understand with the whole going on strike business is that there's no way you can get all the qualified professionals to disappear. If enough of them disappear, the rest will just stay put since society will be more 'accommodating' to whatever imagined grievances they cooked up, at least temporarily. It's actually not in the interest of the remaining people to join up with the Randroids.

You just didn't read closely enough.

The main crux of the book surrounds the decision of the "men of the mind" to go on strike, refusing to contribute their inventions, art, business leadership, scientific research, or new ideas of any kind to the rest of the world.

MBA wankers generally don't invent a whole lot or contribute a significant deal to scientific research.

[Patrick Degan]

So... In Atlas Shrugged, the "Men of the Mind" all withdraw their intellectual talents and participation in their society, which subsequently collapses, which means there is no longer a society which will sustain their efforts, nobody to pay for their work, which means not only have they all committed professional suicide, they now find themselves in a world governed strictly by the law of the jungle, which none of them could really last in for any length of appreciable time after having grown up in a civilised world knowing a comparatively pampered existence all their lives. And bringing about this state of affairs would benefit the MotM... how, exactly?

Because they are fucking retarded. Think Star Trek, but stupider. Not stupid enough!

I know. It was more a rhetorical question than anything else.

Honestly, there is no way to explain the plot of the book. Why are they are working like they are part of a hivemind- workers of the world unite! is more likely.

From what I've gleaned, the crazy little woman essentially apprehended the world in terms of a huge Black/White Fallacy: either absolute individualism or insectlike conformity as the two fates of man. She seems to have been literally incapable of understanding the concept of a sliding scale of differentials between those two poles and predicated her entire ideological house of cards upon rejecting the pole which terrified her.

The cultists who followed in her wake, however, are simply amoral little shits who've picked up a nice pseudo-intellectual justification for saying fuck-all to the rest of the world.

[Coyote]

So what was Beck's "big announcement" that Chuck Norris was waiting with baited breath for? The world still seems to be intact and the executives haven't fled to their isolated enclave, so... what?