"There are two novels that can change a bookish fourteen-year old’s life: The Lord of the Rings and Atlas Shrugged. One is a childish fantasy that often engenders a lifelong obsession with its unbelievable heroes, leading to an emotionally stunted, socially crippled adulthood, unable to deal with the real world. The other, of course, involves orcs." -John Rogers EDIT: THE ABOVE IS A QUOTE

@BeesWaxMinder

23 күн бұрын

😂

@kelb6073

22 күн бұрын

Mine was 1984 😊

@lisaahmari7199

22 күн бұрын

I love this quote.

@mr.flibble3190

22 күн бұрын

Legend has it that Dorothy Parker reviewed _Atlas Shrugged_ thus: "[It] is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."

@Yahodie42

22 күн бұрын

All Lord of the rings books are awesome and extremely well written. J.R.R Tolkien opened my mind to storytelling and writing and drove me to fall in love with my imagination and creating my own works of fiction. Don’t bring Lord of the Rings into this

Ayn Rand has ruined generations of young Americans by turning the worst part of youthful selfishness and telling them it’s a virtue. When my mom asked me to read the Fountainhead when I was 12, I stopped at page 30. I instinctively hated it.

@OscarLangleySoryu

23 күн бұрын

Jesus. 12?! Was your mother a complete maniac

@BrianFoster-ji9fp

23 күн бұрын

My cousin recommended The Fountainhead (Abundant Ejaculator?) and loved it. But she lost me somewhere under that afternoon-length monologue in Atlas Shrugged.

@dayegilharno4988

23 күн бұрын

:) Healthy instinct... I can't even read short quotes from her without instantly losing faith in mankind a little more!

@Paz_Y_Pax

23 күн бұрын

A schoolmate & I read it to do an essay for a scholarship-we both hated it. Such gross literature.

@ywoulduchoosetousethis

23 күн бұрын

It ruined conservative America. Read Fountainhead. Read her journal of objective life. I concluded at 14, 20, 34, that she is an idiot.

The irony of Rand having a breakdown over an open affair 😂

@ellanina801

22 күн бұрын

Barbiturates sweetie…

@MegamiShin

22 күн бұрын

“Who could engage in this level of selfishness… oh, my entire life foundation is built on sand…”

@E-d1d3

21 күн бұрын

TBH, She was not built for free market competition

@fragdude

10 күн бұрын

Neoliberal relationships!

Decades ago in college I met some people who said they were Libertarians. So, I read some of the books they recommended including Rand and was appalled. It became clear that they were basically post-adolescent boys who couldn't get laid and so adopted what they saw as "he-man" hero characters.

@lady_draguliana784

23 күн бұрын

RE: "Incels" and that sounds about right

@speedrunner9907

22 күн бұрын

Ayn Rand was an intelligence agent tasked with organizing outcast young men, I agree. But that’s the part people always leave out. She was a neo-Soviet agent.

@E-d1d3

21 күн бұрын

This is like a Clive Cussler book on trains ... pay no detailed attention to the 600 pages of economic theory tatooed into your brain as a complete philosophy of life.

Former long time Fed chairman Alan Greenspan, whose blind libertarian philosophy and loose money policies played a major role in the 2008 financial collapse, was a disciple of Ayn Rand. He was one of the members of her inner circle who read Atlas Shrugged as it was being written. From Wiki:

@Echo81Rumple83

21 күн бұрын

so he's the one we should make sautéed sweetbread from his unmentionables and make him eat it as punishment?

@5400bowen

20 күн бұрын

I grew up with Ayn Rand. My Bother had "Atlas Shrugged" when I was 8 years old, in 1962. I read it and her other books "Anthem", "Capitalism, the Unknown Ideal", "The Virtue of Selfishness", and "The Fountainhead" by the time I was 15 in 1969. By then my brother had been getting "The Objectivist Newsletter" for several years and had a bunch of back issues to the earliest issues. He even was a member of an Objectivist activist club in San Diego by then. I went to a couple of the meetings. Alan Greenspan wrote the monthly economics piece. I read the stuff when I was 12. He wasn't mistaken. I saw his testimony in front of congress back then. he said the bubble was fine because it was based on real assets, not ethereal markets. I had been in the mortgage business on and off for 12 years by then, but admit I was fooled. Later when it all crashed, and not from subprime mortgages as much as variable interest rates all the lenders talked SO many people into. I was given that hogwash at a couple of companies that were going to "teach me why variables were better". I knew all about it, and I got out of it then. There are specific examples I could give, but brevity nags. Greenspan was just getting the old man jaded view and was basically paid off to lie and let it all happen. It was zero surprise to him.

@TruthRules2

18 күн бұрын

The BILLIONAIRE bankers profited handsomely from looking away and allowing the subprime crisis,to develop; the US taxpayers paid and suffered until today. Inflation resulted from the money printing!

@5400bowen

18 күн бұрын

@@TruthRules2 it was the variable mortgages they started talking everyone into, but the parameters had changed so the rate went up rapidly along with the payments. The few who survived were taken out of the potential refi pool by the financial regulations bill. All the parameters were much stricter until all the middle class was sapped. Then they lowered rates drastically and only the very well off could qualify for to 2.5%-3.5% rates. It is a shell game. And Greenspan was the nut shells.

@TruthRules2

18 күн бұрын

@@5400bowen No property appreciates forever. Brokers, lenders, conspiring bankers, and escrow companies failed to disclose this and the ludicrous over-appreciation of real estate to gullible, ignorant buyers and even made them lie on loan documents. Later, the ignorant, deceived borrowers were escape-goated! Being minorities made them easy escape goats!

Great conversation. She explained exactly how I feel about Ayn Rand.

What a great interview! Thank you for not rushing it and letting the conversation breathe.

I like this woman's explanation of her writing process

That Ayn Rand was ever taken seriously will baffle me to my last day.... including my own father who unsuccessfully tried to get me interested in her 55 years ago

@chazdomingo475

22 күн бұрын

Her juvenile insights were very convenient to certain people so...

@hadlerleco1

22 күн бұрын

Why does it baffle you? She was for change, she was for freedom. She was for challenging the status quo, for being unafraid to be who you are. She was wrong about certain things but who isn't? Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater. Read her critically. I am still severely leftist, feminist and progressive, have read three of her books and loved them. Her female characters are brave and unashamed to be who they are.

@HairHoFla

21 күн бұрын

@@hadlerleco1 she was for narcissism and selfishness....the amusing thing about conservative's admiration is she was no fan of Reagan or anti-abortion laws...

@hadlerleco1

21 күн бұрын

@@HairHoFla Like I said in another comment,, I am to the left of Che Guevara. I am no conservative. She was not for narcissism. The world is. She was thoroughly against it. Read "The Fountainhead". She was not for selfishness. She was for self sufficiency, which is a very different thing. Read her. You might like it and "tear down", apropos of Reagan, your walls of prejudice.

@HairHoFla

21 күн бұрын

@@hadlerleco1 declaring yourself."to the left of Che Guevara" AUTOMATICALLY calls anything else you say into question 🤣

Klepper's interviews are always well-informed, his questions move the conversation along, he's funny, and he lets the guests present their work and ideas (which is something that Stewart sadly does not do - with him it's often about getting his own standpoint across; which is great in satire, but not in interviews).

@TheW83

23 күн бұрын

Klepper is amazing and is the future of TDS.

@seanpatrick1243

22 күн бұрын

I think Klepper is great! But his interview with the charlatan Jonathan Haidt was just awful and incredibly ill-informed.

@Mankam168

22 күн бұрын

@@seanpatrick1243 Please elaborate

@seanpatrick1243

22 күн бұрын

@@Mankam168 Haidt relies on those who believe he did real research, which Jordan fell right in line with without challenge. What Haidt does in ALL of his writings is take a position which he believes to be true and then cherry picks data which support his belief, often times intentionally (I assume, he is not dumb after all) misinterpreting the study and he completely disregards any studies which refute his beliefs. It is consistent and you can easily find critiques which provide specific details.

@loca8048

22 күн бұрын

@@seanpatrick1243 Yup - 100% - Haidt is not a science person - he is a liberal arts social science person. Like a psychologist. Not a drop of empirical evidence to be found. BUT. What he says anecdotally I think should be reason enough for actual true scientific studies to be undertaken to better understand the impacts, neurological, social, physical, etc. etc. We are in new territory and the more we observe and learn and understand, hopefully the better our decision making going forward. (Yeah I know a fantasy sigh).

Ooh, great questions. Love this interview. I really feel like Jordan is having a more real conversation than average for interviews.

Long ago, I thought Ayn Rand was a great author and philosopher, simply because that's what I had heard. But when I looked at what she actually wrote and the societal context around her, I found she was one of the worst and most damaging people in American history. Despite being only one person, she was about as destructive as an entire Russian disinformation campaign.

@undercoverreseller205

22 күн бұрын

She was Russian

@ellanina801

22 күн бұрын

So she spoke against all the same stuff we are speaking against today, and that’s problematic? The Boeing CEO surely loves YOU!!!

@tureytayno3154

21 күн бұрын

And not to mention ToyKeeper, she was a hypocrite.

@MandyMoorehol

21 күн бұрын

She was a Soviet spy. She was literally a disinformation campaign lol

@sachamm

21 күн бұрын

@@ellanina801 You're kidding right? Rand would have said Boeing was doing the smart thing by increasing shareholder profits.

Thanks for letting this discussion develop, not just play it for laughs.

Excellent interview. Like Ms. Freiman, I have spent many hours arguing with imaginary adversaries, thinking about what I would say, and what they would say in response. But for me, it is not part of my profession, it is because I often have insomnia. I wish I could make money off of those long, sleepless hours.

@teddratch_owner_signature_4920

23 күн бұрын

I have those arguments. You gotta focus on other things.

@johndoh4064

23 күн бұрын

You can. Use those hours to......write a book

@madelinepersonett9625

23 күн бұрын

Yeah you should have arguments with OTHER people.. you're on the right side.

@nowanilfideme2

22 күн бұрын

If you can't fall asleep, you can try getting up, writing some of it down, then going back. Helps for some people. :)

@alexlopez5800

22 күн бұрын

Start a podcast or KZread channel. Eventually you'll gain a crowd.

I was jealous of my high school peers who got into AP English, while I was in the average, regular class. I saw that they all had paperback copies of Ayn Rand’s The Fountainhead. I had never read nor had even heard of her. Years later in college I was informed of who she was and what her philosophy was about. It was only then I realized I had dodged a bullet!

Honestly, I wasn't even going to watch this video because it's about an author and a book, but I'm so glad I did! Not only does the book and its author fascinate me, but Jordan is such an amazing interviewer and this was very entertaining and I'm buying the book!

@sunshine3914

22 күн бұрын

Couldn’t finish. Between the accent & the redundant “I mean” & “You know”s, made it about halfway. Will be reading this book, tho.

@GCKelloch

22 күн бұрын

@@sunshine3914 Must be frustrating to be so pedantic, rather than just ignore minor annoyances and focus on the meat. Ayn Rand fan?

Klepper emerges as the highbrow of The Daily Show. I Enjoy his studio interviews.

I was a church kid given Atlas Shrugged in response to "Why are you atheist?" I enjoyed the story, but it uses an extreme church view of control through emotion and replaces it with the idea you're a genius - which you aren't. It did teach me a lesson in identifying extremes and to avoid them.

Ayn Rand's writings were a big deal in the 60's....we read her books with excitement and almost feelings of rapture. Young, inexperienced...the idea that all that mattered was our own success and satisfaction. As we matured...most of us realized the shortcomings of her views.

@linguaphile42

22 күн бұрын

Exactly. Well said.

@ellanina801

22 күн бұрын

That wasn’t all that mattered. What you describe is “greed”… that was what ayn was speaking AGAINST

@CaptMortifyd

22 күн бұрын

@@ellanina801 LOL found the Randian

@ellanina801

22 күн бұрын

@@CaptMortifyd nothing wrong with having ethics 🤷🏼

@justinyarbro2671

21 күн бұрын

What are the shortcomings?

What a brilliant bit! A very smart writer being interviewed by a very smart interviewer!

😊 i am retired now so i sit alone at home and think i meditate and come up with one solution after the next for humanity and the world ! ❤😂😊

She might be my new favourite person in the whole world.

I was raised in a family that followed her ideas like a religion. I got out before it completely ruined my life.

I find Lexi Freiman, very refreshing and interesting. Charming and likely smarter than I. She is like an open window on a spring morning after the the long flatulence of the saga of Kristi Noem and Cricket! Well met all around! 👏🏻

Big thanks for confirming how to pronounce “Ayn.” It’s a name more often read than heard. Years might pass, and I begin to doubt what once I knew.

This interview brought back fond memories of being in university creative writing workshops.

brilliant interview. Both of you.

Ayn Rand's philosophy collapses under its own tenets, because cooperation for mutual benefit is the best survival strategy. It easily out-competes more selfish strategies. The best thing you can do for yourself is to be kind to others.

@duroxkilo

22 күн бұрын

that's correct on multiple levels. the 'selfishness success' is a misunderstood concept partially borrowed from the natural 'survival of the fittest' model. the thing is we're not in survival mode as a species plus the model only applies to relatively short term scenarios... for a long game, cooperation is a vastly superior strategy. after all, the jump from uni to multicellular life required symbiosis :)

Some of the best interviews come from a source that it's least expected.

Ayn Rand is the philosophical equivalent of Charles Manson.

@johnhull2582

23 күн бұрын

Very cannibal cult friendly.

@ellanina801

22 күн бұрын

🤡

There is a college based on Ayn Rand philosophy that while very small has an outsized influence on our government: Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan.

@ellanina801

22 күн бұрын

Im certain if Ayn Rand’s philosophy has “outsized influence on our government”, boeing wouldnt be producing defective planes, corporate ceo’s wouldn’t be the beneficiaries of pyramid schemes at the labors of those at the bottom, and coercion amongst lobbyists and governing bodies (aka kickbacks) wouldnt be destroying the working class. People can’t even afford to live nowadays, but they’re putting in the work-problem is those at the top are the ones who benefit from the labors at the bottom

@Atheos-1

20 күн бұрын

George Mason

Need to get a copy for my sister since she thinks Ayn's view of the world makes sense,lol.

@davevanfunk8917

23 күн бұрын

I'm sorry for you. Does objectivism come up at Thanksgiving?

@CosmicPhilosopher

23 күн бұрын

I went on a date with a woman telling me with great excitement about rereading The Fountainhead. There wasn't a second date.

@zigzag321go

23 күн бұрын

​@@CosmicPhilosopherI guess you just weren't a love creator.

@madelinepersonett9625

23 күн бұрын

​@CosmicPhilosopher as someone who's username is "cosmicphilsopher" doesn't sound like a smart guy if he's gonna turn down Ayn Rand

@Atheos-1

20 күн бұрын

​@@madelinepersonett9625 Turning away from Rand has nothing to do with intelligence, but a whole lot to do with character.

“I don’t think there’s any need to have essays advocating selfishness among human beings; I don’t know what your impression has been, but some things require no further reinforcement.”-Christopher Hitchens on Ayn Rand

really nice interview Jordan.

Love when Jordan does his work on the street. That's where he really shines!

Yeah, someone's going to option this as a feature film. Pre-ordering the book now!

Perusing enlightenment is indeed awesome and fun 🙂 And I think what people don’t realize, is that going through life is a constant test depending on your circumstances or where you spawned into the game, and it’s through these experiences, that craft you into whatever you ultimately desire to be, past and future selves being subtly linked as they are.

Ayn Rand helped me get out from under a narcissistic/overbearing mother. Having said that, I was able to discern things I didn't like in her philosophy. It's just weird people can't be adults enough to learn something positive from someone and leave the unhelpful things behind. We either entirely trash someone or entirely stan them. There's no existing in the grey with someone anymore. Just a weird culture we live in and a tired one at that. Ayn has some great things to say about taking care of yourself and taking responsibility, and she also goes to an extreme that's self-isolating. How hard is it just to like hearing other ideas without think they're the only ideas out there?

@peterg5383

22 күн бұрын

Americans, by and large, don't do nuance. A binary thumbs up or down requires so much less effort.

@brynneholt1990

20 күн бұрын

Which is why the whole book banning thing is so ridiculous. You don’t have to believe in everything you read.

@hollypaybergtorroija

16 күн бұрын

Thank you! I couldn't agree more. There were things I agreed with and things in her books I didn't at all. But I so enjoyed the actual mental exercise of reading it and seeing a person's POV that lived a very different life than mine and how that shaped her ideology and her writing. I found it fascinating. I suspect there's many who simply don't know what they believe, which makes them easily influenced, and their way of dealing with that is to blame the influencers rather than strengthen their own minds.

Great discussion. I'd add as a different prism to view the topics through Sun Tzu's THE ART OF WAR [because the Capitalist philosophy takes a great deal from it]. "All War is deception." To shorten the math, War is lies. "The Acme of Skill" is to defeat your opponent without battle. Or to never engage in warfare in the first place. The "Acme of Skill" is to not start lying to yourself or others.

@13699111

22 күн бұрын

I agree with your comment completely

Watched the first couple seconds thinking to myself, “ That’s not Alex Friedman”

Love her

I had my first run-un wuth a narcissist. 🤮 Is all i can say. Once someone clued me in and i could put a label on it, i felt less crazy. But the gaslighting will do that to you.

@AndyAcker

23 күн бұрын

It truly is a real thing, the gaslighting, and it's so persistent and insidious, you find yourself doubting yourself, second guessing, as they take advantage and prey on your capacity for self reflection. I hope you heal from that, notice the red flags in the future, and live happily.

@ellanina801

22 күн бұрын

Narcissists always tell you how selfish you are 😿. They make you be selfless for their own greed and supply.

@teddratch_owner_signature_4920

22 күн бұрын

@@ellanina801 I had a girl insist that I accompany her to her friends wedding. Halfway through the wedding reception a man that was not part of the wedding began taking interest in my date, she had no problem with this and by an hour or so later he was trying to take her home and take her keys. There is more surrounding this story but the basic thing is that she blamed me for being jealous of her leaving me halfway through our date. I caught up with the man about 2 years later and he apologized in 5 minutes for what the girl still could not apologize for in 2 years. When I told her she said I must have misunderstood him and that we would have to speak with him together. I did no such thing. The safest part Is that the girl had been married twice and had kids with two different men and it was clear that she was the cause of her own divorces, she would basically dance sexually with other men right in front of her husband's and then blame them for being jealous, it wouldn't surprise me if she had cheated but to her it was never cheating, in fact anything she did that was wrong was never her fault, it only got worse and worse, I received an anonymous letter in the mail claiming that the job I had helped her get as a massage therapist, yep she was doing exactly what I hoped she wouldn't breaking up marriages and serious relationships, but when I received the letter, of course that girl was just a jealous b**** to the narcissist girl. Right it's everybody else's fault that you are a homewrecker, okay whatever but that's what a narcissist is, and they will make you feel like you are going insane because of how rational they speak and how calmly they speak about how it's all your fault

@duroxkilo

22 күн бұрын

i know someone who was in a car accident w/ a suspended license (no injuries), convinced his buddy (the passenger) to declare he was the driver and then proceeded to tell everyone (parents of his buddy included) that it wasn't him driving... the thing lasted a few years, at times 'the passenger' was questioning his own memories (he tried to record a 'confession' but the gaslighting was going on even in private conversations between the two). then the driver got in a v serious car accident (not his fault) and in the ambulance came clean to my mom (a nurse) thinking he wasn't going to make it(?). he later apologized to his buddy and the parents an had other people visit him to 'confess' all kinds of things, mainly theft. they guy would lie and steal all the time so some of us didn't believe him but we still couldn't understand how can someone be like that..

I read both The Fountainhead and Atlus Shrugged. I loved the romance but they were so very against my views. Still i found them useful for understanding American culture.

@ellanina801

22 күн бұрын

What exactly was against your views? Thou shall not steal the labor of others for your own selfish greed? Love in others what you hold highest and best in yourself? Don’t give unto others what you can not afford to sacrifice? Corporate CEO’s should not profit off the poor management of their businesses? People should be paid for their own labors? People should stay true to themselves and not coerce with bad actors? 🤔

@HerrCron

22 күн бұрын

@@ellanina801 lol. Bless your heart

@ellanina801

22 күн бұрын

@@HerrCron awe bless YOUR exploitative little heart 🫶🏻. (🤡)

@HerrCron

22 күн бұрын

@@ellanina801 the full might of the objectivist wit on display here. Just as powerful in this arena as it is when it comes to arguing for their ideals.

@ellanina801

22 күн бұрын

@@HerrCron So says the person who comes in with no arguments, merely words stated to imply meaning where there is none, and by brute force. Your protagonists, my antagonists, are why people are living pay check to paycheck, and subservient to big businesses. Why people like Trump get away with tax evasion, and get to STILL run for president. The irony being that while all y’all pretend that you want to fight against that 💩, you are actively participating in the oppression of others (far be it from me to tell you not to be oppressed yourself)…. The joke is that the antagonists in her tales are the ones weaponizing her theories IRL. And she was absolutely not well liked or taken in her day, but she absolutely predicted everything happening right now.

It’s not funny if you ever lived with a narcissistic mother who destroyed your life. All too common, narcissistic women (moms) destroy families by pitting everyone against each other secretly.

@poulthomas469

23 күн бұрын

try having both parents.

@karenninascott

23 күн бұрын

Watch Teal Swan videos on narcissism and codependence. She explains my parents better than any other video on narcissism could, and she describes how the codependent one will in turn be narcissistic to others.

@tallspicy

23 күн бұрын

It's a novel, not a self help book

@tallspicy

23 күн бұрын

Sweet personal experience turned misogyny over a novel, not a self help book.

@UsenameTakenWasTaken

23 күн бұрын

​@@karenninascott Teal Swan is a cult leader, I very much caution you from taking her advice on narcissism.

Cancel is the new "fired" nothing more or less. And when fired (been there) it really forces an introspection on the self, and letting go of the ego is probably one of the most liberating things ever. The "I don't care". I run, I fall, I get up again, and it's all ok. It's wonderful.

@MyChannel-ol1zz

22 күн бұрын

Except people use cancel for anything, even when the person doesn’t work there. It’s a terrible newer word in pop culture.

@lisettegarcia

22 күн бұрын

Nothing more? Idk... If someone in Sioux Falls loses their job at the plant, it's embarrassing locally. If someone gets cancelled after a freakout on a plane, in an instant they become persona non grata from Paducah to Bombay. Hardly the same.

@greglight1444

19 күн бұрын

Except being canceled is supposed to keep you fired for the rest of your life.

Klepper unwittingly hit the nail on the head when he said 'In order to get enlightened you have to be cancelled' Very enlightening!!!!

Really great interview! Excited to read the book!

When the audiobook comes out, please have it narrated by scottish comedian Fern Brady. Nobody will mind the acccent, she'd be just perfect.

It isn't cancel culture, it is Consequence culture. Many of the people complaining have never had consequences for their stupidity before, maybe if they would have earlier they would have been a little more sympathetic towards others.

@ramblinevilmushroom

23 күн бұрын

Oh, for the people being canceled its a lot more like like what the left calls "stochastic terrorism." Death threat phone calls, employers harased into firing you, doxing, that sort of thing. That's what the right means when they talk about cancel culture. A culture of it being okay to destroy peoples lives because you hate their opinions.

@sammyvictors2603

23 күн бұрын

Exactly Consequences are far greater and harsher. They force you realize your mistake. It's a sort of rude awakening to your actions.

@albirtarsha5370

22 күн бұрын

Bruh, new words are always created no matter how superfluous. I don't have any problem with the term "cancel culture" except that it is applied in a purely partisan way. "Consequences" is a more generic word. So they don't mean the same thing.

@cpmf2112

22 күн бұрын

@@albirtarsha5370 well, except that they aren't being cancelled when in fact they are just getting the consequences for their words. The loudest ones still have their TV shows and continue to scream every day that they are being cancelled. 🙄 Free speech doesn't mean freedom from consequences.

@albirtarsha5370

22 күн бұрын

@@cpmf2112 You are not making the point that you think you are. Look up cancel culture in Wikipedia and explain how this phenomenon does not happen.

Great interview and even greater book. Highly recommend

Great interview!

I *hated* reading Ayn Rand. Feels nice to know she made herself miserable, too haha 😆.

Great discussion. It hit a cord with me

Jordan is a great interviewer.

Love this

Writing KZread comments helps me do what she's talking about here -- respecting the reader, considering the opposition. You can't troll-proof your comments, but you can help reasonable people understand your thinking. This is something that Ayn Rand had no interest in at all.

@ellanina801

22 күн бұрын

Most people are unreasonable. How do you know that about Ayn Rand?

@simonagree4070

22 күн бұрын

Most of us have reasonable and unreasonable sides to us -- otherwise, we wouldn't be able to get through a day or pay our bills at the end of the month. How do I know that about Any Rand? Preponderance of evidence -- I read three of her novels, far too many of her essays, two memoirs by her followers, her biography, and a history of Objectivism.

I'd rather read Bell Hooks and become a better person. We need better people in the world, not worse ones.

Being canceled makes you able to make more money and gains you more publicity. Both Sidesing is a sign that you are comfortable sitting on a fence all your life, ignoring real issues. Consequences ! Consequences

Klepper is the funniest person on TV today.

We all love you

Sociopathic behavior is not a entitlement to abuse others, and not a way to reach monetary gain.

@ForestRaptor

23 күн бұрын

But that's how the wealthy become millionaires, and how millionaires become billionaires = - =

@gattaca5911

22 күн бұрын

The bottomless ocean of money awaiting online Sociopaths begs to differ....

@djoakeydoakey1076

22 күн бұрын

Moral compass is a such a heavy burden, sociopaths can take it off and not be weighed down by it.

@denvertuttle2583

22 күн бұрын

I'd like to agree but that's exactly what it is!

@johndoh4064

22 күн бұрын

Unfortunately reality is polarly opposed to your premise

This interview was hard for me to follow because of the lack of general knowledge I have about Ayn Rand, Lexi Freiman and the broader impact of their topics.... But I understand the "thinking about other arguments", that's not cancelling yourself, that's empathy applied with reason :

@ellanina801

22 күн бұрын

She has very little knowledge about ayn rand. She had problems later in life due to drug addiction (barbiturates)… for pain i believe. She was also a refugee from the soviet union.

7:52 my life 💯 maybe I should write

I liked Lexi.

"...narcissistic culture..." Narcissism is practically mandatory for someone in politics. If public speaking is scarier than death for most people, those who speak up have a healthy sense of ego. Those who believe they have the answers take the ego trip up to narcissism. So they run for office.

Also considering the time and culture.

Jason Pargin talks about that mean voice in his head too, within the context of the movie Whiplash

the lowering of testosterone levels helps a lot w/ 'male ego shedding' :) such a captivating view of the mechanisms of writing, invite Lexi Freiman back on the show soon pls... ps: loved the tie/shirt dynamic

I write my characters while keeping in mind that people are going to see themselves in every one of them and so I need to handle every character with care, respect, and curiosity

When Atlas shrugged he was bothered by a fly named Ayn.

Ms. Freiman, kudos to you for calling out Ayn Rand's romantic narcissism. I have always detested her silly, selfish books and academia's fascination with her. Back in college, you had to be fashionably amazed by "The Fountainhead", which was a boring book. Meanwhile, Klepper needs to work on his interviewing skills. He talks too much and does not really help Freiman get to the satire in her book into their discussion.

Love this. I want the Jordon book interview show at this point.

And there are more than two types of people. People who are proud of their abilities and achievement are not all narcissists. Sometimes cancel/woke seem to think they are the only ones who deserve to have self esteem.

So the secret to enlightenment is IDGAF... Sweet! I'm on the way.

@enricomiceli8704

23 күн бұрын

Can confirm

@HaHaThatIsFunny

22 күн бұрын

IDGAF also makes you more attractive and desirable. Our species is truly wack

A real writer... today is showing me cool people.

Great interview. Also - if Jordan's hair gets any higher, he may be in violation of any number of NY city zoning codes.

Lex Friedman looking kinda different.....better even

i think Jordan does an excellent job interviewing intellectuals. I enjoyed the one about Haidt as well.

@stefrost4029

22 күн бұрын

Haidt is a pseudointellectual

oddly humbly honored somehow...

I'd like to cancel the term "cancel culture".

@cpmf2112

23 күн бұрын

Exactly, it is consequence culture.

@robsomerton7390

23 күн бұрын

No surprise there 😂

@ellieban

23 күн бұрын

Not really. It’s more online vigilantism. It’s seems constructive when it’s someone who’s done terrible things, but a lot of the time it’s ordinary humans having their lives ruined for making the types of mistakes we all make.

@jaymelton2663

22 күн бұрын

@@ellieban Except we don't ALL make these kinds of mistakes, we've tolerated them for decades and looked the other way. Now that we're not, it's "cancel culture". Secondly, if someone makes one of these "mistakes" as you call them, and THEN goes on to rant about "cancel culture" they they haven't learned anything at all. Rather than taking a step back to see how their comments or actions have affected others, they yell and cry about being "cancelled". So, it's more important to them to be able to be offensive to a group or individual than it is to actually think about having some empathy.

@Don-md6wn

22 күн бұрын

​@@ellieban Could you give us an example of a person who was a victim of cancel culture for making the types of mistakes we all make?

I loved Atlas Shrugged. The "hero" was a working engineer, who was promoted to CEO, and immediately quit and went into hiding, because he knows there is no ethical capitalism, so to actually work as the CEO role he got, would make him evil and complicit in the evil system. And the current CEOs of the world can't do anything, so they hunt out workers like Rearden to save them, while workers quit and strike under the incompetence of all CEOs. CEOs are like the keystone cops. Or Ralph Wiggum, "I'm helping". If you ignore the author's manifesto passages, the book is strongly anti-capitalist, showing capitalism is an impossible system that only leads to decay and destruction. But, for some reason, Loonitarians reading it walk away with a completely different idea. Almost like they didn't actually read it, but skimmed the plot that proved them wrong to get to the manifesto portions which talk about how the CEOs are the saviors and workers are evil, while the workers strike for fair pay, and the CEOs can't get anything done.

💙👍🏿

Ego death isnt for everyone, some people don't have a root in values that would work well if they didn't have some book of rules to tell them to be better...

I'm I the only one who wants to see Lexi Freiman sit down with Lex Fridman talk Any Rand ... and see if any laughs come out of that?

@StratsRUs

23 күн бұрын

He's really boring and treats idiots as intellectuals.Tht's where the money is !

@Don-md6wn

22 күн бұрын

I've only encountered Lex Fridman one time. I can't even remember the context, might have been somebody goofing on him. All I remember is that I saw enough of him to have no interest in ever seeing him again.

@duroxkilo

22 күн бұрын

Lex is not a thinker, Lexi is an excellent thinker. it would be buffoonery.. (Lex is an updated/patched version or Rogan. i fell for his tricks for a few videos yrs ago. for starters he's been a Put|n admirer prior to it becoming a 'maga thing', that's a software bug right there)

Talk about how Ayn Rand had no real family. How can we follow the advice of anyone who doesn’t understand the meaning of family? Family is everything, and she came from a completely messed up family.

There's a Lex Fridman joke here somewhere 🤔

I read The Fountainhead when I was at University. I had trouble figuring out how society was supposed to function and how you are able to hold people accountable for their own bad ideas if the virtues in that book were adopted en masse. At the end of the day I decided to walk away from it with the idea that you shouldn't be afraid to live up to your convictions. But otherwise it was about as relevant to the real world as a Fantasy novel. It was escapist literature that took itself far too seriously.

Ayn rand the first pick me girl. This is what I got from this interview.

I can not find a definition of the term or the concept of "Who" - so it never matters in my thinking. Only the line of reasoning is interesting to me. If someone runs me over with a truck, I don't care about the identity of the driver. Because no matter, I repeat: no matter! who is driving, the result is exactly the same.

Covert Narcissist is the description being looked for.

"you like me the most right?" atlas shrugged.

This is the smartest person on this show

Critical thinking == cancel oneself

Cool. She writes like a scientist. Knowing that people will try to pull her apart for fun and profit.

i find it ironic that most male libertarians refer to Ayn's teachings when it comes to how they want the economy to "behave", since, in the end, they're just about as misogynistic as they are/were under fascism.

1:58 - I don’t think “funny” is the right word. “Pathetic” seems more fitting, although “ironic” could work too. I prefer “pathetic” for Ayn.

Everyone always talks about cancel catcher but when does it starts. I maen think about it everyone that claims to be canceled and of having a gigantic comedy tour or a new movie or a new book or a new TV series like right after they claim to have been canceled. it's not a real thing.

There's nothing enlightening about getting cancelled. Celebrities don't suffer the same consequences normal people do. You lose your job, friends, you're isolated and alone, and it's not always because you said something bad, it's because your ex was abusive and slandered you, when you finally had courage to leave

Just so everyone understands… no one gets "canceled". This is just a term used by odious famous people to complain about society telling them that they did something wrong and they don't want to own up to their mistakes.

Lex Fridman looks different