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Photo of Oscar Isaac Wearing an "Atlas Shrugged" T-Shirt Years Ago Resurfaces OMG

Pong Messiah

By Pong Messiah,
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Pong Messiah Member

Pong Messiah

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This is totally not a big deal to normal, emotionally mature people, but some of the reactions to that old pic of Isaac in the Atlas Shrugged t-shirt have been hysterically funny. Especially the folks who don't know why it is an issue, who then become rightfully outraged once "educated" about "supercapitalism" (omg some guy who just made nearly $2 million might have some capitalistic leanings?!).

 

Anyway, I never cared much about the guy one way or another, and I normally don't give a damn about celebrities' political beliefs, but given that Isaac has been held up as ideal unprob fave in certain perpetually-outraged corners of the Innarwebs for upwards of 18 months (maybe longer?), I really, really hope it turns out he is... a highly problematic fellow.

 

Side note: I've always found celeb gossip to be kind of gross, but I think homogenizing philosophical/political "purity" tests are even grosser, and love how they are regularly (and rightfully) lampooned

 

Side side note regarding Rand:

 

I enjoyed The Fountainhead up until the selfish ginger started making speeches and blowing stuff up. Still, some definite poetry and great dialogue in there -- recommended reading.

 

And I absolutely loved the first act of Atlas Shrugged before it began sinking into dogmatic, mean-spirited absurdity. Rightfully considered more important than The Fountainhead, but only because its characters won't shut up about Rand's philosophy. A very qualified recommendation: only read it if you are genuinely interested in what the locusts flying around in Rand's skull were chirping at her.

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Pong Messiah Member

Pong Messiah

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I've enjoyed Tom Cruise movies even though he believes an alien volcano will eventually all eat us all. I'll continue to enjoy Oscar Issac movies too.

It's funny you'd bring up Cruise. I recently got into an argument about him with a friend who has said "It doesn't matter how good the movie is, whenever Cruise is on the screen, I can't help but think about the stupid **** he believes, and it takes me out of the experience."

 

I dunno... sorry, but if you are watching that dude climbing the Burj Khalifa and all you can think is "Xeeeeeeeeenu," there is something wrong with you.

 

I enjoyed The Force Awakens up until the selfish ginger started making speeches and blowing stuff up.

I absolutely loved TFA. All of it! Well, except for the superweapon and unmemorable score!

 

Who was the speech-making ginger who blew stuff up? All I can think of is Chewbacca. And I prefer to think of his hair as silky auburn.

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The Kurgan Member

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Atlas Shrugged was awful. Rand's non-fiction stuff was okay. I did enjoy her style, at times. There's something to be said for Objectivism, I think, even though the Randroids took it to absurd levels of dogmatic reductionism and it's since been horrendously bastardized by her supporters and opponents alike. That's become a fairly consistent pattern across the ideological spectrum, I've noticed. To say nothing of her ridiculous conduct in her private life, especially her affair with Nathaniel Branden. Typical ideologically rationalized self serving hypocrisy on part of an arrogant movement leader.

 

All of which makes me wonder why Ayn Rand isn't more popular today. Seems as though the kind of person who declare's big business to be "America's true persecuted minority" - or something to that effect, should fit right in today's social media culture.

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Pong Messiah Member

Pong Messiah

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Atlas Shrugged was awful.

Overall, it was. But I absolutely loved the first act. I also think it could have been good overall had her ego allowed her to cede anything to the cutting room floor, and had she trusted her audience enough to allow philosophy to serve the story rather than vice-versa.

 

For all her faults, Rand was sharp, painfully so, when it came to pointing out flaws and weaknesses in progressive/communitarian ideals -- both in practice and in theory. Regardless of what her critics say, I think they hate her more because of what she says about them than her own philosophy, which is rather "just so" and oddly (at least for one with Rand's powers of observation) riddled with blind spots.

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The Kurgan Member

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For all her faults, Rand was sharp, painfully so, when it came to pointing out flaws and weaknesses in progressive/communitarian ideals -- both in practice and in theory. Regardless of what her critics say, I think they hate her more because of what she says about them than her own philosophy, which is rather "just so" and oddly (at least for one with Rand's powers of observation) riddled with blind spots.

Both Objectivism and its progressive/communitarian counterparts are as you've described. I suspect that much of it comes down to the manichean world views each of them have. Rand made no bones about her view that Objectivism was pure and untainted good and could cede nothing to critics or moderates were it to remain so. This naturally results in a lot of projection of one's own faults onto one's opponents. They're all very good at pointing out the slivers in their neighbor's eyes, never the logs in their own.

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I guess I'm torn. On one hand, if I disliked people because their political/religious/social views don't line up perfectly with mine, I would hate everyone. On the other hand, any time I see Jim Carrey I think "That's the guy that used to be funny for a brief period in the early 90s, and he wants to polio to make a comeback."

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D-Ray Kenobi Member

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Knowing an actor had insane political or religious beliefs used to take me out of it, sometimes even to the point of stubbornly refusing to see their stuff. But I suppose I've mellowed a good deal on that kind of thing, as I really just don't care either way anymore. I'm more than willing to take an entertainment product on face value and just enjoy it for what it is. I think if I allowed myself to become heavily invested in every real-life tangent of any kind of product, I'd eventually just be a hermit in the woods putting my fingers in my ears.

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Pong Messiah Member

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I feel the same way. I will admit to feeling a bit uncomfortable watching The Ghost Writer, 'cause of Polanski's history. But it's not like pulling a career-capping performance out of Pierce Brosnan acquitted Polanski of past crimes in any way: Polanski's skill as a director has nothing to do him being a raper (well, hopefully). I also occasionally juxtapose Jon Voight's surreal appearances on Fox News with Mickey's coke or prostitute or outrageous child negligence issues on Ray Donovan, but it's not like it keeps me from watching and thoroughly enjoying his work in any way.

 

That said, with Isaac, we're not talking about insane political or religious beliefs. We're not even talking about an actor who has vocalized soft-libertarianism a la Clint Eastwood. We're talking about people running to their fainting couches because somebody they liked wore a ****ing t-shirt. There are plenty of reasonable people who have read Atlas Shrugged who found it entertaining, interesting, valuable, etc. One of my best friends, an insufferable SJW and no friend of capitalism, ranks it among his all-time favorites because it forced him to "think in uncomfortable ways." Isaac himself has never espoused any Objectivist beliefs that I know of.

 

Is this how weak sauce tribal we are becoming? Wailing and gnashing teeth because we want to like somebody, but just can't because their belief system might (MIGHT!) not be 100% consonant with our own?

 

Let's just skip the slippery slope and start exterminating everybody with distasteful beliefs, shall we?

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Iceheart Member

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Is this how weak sauce tribal we are becoming? Wailing and gnashing teeth because we want to like somebody, but just can't because their belief system might (MIGHT!) not be 100% consonant with our own?

 

Let's just skip the slippery slope and start exterminating everybody with distasteful beliefs, shall we?

 

Tumblr's been that way for years, actually. Look at the whole Chris Evans misogyny "scandal" from a few years back.

 

From what I understand, it's the Tumblr crowd that's having the problem with his t-shirt. A handful took it to Twitter. But it's really just a Tumblr phenomenon. People are awful on Tumblr. Way too damn overreactive. They're not a good gauge of public opinion.

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Pong Messiah Member

Pong Messiah

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Yeah, that's very true.

 

Even some of my more, sensitive/PC friends make fun of the tumblrites. Unfortunately, I think as that hyper-reactive stuff seeps into normie culture, it leads to a kind of "awareness exhaustion" where ALL calls for general tolerance/understanding, no matter how reasonable, are just kinda viewed as yet more white noise, which is (to steal a SJW favorite) not helpful. You're definitely right that those folks are not a random sampling of public opinion though. Amplitude != size, and it's important to remember that.

 

:eek:

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The Kurgan Member

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Yeah, that's very true.

 

Even some of my more, sensitive/PC friends make fun of the tumblrites. Unfortunately, I think as that hyper-reactive stuff seeps into normie culture, it leads to a kind of "awareness exhaustion" where ALL calls for general tolerance/understanding, no matter how reasonable, are just kinda viewed as yet more white noise, which is (to steal a SJW favorite) not helpful. You're definitely right that those folks are not a random sampling of public opinion though. Amplitude != size, and it's important to remember that.

 

:eek:

Controversy sells. And stupid opinions are good for that.

 

What's scary, I think, it what the inevitable backlash; the pendulum swing in the opposite direction, is going to look like. I'm a fan of an anti SJW page and "s**t tumblr says" on Facebook. The most popular comments on those pages have become ones suggesting we fought on the wrong side in WWII.

 

Irritating as the even the tumblr SJWs are, I have a feeling that twenty years from now we'll be wishing the batch of idiots we'll be contending with were half that reasonable. Most tumblrinas are, I suspect, just going through a phase of some sort.

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