Never try to engage with Ayn Rand's work in good faith: worst mistake of my life. She and her fanboys are basically the human version of brainy smurf. Even the name, Objectivism, is her bragging about herself. Thus since they are akin to brainy smurf, don't bother arguing with them because they will claim omniscience. Instead, deal with them as the rest of the smurfs dealt with brainy smurf.
Me: "Oil companies are using their private property to inflict environmental pollution that I do not consent to. Since they are using their property for evil, we should limit their use of a property. This way no one gets physically harmed, not even the oil tycoon."
Rand's Response: "This is stupid, how dare you tell someone what to do with their property. Live and let live! It is actually moral to let people use things that rightfully belong to them for immoral reasons."
Native Americans: "I just want to be left alone please."
Native Americans: "Didn't you just say people who own property should do whatever they please with it, and anyone who has a problem with it should mind their own business?"
Rand's Response: "Ugh, you fucking IDIOTS! Clearly you know nothing about my philosophy of IKnowEverythingIsm."
Me: "Uhhh...okay. I gotta say, insisting that you are the standing authority on all knowledge is a little dogmatic, it sounds kind of like a reli..."
Rand's Response: "UGH! RELIGION IS FOR IDIOTS AND IS AN INSULT TO THINKING!"
I genuinely wanted to read something from the right's POV so I could better understand them, lest I become as dogmatic as Rand here. So far, the closest I got was reading some classical liberal stuff like Plato's Republic, Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, and some Nietzsche. But it seems like anything further is just full on pompous dogshit. The Chapo book had more depth than this.
One answer I haven't seen anyone in this thread give to the answer the question "How did Ayn Rand get so many simps?" is that she was basically a cult leader. She wasn't just writing things people liked; she was actively cultivating a cult of personality around herself.
She was no L. Ron Hubbard -- not many people are -- but she did have a small but intense group of fans that she spent time with, and which evolved into what later became institutions like the Ayn Rand Institute and the Atlas Society. The original circle included Nathaniel Branden (usually associated with the "self-esteem" movement) and Alan Greenspan (who later became the chair of the Federal Reserve, appointed by Ronald Reagan).
I don't think anyone in academia takes her seriously as a philosopher, although I'm sure some find her interesting as an object of study. It would probably be more accurate to say that she was the Jordan Peterson or Ben Shapiro of her day.
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First episode of "All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace".
yea like, all the libertarian thinkers have their fans but i think only Rand has worshipers. She aimed to provide not just a theory of economics (although she hardly bothered with that) but a complete moral philosophy. Peterson is the perfect comparison