Musk is an Ayn Rand villain who imagines he is an Ayn Rand hero, which is a kind of perfect storm of douchebaggery. - ThreadSky

normative.bsky.social • 144 days ago

Musk is an Ayn Rand villain who imagines he is an Ayn Rand hero, which is a kind of perfect storm of douchebaggery.

I always think about Ayn Rand when this sort of ultrarich chicanery comes up. Musk is really a *model villain* for Rand—he relies more on the "aristocracy of pull" than honest business & there's an evident black hole where his sense of self should be that he tries to fill with poasting & antics. 🧵

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lawnerd.bsky.social•144 days ago

I’ve said this before but atlas shrugged is so absurd-to-the-point-of-self-parody that it’s amenable to just such a reading. Give the movie rights to Paul Verhoeven.

lawnerd.bsky.social•144 days ago

The rest of the world isn’t an apocalyptic hellscape, it’s global Scandinavian like utopia. Taggart isn’t a genius she’s the granddaughter of the company founder, an idiot failson. Everyone starves to death in Galt’s gulch after a month.

zendarva.bsky.social•144 days ago

I had to double check, but there was only one director that could be. Yeah, he did Starship Troopers.

I would pay to go see Atlas Shrugged by him. Yes sir.

lawnerd.bsky.social•144 days ago

There is like 5% of me that things ayn rand was an Andy Kaufmannesque comedian who was just doing a bit, seeing how far she could push it before folks caught on and then they never caught on.

zendarva.bsky.social•144 days ago

This goes well with her winding up on the Dole, honestly.

lawnerd.bsky.social•144 days ago

If she was doing a bit, taking social security and Medicare while continuing to do the bit is the funniest possible thing

zendarva.bsky.social•144 days ago

It almost feels like it would be a last ditch: "Wake up and actually look at the punchline!"

I would pay... so so so much money to watch this as a movie.

jrgilbert.bsky.social•144 days ago

I thought they were all villains in her books.

abracadocious.bsky.social•144 days ago

Oops! All villains!

johnkidd.bsky.social•144 days ago

I've never thought of him in these terms, but you're absolutely correct.

darthbluesky.bsky.social•144 days ago

😹

zendarva.bsky.social•144 days ago

I never conceived of the concept of "hero" in Ayn Rand's book, that would mean having to acknowledge someone elses worth as greater than mine.

zendarva.bsky.social•144 days ago

aaronhunter.bsky.social•136 days ago

Aren't all of Rand's heroes actually villains (or maybe that's your point)?

alexremington.bsky.social•144 days ago

This is staggeringly spot on. Not even Ellsworth Toohey thought he was Dagny Taggart.

aubreygilleran.bsky.social•144 days ago

But James Taggart did! Musk doesn't have the sibling rivalry aspect but absolutely just passes off other people’s work as his own.

mtanotok.bsky.social•144 days ago

Counterpoint: Ayn Rand heroes are villains.

shaidorsai.bsky.social•144 days ago

Literally came here to say that

maxpolun.com•136 days ago

@existentialcomics.bsky.social making this point like a decade ago? Was what ended up introducing me to @polphilpod.bsky.social 's podcast.

existentialcomics.com•136 days ago

A tweet almost exactly like this is what set Musk personally on to me. He's not a fan of this theory it seems.

normative.bsky.social•136 days ago

I believe the phrase is “touched a nerve”…

maxpolun.com•136 days ago

Because it's so obviously true.

njpatrick.bsky.social•144 days ago

he’s also clearly brain fogged from all the ketamine/psychedelics he and the tech bro world ingests in huge quantities. Partially explains the ungrounded delusional weirdness.

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