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A Hindsight Question!
What is something you loved or enjoyed when you were younger, that isn't so great now that you're older?
@Tweetfiction@mastodon.world@RickiTarr *whispers* I was into Ayn Rand as a young teen and thought The Fountainhead was a guide to becoming some sort of elevated human. 
@Tweetfiction You and me both lol
@RickiTarr I blame my honors English teacher who assigned it. Thank God I got to college and read real philosophy and realized Objectivism is a bunch of nonsense, and mostly stolen nonsense written by a massive hypocrite.
Glad I wasn't the only one sucked in who grew up. 
@Tweetfiction @RickiTarr lol I remember being assigned it and being in class going "am I the only one who's thinks this guy is, you know, an asshole?" Lol I didn't get good grades
@Tweetfiction @RickiTarr I think, in a lot of ways, Rand is optimized to be a bit of a tar pit for precocious youths. it has a veneer of philosophical discourse without challenging many fundamental assumptions about the world, so you feel like you're elevating yourself without being made uncomfortable. Adults will praise you for reading it. And it centers the ego at a time when ego development and individuation are part of one's cultural arc of development.
@roadriverrail @RickiTarr honestly? I might assign it myself if I was a HS teacher. It's like baby's first philosophy. But I would assign it with context. And then they'd read Aristotle, maybe John Stuart Mill and David Hume, probably Nietzsche.
@Tweetfiction @RickiTarr I see nothing wrong with reading some Rand within context. The real problem with Rand is that, given how unchallenging and accessible it is, a lot of people just kinda stop there. Especially if they're teenagers, it kinda arrests parts of their intellectual and emotional development in those late-teen years.
I also think teens and young adults should read Nietzsche, but with guidance and context, as his work can *also* have a similar effect.
@roadriverrail @RickiTarr agreed on all points. I mentioned those pholosphers specifically because she either ripped them off, or they're Utilitarians, which I consider the more enlightened version of the self-interest she preaches.
@Tweetfiction @RickiTarr You know, I read that originally only thinking of "survey of philosophy", and my immediate reaction was "Hm...a lot of that's kinda redundant to Rand and/or her influences..." and then I didn't consider that the idea was precisely that. I shouldn't philosophy before coffee.
@Tweetfiction @RickiTarr My ex loved her books and treated them as a guide to life. It opened up my eyes real quick to the challenges of having your own mind vs being an idiot because I didn't agree with everything he thought.
Also? For a book that opens with "Howard Roark laughed" The characters absolutely lack a sense of humor.
@Tweetfiction @RickiTarr It’s better to have read that poop and rejected it than to idolize it without having ever actually held one of her books in your hand.
Says the guy who read Atlas Shrugged three times and, halfway through the fourth time, put the book in the trash.
@PixelChonk @RickiTarr I'm not proud of this. But I was like 16 and thought I was an intellectual. 
@Tweetfiction @RickiTarr hey, it happens, the desire to be intellectual tends to go away when you develop real intelligence, which is very ironic