this post was submitted on 09 Dec 2025
178 points (98.9% liked)

Ask Lemmy

36068 readers
1131 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions


Rules: (interactive)


1) Be nice and; have funDoxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them


2) All posts must end with a '?'This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?


3) No spamPlease do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.


4) NSFW is okay, within reasonJust remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].


5) This is not a support community.
It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.


6) No US Politics.
Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online


Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.

Partnered Communities:

Tech Support

No Stupid Questions

You Should Know

Reddit

Jokes

Ask Ouija


Logo design credit goes to: tubbadu


founded 2 years ago
MODERATORS
you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] TriangleSpecialist@lemmy.world 17 points 1 week ago (3 children)

Was that helpful or necessary in the end? Or was is such trite that you could have done without?

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 21 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (1 children)

It is extremely babble-minded and not at all worth reading or deconstructing.

I read it in the mindset of your first question.

Turns out, any argument you can think up in 2 seconds against bigotry is going to be more insightful and well-founded than a rebuttal against nascent nazi scribblings.

[–] TriangleSpecialist@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago (1 children)

Well I'll save myself the trouble of being put on some sort of list for reading it then, thanks.

[–] Varyk@sh.itjust.works 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

You got it.

I finished it and was like omigod at least nobody I ever come across with the same morbid curiosity has to read this now.

Only way I can look at reading that book not being a complete waste of time.

[–] FritzApollo@lemmy.today 10 points 1 week ago (1 children)

If nothing else, it's worth it just to see how brain-dead nazism really is. They're not Machiavellian masterminds, they're thugs with an ideology built on brainfarts. Also quoting from the book (in the original German) is a good way to kill a conversation with one of the modern spawn.

[–] comfy@lemmy.ml 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago) (1 children)

Many years ago, I posted about how horribly written it was, and right on cue, a neo-Nazi pipes in asking which translation it was, because apparently all the faithful translations are a Jewish trick, or something...

No reply when I posted the introduction in original German, of course.

[–] FritzApollo@lemmy.today 2 points 6 days ago

Yeah, that's probably the one thing that makes the book almost (ALMOST) worth reading. Using their own tripe against them.

[–] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 6 points 1 week ago (1 children)

I'm guessing it's the same kinda situation as one having to actually read ‘Atlas Shrugged’ to see for themselves that it's a complete turd of a book.

[–] TriangleSpecialist@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago (1 children)

A Friend of mine with similar political inclination keeps telling me I should read it, for the same "know thy enemy" kind of argument.

I just can't bring myself to it, we all get bombarded enough with that shitty ideology, and have to push it back irl constantly, so I'd love to escape it, a bit, in my downtime.

[–] SlurpingPus@lemmy.world 3 points 1 week ago

It does in fact help a little bit, when you see how Rand portrayed the libertarian paradise for which she advocated: where everyone is a genius at the top of their game, and a few dozen of these geniuses build the shiny libertarian utopia. It's juvenile, just like her other literary attempts. The ‘utopia’ wouldn't stand against just a few real-life problems. It's also notable that Rand herself was on social security and Medicaid in her late years.

Furthermore, it's fun to read some of Aleister Crowley, e.g. ‘The Diary of a Drug Fiend’, compare it to Rand's ‘objectivism’, and ponder as to how Crowley was called ‘the most wicked man’ while Rand became the torchbearer of USian unabashed corporatism. At least, Crowley actually could write, had a soul, and was generally a fun man — but he didn't have a Red Scare to ride on.