I’d say “Cool band name” but I don’t want to think who would show up to the show…

If there is one thing I would like to instill in the American public, it’s the notion that you need to experience art you hate. When “people” say something is morally wrong to see or read, you should be curious about it. When you are offended by arts, it should be taken as an opportunity to figure out why, and what to do about it. When you are bored by art, you should, at the very least, make a mental note that you’re leaving a gap in your knowledge when you zone out. We don’t need to live in offensive spaces all the time–but we need to be less afraid of them. We don’t need to take it as a trauma to endure art that does not immediately speak to the things we already know. Because that isn’t what art is for.

I’m realizing it only takes one small gap in your knowledge to prevent you from seeing the truth of a thing.

It starts with this: Jordan Peterson’s favorite book is The Gulag Archipelago. This is a book I haven’t read, but I’m aware of it: It details the horrors of the camps in Stalinist Russia. That is the extent of my knowledge about this book or it’s author, Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn (whose name I just copied and pasted because I can’t remember it).

So I took it at face value that this was a signal that he opposes totalitarianism. Now, of course it’s quite obvious that any stance he takes is all ultimately meant to lead you to embracing Christianity…

But if I’d known anything about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, then I would have understood that it’s deeper and worse than that.

We have a tendency on the left to lump all of the right together: Jordan Peterson is with the fascists, we assume, so he that means he’s with the tech lords, and they’re all libertarians, and all of them worship the free market, and they want all just want to be kings, and they’re all out for themselves, and worship their libertarian queen, Ayn Rand–

But here’s an interesting thing. Do you know who fucking hated Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn? Ayn Rand.

Why? They were both against the communist regime, right? They both wrote books warning about what happens under communism, right?

This is what Ayn Rand says about Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

Her description of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn sounds exactly like the neo-reactionary right in America today, with their obsession with cathedrals and monarchy and orthodox religion.

This is how Wikipedia describes Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn.

And this section brings us close to the present day.

“Solzhenitsyn became a supporter of Vladimir Putin, who said he shared Solzhenitsyn’s critical view toward the Russian Revolution.”

Why should I care what Ayn Rand thought?

I want you to get American domestic politics entirely out of your head while we discuss this. The first thing to know about Ayn Rand is that her philosophy is a reaction to a totalitarian state. In, say, the 90’s, her philosophy seemed hysterical and paranoid to an American. In 2026, we need to look at it again–and forgive the word–but we need to do it objectively.

So that background means this: First and foremost, Ayn Rand is anti-fascist. And all other points in her philosophy stem from that. And of course, we are free to agree or disagree with her philosophy for how to achieve a free society. But that’s her starting line: The people will not be controlled by a centralized state. That’s what she stands for.

We have to bear this in mind in regards to definitions of words like “Selfish” and “Altruistic” in the Ayn Rand lexicon. Because her definitions of these words are reacting to authoritarian definitions of these words. If the state says you are selfish for not sacrificing your personal humanity for the (supposed) common good, then Ayn Rand embraces selfishness. If the state says it is altruistic to commit suicide for a cause you don’t believe in, then she rejects altruism.

There is a bit of shock jockery about her, but these are pretty basic American values: That each person has the absolute right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

To Russia: Ayn Rand represents the west and American ideals. She doesn’t have to represent that to you. But you need to know that she represents that to Russia.

I read Ayn Rand for the first time in high school. I was in a Robert Sean Leonard Fan Club online (ha), and I would go to the library to use the computer and swing by that site to talk about his movies. Yes I did.

And on that site, there was a man who had a book on tape of RSL reading “The Secret History” by Donna Tartt. It was out of print, and he agreed to make me a copy of his and mail it to me. He sent Atlas Shrugged along with it.

I hated it. I threw it across the room at one point, I hated it so much. And then I read The Fountainhead and hated that. And then I read We The Living and hated that.

And then a couple of years ago, I reread Atlas Shrugged. And in the new context of the 2020’s, I understood her point of view. (Don’t worry–I still believe in a mixed economy and all that. But I do believe the rights of the individual are the bedrock for anything else–any other social programs or public good we could build. )

However I’ve felt about Ayn Rand in different times in my life, I’ve always felt like the people who talk about her read entirely different books than I did–whether they were speaking of her glowingly or with vitriol. Everyone seemed to agree that she advocated for doing whatever the hell you want no matter how awful for the world. And I didn’t get that as my takeaway from her at all. She seemed to be advocating for integrity at every step of life. My issue with her was and still is that I think she deeply underestimates how demonized and demoralized and lacking in mobility the poor in America are made to be–her affection for American freedom gave her some blind spots.

But it’s also not up to her to hold the entire truth of the world. But she does hold a piece of truth. And that piece comes into play when on the left we have socialists and on the right we have theocratic monarchists–all of whom advocate for centralized control.

And the truth she held that we have to pay attention to now is this: That whenever someone is asking you to oppress or kill yourself, they will always say it is for the common good. That is not a good enough reason to give up personal freedom, autonomy and ownership. Because to be asked to give that up, is tyranny–whether they tell you it’s for the good of the state or the good of God.

I believe the social censorship of Ayn Rand (how many of you cringed at the title, and cringed reading this, waiting for the part where I say I want to get rid of the department of education and we should kick the poor?) is part of the ongoing Russian propaganda campaign.

And so is Jordan Peterson’s existence–spreading and mainstreaming the gospel as Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn sees it.

As Curtis Yarvin Sees it.

As Vladimir Putin–the “not-quite-communist-communist”–sees it.

Russia’s foreign policy has always been the same in any time or place: Centralized, authoritarian control, and a perpetual wartime mentality. They believe that if you are not expanding, you are dying (and you thought that was a strictly capitalist attitude). That’s true when they’re tsarist, that’s true when they’re communist, that’s true in the current Russian oligarchy. In that way, they are ever-true to themselves.

And they have infiltrated America from top to bottom. From our government, to our culture, to all of the helpful idiots below, who now cannot even COMPREHEND the idea of land ownership, or that it is possible.

I mentioned on Mastadon that I think the absolute best way to fortify democracy while saving the poor is to distribute land to every American. You’ve heard me say this before–I won’t go into it. And do you know what someone responded?

“If everyone owns land, won’t that become a competitive, capitalistic hellscape?”

also

“I don’t understand how everyone having land would help anything. Money assistance is more important.”

Land is a real asset. Money is not real, and its meaning turns to dust when it isn’t circulating. America is now in a place where people believe owning your own land/home is immoral, and unimportant.

That is America subverted–and absolutely ripe for a totalitarian takeover by, specifically, Russia.

You don’t have to adopt everything Ayn Rand says–I certainly don’t. But in these desperate times, perhaps we can use some of her radical shock jockery to bring us back to anti-fascism. We must give ourselves permission to trust our own minds, and move towards our own goals, and not be told how we must give of ourselves.

Because totalitarians will make you give it all for altruism. And when the benefits you receive are not enough, they will call you selfish for wanting more.

There can be no collective action that is not coercive UNTIL: Every person has the capacity to own themselves, their lives, their homes and can opt out of the collective. Or else, collective benefit inevitably becomes collective oppression, used as stick and carrot to make you behave and perform as your oppressor wants you to.

Give Ayn Rand a read. Don’t give Jordan Peterson points for rejecting her. Look critically at people “held up as liberators.” Trust that you have the capacity to take what you need from a text and leave behind what you don’t. Don’t be afraid of books. Don’t be afraid of yourself. Don’t be afraid.

And, for your further interest, if you like, this is a speech Ayn Rand gave with a question and answer period at the end (just as interesting) that shows the real world application of her philosophy as it regards the Vietnam War. I’m sharing it here because 1. I think it gives a better representation of her philosophy in a real world sense, so you can get it from the horse’s mouth, and 2. It makes apparent the through lines of the cold war, and you can see the parallels to today. 3. Because I think people would be surprised at how many hippy ideas she arrives at in spite of what we’ve been told about her (She’s not a “feminist” but she supports abortion rights, for example. She’s supposed to hate the poor, but she argues against the draft, citing that forced labor is too cheap, and a volunteer army is payed more–and it should be paid).

I am NOT sharing it because I need you to agree with her philosophy, or even because I do. I’m sharing it because it is absolutely imperative in this time and place to understand it.

There are the Russian defectors who believe that the Soviet Union’s problem was a lack of God. And there are Russian defectors who believe the Soveiet Union’s problem was a lack of freedom. And there are the people who long to go back to the Soveit Union.

This is what defines our left and right now, too. Because our politics have been taken over by Russian infiltrators, and so our politics are now framed around Russian ideas for the future, not America’s. On the right, we have the neo-reactionaries, who want a centralized theocratic monarchy, a la Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn. Jordan Peterson, The Heritage Foundation, the white nationalist militias. On the left, you have the socialists, like Bernie Sanders, who want to nationalize tech and have our livelihoods determined by its success. He doesn’t seem so detrimental, but he isn’t here to get people on board with theocratic monarchy. He’s only here to get people to support a centralized system. Once they do, they are easily taken over by the theocratic monarchy.

The person who reacted against these ideals, and comes down hard on the side of America and individual rights, is Ayn Rand. She is what it looks like to run kicking and screaming away from totalitarian control.

And, dare I say it: She’s not evil. In fact, in the most important way, she’s woke. “Smiling faces, smiling faces sometimes–they don’t tell the truth. Smiling faces, smiling faces tell lies–and I’ve got proof.” That’s all being woke means, really. It means “Beware of the handshake that hides the snake.”

All of us , climbing all over each other to be the most woke, the most aware, the least fooled–but we can’t comprehend that evil can hide behind the idea of a “collective good.”

But it’s time to wrap our heads around it. Left or right, these collective groups advocate for a better, utopian society where you will belong! Ayn Rand reminds us, harshly, that Utopia is a lie, this life is all we have, and the antidote to totalitarian submission is believing in yourself and your own capacity.

Disagree about the details all you want. But we must grab hold of that idea, and refuse to let it go.