Ayn Rand devotee Paul Ryan (R-WI) was unable to watch House of Cards after fictional character Frank Underwood cheated on his wife Claire with a reporter named Zoe Barnes, he told Parade.
The takeaway via Andy Abrahams at Parade:
Do you watch political shows like House of Cards?
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I watched the first couple of episodes until he cheated on his wife with that reporter. It turned my stomach so much that I just couldn’t watch it anymore. His behavior was so reprehensible, and it hit too close to home because he was a House member, that it just bothered me too much. And what I thought is, it makes us all look like we’re like that.
Bad Frank. Next he’ll be starving little children.
For a guy who believes in a fictional character’s monetary policy as espoused within a work of fiction written for frenzied, adult-hating adolescents, this is a bizarre stance. Ryan willingly suspends his disbelief for his monetary policy, but rejects a realistic element of a TV show?
In 2005, Paul Ryan explained to the Atlas Society that he relies upon Ayn Rand’s novel “Atlas Shrugged” as inspiration for his views on monetary policy:
I always go back to, you know, Francisco d’Anconia’s speech, at Bill Taggart’s wedding, on money when I think about monetary policy. Then I go to the 64-page John Galt speech, you know, on the radio at the end, and go back to a lot of other things that she did, to try and make sure that I can check my premises.
In case it’s been a while since you a) read the book or b) heard a Republican secretly taped, Francisco d’Anconia’s speech involved a rant about moochers and looters, “It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money.” And by “moochers”, Republicans don’t mean the actual moochers of corporations and the very wealthy who don’t pay taxes but take handouts from the taxpayers. No, they mean the “looters”. Catching what I’m throwing down? Looters. No, not bankers Too Big To Fail who are looting Americans’ savings. No, the LOOTERS.
Let Ryan explain.
On March 12th, Ryan explained that it’s those men in the inner cities who don’t even think about working who cause poverty, “We have got this tailspin of culture, in our inner cities in particular, of men not working and just generations of men not even thinking about working or learning the value and the culture of work, and so there is a real culture problem here that has to be dealt with…you need to get involved, you need to get involved yourself, whether through a good mentor program or some religious charity, whatever it is to make a difference. And that’s how we resuscitate our culture.”
Don’t you feel better about his “immoral” budget now? I mean, LOOTERS and LAZY PEOPLE. It’s okay to starve them. Turn off your heart and just believe, already. Ignore that Ayn Rand wrote fiction. Just believe.
Paul Ryan is able to justify the fantastic in Ayn Rand’s fiction — suspending disbelief — and in fact, treats it as if it’s real. Fictional cheating is bad, because it taints the voters’ perception of reality. And yet, fictional monetary policy as espoused by Ayn Rand is good because it taints the voters’ perception of reality a convenient way.
This might help understand the modern day Republican problem: Much fiction in political beliefs is good! Fiction exemplifying reality is bad. In summation, reality is bad.
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