John Stossel (25.06.2021)
Atlas Shrugged was published more than 60 years ago. The novel still sells 100,000 copies a year.
Ayn Rand is someone people love to hate. Years after her death, people still feel compelled to attack her ideas.
A recent John Oliver segment said her philosophy, objectivism, “is just a nice way of saying ‘being a selfish asshole.’”
Fortunately, not all people think that way. Many young people, discovering Rand for the first time, say that her ideas inspire them.
Charlie Kirk, founder of Turning Point USA, a free market advocacy group that promotes Atlas on college campuses, says “it’s surprising how much appetite there is” for Rand’s ideas. When Stossel challenged him, saying, “no, college students are Socialists!” Kirk responds, “They’re not Socialists… 60% say they think Socialism is a good idea and then 70% say they don’t want to pay higher taxes and they don’t trust the government. They just don’t understand what Socialism really is.”