# Shall we Pit Condescending Robot? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [November 25, 2012, 10:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shall-we-pit-condescending-robot/642053 "2012-11-25T10:44:42Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 7
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [November 25, 2012, 3:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shall-we-pit-condescending-robot/642053/7 "2012-11-25T15:09:01Z")
Since (in the other BBQ Pit thread) the Robot based his entire flatulence against me on the chronological fact that Obama was an Illinois Senator when I implied he was a U.S. Senator from Illinois, it may amuse to learn how unaware Robot was, as late as 2012, of the influence of Ayn Rand on such American leaders as [Alan Greenspan](http://www.noblesoul.com/orc/bio/turbulence.html) and Paul Ryan: > [@Ayn Rand - liberal or conservative?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ayn-rand-liberal-or-conservative/609639/37): > > By the way, the vitriol and the stupid “sociopath” comments just make me want to recap what I think the obsession with Ayn Rand by, not the right, but the left, is all about… > > Ayn Rand is not a significant figure in American politics… > But responding to any suggestion of lowering taxes or reducing government control of anything with “oh, you must be one of those Ayn Rand followers. What a sociopathic cunt she was! Haha I bet she had sand in her vagina!” is really, really easy. Reducing any slightly pro-market argument to this boogeyman of Objectivism and then attacking some person who has been dead for thirty years with childish insults is really, really easy. Why learn anything about the particulars of the Wisconsin public employees union situation when you can just continually discuss someone who wrote a bad novel in 1957? > > So, having the ghost of Ayn Rand around is great for the left. Since she has nearly no followers, it’s basically a wash for the right–they’re more interested in beating their gay children with Bibles than propping open the door with Atlas Shrugged. Without this straw man, it would be a lot more difficult to be a left-winger on the Internet, because people would have to engage with the actual ideas and policies being proposed instead of reducing everything to “exactly what the Democrats proposed v. Mad Max like anarcho-capitalist wasteland.” This gibberish is contemptibly – dare I say it 🆒 – condescending. Here’s another post demonstrating that the Robot’s username is well-chosen: > [@Why does religion hate gays?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-does-religion-hate-gays/610161/28): > > Because the whole point of being religious is to act like an asshole and then pretend you’re the victim when called out on it. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/shall-we-pit-condescending-robot/642053)._