RevJay4, I think the mantra may need changing from "Follow the Money" to "Follow the Power and Control," and I think both the Left and Right extremists might be demonstrating a bit of fear of losing power and control as more and more voters sign up as "non-affiliated" or 'independent.'

We should be so lucky... :)

Exactly :)

Not true. The Democrats are the worst for changing the subject and attacking the person. They do it all the time. I have never seen a Democrat speak when he was not doing it. This is because they have no argument to defend the socialistic things they advocate while they exploit the stupid, ignorant and gullible segments of the population.

I keep vacillating between "do not know how to think" and "have chosen not to think and, instead, are acting on their gut instincts"

Starting somewhere includes Breaking Out of The Gulch and refuting the claims made by the proponents of these videos and other pablum-puking garbage. You and I will not convince the individual that we are debating -- their mind, or what they have of a mind, is already calcified. Instead, we are reaching the hundreds (and possibly thousands) of individuals that read the back-and-forth point / counterpoint arguments in these sundry online exchanges. It is the quiet reader that has not yet "made up their mind" that we are attempting to reach.

Indeed -- and that is why it is so difficult to have a conversation with a modern liberal. I have been told that "I hate President Obama because he is black." To which I reply, "I no more hate Obama because he is black than you hate Sarah Palin because she is white." These folks simply do not know how to think.

The problem is we do a poorer job than guys like this in representing the idiocy in socialism.
"Where is the I want freedom vs I am irresponsible"
or "I deserve free stuff vs you should work harder to support me"
or inefficiency in the US vs socialism in the US.

OMG, they do it all the time. I notice it more b/c I disagree with Republicans more, so it stands out more, but I'm confident they all do it. Logical fallacies and politics go together.

You are not paying attention. Democrats do it all the time. A few bad apple Republicans may do it but I have yet so see one in action.

1. ad hominem.
2. poisoning the well
3. tu quoque
4. [Does anyone know if there's a name for attacking the style instead of substance?]
Politics is all about it. It's not like people from one party do it more than others.

The video is a classic example of the fallacy of changing the subject and attacking the person. 1. The persons character is attacked. 2. The persons circumstances are noted. 3. The person does not practice what is preached. 4. The manner in which an argument (or arguer) is presented is felt to affect the truth of the conclusion.
Democrats use it all the time.

Rand realized long ago that it was and is all about control. Under most Capitalistic Systems you control your property, your work and your product.
Suffering from Government Socialism or just plain socialism in any of its forms, is about them controlling you, an oligarchy, in other words.

Well...we could find a philosopher who is a great writer who inspires millions on the left whose work endures despite moronic satire and make a film about him/her. Wait -- there isn't such a person. Well, I guess we'll just have to abide.

Atlas Shrugged "The book sold 445,000 copies in 2011." according to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Shru.... that would make Eud correct and you wrong!

Greetings Friends,
If any of you are youtube subscribers (I am not) perhaps you would be willing to post the following link on the page?
http://www.aynrandmyths.com/
I believe Mr. DeSapio provided it for us not long ago and it would go a long way to discredit many of the unwarranted attacks.
Respectfully,
O.A.

The Simpson's also took a swipe at Ayn Rand
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y9xiddbf...

Or worse, you have persons like John McCain that is happy to see that Rand Paul is becoming 'more centrist'. The likes of McCain give a bad name to the conservatives. And then you have Mitch McConnel who despises the Tea Party and wants to destroy the groups that fight to stop the descent into socialism. The problem is not ISIS, or Iran or hezbollah, hamas or russia or china , the problem is within, is with the political establishment that basically is self serving, and amoral, we all know harry reid and pelosi, they are just the people that need to be fought, but first you need to get rid of the Mccains and McConnels, and is a long process because you have to form the leaders, the thinkers, and convince the creators that they should stop supporting the destroyers, just like Ayn Rand did through Howard Roark and John Galt.

Is it ironic or inevitable? ...that one of the greatest advocates for rational thought always attracts the most irrational critics.

P.S. -- It needs to be said that not every question has a right and wrong answer. Sometimes more than one answer is right; for example, should I eat an apple or an orange? Neither is "evil". And not every choice necessarily contains an evil component. Too many people fall into the trap of exclusionary judgment. The Universe is not that malevolent. :)

I caught a snippet of a democratic position speech on the radio yesterday, and the speaker mentioned something from Atlas Shrugged by "Ann" Rand, that there are two sides to every question, where one side is right and the other wrong, but where the point between is always evil. His point was the Democrats know how to compromise to get at the best answer. He missed completely her meaning, that in a compromise with evil, only evil will win.

I had to laugh, because if even a democratic stump speech feels a need to talk about her and her philosophy, if only to try to put her down, she's gotten under their skin. And a few listeners may even have gotten the right message.

Good point! And like it or not, we will always
have those "extremist conservatives" amongst
us.

That really was a stupid piece of work. Thats all I can say. Even if the subject was Obama, I would say the same. It was just stupid.