Meat Puppets

Posted by Herb7734 6 years, 10 months ago to Entertainment
89 comments | Share | Best of... | Flag

Did you ever notice how many of the best actors are idiots when they don't have a script.? I don't mean the actors you never heard of, but top-line people who can really act, like Johnny Depp, Meryl Streep, and Robert DiNiro. Give them a script and you are pretty much guaranteed a good or even excellent performance.However, without a script a garbled, often incomprehensible, bunch of twaddle emanates from their lips.. They remind me of ventriloquist's dummies, only instead of wood and paint, they are made of flesh and blood.They purport to be human --- but are they? I guess Shakespeare had them down some hundreds of years ago, "Full of sound and fury, signifying, nothing."


Add Comment

FORMATTING HELP

All Comments Hide marked as read Mark all as read

  • Posted by mccannon01 6 years, 10 months ago
    Keep the Walt Disney "Pinocchio" movie in mind. Not the part where his nose grows with each lie, but the part where the wood head runs off to be an actor/entertainer, drinks the Kool-Aid, and morphs into a jackass.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 10 months ago
      Yes, the biography of Alex Baldwin. Once a leading man, now a decomposing, corpulent sack of statist propaganda.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 6 years, 10 months ago
        Bo Derek... John Voight... Fred Thompson... John Wayne... Jessica Simpson ... But those people agree with me, so they must be smart...
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by rbroberg 6 years, 10 months ago
          I admit I once tried to destroy Objectivism logically. After a lot of effort, I realized I can only attempt to do so with illogic. But I can't wave my hands fast enough to jump off a building and expect to fly. But.. I'm not a genius. Maybe you are.
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by rbroberg 6 years, 10 months ago
          Since I'm on the topic of celebrity encounters, let me just add Mel Gibson. No, he doesn't belong on your list, but, he was an ass. I met him at an AA meeting in Malibu after his first year off the sauce. In elementary school grades, I gave him a slightly higher mark than he got ranting against minorities in the name of the bloody pulp he called god. Thus, instead of U for Unsatisfactory I give him an N for Needs Improvement.
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 10 months ago
            I'll add a Mickey Rooney encounter. I met him briefly and observed him at length on a cross country flight in his later years. He appeared to be consoling (an apparently distraught) Carol Lynley who was seated with him across the aisle from me. He treated all the airline employees and other passengers cordially with respect and as equals.
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by rbroberg 6 years, 10 months ago
        Pretty sure the moment when it all went downhill for Alec B was when he almost hit me pulling into the Chevron on Gailey Avenue with his white Jag while I was walking from my apartment in Westwood down to the corner Fatburger.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 6 years, 10 months ago
      How long would it take you to memorize Hamlet's seven soliloquies and deliver them as if you actually lived them?

      While I agree that actors can be disappointing in their reflections about their roles, I also grant them their due. The reason why is that I am a writer. I meet a lot of readers who say that they wished they could write.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 10 months ago
        There are few actors who can "memorize Hamlet's seven soliloquies and deliver them as if you actually lived them." To those few, I also "grant them their due", which does not include respecting the actors' irrational spewing statist propaganda. When they do so, they lose any support I would have given their fine efforts on Hamlet and my entertainment budget goes elsewhere.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by mccannon01 6 years, 10 months ago
        Really, Mike? Are you saying if someone can memorize Hamlet and repeat it with proper feeling, then the rest of us are supposed to genuflect with heads down and eyes properly averted and vote according to what that someone tells us and believe every ideological word his/her mouth gushes forth? How about people that can throw basketballs through hoops better than the rest of us? Are we supposed to do as we are told by them as well? I've seen skilled machinists, welders, and computer programmers do some pretty amazing work. So, according to you we should all go along with the wishes of these highly skilled individuals even if they begin, as freedomforall puts it: "irrational spewing statist propaganda" just because they exhibit a skill the rest of us may not have. Really?
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 6 years, 10 months ago
          I am saying that denigrating someone with whom you disagree is not an argument.

          Q; How do you typify the actors who mindlessly mouth conservative doctrine?
          A; You do not typify them because they are deep thinkers.
          https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Posted by mccannon01 6 years, 10 months ago
            "I am saying that denigrating...". Actually, Mike, you didn't say that. If you had, then this conversation would have been different. I'm surprised you, as a writer, missed the humorous metaphor in my invocation of the Pinocchio fairy tale here. Here's a hint for those in Rio Linda: Go to Hollywood, get indoctrinated, morph into a far left wing Democrat (symbol: Jackass), then you just can't help the BS that spews from your lips in public. Viva Pinocchio! LOL!

            Your contrived Q & A is specious with respect to my thoughts regarding some conservative doctrine. It's also an irrelevant deflection. Try again, please.
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by 6 years, 10 months ago
        Mike M:
        They cannot write because they have no more intellect than a mongoose. They have a talent. They instinctively have the ability to turn written words into believable actions and the spoken word. They often have no idea what the say and what it means. Brando couldn't even memorize his lines, having them taped up where the camera couldn't see them but he could.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by NealS 6 years, 10 months ago
    If you look back at some of the videos where there wasn't a lectern in front of him, you'll find out we actually had a president just like that. He could not speak without a script, and sometimes you couldn't even make any sense of what he was stuttering about. It really wasn't that long ago, perhaps you might even remember him..

    Come to think of it, there appears to be a lot of representatives of ours in congress that are just like that too. It's like hiring some poor person to run the economy for the country, we might as well have some real duds representing us too.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ allosaur 6 years, 10 months ago
    Herb, I love that term, "meat puppets."
    Big money actors are only people who are very good at memorizing a script and playing characters.
    It's not surprising that such people becoming household names can swell heads into becoming know-it-alls.
    Those who presume to tell "the little people" how to think should be called "meat puppets" to their faces.
    "Is that a fact, Mr. Baldwin? By the way, congratulations for your latest meat puppet award. What's a meat puppet?
    Oh, I'm merely referring to your expertise. Mr. Baldwin, your expertise. Something you actually know about."
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 6 years, 10 months ago
      We all inherit the work of others. Some of us add our own efforts, our original contributions. Mostly, however, we all tend to be successful to the extent that we can memorize the works of others... Like how to drive a car, write a sentence, or bake a cake.
      https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 10 months ago
        Some of us use the things we have learned productively, ethically, and rationally. The actors being discussed use what they have learned and their fame to advance a statist regime, a system that represses individual liberty and free markets in favor of looting from the productive. Yet you defend this activity and repeatedly imply that others here are lesser beings for speaking out against the acts of such people.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 6 years, 10 months ago
          I am saying that arguing politics is one thing, dehumanizing those with whom you disagree is another thing; and is wrong. If liberal actors are meat puppets, what are conservative actors? By their nature, I guess that we would have to say that like liberals, they do not really understand what they are saying. It just feels good to them. List of conservative actresses here:
          http://www.imdb.com/list/ls070951126/
          Why are they not meat puppets?

          Lest you miss my point: the conservatives are not meat puppets; and neither are the liberals. They may not be the deep analytical thinkers that you and I are. You can criticize their politics if you wish. After all, conservatism is shot through with errors. But their political opinions are independent of their other marketable skills.
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 10 months ago
            Agreed, there is no need for dehumanizing labels. If only all the actors also agreed.
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
            • Posted by Maritimus 6 years, 10 months ago
              If you guys don't mind, I would like to add a different perspective to this discussion about actors and films.
              Let me start with what I consider an axiom: to write exceptionally well, you need, first of all, to be able to think exceptionally well.
              Films are written by screenplay writers, directed by directors, shot by cinematographers and performed by acting individuals (how is that for avoiding gender preferences? ;-) ).
              The talented actors and actresses provide beautiful faces, strong and sexy bodies and recite the text, adding facial expressions and body language, mainly guided by the director. Therefore, mostly, they enunciate other people's thoughts and expressions. But, because they are the faces of the film, they get to be admired by the mass audiences much more than the fundamental creators of the films.
              The smart actors absorb better the directors' guidance because they understand it better. But, that does not make them very deep thinkers.
              When an actor becomes a director, it shows as a benefit at both ends. One example that crosses my mind is Clint Eastwood. He directed better because he was an actor and acted better because he was a director.
              I think that this leads to the conclusion that one should not expect from people with appealing looks and good memory, famous and wealthy because their films sell a lot of tickets, any deep understanding of life, philosophical, economic or political issues. After all they are experts in blabbing what others have told them.
              Just my opinion.
              Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by 6 years, 10 months ago
          What annoys me about the M.P. is that there are persons, beguiled by their popularity and fame, actually follow these moronic speakers as if anything they say purports to be valuable.
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 6 years, 10 months ago
      Yes, I agree see my comments below (
      https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post... ) but how is your acting. I heard an interview with Jim Parsons ("Sheldon Cooper") is also apparently not that smart, but one thing he said about acting and in particular Tom Lehrer's "Elements" song - which I also have Daniel Radcliffe ("Harry Potter") performing - was "I love memorizing." Memorizing is a skill.

      I do a lot of public presentations, though lately, only three or four times a year. Earning a Toastmaster's certificate, I learned that there is nothing wrong with holding your holds or looking down at them. Just don't read them. And I don't. But I do use them. Memorizing is hard work. You get good at it. We do alot of it just "naturally" every day. But actors learn long passages. And they do not just recite them, they live them -- for your entertainment.

      BTW:
      https://www.galtsgulchonline.com/post...
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ AJAshinoff 6 years, 10 months ago
    I think Depp said it best when he said he's paid to lie. Harrison ford is quite the dim bulb without a script.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 6 years, 10 months ago
      Harrison Ford was a carpenter on set when he began earning roles.

      John Wayne was a grip. I believe that it was young John Ford who liked his graceful moves and put him in a cowboy movie because he looked good. John Wayne was a patriot who spoke well for America. But he did not write his lines. He read the lines written for him by his friend, one of the screen writers. (Sorry, going through IMDB has not helped... didn't memorize that answer...) If you read his political opinions he was very traditional and unarguably American, but not at all sophisticated in his analysis.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by vadtom63 6 years, 10 months ago
    These Hollywood folks seem to be so smug that they think people care about their opinion. One is free to speak about their opinion. The problem is others may refuse to watch their films after such comments. I'm essentially boycotting most of the hollywood movies that release lately.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ Olduglycarl 6 years, 10 months ago
    Think maybe they never attained a mind?
    Perhaps having to always follow a script and in order to be good at it they need to have a fluid identity...always someone else's identity and never their own. In short, perhaps they've become automatons...just following the program.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by DrZarkov99 6 years, 10 months ago
    I find that the Hollywood method actors are all this way, but the Shakespearean actors like Kenneth Brannagh can at least carry on a coherent conversation. That doesn't say they don't often spout the same ridiculous liberal talking points as the doofuses, but they sound so much better at it.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by rbroberg 6 years, 10 months ago
    Actors are addicted to drama. Drama needs a hero and a villain and the hero has to be an "underdog" and also of moral righteousness. But what we don't recognize is that actors, as addicts, replace morality with drama. Notice that screenplays are more and more about anti-heroes. Easier to re-define morality than to give up the sweet sensation of winning the day with nothing to go on but a dime and a smile or... millions and Das Capital.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by Dobrien 6 years, 10 months ago
    I saw this band in 1994 in Lawrence Ks
    Meat Puppets is an American rock band formed in January 1980 in Phoenix, Arizona. The group's original lineup was Curt Kirkwood, his brother Cris Kirkwood, and Derrick Bostrom. Wikipedia
    Members: Curt Kirkwood, Cris Kirkwood, Derrick Bostrom, More
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by $ allosaur 6 years, 10 months ago
      Me dino being me dino just had to look them up. This appears to be the most amusing YouTube video of others I much more briefly checked out~
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQelG...
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by Dobrien 6 years, 10 months ago
        The band and music was not so great but the venue was called the garage. I was with one of my brothers and a couple of my sisters. We still had a fun night.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by $ allosaur 6 years, 10 months ago
          I didn't think their music was all that great either and that link I provided was to the best one I heard.
          Must say I've heard that song on the radio before.
          So I'm wondering if it was their song I heard or was I hearing somebody else.
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Posted by Dobrien 6 years, 10 months ago
            Very acute ear my Dino friend
            They were covering Nirvana's
            Hit.
            They lyrics are some what fitting for this post though.

            "Here we are now, entertainers
            I feel stupid and contagious
            Here we are now, entertainers"
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
            • Posted by $ allosaur 6 years, 10 months ago
              Me dino LOL when I read that but went on another hunt right after I did that. Nirvana sings/plays that hit of theirs better.
              I generally listen to rock when Rush or someone similar goes to commercial. Old dino is not all that sharp on the bands anymore.
              https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTWKb... .
              Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
              • Posted by Dobrien 6 years, 10 months ago
                I collected a poster of the meat puppets that night way back and hoped they would be a big hit so the poster would become valuable, No such luck.
                A poster of Nirvanna from back in the day is valuable.
                Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                • Posted by $ allosaur 6 years, 10 months ago
                  Don't feel bad.
                  I had the first issue of Spiderman, The Hulk, Iron Man, Ant Man, Sgt. Fury and His Howling Commandos, Dr. Strange, X-Men, Creepy, Eerie, Vamperilla, the only four issues of a failed Blazing Combat and where did they all and more first issues go?
                  Guess.
                  I suddenly recall when I first started to work the back gate tower. I got on the hand radio and announced that "the garbage truck is here."
                  My angry shift commander phoned to tell me that I was never to say garbage truck again. From now on I was to always say "sanitation services."
                  For the rest of the shift when unheard in that tower I was nasally intoning "sanitation services" with a British accent.
                  "Oih say, sanutaaachun services hauve arrived!"
                  "By Jove, it''s saunnityution services time!"
                  "Oh, sun-you-teh-shun services sounds so much squeaky cleaner than some ole' actual dirty--ugh! yuck!--garrbage truck!"
                  "Phony for stupid public radio relations is wot this sanyoiutaytion services be all about by golly!
                  Hey, blokes! If oih don't say sunutaytion services, I'll be in for a spot of bother, I would."
                  Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                  • Posted by Dobrien 6 years, 10 months ago
                    Laughing .As one who can obviously handle more than two tasks at the same time , entertaining oneself while doing a potentially monotonous task
                    Could help you stay alert.
                    It reminds me of a tv show" Mel's matinee theater"
                    Mel would take a certain caller say the fifth who would answer some type of question for $25 .
                    It was almost always a house wife and Mel would ask "what does your husband due? A local joke was that one woman answered that her husband was a garbage truck driver. No matter what any woman answered Mel would say "he's got a good job" this woman answered "the hell he does".
                    Mel Jazz was lost for words at that point and they cut to a commercial.

                    Ouch.....
                    A copy of Amazing Fantasy #15, the first appearance of Marvel Comics' web-crawling super-hero from 1963, has sold for $1.1 million in auction, beating Detective Comics #27, Batman's first appearance from 1939, to become the second most expensive comic ever sold (Suitably, Superman's first appearance in 1938's Action ...Mar 9, 2011
                    Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                    • Posted by $ allosaur 6 years, 10 months ago
                      Can't recall Mel Jazz save for his voice sounding kinda familiar. Just looked him up and noticed that he did his thing in your home state.
                      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                      • Posted by Dobrien 6 years, 10 months ago
                        Yes I should have mentioned that. I worked with his son in the late seventies.
                        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                        • Posted by $ allosaur 6 years, 10 months ago
                          Would that work be what you do now? The nosy inquiring sniffs of a dino's mind wants to know.
                          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                          • Posted by Dobrien 6 years, 10 months ago
                            No sir. My dad was a Chevy Cadillac dealer
                            He sent me to get trained in at a larger dealer
                            Tom was a salesman . He moved to California
                            And was about 40 at the time married with a family I was 18 . A friend went with me and we stayed in Tom's home in Rancho Bernardo as I scoped out the lay of the land. I then moved to Dana Point and had roommates including my 30 yr old cousin, on St. Patrick's day my girl friend and now wife of 38 years came out we got an apartment in Huntington Beach soon we married
                            Had our first child and we moved back to Minn.
                            Sadly I did not keep in touch with Tom.
                            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                            • Posted by 6 years, 10 months ago
                              Rancho Bernardo? Isn't that a very ritzy area north of San Diego? I think I was stopped by the pseudo police while cruising around there looking at the Million $ homes.He asked to see my I.D. I asked to see his. Impasse.I left with the comment that I wanted to see the high-priced slums of San Diego.
                              Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
                              • Posted by Dobrien 6 years, 10 months ago
                                Yes all homes by ordinance requiring
                                Certain ascetics (roof color) style so on
                                This wide eyed 21yr old remembered.
                                It was 1978 New Year's Eve.
                                At the time it was about 45 min drive
                                N of San Diego. Kind of this new suburb built
                                Out in the middle of rolling rocky hills.
                                The real estate value has increased so much from back then.. Not worth it .
                                Life has been so much easier
                                In Minn Than to live in that heat and looney lib land.
                                Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by Dobrien 6 years, 10 months ago
    Actors or actresses are more likely to start when young than old and young is defined as teens and 20’s. many of the stars are people who literally grew up in the business. Their parents were in the business in someway .So the typical star is someone who has had little exposure to the world outside acting. Those who left home and went to Hollywood to become stars as young adults have No understanding of the normal world. They talk about America as if it is a foreign country to them. In reality it is a foreign country. How much does Meryl Streep know about America at this stage of her life? She has been coddled by handlers.
    Are performers stupid? The safest answer is yes, they are very stupid. Being obnoxious or different helps the long odds of being a performer some how they need to be noticed to stand out. Being stupid lets these people avoid thinking about the moral dilemmas that are inevitable in the business. The stars are so divorced from reality that they can no longer apply their intelligence to the normal world as it has become a foreign place for them. This means that most of the stars are both stupid and ignorant, that is why they so often sound like entittled fools when speaking With out a script.
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 10 months ago
      I'd be more inclined to label many good actors as "acting savants" since they show little ability to think rationally. Poor things are thrust into the spotlight before they have any experience, and most have been continually pummeled by statist propaganda, and they have sought no training in thinking rationally. They must be the victims. Too bad they are so confused about the parasitic socialist system feeding on them and all the other so-called victims.
      The solution, of course, is to stop paying for their propaganda disguised as entertainment.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by bspielb 6 years, 10 months ago
        That is all movies and the actors have become. Propaganda to push the ideas of leftists. Ideas like free love, confused sexuality and amoral actions as being ok in a normal society. Ideas that eventually brought down the previous great republics like Greece and Rome. Keeping your children away from that balderdash is the only way to make sure the next generation has the intelligence and moral fiber to say no, to all of it, and save this great nation.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 6 years, 10 months ago
        Try to find a libertarian or an Objectivist at a Mensa meeting. People come in all shapes and sizes. Of course successful actors are "acting savants." Sorry that I do not remember the name of the medical savant, (not having the memorization skills of a professional actor) but as a child, he opened a frog to see its heart, then sewed it up and it lived out its life.

        I have a cousin who was an "automotive savant." He grew up to make custom parts for dragsters while working for Ford Motor Company. He was really good at building models. I was not. I never got around to asking my cousin which statist propaganda he endorsed, or if he still considered himself a Catholic.

        How about you and the works of Ayn Rand? Do you have any critical analysis of her theory of epistemology?
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by $ CBJ 6 years, 10 months ago
          I've encountered other libertarians at Mensa meetings. Not many, but at least in proportion to those in the general population. Most people (Mensans included) do not fully apply their logic capabilities to the areas of philosophy or politics.
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 6 years, 10 months ago
      The fact that acting is a hereditary occupation is not surprising. Over the long course of history, it has been the case that we follow the paths of our parents. (Being sold to a master craftsman was a path to upward mobility for a serf's child.) I had a criminology professor who wrung his hands over this, while at the same time his daughter was on a fast track to a Ph.D. in criminology.

      It was not the rule in America while America was expanding under capitalism. That was a "brief shining moment."

      Even in the American military, enlisteds salute officers who salute higher officers though enlisted do not salute each other (usually). You must be painfully aware of the British society that we inherited in which officers were gentlemen -- who as children did not button their own clothes and hence as adults needed orderlies.

      The Marxists were not wholly wrong about class, comrade.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
  • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 6 years, 10 months ago
    Yes, actors are successful at repeating the lines written for them by other people. There are some exceptions, of course, but generally, the craft does not lend itself to original thinking. We just watched Imitation Game again and the comments by the actors were vacuous. Clearly none of them had read anything by Turing, but read or were told about him. But so what?

    Q: What's the difference between God and a surgeon?
    A: God knows that He is not a surgeon.

    What's the difference between a frog in a taxi and a trombone player in a taxi?
    The frog is probably on his way to a gig.

    And so on...

    Obviously, you think that you are pretty smart, but how is your acting?
    Reply | Mark as read | Best of... | Permalink  
    • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 10 months ago
      Sounds like that description could be applied to many successful politicians, too.
      Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
      • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 6 years, 10 months ago
        Objectivists memorize the words of Ayn Rand and then repeat them with emotional meaning. They are not people who independently developed objectivish philosophies. "I have always believed that," they say. And they did. But did they publish any of it? No. They did not have the clarity of thought, the intellectual focus for the effort, or the willingness to stay on track for years and decades.
        Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
        • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 10 months ago
          And your point?
          Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
          • Posted by $ MikeMarotta 6 years, 10 months ago
            My point is that most people "memorize the lines" given to them by others. It does not make them "meat puppets." It is pretty easy here in the Gulch to know who has read Atlas and who just watched the movies. You can tell who read more than one Ayn Rand book more than one time and who just parrots the lines. But that is true of most things in life. If you disagree with Alec Baldwin's views on global warming, fine, take that up and discuss it.
            Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
            • Posted by freedomforall 6 years, 10 months ago
              "My point is that most people "memorize the lines" given to them by others."
              Most people do not use their access to the media to foist irrational theories on others or to manipulate others into supporting failed economic and political systems, and unconstitutional infringements on rights. The actors and politicians that I criticize do this. Comparing their activity to objectivists reciting quotes from Atlas Shrugged is foolishness.
              "If you disagree with Alec Baldwin's views on global warming"
              Already posted frequently.
              .
              Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  
              • Posted by 6 years, 10 months ago
                The whole object of this post is to illuminate the foolishness of following the somewhat incoherent expressions of persons who never had an original thought and if by some miracle they did manage one could not express it in a way that made sense.They are listened to only because of a notoriety the doesn't even pertain to the subject they are bloviating about.
                Reply | Mark as read | Parent | Best of... | Permalink  

FORMATTING HELP

  • Comment hidden. Undo