Yeah, that's the norm here, sadly. You can post a list of 20 books and if one of them is by Rand, your post will be down-voted into oblivion. It's almost like some people have this Pavlovian reaction when they see Rand's name.
I mean, I get that not everyone appreciates her works, and that's fine and totally understandable. "Different strokes" and all that. But the zeal with which her haters go on the attack is a bit strange.
2. Rand makes some points that some people need to learn, even if I don't buy her whole worldview.
Exactly. This is the same reason that I have copies of Mein Kampf, The Communist Manifesto and Mao's Little Red Book on my shelf waiting to be read. I don't have to agree with a work to find benefit in reading it. Quite the opposite... I believe that if I'm going to argue against something, I should probably have a reasonable understanding of it. And I prefer to go to primary sources than rely on secondhand commentary.
I suspect a lot of dogmatic texts are the same way. Rand is at least not a total drag to read even though I find a lot of her ideas hilarious (chief of which is: the very ethical, honest, and hard working rich people).
Many people opine that forcing Neonazis to read it may be a way to get them disillusioned.
Hitler's strength was speaking to the masses, not writing.
As I said in my other comment I got in a few good conversations on my commute about it too, it almost felt like a dead time debating society ;)
> Do you think you hate Capitalism? Do you not understand why so many people love Capitalism? Have you based your opinion of Ayn Rand on second-hand commentary instead of actually reading her works? Then read this book.
All of this could easily be reversed to mandate reading all three volumes of Marx's Das Capital.
Absolutely. And, in fact, I would absolutely advocate reading Das Kapital. I actually have all three volumes on my shelf waiting to be read. But it's easier for me to submit a personal recommendation for Capitalism: The Unknown Ideal given that I've actually read it.