If Fivedollargold shrugged every time he caught some flak, he would join Steve Martin in the "Lonely Guys Club." Seriously, show some grit FH and find your niche in the Gulch, whether that means playing devil's advocate, elevating discussions, or serving as an informational source. A final unsolicited suggestion--pay zero attention to the thumbs up/down count. Fivedollargold has no idea what his count has been on his occasional postings.

Re: your previous post on "How One Man Shut Down American Commerce To Avoid Paying His Workers A Fair Wage".

You asked for an analysis.
An analysis is an opinion.
I gave mine and even prefaced the statement as my opinion.
I have made my opinion known about Think Progress and their agenda *many times* on this board, so my out-of-the-gate dismissal of anything which they would have to say is not a big surprise.

It was not a personal indictment on you or your posting of the article.
I didn't even vote it down.

You are here of your own free will.
You leave the same way.

From my experience when posters post a ”I’m going to leave because...” at any message board that I have been a member of -- their actions come across as cliche and over-dramatic. I know you don’t want to really do that, do you?

In your case --you have a right to feel a lil upset. I read the article earlier that you posted, and your very reasonable request for an objective response to the article. I think the second poster to the thread gave you what you ask for.(He actually gave you a brilliant link well worth a look.)
I think the first poster gave you a knee-jerk response simply because your article was from a hideous source. Let’s face it --your article was from a site that is pro-progressive.You took your chances by posting it here. Brave, you. :)

I remember when I first started here that I posted a link to a PBS history-interest story and I got pretty much the same response. In fact, the responses that I got were directed towards me personally, unlike the remarks you got which were directed at the story’s origins.

I handled it much differently than you. I defended my link. PBS has some wonderful programming and some really smart reporting. Do I think they lean left and rely too much on public funding? You bettcha. But that’s a fight for another thread. Smart people get smart by being aware. You don’t get ‘aware’ by refusing to read, digest, discuss, ideas you find personally offensive. I read your article. I think it was written for an audience who already accepts and believes in income inequality as a driving force in social disparity. That’s not me, but that’s okay. I can’t be intimidated by fonts.

I’ll go point the thread up, but I think will only bring it back up to zero. I didn’t point up or down the first read through, but I did find the thread really interesting, I know for a fact that the ‘truth’ lies somewhere between what you posted and what was in the other link the other member posted.
In my opinion, Pullman was a looter. There is a reason one of his former mansions is within walking distance to the White House.

(Pssst. I get along with many people here I don’t agree with. I personally can’t stand Rush Limbaugh and find him an embarrassment, BUT..I do respect and admire a few members here who do like him, so I usually go read another thread when his name comes up. Maybe if you stick around...I’l go read one of your threads.)
But I do think if you calm down and stick around you should apologize for taking that wild broad swipe at ‘the majority of contributors’.
Anyway, take care, either way.

Buh bye.

When you originally joined and thought you were "going to hear some morally and intellectually stimulating objective dialogues based on the philosophy of Ayn Rand" you were probably over optimistic in your expectations given the nature of this site. This site is essentially for fans of Atlas Shrugged and the movie, including a lot of people new to it, who may or may not know much about Ayn Rand's philosophy but liked some aspect of AS for whatever reason -- from sense of life to political observations -- and interpreted it to mean a general affinity with their own sense of life or philosophy.

That is a good start, but it's not expected to be a source of detailed discussion steaming out from all quarters based on a thorough understanding of Ayn Rand's ideas across their entire scope and depth. That is hard to find even on more 'serious' sites discussing Ayn Rand. There are many people who find themselves liking Ayn Rand but who don't know how much she did with serious ideas so radically different than the traditions. The result is many who think of themselves as supporters of Ayn Rand based on a few ideas, while grafting the bulk of what else they have absorbed over the years and thinking that it means 'Ayn Rand', too. It too often means instead a combination of a shallow understanding and all kinds of conflicts and contradictions they are unaware of (or are but don't care). (When you hear someone say, "Ayn Rand just stated what I already knew" the warning flags ought to go off.)

That is why you will often hear just ordinary conservative, and in some topics liberal, common expressions that may sound like "Rush Limbaugh" or othewise common opinions and chatter. They don't know Ayn Rand's reasons and don't know the difference. More discussion here is then required to elaborate, and that does happen (often to the chagrin of some religious conservatives), but you should not expect a steady stream of consistent expertise, especially in popular topics that attract a volume of eclectic posts.

Not that "sounding like Rush Limbaugh" is always bad. He quite often, and consistently, articulates excellent insights into the day to day political events that you don't hear from traditional sources, and he is one of the best at that both in content and his personal presentation with humor and clarity. But when he falls back to traditional philosophy and religion as explanations, or leaves out philosophical observations that are required, he is often very weak or dead wrong, which is why, as good as he usually is, he is not enough, and why it isn't enough here either. (And likewise for Mark Levin, another one of the best.)

By the way, if you are waiting for a visit from John Galt you have a long wait. He doesn't make house calls outside of the novel. We are on our own and have to learn it through reading and thinking.

More comments elsewhere in subsection responses on this page.

Your post asked for 'Objectivist opinions'. Looks like that's what you got for the most part. You might try stating why you found that an interesting article and stated your opinion.

Leaving's up to you, but I find it to be an interesting group. IMHO

Well my comment was directed to another poster but Think Progress articles aren 't going to play well here. Too irrational. There is certainly bias the other direction. I rarely see Rush comments and never a post regarding something specific from his show. I do see stuff from The Blaze posted frequently. Personally there are some sites I will not support and Think Progress is one. So I wasn 't going to click through to the article. I enjoy your posts and rarely down vote. In fact you often get thumbs up from me.

"I have introduced articles for discussion that are "thumbed down" as SPAM by those who simply disagree with the author's opinion "
Keep in mind they only show you a number, not a distribution. A controversial article might have 10 people supporting and 10 condemning, for a score of zero. That might be a more useful article than a facile article that enjoys broad support. The ideas that really move things forward, e.g. Rearden Metal in the book, are broadly opposed at first.

Another thing is I, and probably others, use this website to goof off. I might read four simple articles rather than one interesting articles. In goof off mode I think, "I can't get this circuit board working, but I can certainly spot the errors in some crap article." I might skip right over a complex article b/c if I wanted a hard problem I'd go back to the circuit board.

FH, I hear ya'. This was my first introduction to an online chat room and wanted to "chat" about something I deemed important, AR philosophy and all of it's applications. Wrong approach to this site. Now I read a few bits that I feel are worthy to me, post a very few bits that I think are worthy and move on. One poster pretty much summed it up correctly by stating "I use the website to goof off" and if you want to read a more involved article, you use the circuit board.....