amostexcellentblog:

john1106:

amostexcellentblog:

today was another big reminder that DCEU haters have the actual worst reasons to justify their hatred and also they’re so annoying because seriously you won, they turned Superman into the perpetually smiling cocky alpha male you wanted and you’re still acting like you’ve been personally wronged

Also, I actually read some of Ayn Rand’s writings for a philosophy class I took in undergrad, and y’all seem to have no idea how her philosophy works or what makes it so toxic.

Why do you think the reason hater said that zack snyder project his view on ayn rand objectivism onto superman?? Most of the haters I know off said that superman being feeling very burden and unhappy about helping people is zack snyder somehow project his ayn rand viewpoint onto superman?? I’m not so sure what this have to do with ayn rand philosophy? From what I observe, this is just zack adopting superman with the balance of both idealist and realist. I get it that superman is very popular for adopting the value of altruism. And yes altruism do make you feel happy when you are helping people. But at the same time, altruism can also bring you misery and sadness if you try to help people beyond your own limit of your ability. Altruism in my opinion should not be come at the cost of your own self happiness. I believe that everyone have a right to pursuit their own happiness and being altruism or helping other people is your own freedom of choice to do so. It is sounds so wrong if you need to give up your own happiness in order devote yourself into helping other people.

That is why i agree with zack take in the film that altruism is not fully realistic and that altruism don necessarily bring you happiness all the time. His take in the film don really seems to be an idealistic one but at the same time zack do not reach to the realist conclusion as he basically shown that you can be realist but that does not mean you cannot be idealistic. Both of idealist and realist need to be well balanced and I believe this is how it should be because none of these philosophy can be applied at 100%. So for zack snyder superman, he shown that superman can able to help people while at the same time pursuit his own self happiness. This is my take from what I observe on zack snyder superman so far

They say Zack’s movies are Randian because Zack said back in 2016 he wanted to do an adaptation of one of her novels so haters latched onto it and started saying his movies promoted Ayn Rand, like they’d been hating on his movies since 2013 but they only started calling them Randian after that interview, because they never thought of them that way until Zack gave them an opening to.

And it’s so stupid because as nonsensical, convoluted, and stupid as Rand’s actual philosophy, it’s really not hard to understand the core point, which is that you should only care about yourself, concern yourself only with your own happiness and not worry about others. The essay I read in college was literally titled something like “The Virtues of Selfishness,” you know subtle. The fact that Clark keeps saving people and thinking of others throughout Zack’s movies means they can’t possibly endorse a Randian worldview because that goes against the core of her philosophy. I honestly don’t know if it’s possible to tell a truly Randian superhero story, even when stories have Randian elements, like The Dark Knight Returns or The Incredibles,  I don’t think they actually depict a fully Randian worldview (a more generally conservative/libertarian worldview sure–even more so than the average superhero story–but not a specifically Randian one).

And like you seem to be saying, Zack is just trying to present a realistic take on altruism. Like, activism and social justice work are not fun. They just aren’t. They require long hours of work for very little money, and if you become particularly notable you’ll also have to live with near-constant death threats (or worse.) Work is never-ending and progress is slow to nonexistent, and after any victory there’s a realization that there are still dozens of more mountains to climb. It’s not FUN being selfless, I mean being really selfless, not just joining a cause while it’s trendy and dropping it when it’s not, but rather committing to a cause and seeing it out. There are people who have been fighting for gun control since before I was born, can you imagine how frustrating that must be? There are lawyers and activists for the ACLU and Planned Parenthood who spend years in court fighting one state’s anti-abortion laws, and in the meantime dozens of other states pass their own attacks on body autonomy. Altruism isn’t glamorous. Altruism isn’t fun. Altruism isn’t one big pile of laughs and Whedon-quips. Altruism is fucking hard, but you commit to it anyway, you take the pain, disappointment, and frustration that comes with it, because a part of you just can’t not do anything while this world is so cruel and unjust. 

And this depiction of altruism is not unique to Zack’s movies or some sort of Randian propaganda. George Bailey gives up his dreams of travel to save Bedford Falls, and while the citizens bail him out when he’s about to be arrested, that’s all they do, the money will run out eventually, George never gets to live his dream, Mr. Potter still runs the town, a lifetime of sacrifice doesn’t really net him much, but he has friends and a loving family and that’ll have to do. (Which of course is the movie’s message, but some people don’t pick up on these things.) Atticus Finch doesn’t actually save Tom Robinson, and later a character explains to his son that “There are some men in this world who are born to do our unpleasant jobs for us. Your father’s one of them.” (Imagine if Zack used that quote to describe Superman, haters would point to that as proof he was Randian.) Jefferson Smith collapses in the middle of his filibuster before he can clear his name, sure one of the corrupt senators discovers a conscience and confesses, but the fate of the political machine is never resolved. High Noon, The Grapes of Wrath, The Ox-Bow Incident, lots of movies depict heroism as a sacrifice or responsibility loaded with disappointments. And all of these movies are considered classics, and their leads are seen as cultural embodiments of heroism and idealism. So yeah, once again there’s absolutely no good reason that Zack’s depiction of heroism has to be read as Randian.

And lastly, if these people really believe Clark feeling burdened and unhappy about the responsibilities he has to bear is Zack trying to push a Randian message that helping others is bad, well all that really proves is that the people saying such things are incapable of understanding why someone would commit themselves to helping others if it isn’t FUN for them. And this is the really ironic part (or it would be if it wasn’t just so damn typical of the haters at this point): Believing that altruism is only worth doing if you personally get some pleasure or other reward out of it is A) not true selflessness and B) a sentiment that is very, very Randian.