The meme-ification of Ayn Rand: How the grumpy author became an Internet superstar

Ayn Randis not afeministicon, but it speaks volumes about theInternetthat some are implicitly characterizing her that way, so much so that shes even become a ubiquitous force on thememecircuit.

Last week, Maureen OConnor ofThe Cutwrotea piece about a popular shirt called the Unstoppable Muscle Tee, which features the quote: The question isnt who is going to let me, its who is going to stop me.

AsThe Quote Investigatordetermined, this was actually a distortion of a well-known passage from one of Rands better-known novels, The Fountainhead:

Do you mean to tell me that youre thinking seriously of building that way, when and if you are an architect?

Yes.

My dear fellow, who will let you?

Thats not the point. The point is, who will stop me?

Ironically, Rand not only isnt responsible for this trendy girl power mantra, but was actually an avowed enemy of feminism. AsThe Atlas Society explains in theirarticleabout feminism in the philosophy of Objectivism (Rands main ideological legacy), Randians may have supported certain political and social freedoms for womenthe right to have an abortion, the ability to rise to the head of business based on individual meritbut they subscribed fiercely to cultural gender biases. Referring to herself as a male chauvinist, Rand argued that sexually healthy women should feel a sense of hero worship for the men in their life, expressed disgust at the idea that any woman would want to be president, and deplored progressive identity-basedactivistmovements as inherently collectivist in nature.

How did Rand get so big on the Internet, which has become a popular place for progressive memory? A Pew Researchstudyfrom 2005 discovered that: the percentage of both men and women who go online increases with the amount of household income, and while both genders are equally likely to engage in heavy Internet use, white men statistically outnumber white women. This is important because Rand, despite iconoclasticeschewingideological labels herself, is especially popular amonglibertarians, who are attracted to her pro-business, anti-government, and avowedly individualistic ideology. Self-identified libertarians and libertarian-minded conservatives, in turn, were found by a Pew Researchstudyfrom 2011 to be disproportionately white, male, and affluent. Indeed, the sub-sect of the conservative movement that Pew determined was most likely to identify with the libertarian label were so-calledBusiness Conservatives,who are the only group in which a majority (67 percent) believes the economic system is fair to most Americans rather than unfairly tilted in favor of the powerful. They are also very favorably inclined toward the potential presidential candidacy ofRep. Paul Ryan(79 percent), who is well-known within the Beltway as anadmirerof Rands work (oncetellingThe Weekly Standardthat I give outAtlas Shrugged[by Ayn Rand] as Christmas presents, and I make all my interns read it.).

Rands fans, in other words, are one of the most visible forces on the Internet, and ideally situated to distribute her ideology. Rands online popularity is the result of this fortuitous intersection of power and interests among frequent Internet users. If one date can be established as the turning point for the flourishing of Internet libertarianism, it would most likely be May 16, 2007, when footage of formerRep. Ron Paulssharp non-interventionist rebuttalto Rudy Giuliani in that nights Republican presidential debate became a viral hit. Ron Pauls place in the ideological/cultural milieu that encompasses Randism is undeniable, as evidenced byexposeson their joint influence on college campuses and Pauls upcomingcameoin the movieAtlas Shrugged: Part 3. During his 2008 and 2012 presidential campaigns, Paulattractedconsiderableattentionfor his remarkable ability to raise money through the Internet, and to this day he continues to root his cause in cyberspace through a titularonline political opinion channelwhile his son,Sen. Rand Paul, has made no secret of his hope to tap into his fathers base for his own likely presidential campaign in 2016. Even though the Pauls dont share Rands views onmany issues, the self-identified libertarians that infused energy and cash into their national campaigns are part of the same Internet phenomenon as the growth of Randism.

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The meme-ification of Ayn Rand: How the grumpy author became an Internet superstar