The Fountainhead Revisited
Tucker and Elon to the lefty media establishment: "But we don't think of you."
The left leaning media has always been a fan of censorship. When they owned the entirety of the airwaves and dead tree media, they could be like Schrodinger’s cat – dead and alive - for and against censorship at the same time. They could just pretend to be fearless First Amendment warriors, but now that Schrodinger’s cat is out of the box and we can know their true nature, they discarded the illusion of fairness and just talk out loud about censorship now.
There is not a day that goes by that there isn’t some article, almost always broken on a right leaning outlet about this or that leftist organization or media outlet trying to shut someone or some entity down. “Misinformation!”, they shout. “Disinformation!”, they scream. “Heretics are everywhere! Democracy dies in darkness!”, they wail while holding a finger on the light switch.
Students trying to utilize the heckler’s veto over conservative or religious speakers are so commonplace, they hardly merit a mention – they are just expected now. Never forget that it hasn’t been that long ago (2021) the New York Times was grousing about how “unfettered conversations are taking place on Clubhouse, an invitation-only app that lets people gather in audio chatrooms”.
OMG! Unfettered conversations! How dare people talk amongst themselves without our professional supervision! How will they know what to think? It is the end of the world as we know it!
Remember that this is the alleged “free press” doing this.
It’s all so utterly tiresome and ubiquitous that most of us just expect the hypocritical reactions. We conservatives bake it in just like a golfer takes the wind into consideration before lofting a shot to the green.
But something truly remarkable is happening that merits our attention – and support.
I was thinking today that we have the unique and possibly a once in a lifetime opportunity to watch Ayn Rand's “The Fountainhead” play out in real life.
Fox trying to throttle Tucker Carlson has caused him to enter the Howard Roark phase of his career and the rest of the media world, including the Murdochs, are nothing more than Ellsworth Toohey clones. That Fox is bleeding eyeballs in every single demographic and in every single nightly show is a testament to what Carlson did for Fox and their attempts to crush Carlson are perfect analogs of how the corporate weasels and architecture “establishment” tried to crush Howard Roark’s independent spirit.
The parallels are amazingly undeniable.
Ellsworth Toohey, the antagonist in Rand’s novel, is a scheming media personality who’s developed fame and a large, positive reputation through his writings and teaches that happiness can only be found in serving others. Despite his alleged selflessness, Tooheyseems hell bent on control over people, going to great lengths to destroy individuals and professionals who break from his influence or show real ability in going against the grain. Toohey is a bully whose goal is dominance but even so is revered by many as some sort of saintly figure of virtue.
I think that is how many conservatives saw Rupert Murdoch thanks to his role in creating the very first large-scale conservative answer to an overwhelmingly biased liberal/leftist media landscape.
I can just see Tucker and Rupert Murdoch standing outside the Fox News building in Manhattan when Murdoch turns to Tucker and says:
"Mr. Carlson, we're alone here. Why don't you tell me what you think of me? In any words you wish. No one will hear us."
And Tucker replying:
"But I don't think of you.”
It’s just all too freakin’ perfect.
Of course, what infuriates the left about Tucker is that he truly doesn't care about them or what they think of him – and what drives them mad is that he laughs at them and their weak attempts to control him. The NBC folks who were kvetching about who was going to “police” his “misinformation” and “racism” now that Fox can’t exercise editorial control over Carlson was a classic “Fountainhead” moment.
Carlson is literally Howard Roark in the flesh, deriving his self-worth internally and needing no external validation from these petit-fascist creeps.
If Tucker Roark had a twin brother, his name would be Elon.
Like Roark did to Ellsworth Toohey, Carlson and Musk are daily showing the contemporary Toohey’s examples of just how powerless they are.
They truly don’t think of them.
Ayn Rand should be required reading in high school, or,at the latest college.
No one else thinks of them, either.