Posted on 10/19/2013 6:20:10 AM PDT by Colonel Kangaroo
Earlier this week, The Wall Street Journal posted this round-up of niche dating sites. Many of the sites paired would be lovers based upon a shared lifestyle (farming) or a shared food allergy (gluten).
However, the far and way most disturbing match-making enterprise was the Atlasphere Dating Service, the site dedicated to matching devotees of Ayn Rand’s philosophy of Objectivism.
According to WSJ.com:
Atlasphere founder Joshua Zader, 40, of Phoenix, says niche sites are more efficient than broader sites such as OKCupid or Match.com.
“If you assume that maybe 1 out of 500 people is a serious fan of Ayn Rand’s novels, on a normal dating site you have a 1 in 500 chance of someone sharing the same basic values,” he says. “On the Atlasphere, every profile shows you what you want,” he says. The 10-year-old site has seen a spike in membership in recent years—it has more than 16,000 dating profiles—after two “Atlas Shrugged” movies were released, says Mr. Zader, a Web developer. User handles include “Atlas in Arlington” and “ObjectivelyHot.”
He founded the site after attending Objectivist conferences, where the “open secret” is that most people are there to meet potential partners. “You shouldn’t need to fly to a conference to meet people with your values,” he says.
Perhaps the biggest service this website provides is saving innocent bystanders the trauma of witnessing the courting process that happens at a conference for a fair to middling dead writer who advanced a damn near sociopathic world view.
A cursory view of the eligible singles on the site reveal that many of them fancy themselves “thinkers”, “dreamers” or “writers”. No surprises there. Many of them talk about finding their Roark, Reardon or Dagny, because they painfully want these aggrandized, one-dimensional characters to exist in real life. One gentleman humblebrags about training to become a “ninja warrior” in case you were scared that all the dudes look like tweedy, bow-tie wearing George Will clones.
If the “Atlas Shrugged” movies did indeed cause a spike in the site’s membership, there don’t seem to be any debonair Grant Bowler types or strikingly blonde Taylor Schillings to be found. However, poor filmmaking and paltry box-office may not be the “Atlas Shrugged” franchises’ biggest crimes. They are now indirectly enabling the world’s most obnoxious people to breed.
But, liberals being so tolerant and non-judgemental and all that, it would seem that they would have no objections to this sort of thing. Or are liberals hypocrites???
So, Maggie Serota puts the ass in assortative?
death throes. Sorry.
Are bearded men allowed to mingle with the Randroids?
I haven’t had enough to drink yet, I thought it said Ann RICE...
Maggie Serota seems to have a basic disagreement with the concept of “breeding.”
I'm sure the feeling is quite mutual. I can't imagine breeding is beating down her door.
She couldn't grasp feminine virtues.
Interesting. Never having been an ultra-feminine type myself, and disliking the company of women who behave in stereotypically female fashion, your statement makes me really curious as to what the Ayn Rand women are like. Are they logical, rational tomboys? One of these days, I will read Ayn Rand and find out! Or maybe I will watch the movies, since the 3 point font of Atlas Shrugged defeated my efforts to read it on the first page.
The amount of actual information contained in this article could be given in one sentence. The entire rest of the article is pure snark.
Maggie just has a fear of strong, self-made women, that’s all. And by the way, Dagny was kinky as all git out.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.