I’m With the Rand

Celebrity fans of the cult of selfishness.

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Angelina Jolie

Angelina Jolie: “I just think [Ayn Rand] has a very interesting philosophy…You reevaluate your own life and what’s important to you.”

Christina Ricci

Christina Ricci: “My favorite book is The Fountainhead…I relate to it because of the idea that you’re not a bad person if you don’t love everyone.”

Vince Vaughn: “The last book I read was the book I’ve been rereading most of my life—The Fountainhead.”

Rob Lowe: Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand is a stupendous achievement and I just adore it.”

Eva Mendes: Any potential boyfriend “has to be an Ayn Rand fan.”

Mark Cuban: “I don’t know how many times I have read [The Fountainhead], but it got to the point where I had to stop because I would get too fired up.”

Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.): Recently tweeted, “Still reading Atlas Shrugged, quite the read.”

Hugh Heffner

Hugh Hefner: The Fountainhead “is a compelling tribute to man’s quest for personal freedom.”

Billie Jean King: “Like Dagny Taggart, I had to learn how to be selfish, although selfish has the wrong connotation. As I see it, being selfish is really doing your own thing.”

Jerry Lewis

Jerry Lewis: The Fountainhead is “a very profound book…Makes you think!”

Brad Pitt

Brad Pitt: The Fountainhead “is so dense and complex, it would have to be a six-hour movie.”

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THE FACTS SPEAK FOR THEMSELVES.

At least we hope they will, because that’s our approach to raising the $350,000 in online donations we need right now—during our high-stakes December fundraising push.

It’s the most important month of the year for our fundraising, with upward of 15 percent of our annual online total coming in during the final week—and there’s a lot to say about why Mother Jones’ journalism, and thus hitting that big number, matters tremendously right now.

But you told us fundraising is annoying—with the gimmicks, overwrought tone, manipulative language, and sheer volume of urgent URGENT URGENT!!! content we’re all bombarded with. It sure can be.

So we’re going to try making this as un-annoying as possible. In “Let the Facts Speak for Themselves” we give it our best shot, answering three questions that most any fundraising should try to speak to: Why us, why now, why does it matter?

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