Scrooge an economic hero, rightwinger defenders say

[Adenoid_Hynkel]

No, this isn't from the Onion.

Apparently, Bob Cratchit and Tiny Tim should have just taken personal responsibility for their lives.

It's probably a safe bet that Ebenezer Scrooge, before his spiritual transformation, would have balked at recent proposals in the U.S. to tax the wealthy, even to avoid a so-called fiscal cliff.

(...)

While that may be most people's view of Scrooge, some have rushed to his defence, saying the general interpretation of the old miser has been a lot of humbug.

"I think Scrooge is clearly misunderstood and used to vilify business," said Yaron Brook , president and executive director of the Ayn Rand Institute, an organization named after the author whose books promoted individual rights and made the moral case for rational self-interest.

(...)

In a column for the National Review last year entitled "Scrooge: The First 1 Percenter," Jim Lacey, author and analyst at the Institute for Defense Analyses, made the case that Scrooge, before his ghostly visitors, "was already doing more to help his fellow man than any of the other main characters we meet," and that at the end of the tale, by giving away some of his fortune, he "drastically reduced his ability to do even more good in the world."

http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2012/12/20/f-in-defence-of-scrooge.html

Once again proving that Ayn Rand-ism is just the use of pseudo-philosophy to justify being an asshole.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

1. Please tell me this is satire.

[Jeff In Milwaukee]

2. It doesn't appear to be...

Which says something about the Attention Whores at the Ayn Rand Institute. They MUST know how idiotic they sound, but any time a reporter pays attention to them, well, it's all good. Right?

[PoliticAverse]

3. Scrooge wasn't a happy person. n/t

[Brigid]

4. They do know . . .

That Scrooge was of no earthly good to anybody, not even himself, before he changed, right?

[union_maid]

5. Absolutely Onion-worthy

If this is not satire, they're making it awfully hard for actual satirists to top them.

[baldguy]

6. Tiny Tim has only himself to blame for his condition, and Bob Cratchit is a terrible father.

Unfortunately, Scrooge turns into a communist at the end of the story.

[NewJeffCT]

8. Why should Scrooge pay for his pre-existing condition

According to Mike Huckabee, Tiny Tim is like a "burned down house"

[Squinch]

7. That's because they are stupid. All the big words prevented them from getting to the ending.

[NewJeffCT]

9. The RWers are also trying to re-invent Joe McCarthy, too

Didn't Ann Coulter and/or Michelle Malkin write articles in defense of him in recent years?

[Aristus]

10. Reminds me of the way American Nazis of the German-American Bund in World War II

referred to George Washington as the "first Fascist".

[octoberlib]

11. So is the Grinch.

Once he discovered he had a heart he became a Democrat.

[oberliner]

12. Same with Mr. Potter

From It's A Wonderful Life.