My experience is that 99% of the people who hate Atlas Shrugged never read the book, they just heard that the people they hate like it, so they hate it. I don'

My experience is that 99% of the people who hate Atlas Shrugged never read the book, they just heard that the people they hate like it, so they hate it. I don't even really understand why people map it onto politics in the way they do. It seems to me fundamentally a story about people trying to accomplish something big, innovative and disruptive but being stymied by the various forces who resist or fear change, whether because they're profiting from the status quo or they're lazy or ignorant or entitled or whatever. Like one of the central set of "bad guys" are the rival owners of other railroad companies, who are trying to maintain their monopoly/cartel. Another set of "bad guys" are the privileged family members who expect to have wealth and power by birthright. I don't see why a person who had left or far left political views wouldn't resonate with the protagonists struggles against these various entrenched, privileged rent seekers.