> The current woke culture in the West is somewhere between the Stalinist show trials and the Maoist struggle sessions.

Not yet. There's not as much murder yet. There are certianly parallels though. Kafka-trapping is mainstream; if you deny a political charge brought against you, that denial is seen as further evidence of your guilt. If you deny you're an -ist, that 'proves' you're so thoroughly -ist that you can't even perceive it about yourself.

Remember, HR has never been your friend. Even in the purest form of HR uninfected with politics, HR exist to protect the company from the workers. But as you have observed, HR are now becoming political officers charged with enforcing correct political thought.

I would have liked to see a substantive criticism or two, instead of this somewhat trite and really quite overused cliche.

There's plenty of areas to criticize Rand over (the fact that her rationality based / think for yourself movement became a cult of personality centered around her for example). That's why I tried the "Controversial views aside." In many ways Rand pioneered an effect that Trump would later turn into a strategy: have opponents who are so single-mindedly hateful and spiteful that they make you look better every time they attack you.

It makes it so very tough when Rand's writing could inform or elevate a topic. There's just no way to do so that won't inspire an attempt at a flame war. That said, this particular portion of Atlas Shrugged is perhaps the best illustration of what I referenced in my earlier post:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCmJUobwKQk