User blog comment:Brainwasher5/Ryan, Galt, and Rand--thoughts on Bioshock and Objectivism/@comment-24819226-20151207123712/@comment-1687225-20160108075832

Well, Culpepper was likely attracted to Rapture because it was a city where the "artist would not fear the censor". I meant that she subscribed to Randian ideals in that sense, recalling a similar musician in Atlas Shrugged.

I agree that we don't know much about Sullivan and objectivism. What I meant when I said he represented Rand was how upset he was at Ryan for compromising his own ideals. Rand would have been upset by Ryan's change in policy too, I'm sure.

As for McDonaugh, we have abundant proof that he was a fan of Rand's objectivism. There's the loading screen quote where he talks about how no one could forget about seeing the city for the first time--that it was amazing to see what a man could do when he's got government off his back. When Ryan first meets him, McDonaugh fitted brass pipes instead of tin ones as he takes particular pride in his work and function as a plumbing contractor, echoing many of Atlas Shrugged's characters. He counsels restraint and lassiez-faire approaches to the economy while sitting in the counsel; when Ryan nationalizes Fontain Futuristics, he resigns in protest as he wanted it to be continued to run privately.