Are liberals really more creative?

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Likewise, Bernie Sanders is 73 and he stands for liberal ideals better than either of the Clintons ever did.

Then why do I meet so many non-creative liberals? I am a Conservative! And I support the arts. I just don't support progressive agendas. IMO, politics are something separate. They don't have reflection upon intelligence or creativity or lack there of. They are mutually exclusive.

Furthermore , why do liberals insist that art is the only form creativity? Why don't they consider innovation in business and technology creative? If we're talking about stereotypes, more conservatives are in business- but business is a form of creativity. Creating a business, creating a market, creating advertizing, a brand of any kind is highly creative. Creativity is not limited to the theater world.

Absolutely. Besides Van Gogh, Lovecraft was another case of a revolutionary in the arts (in this case literature) who only came to be appreciated after death. As for his own political beliefs, Lovecraft had started out a very far right conservative (even though he was an atheist), but because he experienced destitution in the Great Depression, he ended up walking on the long road toward liberalism for the remainder of his life.

Because it's ridiculous generalizing based on stereotypes with no connective basis in fact. The two factors have little to do with one another.


Then why did you start this thread?!? You just lambasted someone offering their opinion on your own question of "are liberals really more creative?" by countering that you've met a few vaguely "non-creative" "liberals". You're making something mutually exclusive into something wholly mutual here.

Keep in mind, it was a decidedly different political atmosphere in Lovecraft's time. His "liberalism" was in stark contrast to today's; he was still rampantly xenophobic and many who have written about his politics (such as here) write he would've been most likely to embrace fascism or Nazism/National Socialism. I love Lovecraft something fierce, but his politics were just as creepy as his stories sometimes.

I started the thread because several "studies" were pushed by liberal media hounds to say that conservatives can't be creative.

Actually, Lovecraft had become an FDR New Dealer in later life. And when a friend had returned from Germany with word of how the Nazis were treating Jews and others, Lovecraft was very much cured of his affection for fascism. Even before that, Lovecraft thought Hitler was little more than "an honest clown."
And while Lovecraft had never entirely lost his racism, he did mellow on that subject in later life. He even adopted a notion of cultural relativism, saying, for instance, that Chinese culture was different from western culture, but was of equal worth, largely due to ending his life long isolation and actually meeting new and different people. Unfortunately, he never lost his anti-black prejudice.

First you said it was "a study", now it's "several". Do you have links to these studies?

Interesting; I knew the key points of his social and political beliefs, but I never looked into it with much detail.

There's some very good biographical information on Lovecraft, such as Lovecraft: A Biography, by the late L. Sprague De Camp (though this book might be out of print), as well as some stuff by S.T. Joshi, who is considered to be the preeminent Lovecraft historian today.

Oh, I know S.T. Joshi; I'm the kind of nerd who took the H.P. Lovecraft walking tour when I was in Providence. I've read his complete fictional oeuvre, I just never focused too much on his personal life outside of the basic abbreviated biographies, and most of my knowledge of his views are either theological or centered around his most controversial racial claims.

I just recently bought 'The Annotated H.P. Lovecraft' that came out last year...I should think about cracking that open soon.

Always glad to hear from another Lovecraft nerd!
Another source for biographical information on Lovecraft is the documentary on DVD called Fear Of The Unknown, which also delves into his fiction.

i think conservatives are more creative based on the stories reported on fox news.

Because you are living in the U.S. in a state capital.

I know plenty of conservatives who willingly take government benefits including: welfare, Medicad, medicare, financial aid for schooling, unemployment benefits, Social Security, food stamps, and even Obamacare subsidizes...
They do this all along, while complaining about people being on the government dole and welfare queens.
Hell my dad and stepmom loved all the benefits of Medicad, unemployment checks, financial aid for college for my sister, tax credits, and I do believe they briefly had food stamps while my dad was unemployed, all while claiming to be die in the wool conservatives republicans.
Oh they also complain in the same conversation about being taxed to death by liberals to fund the liberal programs, entitlements and the rest of the liberal agenda (including public education while having a child still in public High School).
They've repeated spouted the need to do away with all liberal benefits including Social Security, so Americans can live better off.
Oh they hate unions and collective bargaining rights because it leads to underworked overpaid workers who drain businesses and the economy dry, even though they both benefit from it.

My dad is still upset that Obama bailed out GM and Chrysler instead of allowing private industry to do it, though private industry sent them to the government.
My dad is still bitter about that, even though he has more work for it and the state economy has recovered because of it.

Don't get my dad and his brother started on the overtime rules, 40 hour work week laws, and other labor safety regulation.
Both will sign up for Social Security and Medicare at the moment they are eligible, while hating FDR for creating Social Security and LBJ for creating Medicare that siphoned off their hard earned cash.

Also the U.S. education system has been reformed in the 1980s (under Reagan) which first introduced standardized testing, leading to 2004 reforms (under Bush II) which greatly increased the amount of standardized testing ( it's yearly until high school).
Teachers literally are forced to teach to the test, to ensure the students to as good as possible, which in turn will determine funding for the coming year (do bad and get a funding cut). There is literally no time after the tests (normally in April) to teach everything else.
School districts have taken an axe to most activities, even after school activities.
Many have also cut Gym, Music and Art as well.

Then helicopter parents since the mid 90s have over controlled their kids, preventing them from most stuff out of fear.
Hell kids today can't even play in the front yard due to "stranger danger".

FYI, supporting the arts runs contradictory to conservative principles.

P.S. everyone gives the banking and financial industry credit for creatively accounting, dodging laws, and purposely selling bad investments, which led to the 2008 meltdown.
They also gave themselves huge bonuses, raises and returned to their horrible practices.
They are also in the process of suing the U.S. Government for bailing them out, claiming the bail outs hurt their profits!

Good point. Yes, of course conservatives and liberals can be creative; it is a spectrum of human as in all stuff HUMAN life. In GENERAL, LIBERALS are more creative; and that CAN be correlated with repressed human sensuality, overall, as a social norm associated with fundamentalism in religion AND PATRIARCHAL RULES OF CULTURAL LIFE, overall.

In general; again in GENERAL; CONSERVATIVE FOLKS create to control.

In general; again in GENERAL; LIBERAL FOLKS create to connect.

And of course that is not surprising as the Ted Talk I linked indicated Liberals are more likely to be risk taking extraverted exploring ROVING connectors of life; while conservatives are more likely to be cautious introverted home, work, and or church SITTING controllers of life.

The 'psychopathic' version of a conservative is perhaps the most dangerous as they control for power as they have little to no EMOTIONAL/AFFECTIVE empathy; whereas, the 'empathic' version of a conservative controls over unease in life overall; also known as anxiety/fear related feelings in not feeling comfortable enough in their own skin TO BRANCH OUT.

AND NO; I DID not need a textbook or a study to FEEL and KNOW any of this IN REAL FLESH AND BLOOD LIFE; I've literally dealt with close to 100K folks in real life dealing with the general public in the military sector of federal service over a quarter of a century in both work and social related interaction; I've empirically assessed it with both cognitive and affective empathy; and this has always been crystal clear to me; before empirical measures of actual so-called science confirm my all innate, instinctual and intuitive wisdom about THIS..

Human common sense has always been the best innate instinctual and intuitive science; also known as the wisdom of cognitive and affective empathy mixed with reason gained in real flesh and blood life experience.

The school life has always failed in providing proper education on emotional and physical intelligence in imaginative and creative ways of doing that; And no wonder, as the controllers of life are most often the one's who set up the rules AND regulations of life; as they would rather rule and control than to freely explore.

But of course this site as assessed by the huge (in numbers of participation) informal poll that Fnord created (before it was edited) shows a fascinating distribution of Briggs Meyers personality traits for this Internet site where 95% of the participants here assess themselves as Introverts.

I am an extreme Introvert; truly only coming here as a result of physical illness and shut-in permanent disability where this is my last resort to attempt to connect to other human beings. And the truth is I only connected to myself in writing as this is overall, one of the worst places in the world to connect to others in actual reciprocal social communication in actually emotionally bonding with other folks in expressing actual caring for other individuals in verbal expression.

The only reason I am here now; is I was here before; if not this would be the last place I will ever go; I come here for the intellectual stimulation but this is the last place I come to emotionally connect to other human beings. In those places I am empirically assessed and documented as having one of the best personalities. Here I am assessed as impossible to understand and insane.

Truly it is fascinating for me as a REAL ANTHROPOLOGIST TO MAKE a case-study of out of such a controlled experiment in terms OF how a CROWD OF SOMEWHAT CONSERVATIVE INTROVERTS will treat a super liberal extraverted person; if given the opportunity. Of course, in real life; most people here would not be able to take my social energy for more than several minutes; my wife is mostly introverted and she has trouble handling my energy. My female dance partners bounce off the dancing hall walls with joy when they are around me just for my super free spirited free exploring type of dancing.

I whip the pants off of guys who are 33 or so years my junior in attracting extraverted women as that is the only type of woman, overall, one will see actually on the dance floor; and in my patriarchal fundamentalist area assessed as the number one locality in extreme of that political red state ideology; in the U.S., even innately leaning liberal dudes have been forced into a prison of conservative 'stick up the butt' ways of verbal and non-verbal language in repressing and oppressing social reciprocal communication interaction.

They could learn something from me but culture makes some of them terrified of expressing their emotions; both verbally and non-verbally. And sadly enough, repressing emotions and sensuality is the core of human stress; tension; disease as assessed by science now; as well as an potential earlier grave as assessed by science.

The mind and the body are connected and one will never have optimum happiness without both being balanced. I make a science and art out of living; and as assessed empirically on my blogs I thrive in joy and reason. I am not only a super extravert, I am a super happy person as well; it is rarely I meet anyone who I cannot inspire a smile in; except for the Fundie Christians I meet in the aisles of Super Walmart and so-called tough boy and men rednecks. I can spot them all the way at the other end of the store just by the robotic PLASTIC non-flowing way they move.

African American Males are assessed as having the highest overall self-esteem of all demographics in the United States; and that just proves that overall economic status has little to do with self esteem. And hell yes; typically as a demographic group one can see that in the WAY African Americans walk and express themselves openly in emotional expression. This demographic of folks walk like Lions on the Savannah, dance with soul; and still connect on front porches in ways of loving eyes; not any different than in poor nations of all colors where people mean more than stuff. FACTORS ASSESSED IN THE STUDY ARE SEXUAL PROWESS AND ABILITY TO DEFEND ONESELF IN A REAL PHYSICAL FIGHT. YES, I CAN VOUCH FOR THESE empirical powers of natural evolving human males; as even though I am successfully and monogamously married to a one of the most beautiful women in this Universe (on earth) (empirically proven on my blogs); ever since I start my EXTREME MARTIAL ARTS TRAINING AND male nude art and start attracting gorgeous women by the dozens in my favorite top 100 dance club in the U.S.; and now literally document around 400 ear to ear selfies with them on my blogs; let's just say I am very comfortable in my own skin; probably in the top 1% of males in the U.S.; as who else is brave enough to do male nude art and share it with 21 year old dance friends; when they are 55; am I the only one; where the strange females think this is socially acceptable; yes, probably so; perhaps in the entire world; per the non-Hollwood demographic I am currently included in; of course; PER MY 'SLIGHTLY' OLDER age demographic.

And I am one white boy who can dam sure dance; and one who even gets applause from the most creative of African American and Asian break dancers where I dance 33 or so years their Senior.

Anthropology; it's what for dinner for me; my entire life; even before I gain my degree; to learn about human is the best education of all to actually thrive and survive happy all the time now in life; A degree in humanity is what many people are lacking today in the real flesh and blood dance of life; and with that said a tribute to my dancing African American Female Partners and much younger African American male peer counter-part competitors for these African American Women dancers who most always inspire me more than the more conservative other cultural motivated dancers who have a slightly less tan color of skin; that while correlated is not prison of being uncomfortable in one's skin; once one learns the lesson of the movie 'Frozen' and finally jusT DOES IT BY:

LETTING ALL THAT REPRESSIVE OPPRESSIVE verbal and non-verbal Fundie Christian Red-State CULTURAL CONTROL STUFF GO! TO! LIBERAL AS HELL..

I FOR ONE, AM NO LONGER WHITE AND NERDY..



AND I guess this is MY confession AS a Reformed Nerd; yes, it is both hilarious and TRUTH..