Are liberals really more creative?

Post Reply New Topic

There are lots of older liberals. Look at bill and hilary Clinton. Lots of old people can be liberal.

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!