One thought on “AS218: Politics with The Skepticrat, Part 2”

1. There are two reasons that most worthwhile artists of any kind are liberal. One is that conservatism/Republicanism is a fear-based philosophy or viewpoint. conservatism/Republicanism attracts people are afraid of one thing or another, sometimes desperately so. Creativity and particularly performance rely on a certain level of fearlessness. People who get up in front of an audience or a movie camera or a recording microphone are either fearless or they have overcome their fear. Fear-driven performance generally sucks and conservatism/Republicanism attracts fearful people and generally they cannot cut loose enough long enough to do any really good work. They are so externally constrained most of the time.

   Secondly, when conservatives/republicans decide to make a movie, write a song or put together a comedy bit or whatever, it is usually because they think they should—not because they want to or feel driven to, but because they think they should. This “they think they should” motivation results in agenda-driven “art” that almost invariably sucks. Real artists have to do what they do because it’s bubbling up inside them all the time and it’s going to come out one way or another. So there.

   “The Apostle” is a very good movie. It is about evangelical Christianity, but it is not apologetic. The characters’ flaws and sicknesses ooze out and get all over everything.

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