One of the things I find interesting is that we’re always told conservatives are Philistines when it comes to the arts. We just don’t care about the arts like liberals, who are always going on and on about the importance of pretentious, terrible pieces of artwork or how we must give more government money to art museums.
Meanwhile, have you ever noticed the sort of art that conservatives tend to find beautiful vs. what liberals like? Conservatives tend to really like the classics. You know, old churches, detailed statues, and gorgeous women.
But liberals?
Liberals like to push ugly. Ugly art. Ugly characters. Ugly people.
It was a couple of posts about comics that I randomly ran across that got me thinking about this:
This is not confined to comics either. So much of modern art that liberals champion is hideously ugly garbage. There are many examples we could point to, but these get the idea across:
Admittedly, the Obama Center looks much better at night, but the building looks like it should be the entrance to some super villain’s underground lair.
This has happened so much in video games that it has turned into a regular, bitter complaint from many gamers:
We’ve also gotten a collection of unattractive “super models” in recent years:
This has even bled into TV and movies, although less so, perhaps because casting really good-looking people has been such an ingrained habit for so long:
Now, you might say, “What makes liberals do this?”
Well, there are a lot of theories around that.
Liberals themselves might tell you that they’re trying to be “representative.” “Why shouldn’t ugly people be represented?” Alternatively, they might ask, “Who gets to decide what’s beautiful? Me? You? Besides, what about the people that aren’t normally represented in these roles? Why shouldn’t they be depicted in those roles? Like, why can’t 5 ft. tall FTM trans actor Eliot Page be a warrior? We’re broadening the scope of what people can be accepted as and do!”
Another explanation I’ve heard is that studies show conservatives are more easily disgusted, so liberals aren’t as bothered by ugly characters or characters that aren’t ugly per se but are less attractive than they should be.
Some people might even see it as a way to reject conventional norms, like it’s the equivalent of a nose ring and an ugly multicolored haircut.
Of course, there’s not going to be a definitive answer to this, but I have three theories that I think better explain it.
1) The first is that liberals have become so hostile to success that they see beauty as a form of oppression. You know, “Rich people must have cheated to get all that money and beautiful women don’t deserve all that attention! It’s not fair all these men are drooling over Sydney Sweeney, when they should be raving over how brilliant I am because of the feminist screed I wrote on Reddit!”
2) The second goes back to a quote by Thomas Sowell:
Liberals don’t want to have “common sense,” but how can they think they’re so much better than you and everyone else that you need them to guide you if they believe the same things you do? So, you can think Sydney Sweeney is hot, but they can explain to you why some Democratic president’s wife or weird lesbian is actually much hotter:
The fact that they can see that and you can’t is why they should be in charge, instead of lesser people like you, who can’t even see what REAL beauty is.
3) Last but not least, study after study after study has concluded that liberals are more mentally ill, unhappy, and have more sociopaths in their ranks than conservatives. You know what a lot of people like that love to do? They love to TROLL.
To them, the world is ugly, unfair, and spoiled and they don’t like it when other people are happy and having a good time. So, many of them, often as an almost subconscious impulse, take great joy in trying to irritate other people. Sure, there are influencers who do that for money and traffic, but these people take pleasure in creating bad feelings in other human beings.
So, what better way to do that than to take something pretty and make it ugly? “Oh men, like pretty women? Well, I’m angry at men for not liking me, so make this woman ugly and see how they like that! Ha, I can’t wait to hear them get unhappy about how I put a man in the dress on the cover of this magazine or made their favorite video game character look like she was hit in the face with a baseball bat!”
However you slice it, and whatever the reason for it may be, there’s something psychologically unhealthy about recoiling from beauty. It’s just not something happy, mentally well people do. Its also why one of the running themes of horror movies is the killer dressing themselves up to look hideous and frightening:
When you start to prefer and embrace that ugliness over beauty, it’s a sign there’s something broken in you that needs to be fixed.
Your comment about mental illness and liberals not liking it when other people are happy and having fun hit home.
Until my mid-30s I was angry at the world. I had suffered tremendous abuse growing up and thought that the majority of people do not understand what real suffering is. It was unfair that I suffered greatly and many others did not and have an easy life. I was wishing bad things would happen to others so they can have their lives destroyed.
I had been under psychiatric care for a few years when the film, "As Good as it Gets" was released. The following statement by Melvin Udall in the film summed it up perfectly.
Melvin Udall: "It's not true. Some of us have great stories, pretty stories that take place at lakes with boats and friends and noodle salad. Just no one in this car. But a lot of people, that's their story. Good times, noodle salad. What makes it so hard is not that you had it bad, but that you're that pissed that so many others had it good."
That summed up my feelings perfectly, I hated that others had it good. I watched this movie several times during the period of my life when I was having regular panic attacks. I found it to be calming. At times, I just played it for background noise to remain calm so I could function at some level rather than doing nothing and wishing I were dead.
The panic attacks started early in my recovery from my mental breakdown. My psychiatrist said the cause of the attacks is my body trying to maintain homeostasis. I had lived for so long with abusive drama that after it ended, I would do things to keep the chaos in my life because for me, that was feeling normal. The problem, that path was causing me to self-destruct.
I started my care with an anti-depressant. I felt the depression lift for a few hours after the first dose. I was reluctant to try an antidepressant due to all the bad press surrounding their use but I was at the point where I was at rock bottom and had no clue what to do. The third day, I called my psychiatrist and asked if I could increase the dose. (I was on the lowest dose). In the afternoon, I felt the depression returning and I hated that. Hye said yes and wrote a prescription. He had provided me a 10 day supply of the lowest dose from samples he had in the office. So, I took a pill in the morning and at 4 pm. It gave me the energy I needed to do things. At that point, my wife and I knew I would not be able to work for a few years. She already had a job as a high school science teacher. Our son was recently born, so I was the stay at home dad and took care of the housework. It gave me a purpose in life and allowed me to develop a routine which I needed and time to do the hard work of improving myself. My psychiatric appointments were in the afternoon, after she returned from work.
The panic attacks started shortly thereafter and I was certain it meant I could never get better. Once my psychiatrist explained the why of the panic attacks, I realized I had made the first steps to recovery and worked on ways to manage them knowing that eventually they would lessen and eventually stop. It took two years for the panic attacks to lessen to anxiety attacks and a few more years for those to mostly stop. I still have an occasional panic or anxiety attack about once a year. They are not debilitating because I have learned to not focus on them and instead go on doing what I need to do.
I eventually became a high school science teacher. It was not my first choice but it was the fastest path to employment. It is very stressful, but I still saw my psychiatrist once a month so I could learn of ways to manage it. It turned out to be a great job for me, I started having debilitating migraines few years after my breakdown. At that time there were not many meds available that effectively controlled them. When I entered the classroom, I had a responsibility that was bigger than me, so I would focus on my job and soon forget about my migraine. The meds available would reduce their intensity to a level that was tolerable. If I could get the pain to drop from 9 to 6 or 7, I was good as long as I kept busy.
Fortunately today, the underlying cause for the migraines has been determined and the two newest drugs developed using gene technology lets me live practically migraine free.
Since I started on the path of recovery over 30 years ago, I now have a positive outlook on life. I find value in being a husband, dad, and now granddad. I have been greatly helped in my recovery through Christianity. God keeps me grounded and focused on the things I need to do and the things I need to stay away from. At 64, I am still improving every day.
During my recovery, the moral issues of President Clinton caused me to leave the Democratic Party. I am a staunch Republican and conservative.
I find it ironic that the dems today are the ones guilty of all they accuse the Republicans of doing. It is the Republicans that want to return to those values and ideals that made our nation so great. Even at my age, I still have opportunities I would never have in other democratic countries. I am still in control of my life and continue to thrive without the social safety net. With no safety net, you have a greater incentive to succeed. The self-worth you earn from being in control of your life is priceless. I still make mistakes but I am also responsible for dealing with them without others having to bail me out. I deal with the mistakes head on.
This caused me to think that out of all the people I know, and I know quite a few, in terms of classic attractiveness, I cannot think of any Democrat people that I would consider above average. The exception is some young people, but young people are always idealistic and tend to migrate more conservative after getting their paycheck taxed and getting married and having children.
This makes me wonder if leftism is the drift of people that feel some deficit in being attractive or appealing, and that makes them malcontented and resentful of others and the Democrat party feels more like home to them as it is filled with people the same.
Clearly almost every trans person I can think of would be considered below average attractive in their biological gender skin. And I don't know any trans people that are registered Republicans.
In this age of social media where we are bombarded with images of hyper-attractive people, it seems that maybe Democrats have filtered to be a collection of people feeling inadequate in attractiveness relative to the population, and this also causes them to create art that celebrates ugly as the new higher status.