Well, no. With all that popular psychologizing, moralizing, and adolescently earnest (though insightful) movie and music criticism…I’d say they’re often out on the left. They’re at their best when it’s tough to figure out, like when they publish Hitchens.
Yet After Hitchens…doesn’t the commitment to artistic ideals make many old novelists, poets, and artists often swing right, darkly right, as their youth and gifts die out? And isn’t this journalism inspired by the desire to be novelists, poets, and artists?
Just a thought.
Addition: Maybe it’s not just as they get older, or as their gifts die out, but rather due to the relationship an artist has with his/her desires, potentially swinging radically left or right when it comes to politics. of course, not all artists, not all the time. But Slate is a publication that is mostly left.
by KKsnaps
chr1