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Over the years, this comes back again and again. Better to come back during the election cycle.

http://www.politicalcompass.org/index

It is an X-Y graph of a person's political leanings based on your views of the world. A survey of questions gives you an idea of where you stand on said graph.

Some questions are straightforward; others require interpretation.

Here is the 2012 leanings of the presidential candidates:



And here is one of EU governments:



Where do you stand on this chart?

Me:

I had a look at this a while ago, it showed roughly where I am although not quite. I'm roughly 2 squares up from center left, I'll get a picture up soon if I can.

According to the teacher who showed me this, most people are shown as left and libertarian, despite almost all nations being in the opposite corner.


Edit: Here we go:

 p_gray99 wrote:
I had a look at this a while ago, it showed roughly where I am although not quite. I'm roughly 2 squares up from center left, I'll get a picture up soon if I can.

According to the teacher who showed me this, most people are shown as left and libertarian, despite almost all nations being in the opposite corner.

One of the criticisms of the test is that questions are skewed to make you answer more as a liberal and libertarian as the issues they present to you offer little compromise and/or make you feel like a bad person when you agree with certain statements.

Mine:



But yeah, there's some serious "push poll" type questions in that test. Unbiased it ain't.

Yeah, it always makes me seem more libertarian than I am. But as a rough guideline it isn't too bad.

Allegedly I'm a square more libertarian than the Dalai Lama, and the same level of Left-ness.

I'm okay with that.

Not sure I agree with how libertarian this has me, as well. Perhaps it's a programming flaw. This really makes me sound like some sort of hippie which I don't think is at all accurate. I agree I'm generally liberal but I don't care about the environment, I support the second amendment, I'm in favor of the death penalty (in theory, definitely not in current practice), I am dubious on climate change (I think it's likely happening but I'm not clear that we're either causing or could really do anything about it no matter what).... I also believe, strongly! in government regulation on multinational corporations and a progressive tax system, which I don't believe are libertarian ideas. I don't think it asks enough questions to be really accurate.

About in same spot as in last time.

I find it highly amusing that I'm to the left of the president

Here's me!

I have to say that this "test", although well know, is kind of rubbish at placing people accurately. The fact that they have pretty much the whole of "socialist" Europe as both more right wing and authoritarian than the American right wing presidential candidate should give some indication of this...

Hmm. Would it be possible for everyone to say where their co-ordinates were (at least roughly) so that we could put them all onto one graph? Might be quite interesting to see where this test places people on dakka.

Economic Left/Right: -5.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.41

 KalashnikovMarine wrote:


I find it highly amusing that I'm to the left of the president

Well to world standards, the President is very right. I don't why so many Americans are calling him a socialist or a communist. They don't even know what they're talking about half the time.

It's not surprising that a lot of people end up being more left then President Obama.

It says I'm pretty close to being libertarian. I dunno about that. I'm a bleeding heart pro-welfare, pro-affirmative action liberal who distrusts the free market.

 p_gray99 wrote:
Hmm. Would it be possible for everyone to say where their co-ordinates were (at least roughly) so that we could put them all onto one graph? Might be quite interesting to see where this test places people on dakka.

Economic Left/Right: 2.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.00

And in the United States socialist is more or less a politically acceptable way to call someone human filth. Throw in a couple initiatives like socializing medical care and boom, instant red scum.

I'm more or less a classic Libtertarian so actually in retrospect it's NOT surprising I'm to the left of the President in the limited confines of this test. There's plenty of social issues I'm much more liberal on then he is.

I am 2 squares down and 5 to the right. Same as I have been since I did this many times over the years.

The questions are not really as skewed as you think. Most people have been led to believe they are a certain political leaning by a party, friends, etc. So it can be a little shocking to find your political leanings are different than what you always believed.

Nothing wrong with being Libertarian people, in fact the vast majority of people in the USA are quite Libertarian when really questioned. If you think about it, it makes sense, it is ingrained in us, part of our culture.

We on average, dislike people taking our stuff, or being told what we can and can not do.


Automatically Appended Next Post:
Also when doing the test and comparing, you need to remember that the "left" and "right" they show on the chart indicate Economics. The up and down deal with how structured or loose you like your society.

So commie is probably not the correct label for our President. Fascist is.

I question the accuracy when socialist Sweden is more right than the US, although I think the poll was pretty accurate at describing me on the spectrum.

Some of the questions are very poorly worded that can lead to bias. Case in point:

"From each according to his abilities to each according to his needs" is a fundamentally good idea

Now, I think the Papa Smurf quote is a load of gak, because it doesn't work in practice. However, the question contextualizes it as fundamentally, of which it is absolutely a wonderful idea that can only ever work on paper, which is how Marx & Engels theorized it. But, in answering the question asked, we are forced to ignore the question the test meant to ask, which is essentially "do you think Communism is a good idea"? Well, fundamentally, yes it is. But in practice, Hell no.

Conversely, A significant advantage of a one-party state is that it avoids all the arguments that delay progress in a democratic political system. is technically correct. This principle is one of the primary reasons why facism is often one of the most functional forms of government. However, agreement with this truthful statement will be attributed to a right-wing mentality, which might be mutually exclusive. That is, saying "The NY Yankees have the best team in MLB" can be unrelated to "I throw a party every time the NY Yankees lose".

Likewise, agreement with the phrase It is a waste of time to try to rehabilitate some criminals. is also meant to denote a right-wing leaning. Unfortunately, this is a factually correct statement (psychopaths -as per Hare's definition- and paedophiles are both immune to rehabilitation), and those who understand this may merely be agreeing with a simple truth that is not necessarily representative of their paradigm towards the criminal justice system.

Anyway, fun poli-sci graph is fun. Here's mine. I've taken this thing before, and it's still probably in the same ballpark.

I'm rolling with Gandhi


But I agree some of the questions are poorly worded.

No idea how to get the photo up.

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:


I'm rolling with Gandhi


But I agree some of the questions are poorly worded.

No idea how to get the photo up.

There you go.

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:


I'm rolling with Gandhi

That's because you are Gandhi.

And yet I'm voting for Romney.

 Cheesecat wrote:

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:


I'm rolling with Gandhi

That's because you are Gandhi.

But... But how?

I'm so much fatter than he is.

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:
But... But how?

I'm so much fatter than he is.

Did you eat him? That might explain things...

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:

 Cheesecat wrote:

 Ma55ter_fett wrote:


I'm rolling with Gandhi

That's because you are Gandhi.

But... But how?

I'm so much fatter than he is.

Gandhi can be anyone because Gandhi lives in our hearts.

Doesn't live in my heart. Not a fan of passive resistance. Only works if there's someone nearby willing to use real resistance on your behalf.

 azazel the cat wrote:
Doesn't live in my heart. Not a fan of passive resistance. Only works if there's someone nearby willing to use real resistance on your behalf.

Pacifism is a luxury paid for by warriors to quote the bumper sticker on my car. It's fun when I have to go up to Boulder, I've had someone leave a poorly written SHEAF of pages about why the bumper sticker's wrong. I suppose it's better then slashing my tires but really?

 azazel the cat wrote:
Doesn't live in my heart. Not a fan of passive resistance. Only works if there's someone nearby willing to use real resistance on your behalf.

I don't know much about Gandhi I was just joking.

KalashnikovMarine wrote:Pacifism is a luxury paid for by warriors

A sentiment I wholeheartedly endorse. Ghandi's peaceful revolution would have had a very, very different outcome had he been resisting, say, Pol Pot's regime in Cambodia.