First Traditional Political Compass thread of 2006

[WasGeri]

Did this again as I haven't done it for a few years.

Economic Left/Right: -6.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.05

 

[pilchardman]

This is my new reading:

Economic Left/Right: -9.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -9.59

There were some WTF? questions, though. eg


A genuine free market requires restrictions on the ability of predator multinationals to create monopolies. It depends what they're getting at. I said I disagreed (though not strongly), because I think there are some cogent definitions of a free market which wouldn't allow for restrictions on multinationals; that doesn't mean I favour that sort of a free market or any other.

When you are troubled, it's better not to think about it, but to keep busy with more cheerful things.I slightly agree, when your troubles are minor. But it isn't a philosophy, nor is it something I would impose on others.

Charity is better than social security as a means of helping the genuinely disadvantaged.I'm not in favour of the welfare state, either, but if that's the choice, I'll take the welfare state.

 

[In Bloom]

i got about -8 on the political and 2 or 3 on the economic when i did it a while ago which i suppose is mildly anarchocapitalist

Sort of like being a bit of a married bachelor?

 

[gurrier]

Frankly I have problems with the term "social libertarian". Among the several reasons for this is that it's very easy to simply sign yourself up to all the more "libertarian" options and then say "oooh, I'm a libertarian communist unlike all those old authoritarians".

It's similarly easy to sign yourself up to all the more 'authoritarian' options and then say "oooh I'm sensible, unlike all those hippies / bums / whatever". In fact, the only reason that somebody would find it 'very easy' to adopt such a position would be if they wanted to - why would they want to scoff at others from a libertarian position if they weren't actually of libertarian persuasion??

or, more concisely, that's a stunningly weak argument

 

[Donna Ferentes]

It's similarly easy to sign yourself up to all the more 'authoritarian' options and then say "oooh I'm sensible, unlike all those hippies / bums / whatever".

Well, it would be, and it is easy enough from reading the questions to work out the answers which would produce such a result - but that is not the constituency represented on this thread.

 

[In Bloom]

Frankly I have problems with the term "social libertarian". Among the several reasons for this is that it's very easy to simply sign yourself up to all the more "libertarian" options and then say "oooh, I'm a libertarian communist unlike all those old authoritarians".

Who does this exactly? And what difference does that make to the validity of a coherent liberatarian analysis?

 

[In Bloom]

FWIW, I think the political compass is crap as well, for a start because it is entirely possible for two people with very similar "co-ordinates" to have very little in common politically at all. The test is biased towards the bottom left, it is far too easy to predict which direction a certain answer will effect your score, some of the statements are just bizarre ("When you have a problem, it is best to think of other things" WTF does that have to do with the axes given?)

Also, politics just doesn't work on "scales", as if you can say "I'm 33.2% more left wing than you" or some shite. It gives a very broad, very rough idea of what somebody's general attitude might be to certain issues, but tells you nothing specific, which is what matters, ultimately.

 

[Donna Ferentes]

Who does this exactly? And what difference does that make to the validity of a coherent liberatarian analysis?

Who exactly? Most people who call themselves anti-authoritarian. What difference? Well, it's not exactly put to the test, is it?

 

[Donna Ferentes]

But I must away to the dentist, to have the validity of my tooth protection efforts exposed by the practice of nerve removal. Yummy.

 

[TAE]

I gave up half way through the test because too many of the questions could not be answered using the four choices.

 

[AnnaKarpik]

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -7.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.85

I think I'm moving towards the centre as I age