Political Compass

[bigbaldben]

I've taken this test before and always fall in the weirdo quadrant:

Your Political Compass:
Economic Left/Right: 0.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.79

Anyone else share my worldview?

[AwesomeSaucer]

I usually fall a little more than halfway down for libertarian, and pretty much on the line between left and right.

[Khem]

Your Political Compass
Economic Left/Right: -8.5
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.72

[Wast]

Yay, a post in the Debate Hall! It's been a very long time...



I can't claim this is a reliable measure of my political leanings, though. I found myself grumbling a bit at many of the 'statements'. It's interesting that the resulting measure is two-dimensional as an aggregate of a questions that are answered on a one-dimensional scale. I wonder whether allowing more complexity in answers would lead to an improved questionnaire, or just overcomplicate things (I suspect the latter).

Are there any statements that you found particularly irritating? Broad, context-free statements like "The freer the market, the freer the people", for instance, bother me a little.

[Funkadelia]

I agree with Wast's concern. There are some questions that are a little iffy. But in general I feel like this lines up with my actual beliefs.

This graph might make me seem a little bit too far left though..

[Khem]

I nominate Wast to invent a 5-D test 

I also hated the broad statements and am unsure how well this test reflects the truth of my political ideology. Though it was nice to notice there were less (by a large factor) of the broad statements than when I took the initial version some 5-10 years ago.

[Allama]

Your Political Compass

Economic Left/Right: -9.0
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.92



I'm all the way down in the corner, big fuckin' surprise.

Agreed that some of the questions were unnecessarily broad but I still feel this is an accurate representation of my general political leanings.

[Myroria]

Your Political Compass
Economic Left/Right: -7.0
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.31

They usually rank me further left than this. I'm generally in favor of private property rights so I think those questions threw me to the right a little. Generally I notice that my libertarian/authoritarian ranking is pretty accurate but I think economics-wise I'm more moderate than -7.

I notice a lot of their questions about economics are about corporations. I think some more questions pertaining generally to capitalism rather than that one aspect would be good. In general I support a mixed market economy with a large social security and welfare system, but this test always makes me out to be a total communist.

[St Oz]

Your Political Compass

Economic Left/Right: -4.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.92


Not surprised by the result, it's always in this area. I agree with Myroria, I think if there were more economics, foreign policy, and military oriented questions I'd be far more moderate. All of them seem to just measure our trust of government, corporations, god, etc. rather than our political opinions on any specific thing. As far as broad questions, I think about that one "Land shouldn't be a commodity to be sold" and it measures how agreeable you think about it. Well of course it shouldn't be, but there should be other laws too like it should being used in a useful way. There's the subject of saving some land for national parks, there's the subject of selling public housing to friends of politicians only to be torn down for yuppie suburban kids. Lots of things to consider for just one question.

Also I had the same feeling about the the free markets question as wast, what do they mean by free market? They run wild or they are perfectly competitive? What's the survey's opinion on it? It shouldn't even be there because that's a debate that's older than dirt, what makes a free market?

As a side note, I didn't think I'd see the day when funkadelia was more left than I was.

[Funkadelia]

As a side note, I didn't think I'd see the day when funkadelia was more left than I was.

 

[Dyr Nasad]

oh god I had forgotten how bad these questions were

[bigbaldben]

Ok, so it looks like I line up with most of you on social issue type things, but I am on the right side of economics, which I think is true.

And this is where my problem comes in. 

In this chart - which I think is a good reflection of political world views - most people come down in Libertarian/Left or Authoritarian/Right.  You don't see a lot of Authoritarian/Left, and I never see Libertarian/Right like me.

To me, Libertarian/Left and Authoritarian/Right are hypocritical world views.  (How's THAT for a conversation starter??!!)  I'll focus on the Libertarian/Left since that seems to be the consensus here.

The Libertarian Social part of the equation believes in freedom and personal choice.  "Keep your laws off my body," and the like.  I think we all understand that.

The Left Economic part of the equation is about making peoples' lives better by redistributing wealth / welfare / etc.  That's noble, but in order to redistribute, you must tax - because people aren't going to give money out of the goodness of their heart, amirite?  Many people don't like that.  They say you are taking away what they've earned and you are not allowing them the freedom and personal choice to be a decent human being or not. I find it hard to disagree.

Your polar opposites in the Authoritarian/Right have the same problem in reverse. 

Authoritarian Social believes in a moral, caring society.  In order to do that, they help keep them from making what they view as horrible moral choices, resulting in a horrible moral society.  In order to have that righteous society, you must have moral laws and order - because people aren't going to go out and do good on their own, amirite?  Many people don't like that.

The Economic Right part of the equation believes in freedom and choice for business people, profit makers and corporations.  "A truly FREE market," or the freest it can be, will always benefit the economy.

QUAD blue and QUAD green hold incompatible world views.  QUAD purple makes sense to me.  And QUAD red, not surprisingly, might has well be a different species.

Knowing of course that people can't (all) be hypocritical, there is some sort of framing I am missing here.  In other words, I frame my worldview as above and it makes sense to me.  How do you frame your worldview so it makes sense?

Liking all this conversation - I've kind of lost the ability to do that given my last two career choices.   

[Khem]

I'm not sure if leftist qualifies for me, I'm anti-centralization yet pro-organization, I support a strong commons and a greater list of rights for fiscal as well as humane reasons (such as a basic guaranteed income). My futurist visions are largely along the lines of luxury communism (like star trek). When interfacing with our current system I am in favor of more globalization and the death of the nation-state.

[Eluvatar]

Property is exactly as legitimate as taxes.

[St Oz]

"A truly FREE market," or the freest it can be, will always benefit the economy.

What exactly is your definition of a free market? Is it the lowest possible amount of regulation? That's such a common misconception among quizzes, articles, political debates. The free market is a lot more complicated than some think, and I think the best measure for a free market is by how competitive it is