posted
The terms "conservative" and "liberal" are confusing and misleading. It's no surprise that in French, their cognates mean roughly the opposite of what we use them to mean.
Just because there are two parties in the United States does not mean there are two ways of thinking. You are not either "with us or against us." If you don't adhere to all of a certain party's beliefs you are not automatically a moderate. You are not wishy washy. You are not a flip-flop.
Political affiliation is not graded on a curve. Someone being "more conservative" than you does not make them a right-wing nut job.
If you must come up with identifying labels for your beliefs, please do so on a slightly more complex scale. Visit political compass, do your thing, and report back.
quote:Economic Left/Right: 2.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.08
No big surprise, really, but the questions left huge areas of my political views unrefined. There were some that I disagreed with, but would have agreed with a slight corrollary. Also, many of my answers resulted from analysis that is specifically not on the economic/social lines.
quote:Whaaaahat?! What's that got to do with anything in there?!?
There are a surprising number of people who would cut government funding of the arts because of this sentiment.
Posts: 8504 | Registered: Aug 1999
| IP: Logged |
quote:There are a surprising number of people who would cut government funding of the arts because of this sentiment.
Yes, but that undermines the impact of the real reasons government funding of the arts should be cut. It pretty much examplifies what I found lacking in the test.
Still, it's interesting, and better than the old 6-question version.
Annie: I see what you mean, but at first I thought that it was a joke!
Anyway, here's a strange thing. I'm ok with George W. Bush going to war in Irak. I actually said I agree with the fact that sometimes you have to go to war in spite of international regulations...
Posts: 4519 | Registered: Sep 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Also, the what's good for corporations is always good for the public thing was horrible, because there was no corresponding question about policies that primarily benefit corporations being OK in some situations.
That would have pushed me farther right, I'm betting.
posted
I have to laugh at some of the questions. Like the one about not wanting to send my child to a school that didn't instill religious values -- that's true, I wouldn't, and haven't, but strongly disagree that public schools should do so. So I agree and disagree with the statement since it isn't clear.
My results: Economic Left/Right: -1.00 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.92
*I* am left of center?? How funny!
Posts: 5948 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I'm not entirely happy with the obvious bias of the authors, though, nor in the rather arbitrary way they plotted historical figures against their graph. Gandhi, for example, was hardly a social libertarian; neither is the Dalai Lama. Why are they on the left side of that graph?
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
The quiz is largely manipulative in order to achieve the results it does; not all of this is intentional bias, a part of it is to use indicators to discern one's actual position. The problem is that people with nuanced positions will often respond in a surprising way to unnuanced indicators.
Posts: 15770 | Registered: Dec 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Economic Left/Right: 2.88 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.33
I'm just like Lem. Cool!
I also thought I was a little bit farther right on the economic, and a little further down on the authoritarian. A lot of those questions I didn't agree or disagree with. They were simplified answers to complex questions that didn't accurately reflect how I really felt. I'm not to happy with it.
quote: I would not wish to send my child to a school that did not instill religious values.
See, I would slightly agree to the positive: "I would wish to send my child to a school that did instill religious values", but I wouldn't NOT send my child to a school that DIDN'T instill religious values.
posted
SM, I had the same problem with that question. I'm okay with my kids not getting religious instruction in school, but I prefer for them to get that reinforcement of values we espouse at home. Equally, I do not want public schools to get into religious instruction. To get my preferences, I'm perfectly willing (and believe I should) pay for the privilege of having my children receive religious instruction in school.
Edit:
At the risk of looking totally stupid, what does this mean: "From each according to his ability, to each according to his need is a fundamentally good idea."
posted
Economic Left/Right: -6.63 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.62
Which sounds like me, I admit.
Not that I put much faith in the results of this little test. The questions, as always in this type of test, are too arbitrary.
Posts: 5771 | Registered: Nov 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
There is a much different way of looking at that Farmgirl, if you don't give economics the pre-eminent position it occupies in American society.
Posts: 10177 | Registered: Apr 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Economic Left/Right: -3.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.13
Not exactly sure what that's telling me but I'm another in the Dalai Lama/Nelson Mandela/Gandhi camp.
Posts: 3636 | Registered: Oct 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
"rom each according to his ability, to each according to his need is a fundamentally good idea." Basically a socialist idea of "take from the rich to support the poor""
ERm, actually, thats not at all what it means. Thats what anti-marxists WANT you to think it means, but its not what Marx meant when he coined the phrase, and its not what socialist or communist thinkers mean when its still used.
The idea is that each person works according to his ability to work, and each person is compensated for his work based on his need. Which, you'll note, says nothing about redistribution of wealth.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I was > -1 on both scales. Basically I'm a centrist apparently. Unfortunately, it leaves out a lot of my rationalization for my beliefs which would change people's perceptions of where I stand on the political spectrum. It also asks about twenty economic questions while my political views are shaped least of all by the economy because it is something that I am relatively neutral on and I know little about what actually works for it. I have a lot more confidence in my social and foreign policy views so I tend to make more political decisions based on that.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
It pretty much examplifies what I found lacking in the test.![[Confused]](confused.gif)
![[Kiss]](graemlins/kiss.gif)
Annie.
![[Razz]](tongue.gif)
weed and tie-dye are BAD for you.
![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Cry]](graemlins/cry.gif)
