What is your political alignment?

[Magi]

http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/index.php


Some of you may have taken this test before, but if you did it wasn't through here!


Apparently I'm a Liberal Leftist.

[Limbo]

Apparently I am lefter and more liberal. I like that I am in the same "zone" as Nelson Mandela, Ghandi and the Dalai Lama, as all of these men have done things mankind kan be proud of

I particularly liked the graph in the end that shows where some well known political figures stand nowadays.

[Bram]

Economic Left/Right: -2.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.77

That puts me in the left lower quadrant (left libertarian) but very near the center of the graph. Though I'm in a diametrically opposite quadrant, a man like Gerhard Schroeder is closest to me than a man like Mandela (who shares my quadrant), apparently.

My guess is that a lot of TMD'ers will be left libertarians.

[Dozer]

Holy crap!

Economic Left/Right: -6.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.10

That puts me in close vicinity to the Dalai Lama. WTF? Am I really that radical? And while I agree to Bram that most TMD'ers will likely be in that quadrant, I wonder why that is.

[dandan]

Economic Left/Right: 2.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.26

I wonder how on earth anyone can be more economically right than me without being a complete asshole. One of Thatcher's teens, now living in a country that was brought to its knees by communism (meaning that it fared better than many other commie countries), I'm not very left wing at all. The Liberal/Authoritarian one I can see but 2.25 is left of Blair!!! 

I disagree that TMD should see lots of liberal-lefts, you Yanks should be basically right-wing.

[Dr. Sylvan]

Economic Left/Right: 2.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.15

Man, I've really become moderate in my old age. Two years ago, you'd have found me somewhere south of Friedman.

I wonder how on earth anyone can be more economically right than me without being a complete asshole.

How indeed!

[rvs]

Economic Left/Right: 1.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.82

Libertian Right, but only slightly right. Pretty much what I expected.

[Saucemaster]

Dude, I am so libertarian left it's not even funny.  And I thought I was becoming more moderate in economic terms!  Apparently not.

BTW, Pip, I ended up further south on the libertarian/authoritarian axis than you.   OH SNAP!

EDIT: I will say that Dozer beat me, however.

[Bardo]

If this were a contest, and only the most radical leftist won, that winner would be me.

Economic Left/Right: -9.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -9.13

In your face Dozer!

Libertarian socialist 4L.

[Matt]

Economic Left/Right: -3.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.13

[jpmeyer]

If this were a contest, and only the most radical leftist won, that winner would be me.

Economic Left/Right: -9.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -9.13

In your face Dozer!

Libertarian socialist 4L.

Damn, I was only -5.25/-6.10

[rvs]

@bardo_trout: I don't think I would've made that public....

[Saucemaster]

Economic Left/Right: -9.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -9.13

Well at least that made me feel a little less like a wingnut.

[Bardo]

Well at least that made me feel a little less like a wingnut.

Peculiarly, I've become more leftist as I've gotten older. Ditto when my children were born. And as a kid, I remember being told that people generally drift from left to right, politically, when they mature; but that's not what happened with me.   Odd, eh?

[nataz]

Lib Left, but only by a little.

With some of the answers I gave, I was actualy surprised.

Economic Left/Right: -1.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.72

[Klep]

Economic Left/Right: -5.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.36

I'm not really surprised at all, although I didn't know I was so close to the Dalai Lama.  Frankly I think that line about people shifting to the right as they age only applies to people who didn't arrive at their political convictions through logical means.  If you use reason to discern, for example, which rights people should or should not have, then as long as your argument was sound and valid, you should never have a reason to change it.  Unless you're comfortable with being a hypocrite, of course.

[rvs]

Frankly I think that line about people shifting to the right as they age only applies to people who didn't arrive at their political convictions through logical means.  If you use reason to discern, for example, which rights people should or should not have, then as long as your argument was sound and valid, you should never have a reason to change it.  Unless you're comfortable with being a hypocrite, of course.

That is not entirely true. Rich people tend to go more to the right, and rightfully so (in most cases, anyway), since it benefits them. That doesn't mean they were, or should be right-wing when they weren't rich. I know it's a classic argument, but I think you should at least add some nuance to your statement.

[Bardo]

I'm not really surprised at all, although I didn't know I was so close to the Dalai Lama.

This is way off-topic, but we named our new puppy after the Dalai Lama, Tenzin. He's a Black Lab, 7 weeks old, and likes to poop on stuff. A lot... But if a Zen monk ever asks me if my dog has a Buddha-nature, I'll be in a tough spot.

Frankly I think that line about people shifting to the right as they age only applies to people who didn't arrive at their political convictions through logical means.

Furthermore, I suspect people that make the conservative-creep were never too attached to their leftist ideas in the first place. And as Rudy says, changes in people's material life may make it that they come to endorse politicians/ideologies that favor their material stability.

[Klep]

That is not entirely true. Rich people tend to go more to the right, and rightfully so (in most cases, anyway), since it benefits them. That doesn't mean they were, or should be right-wing when they weren't rich. I know it's a classic argument, but I think you should at least add some nuance to your statement.

If your attachment to leftist ideas came from a place of "that's what's best for me," then that's fine.  Hypocrisy enters into the equation when you were a leftist because you thought those leftist ideas were correct (and still think so), but go with the right because it's better for you personally (as opposed to humanity at large). This is of course also applicable to people who start right and shift left, so no one jump on me.

[Roxas]

I got 1, .67.  I thought I would be a bit farther to the right than that, but I guess I was wrong.

[Methuselahn]

Economic Left/Right: -0.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.21

o_0

[Machinus]

Economic Left/Right: -4.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.18

I was unsure about how to answer some of these questions though. The last time I took one of these tests (about a year and a half ago) I was very close to the middle on both axes, and I don't think I've changed much since then. So I think I'm a litte closer to the middle.

22. When are you guys gonna learn to spell ?

This grievance comes from those who aren't aware that British and American spellings sometimes differ.

We've been at the centre of some rancour, but we're not going to take offence or harbour any grievances. The catalogue of complaints won't colour this organisation's programme. It's a grey area anyway. And we don't want to labour the point.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

[Demonic Attorney]

-5.00 / -4.31

Basically, I think corporations are just mini-sovereigns with less accountability to the public and are therefore less trustworthy.  And while my personal belief system probably wouldn't go over well with most of today's trendy leftists-du-jour, I do think civil liberties need to be defended more zealously than they are.

[Bram]

I disagree that TMD should see lots of liberal-lefts, you Yanks should be basically right-wing.

I'd rather have you disagreeing with me than the facts, every time



This is TMD for ya. Like it or love it!

Interestingly, while Nataz, Methuselahn, rvs, Reb and Dandan are closer to dead center (0;0) than I am, I am closest by far to this community's current average. I am representative of you guys. That's pretty scary, huh? Matt is second closest to the community average. I wonder if it's a moderator thing

[kl0wn]

Economic Left/Right: 0.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.21

Heh. The test was vague, to say the least. How can you answer these questions without some kind of context to put them in?

I really wish they had the option of "it depends" on a lot of those questions.

[Bardo]

I'd rather have you disagreeing with me than the facts, every time

I look so lonely way that hell out there in left field.

I really wish they had the option of "it depends" on a lot of those questions.

I wish this were true for all polls. A lot of times, an answer is meaningless without context.

[Bram]

I wish this were true for all polls. A lot of times, an answer is meaningless without context.

Sometimes, however, this is actually part of the test. Like how occupational personality questionairres will give you 4 statement and ask you to pick the one that suits you best and the one that least suits you, at times out of 4 statements you feel equally good/bad about. How they read something into that I'll never now, but I'm told they do (probably with control questions and a sliding scale or some such thing).

I'm in no way implying this is the case here, though.

[Klep]

The only question I was really dissatisfied with was the one about health care.  I answered that those with the means  should be able to purchase better healthcare, but at the same time I believe there needs to be a baseline of health care available to everyone, regardless of means.  I'm not sure that the test was accurately able to discern that from my answer of "agree."

[everythingitouchdies]

Turns out I am a total fucking anarchist.

Hmm.

[Dr. Sylvan]

Dude, I am so libertarian left it's not even funny.  And I thought I was becoming more moderate in economic terms!  Apparently not.

It was relatively easy for me to know I was middling out because I switched from "we should privatize the roads and police" to "I guess I can admit that the government can spend money on health care without me going into anarcho-capitalist apoplectic fits".

BTW, Pip, I ended up further south on the libertarian/authoritarian axis than you. ;)  OH SNAP!

That's because I think their test counts death penalty support as authoritarian, when really, what could be more anarchist than eye-for-an-eye? Maybe if I shout "fight the man!" at my computer a few times, it'll lower my number.

Obviously these quizzes don't have enough nuances. Their one question about classroom education totally didn't let me communicate to the test my profound skepticism of public education, which should push me at least another point or two to the right on its own. Add in that a chunk of my problem with it is that it makes kids too prone to be sheep, and I should be south somewhat, too. But I'm not bitter; I know on the inside I'm more hardcore than some namby-pamby Californian. :-)