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Politics : View from the Center and Left -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (134423)	3/23/2010 6:15:44 PM
From: Katelew	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542138

Wharf, maybe you've noticed me saying things like "I'm politically homeless most of the time" or "I'm conflicted on that issue" or other similar statements where I don't think I fit neatly in a box of any kind? Well, I just took your test. I tried to answer each question based on just the wording of that particular question. If you can, take a guess on which quadrant I ended up in?

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (134423)	3/23/2010 6:40:36 PM
From: epicure	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542138

Economic Left/Right: -5.00 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.21 I'm in the green quadrant- almost in the center Hey- I'm where my bud the Dalai Lama is

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (134423)	3/23/2010 7:04:18 PM
From: quehubo	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 542138

It appears I am one of the few providing a view from the center. Economic Left/Right: 0.62 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.67

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (134423)	3/23/2010 7:45:28 PM
From: JohnM	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542138

Your political compass Economic Left/Right: -4.12 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.15 I think that places me in the lower left quadrant with all those other left libertarians. Makes sense. Some questions were beyond dumb and some had too many negatives. But fun, nonetheless.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (134423)	3/23/2010 9:01:03 PM
From: TimF	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542138

Great time to be a liberal libertarian, tho. The liberals are hardly moving in a libertarian direction at the moment. They are instead running rapidly the other way.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (134423)	3/23/2010 9:45:25 PM
From: TimF	Respond to of 542138

I remember that test (but not my scores). I had some problems with questions like - "If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations." Just take the question literally and I would say "of course it should serve the interest of humanity", but then I would see most steps that people would take to change things to move away from the percievied interests of large corporations, in this area, to be harmful to humanity. (That "perceived interest" rather than just "interest" is important, since many people see very free trade and low regulation as being in the interest of large corporations, while often the biggest supporters of import barriers and additional regulations, are large corporations who support them to limit the competition they face. Capitalists are often anything but supporters of free market capitalism.) Another example of a question I have problems with is - "Military action that defies international law is sometimes justified." My answer depends on how you define defying international law. And - "Governments should penalise businesses that mislead the public." Do they mean fraud, or just questionable advertising. And "Schools should not make classroom attendance compulsory." Since its a political quiz do they mean by law? Even the non-political like "When you are troubled, it's better not to think about it, but to keep busy with more cheerful things.", can be problematic, dwelling on troubles can be negative, but trying to solve them is still thinking about them. And "Some people are naturally unlucky." Well looking back on their lives some people will have worse outcomes on issues that are beyond their control, but its not like there is some pychic luck force, that pushes some people to better results and some people to worse, just the probability/chance naturally resulting in different and in some cases worse situations or outcomes. And I wished they had a 5 point scale, with a "don't know"/"uncertain"/"doesn't apply" type of answer, and/or they let you skip questions. But I pushed myself through the test anyway and got Economic Left/Right: 5.75 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.67 The person on the chart at the results page I most resembled is Milton Friedman, which perhaps is a decent fit. I think they put Thatcher way to high on the authoritarian scale, but then I see economic freedom as simply being freedom, and so see her as less authoritarian than most other modern British leaders. I suppose here ranking isn't quite so bad when we consider that almost all the modern leaders where placed on the authoritarian side of a later chart. Hitler was properly placed to the extent of having authoritarianism override everything else, but I'd say he was fairly collectivist as well, clearly not as much as Stalin (or to use a non-authoritarian example Ghandi) but he wanted state control over the economy to a very great extent. Greens as highly libertarian in this page politicalcompass.org strikes me as just silly.

To: Wharf Rat who wrote (134423)	3/24/2010 7:14:39 AM
From: Lane3	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 542138

Obama has liberated the inner me. Obama has liberated the inner me. Just what is it about Obama that inspires your inner libertarian? I'm missing it. He's pretty moderate on the social libertarian issues and not at all libertarian on the rest, best I can tell.