Posted May 27, 20205 yr Just out of interest as a way to frame the discussion we have otherwise in the forum. Thought it would be interesting to see where we are each coming from: https://www.politicalcompass.org Share your scores or just whereabouts you lay on the axis if that's easier. (Do we want to add a poll? Let me know if so)
May 27, 20205 yr I've done this many times and always been in the Green section (Libertarian Left I think), I'm OK with that as Gandhi's good company. Economic Left/Right: -1.75 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.79 I did have to seriously think about the questions relating to authority and respecting leaders in the light of recent events I must say!
May 27, 20205 yr Author I always wish they would tell us what the maximum of each pole is so we can more easily judge exactly where we stand. In any case mine varies up and down but is usually pretty static as regards the up/down axis: Economic Left/Right: -5.0 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.36
May 27, 20205 yr Over the past year I've been very much enjoying and consuming discourse about how the political compass is entirely too simplistic for everything because it takes politics in the abstract and tries to ascribe it to the real world (and has loaded questions, my main gripe being that it doesn't control for fascists and racists wanting to appear more socially acceptable, which is a big reason that nearly everyone ends up in lib-left by default), I can link you some wonderful 40-minute video essays on the subject. Now, have a guess whether I'm going to end up left or right. I mean, if you really want I could also go on a rant about how individual questions in the test are awful but I'll save that unless anyone wants me to. But I always welcome a topic to realign and the test serves its purpose decently enough even if it's not going to let me tell my Luxemburgists from my Leftcommunists. Economic Left/Right: -6.5 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.85 When I took it a few months ago it was more completely far left and closer to the middle on the line, but it seems like I've calmed down from Trotskyism and gone down the far more acceptable route of being an anarchist.
May 27, 20205 yr Economic Left/Right: -7.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.36 I've always been in the minuses for both but I'm probably more left rn then in a while
May 27, 20205 yr Author Yes Iz, the issue that I also have with these kinds of polls is that they tend to assume certain things of the reader. E.g. asking me, a queer person, whether I think LGBT people should be allowed to marry or adopt - doesn't actually say anything about how liberal my mind is because I'm answering out of self-interest rather than openmindedness. Nevertheless, it's, I thought, a fair baseline or starting point from which we can vaguely place ourselves.
May 27, 20205 yr Yeah the questionnaire is pretty awful. Just looking at the very first question: If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations. Like, the people on the right half of the scale don't necessarily disagree with this statement, just are more likely to believe that the interests of humanity in general and the interests of trans-national corporations broadly overlap.
May 27, 20205 yr I'm intrigued to know who would willingly answer Agree to questions like 'Our race has many superior qualities', 'It's best if people stick to their own' and 'No one can feel naturally homosexual' :') May be naive, but that wouldn't be something you can be so open about today.
May 27, 20205 yr Economic Left/Right: -2.63 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.26 Looks like I remain the wrong kind of centrist again. Really surprised that I’ve now moved into the libertarian axis, I’ve been in the authoritarian end all other times I’ve done this. I would echo that these compasses aren’t always accurate, if there was a don’t care option in between agree/disagree, I would have selected that option in quite a few questions.
May 27, 20205 yr Actually my least favourite one from a usefulness standpoint is 'There is now a worrying fusion of information and entertainment'... which is worrying if you count Fox News or other brainwashing cults as infotainment for being flashy news programmes you can put on for hours, but not worrying if you count educational Youtube videos or similar as infotainment because it means that more people are getting educated through non-traditional sources, and I'd count both as different forms of the same concept. I don't have a clue which way it pushes you, but whichever way it does, it's wrong. But yes, the questions that only an out and out Nazi would answer different from anyone else are bad. If nothing else it gives off the impression that this is a question where there is a sensible middle on, which is completely false.
May 28, 20205 yr Economic Left/Right: -3.38 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.82 Relatively centrist. Fine by me.
May 29, 20205 yr I haven't taken this test in a while. The last time I took it I was a lot closer to the center. I was surprised to see how far to left I've gone. Economic Left/Right: -7.0 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.77 Granted I've become a lot more involved politics over the last few years.
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