What's Your Political Compass?

[dcXhc]

http://www.politicalcompass.org/

Welcome to The Political Compass.

There's abundant evidence for the need of it. The old one-dimensional categories of 'right' and 'left' , established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today's complex political landscape. For example, who are the 'conservatives' in today's Russia? Are they the unreconstructed Stalinists, or the reformers who have adopted the right-wing views of conservatives like Margaret Thatcher ?

On the standard left-right scale, how do you distinguish leftists like Stalin and Gandhi? It's not sufficient to say that Stalin was simply more left than Gandhi. There are fundamental political differences between them that the old categories on their own can't explain. Similarly, we generally describe social reactionaries as 'right-wingers', yet that leaves left-wing reactionaries like Robert Mugabe and Pol Pot off the hook.

That's about as much as we should tell you for now. After you've responded to the following propositions during the next 3-5 minutes, all will be explained. In each instance, you're asked to choose the response that best describes your feeling: Strongly Disagree, Disagree, Agree or Strongly Agree. At the end of the test, you'll be given the compass, with your own special position on it.

The idea was developed by a political journalist with a university counselling background, assisted by a professor of social history. They're indebted to people like Wilhelm Reich and Theodor Adorno for their ground-breaking work in this field. We believe that, in an age of diminishing ideology, a new generation in particular will get a better idea of where they stand politically - and the sort of political company they keep.

[classicgrrl]

this was extrememly interesting. I wish they had studied some presidents in the US as well. I ended up in a place that I didnt exactly expect but can completely understand.

Very liberatarian which surprised me...
to the left but not real far left which didnt surprise me...

[Duemellon]

Well, according to the results, i"m between Ghandi and Newt Gingrich.
ok, the exact same SPOT as Ghandi

[watusi]

interesting...
I had struggled with my place in world politico for a long time...conservative views on morality and liberal views on personal freedoms. I thought myself a confirmed fence-sitter.
I've thought lately that I had libertarian views and I guess I was right.
The big suprise was how closely I placed to the rating of Ghandi on this test.

I think I'll meditate on that for a while...

[RichmondVA]

I ended up wishy-washy left and definitely Libertarian, although not psycho Libertarian. Basically a 1/4 of the way down the left axis and a slightly more than halfway down the Libetarian axis
(-3.26, -6.36).

That didn't really surprise me, and probably wouldn't surprise anyone who knows me.

[BigSugar]

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: 1.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.15

if i was any more center of the bullseye, i'd be recruited by the CIA as an assassin. definite right/libertarian bent though....hmm.....could've guess that.....

[CtJester]

Economic Left/Right: -2.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -3.33


-ct 'Ok, everybody run to stern!' jester

[GWB]

http://www.zpub.com/un/bill-3b.jpg

"My political compass points due north! Uh oh, sorry, that ain't my compass!":o

[solomon]

Looks like I'm psycho-libertarian. But that's no surprise to me : )

[tobedawg]

I have a red dot on the left hand side between Anarchist and Communist. Ay yi yi... or is that a leftist liberetarian.

I mean, Anarchist and Communist are 2 completely different things.

[Duemellon]

I mean, Anarchist and Communist are 2 completely different things. Nah, there are enough similarities to make your "placement" a viable spot to be.

You are not a walking contradiction. You have got some rights.

[IPrayForSound]

Economic Left/Right: -4.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.85

I'm more Gandhi than Gandhi. :)

[lawdog]

Ha! I'm more libertarian that all y'all! You have to read this questions carefully--a couple of them in particular have tricky wording, and I almost answered them in a way that would have reflecte the exact opposite of my views.

Economic Left/Right: -5.12
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -7.54

[Duemellon]

Ha! I'm more libertarian that all y'all! You have to read this questions carefully--a couple of them in particular have tricky wording, and I almost answered them in a way that would have reflecte the exact opposite of my views.I couldn't help but think the same.

there are a few absolutes snuck in there, a few "implied" extremes you have to watch for. But, u'kno, none of those phrases are NEW phrases, so they should be familiar to everyone and elicit a conscious knee-jerk reaction...

so maybe, being written that wa, was intentional?

[ohmikeodd]

hummmm

2.38, -2.10

Yeah, that looks about right... for now.

[yvette7ica]

-5.75
-5.18

pretty neat quiz dcXhc...

glad to see i'm closer to Gandi on the scale...i thought i'd be a little more authoritarian, and closer to the right...but i'm not complaining

[postfeminist]

Economic Left/Right: -7.38
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -7.44


way way down in the libertarian left. yo.

[sadgirlseven]

Economic Left/Right: -6.88
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -7.33

heh. ;)

[mwng]

Economic Left/Right: -5.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.28

[butter_of_69]

-8, -4

Very economically liberal, somewhat socially libertarian.... I think I have the most economically liberal score yet, surprisingly.

[Bronzetree]

Economic Left/Right: -5.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.03

Smack dab in the center of the Libertarian Left box. Always wondered where exactly I fit in to the Grand Scheme. My little red dot falls dangerously close to Gandhi. Interesting.

[Duemellon]

so, as a recap, which one of us is authoritarian?

[Bronzetree]

Between who, Due?

[butter_of_69]

I don't think they have Gandhi far left enough, personally.

[RichmondVA]

Originally posted by Duemellon
so, as a recap, which one of us is authoritarian?

None of us, unless I missed something. Seems like the vast majority of us our left-wing/libertarian. Even the farthest right person was not far along the axis.

[Duemellon]

None of us, unless I missed something. Seems like the vast majority of us our left-wing/libertarian. Even the farthest right person was not far along the axis.So lets load up the trucks and go kill us a few Authoritarian people... fellow Lebs...


er...

well, that's against our principles so I guess we wouldn't. After all, if we did we wouldn't be Lebs? huH?Between who, Due?huh? I dont understand ur question.

[solomon]

Even the farthest right person was not far along the axis.

I was. I'm 8.25 on left/right.

I'm really close to Friedman on the chart, but more free market-oriented.

[solomon]

This question of left-wing authoritarianism is where I think this dual-axis political map breaks down.

I completely agree. I've had numerous discussions about this with so-called "libertarian leftists" or anarcho-socialists and they can never really give a straight answer. The enforcement of their policy NECESSITATES a state, some authority preventing FREE social/economic interaction to a very large extent.

[RichmondVA]

I think you have to look at it as a spectrum. There's some overlap, but generally the left-right axis deals with economics, and the authoritarian axis deals with non-economic, mostly social matters.

I'd say the vast majority of people believe in SOME sort of governing body. To the extent that such a body exists and wields power it's "authoritarian." I believe that you have to give up some rights (both economic and social) to the government. If I didn't I'd be way off in the lower right corner.

You do raise a good point though, in that we are self-defining ourselves and on a very abstract level at that. Our views may not play out at all the way we would expect politically. Personally, I have no desire to raise the tax rate. There are some areas I think the government should regulate more tightly, and other areas I think should be let loose, but generally I'm content with the government's level of regulation.

[Duemellon]

every law infringes on someone's freedom to do something. If you believe that laws must be written and enforced, then you beleive in a society of some manner.

no one I could think of truly wants a lawless world.

[solomon]

every law infringes on someone's freedom to do something. If you believe that laws must be written and enforced, then you beleive in a society of some manner.

I dont' know if this was directed at me but I'm going to answer. What I mean by state, as I've said before, is a coercive territorial monopoly. You can't opt out of it. A socialist anarchic system can't exist without someone forcing the productive/smartest/most talented members of society to stay in it, since they are the ones providing the wealth period. If they were free to go they definitely would, and then there would be no wealth at all. Socialism requires a coercive state to exist. Capitalism does not. In other words, in a free capitalist society you can form whatever kind of economic relations you want: your communes, syndicates, any manner of scheme as long as membership is voluntary. But it doesn't work the other way around. Capitalism would be strictly forbidden.

By the way, the idea that law is "created' and legislated is a relatively new concept. For a longer time law was considered to be an immutable concept or body of principles that was "discovered."

Sol

[RichmondVA]

Originally posted by solomon
A socialist anarchic system can't exist without someone forcing the productive/smartest/most talented members of society to stay in it, since they are the ones providing the wealth period. If they were free to go they definitely would, and then there would be no wealth at all.

That's not necessarily true. Taking it down to a very basic level, I might be able to produce 12 units of guns and 10 units of butter as opposed to you producing 5 units of guns and 1 unit of butter.

Seems to me that the guy who can produce both more guns AND more butter is the more productive guy. But he's not going to leave-- he's going to stay. Sure, if there were some super-great Hank Reardon's out there they might leave. But everyone has a weakness that can be exploited. Which is why its in their best interest too cooperate. The government provides a necessary framework for this cooperation.

[Bearcat]

I think this test is kinda bogus. I mean, the questions are so absolute, and allow no room for exceptions. Futhermore, the people administering the test don't tell you how it's scored, even after you take the test. Hell, for all we know, these people could be super libertarians, and score every one on or near that side of the graph to trick people into following their own (I'm speaking about the test makers) agenda. Of course, that would probably negate their libertarian claims, but you get my point.
In my opinion, the world is too many shades of gray to put so much emphasis on one silly internet test.

[solomon]

That's not necessarily true. Taking it down to a very basic level, I might be able to produce 12 units of guns and 10 units of butter as opposed to you producing 5 units of guns and 1 unit of butter.

I'm afraid I'm not understanding you. If you can make 12 guns and 10 butters, what is your incentive to stay in a system where they are taking 6 of the guns you made, and 5 of the butters to give to me, who made less? Unless you have religious reasons, which even then you would problably say that it is YOUR decision to give away the 6 and 5, and not a decision for the state to make for you coercively. Why would they stay in this kind of situation if they were free to go to another system where they could keep what they made, or at least benefit from the fruits of voluntary trade with others? In other words, why would a highly productive person CHOOSE a more highly exploitive system over a lower exploitive system?

This isn't a question of nongovernment vs government, but of two forms of possible anarchy or near anarchy, socialist and capitalist.

[MonkeyGirl]

Economic Left/Right: -6.12
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.46

Aw yeah...hanging out with Gandhi! :D

That's it, I need sleep..whew!

[rocketman70]

BUMP!

I'm a liberal leftist. No surprise here! :D

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -7.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.10

[markalot]

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: 0.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.67

I'm stunned, that's exactly where I thought I would be, except perhaps more Libertarian.

I have a few conservative social views that probably kept that number high.

[Patas]

Me and Ghandi are about one and the same

Economic Left/Right: -3.95
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.75

[CablinasianRam]

Economic Left/Right: -5.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.26

Big Government, Free People

[postfeminist]

back up in your ass with the resurrection!

http://www.pcloadletterwtf.com/images/b_samir1.gif

[jps]

according to this deal i am :
Economic Left/Right: -6.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.31

which looks like it puts me somewhere in the nelson mandela, ghandi, and dalai lama triangle. almost dead opposite george w. bush on their scale. no wonder i can't stand the guy... or i guess opposites don't attract...

[chuxxter]

Just took the test: -6.13 Economic; -5.08 Social. Right in ther with Mandela, Ghandi, and the Dalai Lama. Pretty good company, as far as I'm concerned and diametrically opposed to GW which suits me to a tee.

[supra-genius]

Economic Left/Right: -4.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.74

Me and the Dali Lama are like 'this'

[akip]

me and the dalai lama are compadres.

economic left/right: -3.63
social libertarian/authoritarian: -5.18


edited to add: economically, i have become more moderate in my old age.

[Sushi]

Economic Left/Right: -7.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.36

Making the far point of the Dali Lama/Mandela triangle. No big surprises here.

I agree with Butter of 69--Gandhi was a little closer to the center than I would have put him.

[atomikdarling]

Economic Left/Right: -5.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.87

About the same spot as the Dalai Lama...which is common on the boards, I see.

[chuxxter]

Economic Left/Right: -5.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.87

About the same spot as the Dalai Lama...which is common on the boards, I see.
Yeah, kinda revives my diminishing hopes for the species.

[mike]

Your political compass:

Economic Left/Right: -3.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.36

Left of Center. Coulda told you that :p

[jd1]

I am right in the center of this thing: Economic .08 conservative, socially -1.1 libertarian. This is right on the bullseye. But as others have noted it is a BS test. The questions are too simplified to really capture anybody's attitudes on a given issue.

--JD

[guamie]

Ghandi here.

[purple_octopus]

Here (http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html) is another quiz that is kind of similar. This one pegs me at the far libertarian corner. Not surprising.

[gibby]

That was interesting.

Economic Left/Right: -7.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.92

Ghandi is a right winger next to me.

[akip]

Here (http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html) is another quiz that is kind of similar. This one pegs me at the far libertarian corner. Not surprising.

there, i am smack in the exact center of liberal.

[chuxxter]

Here (http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html) is another quiz that is kind of similar. This one pegs me at the far libertarian corner. Not surprising.
I am in the same position. Big surprise??!!

[markalot]

LOL,

no wonder you all think I am so conservative. I'm surrounded by a bunch of far left hippie types. :D

Wonder how hewhowillnotbenamed would score. +5 +5 ?

[Jake_Barnes]

Not a major surprise, although I am a shade further right on the economic side than I thought I would be. I guess I am going to have to start jumping to Ianalex's aid now.

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: 1.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.13

[Homsar]

Economic Left/Right: -3.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.51

[ajax]

Economic Left/Right: -6.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.20

[Homsar]

Here (http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html)

Hmm. Exact top-left corner of centrist.

[AeroZeppelin]

constant pointing to left

[Handy Smurf]

I couldn't help but think the same.

there are a few absolutes snuck in there, a few "implied" extremes you have to watch for. But, u'kno, none of those phrases are NEW phrases, so they should be familiar to everyone and elicit a conscious knee-jerk reaction...

so maybe, being written that wa, was intentional?

Id agree about the absolutes
It seemed like some of those questions were designed to identify extremes in one area or another to help plot out your "coordinates" I may have been closer to partially agreeing with it than strongly disagreeing with it, but the use of the absolutes put me at disagree(or agree, whichever the case was)
Economic Left/Right: -0.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.13

[turdferguson]

Economic Left/Right: -8.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.79

[grebo]

No surprises for me.
Right/Left 1.63
Libertarian/Authoritarian -3.03

The second poll I scored as Libertarian.

I know a lot of people who listen to good music are more left than right, but it kinda scares me the extreme negative numbers on the economics issue. When I rule the world, you'll all see how much better everyone's life is.

edited to add:
One question that disturbed me was "Mothers may have careers, but their first duty is to be homemakers." I said agree, but only because all parents first duty is as a homemaker. It makes no difference whether it is mother or father and what roles they play in creating a happy safe home.

[akip]

A socialist anarchic system can't exist without someone forcing the productive/smartest/most talented members of society to stay in it, since they are the ones providing the wealth period. If they were free to go they definitely would, and then there would be no wealth at all.


a lot of talented people are content enough in socialist, or mixed free market-socialist societies, as long as they are free to express themselves.

socialist societies aren't ALL coercive, nor are all capitalist societies free. there's a range. my neo-con brother thinks canada is a socialist system. and crony capitalism doesn't benefit more than a narrow slice.

btw, i've met plenty of happy cuban artists.

[Docta]

Here (http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html) is another quiz that is kind of similar. This one pegs me at the far libertarian corner. Not surprising.

ha, while i'll agree that perhaps most americans are libertarian and don't realise it this poll's wording is heavily slanted so that many taking will be pegged as libertarian. not to mention the fact that an afirmative on each one is equivalent to be libertarian.

[purple_octopus]

ha, while i'll agree that perhaps most americans are libertarian and don't realise it this poll's wording is heavily slanted so that many taking will be pegged as libertarian. not to mention the fact that an afirmative on each one is equivalent to be libertarian.

I wish most Americans were libertarian. But yeah -- it was a quiz taken from a libertarian website. I doubt, however, that it could give you a "false diagnosis". You either believe in extreme economic and social freedoms -- or you don't. I don't think a commie or a lib would be in danger of a misdiagnosis, nor would a bible-thumping conservative. ;)

[jps]

I wish most Americans were libertarian. But yeah -- it was a quiz taken from a libertarian website. I doubt, however, that it could give you a "false diagnosis". You either believe in extreme economic and social freedoms -- or you don't. I don't think a commie or a lib would be in danger of a misdiagnosis, nor would a bible-thumping conservative. ;)
i'm curious about the phrase "extreme economic freedom" ? my assumption would be that you mean individual economic freedom, within an free/open market, with said open market being the entire planet... but to borrow a phrase from al franken, "when we assume, we make an ass out of uma thurman."
if my assumption was right, does that imply economic fairness (fair trade, fair wages, etc.)?

[locofly]

Economic Left/Right: -1.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.87


That economic number isn't sitting well. Bad analysis...

[CablinasianRam]

Just took the second quiz: Liberal Statist. Represent, that's how I like my government.

[purple_octopus]

i'm curious about the phrase "extreme economic freedom" ? my assumption would be that you mean individual economic freedom, within an free/open market, with said open market being the entire planet... but to borrow a phrase from al franken, "when we assume, we make an ass out of uma thurman."
if my assumption was right, does that imply economic fairness (fair trade, fair wages, etc.)?
By "freedom", I mean "lack of government interference". You're right -- I could have said that better.

[Sushi]

edited to add:
One question that disturbed me was "Mothers may have careers, but their first duty is to be homemakers." I said agree, but only because all parents first duty is as a homemaker. It makes no difference whether it is mother or father and what roles they play in creating a happy safe home.
Dig. I wasn't exactly sure how to interpret that one. Being a full-time mom (i.e., not working outside the home) is more than a full-time job (I have several friends who are doing it now). The wording of the question made it impossible for me to accurately answer.

[markalot]

Dig. I wasn't exactly sure how to interpret that one. Being a full-time mom (i.e., not working outside the home) is more than a full-time job (I have several friends who are doing it now). The wording of the question made it impossible for me to accurately answer.


I answered no because my wife does NOT build homes. If she did we would be in fat city right now. I prefer moms to stay at home and raise the kids, at least till they start school, but I'm not about to impose my belief on someone else.

So while I might have answered yes I had to say no. hmmmm

[yoshomon]

Economic Left/Right: -8.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.08

I didn't like a lot of the questions.

[keyst2891]

That was tough... But, it proved exactly what I knew

Economic Left/Righ 0.25
Social Lib./Auth. -0.92

Smack dab in the middle with a slight liberal urge, that's me!

Although the questions sucked and I found myself struggling with numerous ones as to the meaning of the question, I had fun. I did one of these in college and had almost the same exact results. I guess they are on to something with me :D

[jps]

By "freedom", I mean "lack of government interference".
I am straying from the topic of the quiz... but anyway...
How should interactions between currently wealthy nations and currently poor/developing nations be regulated for equity in terms of cost of labor, purchasing power, etc.? Or are we talking "perfect world" senario where everything else is equal?

[purple_octopus]

I am straying from the topic of the quiz... but anyway...
How should interactions between currently wealthy nations and currently poor/developing nations be regulated for equity in terms of cost of labor, purchasing power, etc.? Or are we talking "perfect world" senario where everything else is equal?

I believe that in a free market economy, the cost of labor, purchasing power, etc, would eventually self-regulate. If you look, you can see that it might even be happening now, at least to some extent. The market has taken jobs overseas (tech jobs to India, Phillipines, etc) due to extremely low wages (an Indian tech support agent makes 1/10 what an American would make for the same job, but probably has a master's degree). At the same time, the workers in that country start to experience a greatly increased standard of living (same Indian tech support agent, while only earning 1/10 of his American counterpart, is earning 10 times what his average countryman is earning). In the meantime, loss of jobs hurts our economy, and our (currently outrageous) standard of living goes down. Over time, I believe the world economy would equilibrate if given the opportunity to operate freely. This might not sound good to us Americans, who have been on the fat end of the scale for quite some time now. However, I think it's imminent. And ultimately, it's fair.

If it's not profitable for developing nations to do the work, they simply will not do it. The only regulation I could see necessary would be to prevent such things as slave labor, where human rights are violated. (That's the only scenario I could think of for now, at least, that would call for government intervention.)

[markalot]

I agree purple, except ... what do you do with countries that don't play by the rules, like CHINA? This to me is why socialism / communism is so bad, it gums up the works for the capitalists making our pain much more than it needs to be because thet artificially hold wages lower than the market will support.

[CablinasianRam]

The reason why I'm not a libertarian is that I believe that capitalism should be well regulated or else it would get out of control like it did before Teddy had to clean it up a bit. Government should be a place where people gather to share ideas, fix problems and help everyone out. I fear that a smalll government would be too easily pushed around by corporations looking out for their own gain. I prefer corrupt politicians, at least you can educate people and eventually get them removed. . .

[indigobunting]

Liberals have goat eyes.

[purple_octopus]

I agree purple, except ... what do you do with countries that don't play by the rules, like CHINA? This to me is why socialism / communism is so bad, it gums up the works for the capitalists making our pain much more than it needs to be because thet artificially hold wages lower than the market will support.
Don't they have permanent normal trade relations with us? Some good regulating trade with China has done...

[markalot]

Liberals have goat eyes.

Can't argue with that.

[despondent]

I'm -1.88, -5.49
I'm actually close to the Dalai Lama. Very interesting indeed.

[frizgolf]

Anyone else notice how many people from the first two pages of this thread don't post anymore?

[InstantSoup]

Economic Left/Right: -5.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.51

Interesting.

[bjk15]

Economic Left/Right: -2.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.21

ooooo, woooowwwww, i'm soooo cloooooosssse to the dalai lama.

[Homsar]

Anyone else notice how many people from the first two pages of this thread don't post anymore?

Whoa! Haha, I was wondering where dcXhc came from.

[Jeff_in_Datyon]

Nihilist...instead of x & y, im on the z axis.

[seafoamgreen]

my compass is broken. i'm so pissed at the left right now that i'm considering becoming a republican. But i thank god every day that Ianalex is around so that i realize how stupid that idea is.

Message to Repulicans-shape up and start being the responsible party of the wealthy. you were so much cooler then. Like when the biggest loudmouth you had was Bill Buckley when his coffee got cold.

i'm sorry. i'm just talking some shit.

[classicgrrl]

Can't argue with that.

what does that mean? I've never heard that expression.

[classicgrrl]

my compass is broken. i'm so pissed at the left right now that i'm considering becoming a republican. But i thank god every day that Ianalex is around so that i realize how stupid that idea is.

Message to Repulicans-shape up and start being the responsible party of the wealthy. you were so much cooler then. Like when the biggest loudmouth you had was Bill Buckley when his coffee got cold.

i'm sorry. i'm just talking some shit.

don't be. politics never had a compass and never will. it exists for the sole purpose of perpetuating itself and no other.

[akip]

Whoa! Haha, I was wondering where dcXhc came from.

you missed some good fights.

[akip]

my compass is broken. i'm so pissed at the left right now that i'm considering becoming a republican. But i thank god every day that Ianalex is around so that i realize how stupid that idea is.

Message to Repulicans-shape up and start being the responsible party of the wealthy. you were so much cooler then. Like when the biggest loudmouth you had was Bill Buckley when his coffee got cold.

i'm sorry. i'm just talking some shit.

behind my broken compass, i completely understand your shit.

[markalot]

what does that mean? I've never heard that expression.

I have no idea, it was just a silly reply. :)

[Semiapies]

Economic Left/Right: 6.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.05

By way of reality-check, I'm a free market/civil liberties/live-and-let-live minarchist libertarian.

I shouldn't be ranting after the long night I had, but I took this some months back, and it's still a lame quiz. Some of the ideas and observations are thoughtful, but if they're claiming to try to measure something beyond "left" and "right", the questions shouldn't be patently based on especially cliched assumptions about left- and right-wingers.

For example, "If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations." Try to count the assumptions in that sentence. (One hint: libertarians and free-trade conservatives really don't sit thinking, Gee, I hope global trade only benefits trans-national corporations - in other words, "Yank companies" - and not humanity as a whole.) Or "It's a sad reflection on our society that something as basic as drinking water is now a bottled, branded consumer product." That's only a left vs. right question if your idea of "left and right" are hippies and evil businessmen. There are a lot of conservatives who hate the free market.

And then there are the vaguenesses. What do they mean by "support"ing my country? Saying it's always right and perfect no matter what happens, joining the military if there's talk of war, or not ranting about leaving the country if a politician I don't like gets elected? And the weird groupings - what does charity vs. social security have to do with religion?

Or simply absurd questions, in a political context: "When you are troubled, it's better not to think about it, but to keep busy with more cheerful things." "Abstract art that doesn't represent anything shouldn't be considered art at all." Huh?

Not to mention outright false dichotomies: your average laissez faire libertarian will agree that the government should punish fraud, for instance, and in fact consider it one of only a few basic functions governments should perform.

I hope one day someone actually comes up with a decent political quiz.

[Semiapies]

Random question: why would people be pleased to have their political quiz results resemble those of an exiled power-figure from a repressive, theocratic, patriarchal society?

Yes, I'm talking about the Dalai Lama fans. (No, I'm definitely not fond of the Republic of China. It just happens to be possible that a nasty regime can take over a less nasty, but still unpleasant regime...)

But then, I've always wondered why the Dalai Lama was popular among people who don't like the Catholic Church for its dogmas on, say, the sinfulness of homosexuality and the equation of abortion and murder...considering that he's publically said the very same things. His position on homosexuality boils down to Sex is unholy, but it's necessary for procreation. "Unnatural" acts are even less holy than "natural" ones. Incidentally, back home, we didn't have any of this here gayness.

The difference between the Dalai Lama and Pope Benedict is pretty much "exiled guy hanging with movie stars" vs "guy running the Vatican". I'm no fan of either of them, but there's something odd about approving of one and not the other...

[akip]

The difference between the Dalai Lama and Pope Benedict is pretty much "exiled guy hanging with movie stars" vs "guy running the Vatican". I'm no fan of either of them, but there's something odd about approving of one and not the other...

nobelprize.org bio link (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1989/lama-bio.html)

exerpt:

"I always believe that it is much better to have a variety of religions, a variety of philosophies, rather than one single religion or philosophy. This is necessary because of the different mental dispositions of each human being. Each religion has certain unique ideas or techniques, and learning about them can only enrich one's own faith."


not exactly the pope's position.

http://www.philborges.com/photo_library/tibetanportrait/images/dalailama-web2.jpg

[jps]

I believe that in a free market economy, the cost of labor, purchasing power, etc, would eventually self-regulate. If you look, you can see that it might even be happening now, at least to some extent. The market has taken jobs overseas (tech jobs to India, Phillipines, etc) due to extremely low wages (an Indian tech support agent makes 1/10 what an American would make for the same job, but probably has a master's degree). At the same time, the workers in that country start to experience a greatly increased standard of living (same Indian tech support agent, while only earning 1/10 of his American counterpart, is earning 10 times what his average countryman is earning). In the meantime, loss of jobs hurts our economy, and our (currently outrageous) standard of living goes down. Over time, I believe the world economy would equilibrate if given the opportunity to operate freely. This might not sound good to us Americans, who have been on the fat end of the scale for quite some time now. However, I think it's imminent. And ultimately, it's fair.

If it's not profitable for developing nations to do the work, they simply will not do it. The only regulation I could see necessary would be to prevent such things as slave labor, where human rights are violated. (That's the only scenario I could think of for now, at least, that would call for government intervention.)
Understandable. Thomas Friedman in NY Times editorial page has been talking a lot lately about the "flattening" of the planet. Fairly similar notion to what you described above regarding rising education, standards of living, etc, in the global marketplace, technological capabilities to have 24 hour a day commerce from anywhere on the planet to anywhere on the planet and a leveling off of the american domination economically are essentially taking us to a place where the earth really is flat.
I don't know that it can happen completely to get us to a point where the market itself sets the standards ... specifically because of human rights abuses. Mostly because nations like the u.s. trade openly with nations like china where we have a huge trade deficit(if wal-mart were its own country they would be china's 8th largest importer), they own a lot of u.s. treasury bonds, and because of the that we don't have the ability to tell china to screw off until they end their human rights abuses. Plus our credibility in that area was kind of put in a bad light worldwide with current prisoner abuse/torture, sending "suspects" to known countries that torture people so that we can say that we didn't do the torture.

[minkles]

Economic Left/Right: -3.03
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.87

[rcc94]

Economic Left/Right: -7.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.36

Making the far point of the Dali Lama/Mandela triangle. No big surprises here.
Looks close to mine:
Economic Left/Right: -7.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.31

[Semiapies]

I'll just point out that the Nobel Peace Prize isn't what it's cracked up to be...

nobelprize.org bio link (http://nobelprize.org/peace/laureates/1989/lama-bio.html)

"I always believe that it is much better to have a variety of religions, a variety of philosophies, rather than one single religion or philosophy. This is necessary because of the different mental dispositions of each human being. Each religion has certain unique ideas or techniques, and learning about them can only enrich one's own faith."

not exactly the pope's position.

Two questions.

1) Would the pope be saying what he does if he were living in exile and on the goodwill of others?

2) How were people of other religions treated like in Tibet before the Chinese invasion?

[akip]

Two questions.

1) Would the pope be saying what he does if he were living in exile and on the goodwill of others?

2) How were people of other religions treated like in Tibet before the Chinese invasion?

i'm no more a tibetan buddhist than i am a catholic.

maybe this only proves the point that the disempowered can be wiser than the empowered.

btw, i like that pic 'cause the dalai lama looks like bruce willis.

[Johnnylama]

Economic Left/Right: -2.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.13

Interesting way to look at it...

[Semiapies]

i'm no more a tibetan buddhist than i am a catholic.
Neither am I. Which of course isn't the point. The point is that the Pope has vast resources and support and his own little sovereign country called the Vatican. The Dalai Lama has none of those and must, to put it bluntly, market himself to have any kind of support and keep any relevance. He's certainly isn't going to tell his fanbase that if they don't adopt Buddhism, they're just horribly wrong. Is that wisdom? Maybe.

(I'd personally venture that it probably does some good for the moral viewpoints of people to not be cloistered away in monasteries and Vaticans and have to live in our ever-so-horrible, nasty, consumerist secular society.)

It just gets me that I see people rant about the evil of the Pope, whether John Paul or Benedict, and then gush about the saintliness of the Dalai Lama.

[IZMatt18]

I forget the coordinates but I landed pretty much on the exact spot as Ralph Nader. I think according to that scale, a large majority of Americans would be leftist libertarians, even those who think they're more moderate in their beliefs. There's a lot of Americans whose knowledge of politics doesn't expand past their own demographic, which is sad.