Political Compass Thread

[narad]

“Before taking the test: Please note that this isn’t a survey, and these aren’t questions. They’re propositions. To question the logic of individual ones that irritate you is to miss the point. Some propositions are extreme, and some are moderate. That’s how we can show you whether you lean towards extremism or moderation on the Compass. Your responses should not be overthought. Some of them are intentionally vague. Their purpose is to trigger reactions in the mind, measuring feelings and prejudices rather than detailed opinions on policy.“

Still seems like a bit of a cop out to me that people can read some of the circumstances of these questions in different ways, react to it, and are scored accordingly. Like if anyone ever criticizes my writing in the future, "no, no, it's intentionally vague."

 

[Daemoniac]

View attachment 84291 View attachment 84292
No surprises there lol!

*Nods head* Comrade.

I have little to add to the discussion. I feel like I've been radicalised so much these past few years, seeing what's happening (or not happening) in both the world (at least in the UK, Australia, and USA), and more specifically the US. At this point I just don't have much to the discussion, because the system is so fundamentally broken I feel like it's pointless, and I'm tired of arguing why I think people deserve better lives than they have.

 

[Daemoniac]

And maybe that makes me part of the problem right now, I don't know. I mean I still vote, if I lived in the US, I'd be holding my nose and voting Biden in, vomiting on the way out of the polling place... But I just don't feel that it's doing anything.

 

[Captain Butterscotch]

Still seems like a bit of a cop out to me that people can read some of the circumstances of these questions in different ways, react to it, and are scored accordingly. Like if anyone ever criticizes my writing in the future, "no, no, it's intentionally vague."

True, but I think the reaction it gets from you is important in judging where you are. An anarcho-libertarian would react differently to a socialist when presented with the statement, “Taxes are good.” Ultimately it’s an internet quiz and looking for it to be anything serious is maybe misguided but the preface is something a lot of people miss about this particular quiz and I just wanted to bring it up.

 

[Randy]

True, but I think the reaction it gets from you is important in judging where you are. An anarcho-libertarian would react differently to a socialist when presented with the statement, “Taxes are good.” Ultimately it’s an internet quiz and looking for it to be anything serious is maybe misguided but the preface is something a lot of people miss about this particular quiz and I just wanted to bring it up.

Yeah, it's a bit of a cop out to say the questions are leading. A lot of people underestimate the range of perceptions on a given topic would be. The fact a lot of people of varying political beliefs end up somewhere in the bottom left quadrant has less to do with the test trying to shame you there and more to do with cultural norms wherever you're from and how far we deviate from them. This is a somewhat homogeneous group in a somewhat homogeneous culture. The results would deviate much more if you were reading test results strictly from The_Donald members or people from North Korea, for example.

 

[Randy]

And maybe that makes me part of the problem right now, I don't know. I mean I still vote, if I lived in the US, I'd be holding my nose and voting Biden in, vomiting on the way out of the polling place... But I just don't feel that it's doing anything.

Yeah, TBH, I voted an idealist/protest vote in 2016 for Jill Stein (Green) and that ended up being just as big a compromise as voting for Hillary would've been. The Green Party pitch is/was basically that they 'walk the talk' of Democrats, and the Democrats don't intend on doing any of the shit they're saying anyway so why compromise? And as a protest vote that appealed to me but ultimately, you had the outcome you got (Trump) and then you had Jill Stein photographed sitting at a table with Putin (who directed his intelligence to help get Trump elected) and Michael Flynn.

In that context, you honestly have to rethink even the most supposedly principled 'third party' run in US politics. I expected Trump to lose but barring that, expected to send a message to the Democratic Party about not running crappy candidates and next election cycle we got more swamp anyway (albeit an improvement over Hillary and huge improvement over Trump). These third parties know their spoil-ability and in Jill Stein's case, very potentially worked directly with Trump/Russia to steer the election his way. The party and/or the candidate are exceptional levels of naive and/or actively undermining the same people they tell "not to compromise".

TBH, these days, an act of protest is honestly supporting insurgent candidates in primaries or on the local level, or doing as possumkiller did and leaving. Trying to send a message with a protest vote (meaning someone you know will lose) and might end up being as big or a bigger piece of shit sends no message unfortunately.

 

[Drew]

In that context, you honestly have to rethink even the most supposedly principled 'third party' run in US politics. I expected Trump to lose but barring that, expected to send a message to the Democratic Party about not running crappy candidates and next election cycle we got more swamp anyway (albeit an improvement over Hillary and huge improvement over Trump). These third parties know their spoil-ability and in Jill Stein's case, very potentially worked directly with Trump/Russia to steer the election his way. The party and/or the candidate are exceptional levels of naive and/or actively undermining the same people they tell "not to compromise".

TBH, these days, an act of protest is honestly supporting insurgent candidates in primaries or on the local level, or doing as possumkiller did and leaving. Trying to send a message with a protest vote (meaning someone you know will lose) and might end up being as big or a bigger piece of shit sends no message unfortunately.

To this, I'd add two additional observations:

I'd argue, with I think a fair amount of evidence, if you don't think that holding your nose and voting for a compromise candidate and then vomiting on your way out the door doesn't do anything, then simply turn to 2016 and look at all the people who didn't do that, and how narrow the margin actually was that elected us a white supremicist fascist hell-bent on breaking the democratic checks against his power, instead of merely "more of the same."

Second, I really wish I could find the pertinent clip from Henry Rollins' Think Tank, but I think he absolutely nails it, on the subject of protest voting, when he says that voting itself is the highest form of protest. Paraphrasing, he says that you're never going to feel about the president the way you do about Ozzy Ozzbourne (this was the mid-90s). You're never going to be out there going, "fuck yeah! the president rules!" (ok, ok, maybe Trump supporters are the exception to the rule here, lol). Because of this, you're always going to be choosing between the least of two evils, and you should absolutely think of your vote as a protest vote against the greater of two evils. That, when you vote, you should walk into the voting booth the way Joe Strummer taught you, with both middle fingers held high. I think he's 100% spot on here.

If voting for Ted Nugent would do the most harm to Trump's campaign, I'd vote for Ted Nugent with a smile on my face, a clean conscience, and a couple middle fingers directed at them both.

 

[lurè]

Prog Gandhi

 

[narad]

Prog Gandhi

 

[lurè]

^ that looks like Phil Collins and the rest of Genesis on LSD

 

[Andromalia]

Those are very 'murican questions. In europe, the social side of things isn't very much of a debate, as the conservative people against same sex marriage etc usually are the far right racist parties. To us, economics make 90% of the political arena.
That said, here are my scores. Nothing surprising, really, except I expected to be higher up in the authoritarian scale on the grid one.

I have little to add to the discussion. I feel like I've been radicalised so much these past few years

I haven't been radicalised, mainly because I find the people who are shouting 24 hours a day over the internet are tiring, even those who supposedly share opinions with me.
I'm mainly off TV, I have a sub to a national french newspaper and I keep it at that. While people are very busy creating "offended"-based businesses, pointing fingers and creating stupid new standards, I just go on with my life.

I think one of the major mistakes of the young adults today is to believe the boomers give a rat's ass about social media noise: they don't even go there to begin with. And while the young joke about "ok boomer"... the rich still have the money and power, and laugh about how the young are satisfied with empty victories and never take meaningful action.
While some are very busy posting on Tweeter, I was offered 30 days securities at 20% today. *That* is power. Who you know and will bring business to you is power. Getting offered the easy jobs for a lot of money is power.
Ranting on Twitter isn't.

 

[Faldoe]

 

[InHiding]

Some of the questions were pretty stupid and obviously not thought through, but I guess overall the test is ok. I did the first one and had exactly the same result as Andromalia a few posts above.

 

[Vyn]

I actually thought I'd be more Authoritarian than that, however apparently not haha.

 

[Kaura]

Wow, my goal was far-right.

 

[Faldoe]

I think the questions have a kind of Left encouraging bias in terms of how they’re worded.

 

[StevenC]

I think the questions have a kind of Left encouraging bias in terms of how they’re worded.

In the current political landscape, empathy seems like a leftist plot.

 

[vilk]

I thought he was referring to the questions that ask you outright if you're racist. Which brings me back to my only-half-rhetorical question posed earlier in the thread: isn't being racist necessarily part of being right wing? I mean, no one likes to put it so bluntly, but I'm not a political scientist, and I'm trying to figure out what exactly makes something (person, policy, movement) right wing vs left wing, and the major point of difference I keep coming back to is belief that humans are or should be treated as equals.

 

[MaxOfMetal]

I thought he was referring to the questions that ask you outright if you're racist. Which brings me back to my only-half-rhetorical question posed earlier in the thread: isn't being racist necessarily part of being right wing? I mean, no one likes to put it so bluntly, but I'm not a political scientist, and I'm trying to figure out what exactly makes something (person, policy, movement) right wing vs left wing, and the major point of difference I keep coming back to is belief that humans are or should be treated as equals.

The division of classes is a part of classical right wing politics, yes.

 

[TedEH]

I never read it as outright "right = racist", but more of a right = more interested in systems than people.