Political Compass
Back in the infancy of this blog, Nan posted about being called a Communist. And then several others, including myself, submitted comments with our own personal I-was-once-called-a-Communist-too stories. And they touched our hearts.
Well, the other day I was called a Democrat--something I have never called myself--and I was pissed. The term is not as dirty as "Republican," but nevertheless it's a label that I have not voluntarily adopted and I resented that someone else would put it on me. Given that I don't feel especially knowledgeable about all "the issues," and consequently a little uncomfortable making anything other than general idealogical commentary, I can't say where I stand--therefore neither can anyone else. All that can be said is that I'm not a Repulican and it's ignorant to define things in the negative, so the labeling stops there... until now!
I decided to take a quiz to see roughly where I fall, when asked all the pertinent questions. I took one of these a long time ago and was deemed a "progressive," which doesn't mean much in this bipartisan political climate. This quiz is neat though because it doesn't just use the liberal/conservative line, but two axes together (authoritarian/liberatarian and communist/neo-liberal). Also, it gets away from just American partisan definitions and puts you on a more global scale. For example, it looks like the Dalai Lama and I are bff*. Ghandi kind of thinks the same things we do, but his clothes aren't as cute so we don't like to be associated with him.
--JB (sorry, I keep forgetting to sign my name)
* best friends forever
posted by JB @ 5:15 AM
11 Comments:
Just had to try it.
Economic Left/Right: 1.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.92
-Chris
I couldn't resist either:
Economic Left/Right: -5.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.18
I guess this confirms that I'm more liberal than Chris. Who knew?
The Dalai Lama and I are bffn*.
- Nan
* best friends for now
Nan, my moderate friend-
This is an intruiguing little quiz, but I think in suggests more questions than it answers.
1. What would it mean to be at 0,0 (the center)?
2. Where is the middle of American politics? What is the range?
3. Why are there so few famous people "below the line?" Why is my neighborhood so particularly lonely?
My wife Melanie is a Left/Right -4.25 Lib/Auth -3.49, and I love here anyway.
-Chris
Economic Left/Right: .50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.82
Smack in the middle, leaning libertarian.
Chris,
I had the same questions. See? We're not all that different from each other.
First let me say that since I'm now the most liberal contributor to the blog (Guille is the only one I see as real competition), I've been cheated. I think I gave some fairly conservative answers to questions having to do with the economy. I was surprised to see such a high leaning to the left there.
About your first question, I think we first have to figure out what IS the center (0,0)? Apparently, Alex is pretty close, which makes me wonder if it is naturally leaning towards what many of us consider "the Right." The fact that I was surprised to see myself so far to the left may also suggests this. On the other hand, my notion of the middle could be way off and Alex is actually as middle-of-the-spectrum as they come. Knowing his thoughts on fiscal policy, that would surprise me. I guess the idea of a middle is largely subjective. The real answer as far as this quiz goes lies in knowing a bit more about the authors of the quiz. I sensed from the wording of the questions that they were more on the liberal side, but who knows.
WOW! You're absolutely all alone. You have your own little quadrant. You know who might fit in there with you? Arnold Schwarzenegger. Maybe even John McCain. Also, Alex is technically in your little box, so it’s not entirely odd that you’re there. You, Alex and I seem to share some tendency towards social liberalism, which obviously makes me happy. Maybe we can go to a protest together some time.
That is, I find it hard to believe that Bush is so extreme to the right and authoritarian compared to this origin when “his people” are in power throughout the government. I find it interesting that he has endorsed so much in government spending and they still consider him so far to the right. That makes me wonder if they’re being a little narrow in their definition of the left/right line, maybe overemphasizing the role of tax cuts in defining economic conservatism.
I wish I had stored my answers. I think you’d be surprised by some of them and you’d also question my large liberal numbers.
I also took the test, and although I didn't save my answers or score, I did make a mental note that I was about a
-7/-7
making me (I guess) the most "progressive" scoregetter reporting on this blog so far, by a notch. Like Nan, I'm somewhat surprised to have been so far out in the wing, given a few answers I thought would surely peg me closer to the middle.
Has anything like this sort of political measurement been done more randomly and more widely? I must have been. I wonder where the U.S. average would be, and how it would compare to scores in other societies. Perhaps such data would help contextualize or even recalibrate this tool.
I'm back from the dead. Actually, I'm back from Tennessee and Utah, so it's pretty much the same thing. (You can't imagine how f-ing hard it is to find a restaurant open in Salt Lake City at night.)
I took yer little quiz and scored myself a -5 / -5. Not too shocking if you know me.
Like Guille, I found myself answering the "Agree" or "Disagree" most of the time. The only time I can really answer "Strongly" is when I read the question and can *feel* the answer in the pit of my stomach.
--Joe
JOE! What a thrill to have you Fantastiko-ing again.
(Alex too. Don't be strangers, people!)
Wait, Joe. You're only a -5 on the social issues? That's disappointing. You're more moderate than I am? How can that be?
Nan
So I gave some thought to why so many of the famous people are "above the line" while I (and indeed 100% of Fantastico responders) are below it: bloggers are, by nature, seekers of alternative views and rejectors of authority and the orthodox view. This is confirmed by this graphic showing a scattergram of bolggers' scores. In contrast, many famous people got famous by buying into, and succeeding in, their environment.
I also saw a second survey with a similar goal: plot political views on a 2D chart. It appears to be a better quiz. You can find it here.It uses the same left-right primary axis with a secondary axis that is truly orthogonal to the first. The authors call the second axis pragmatism vs. idealism but caution the survey-taker not to take the labels too literally.
In any case, it showed a similar result for me: just slightly right of the origen (+1.28) and very slightly more pragmatic than idealistic (+1.10).
-Chris
So I gave some thought to why so many of the famous people are "above the line" while I (and indeed 100% of Fantastico responders) are below it: bloggers are, by nature, seekers of alternative views and rejectors of authority and the orthodox view. This is confirmed by this graphic showing a scattergram of bolggers' scores. In contrast, many famous people got famous by buying into, and succeeding in, their environment.
I also saw a second survey with a similar goal: plot political views on a 2D chart. It appears to be a better quiz. You can find it here.It uses the same left-right primary axis with a secondary axis that is truly orthogonal to the first. The authors call the second axis pragmatism vs. idealism but caution the survey-taker not to take the labels too literally.
In any case, it showed a similar result for me: just slightly right of the origen (+1.28) and very slightly more pragmatic than idealistic (+1.10).
-Chris
Chris -- great info you found. I'm going to try and find some time tomorrow to take quiz #2. I thought the scatterplot was intriguing to the max, and the scientist in me would love to see it in greater numbers and actual points (rather than initials). I mean, you can even detect a bit of the polarization we all have heard about, at play among bloggers. Still not a random sample, but an interesting one.
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