Despite its relative lack of nuance, every so often I re-take the political compass test to see how I stand. It rarely varies. As is usual, I’m slightly right of centre libertarian. No surprise there. And, just as a reminder from this mornings discussion, it does provide some objective evidence that libertarians are not of the far right… In this case, further to the left, in fact, than Gordon Brown.
Shouldn’t it be a circle rather than a square where extreme right & left meet at a pole?
Indeed. That in part is what I mean by lacking nuance. Also, while I come out as centre right, this is a generalisation – the questions don’t offer an indifferent option to the, so some I had to agree or disagree whereas, in fact, I am neutral.
I see what you mean. I too have taken this test before and found the penned in options a little frustrating.
Here’s a test I did some time ago which you may find of interest.
http://www.moral-politics.com/
Thankfully it’s got a none of the above option.
By the by I just re did that moral political test. Among the results was this beauty:
Of the 429,057 respondents 46% are more authoritarian than you.
Helpz!!! teh tubez iz ful of hitlerz.
Interesting.
Given that I regard myself a classic liberal, that fits.
The questions are just stupid, frankly. They use the word ‘should’ which is my most hated word.
e.g. the very first question could mean “Will globalisation help humanity in general rather than just multi-nationals?”, in which case the answer is ‘Yes’, or it could mean “Should politicians interfere in free trade under the foul excuse of ‘helping humanity'” in which case the answer is ‘No’.
Mark Wadsworth’s last blog post..A brief history of buy-to-let
I came out in the bottom left on the way to Nelson Mandela and the Dali Lama (did they really take this test?). Pretty much as I expected. Then again, I think Neil would come out as Libertarian on that test………
If I had taken the test twenty-odd years ago, I’d have been further to the left. That, unsurprisingly, is exactly where the Labour party was at that time. I’ve shifted slightly to the right economically, but remained solidly libertarian, while the Labour party has become authoritarian.
If Neil did it and came out libertarian, it would condemn the whole thing to the waste bin, methinks…
I too take it every now and again just to see whether anything has changed, it hasn’t!
We did an experiment where we tested the overall objectivity of it ie answering such that the results should be zero in both cases, it came out zero on the y axis and slightly to the left on the x axis.
As for left and right meeting at a certain point this is a commonly quoted piece rarely backed up with any substance whatsoever, as someone on the hard left I can say there is a vast difference between left and right because of the tenets by which we form our ideology. The right believe in uniformity and the sanctity of racial lineage they believe in a state-sponsored cohesion of everyone with their own kind. On the extreme left there is no state and the cohesion is supposed to be a collective formed out of people’s needs and skills on a more local model where things directly effect people. Obviously there’s a bit more to it than that but I wanted to rebut that slightly offensive assumption that once you get out to the peripheries wer’re all the same.
Red Baron’s last blog post..Advances In Automotive Technology
Baron, nice to hear from you again. To be fair, to the ordinary person, the difference between a despot on the right and a despot on the left is moot, to say the least. Both will treat liberty with contempt, both will use murder to achieve their aims.
Stalin or Hitler – which was worst? There’s only one way to find out….
And herein lies the very problem, the reason there is a lot of similarity is because you have two very repressive dictators seen as symbolising opposite poles but this is anything but the case. I would even question putting Stalin much on the left at all as there is little of his regime that differentiates him from a centre-politic state capitalist.
I therefore think that one must reappraise this view of the left, that is not to say there has not been much done in the name of the left that one holds one head at but it is not responsible for the Cold War and what is seen as the old enemy.
Red Baron’s last blog post..Advances In Automotive Technology