Paz on 27/6/2007 at 17:03
Quote Posted by Fragony
Seems like I need to iron my brown shirt and polish my boots and go for a little march.
It's not entirely inaccurate then! ho ho
Quote Posted by jasee
Phew, Paz, that's too intelligent for me*, although I think I understand what you are talking about
Sorry, it was a bit more overblown than necessary really. All I'm trying to say, I think, that it's fine having statements like "in most cases the colour orange is to be preferred to green" to agree/disagree with, but they only tell you things up to a point. In the worst cases, they act as a "lead" in themselves, drawing you towards a binary-style answer rather than opening up wider thought.
Basically if you get a shock result that says you've been a socialist all along, but you've never really thought that at all ... it's probably the result which is wrong, due to the methodology of the test.
I'm pretty suspicious of any broadly "calculated" methods of defining political stances. It's part of the same wacky modernist phase of human development which thought everything could be measured on a graph or a chart. I don't think it works like that.
Still, it's good for a laaarrrf eh?
jasee on 27/6/2007 at 18:11
Quote Posted by Paz
Still, it's good for a laaarrrf eh?
Well yes ... Despite studying UK politics for a couple of years at school, I have never been a political animal.
My view is that - for an average Jo like me (and in fact 99% of the population), it does not matter who or which party holds government - cos eventually they will stiff you ... It's all spin at the end of the day in my view:laff:
Schattentänzer on 27/6/2007 at 18:22
Lower left corner, about Kolya's position.
I agree with Paz, the questions are rather stupid.
Where's the "Sometimes, explosives are a valid civilian democratic tool" option?
aguywhoplaysthief on 27/6/2007 at 18:25
What I find interesting is that they show where international leaders fit on the spectrum - and there are no international leaders in my quadrant. Further proof that the rest of the world is a scary place!
Also, hilariously, according to the same map of leaders, GWB, Tony Blair, and John Howard are all more neo-liberal than I am, which is almost certainly not the case.
demagogue on 27/6/2007 at 21:02
I don't like this test for the same reasons Paz was talking about. So many of the questions are just absurd, setting up false dilemmas, and so many issues today defy left/right that to trust commitments based on this kind of poll would be beside the point if you were actually trying to manage a government.
My result is probably skewed because I punished leading questions, prompting emotional stances rather than political ones. I mean, everybody who has internet access is for "humanity",
especially those with corporate salaries. Or ones making stupid over-assumptions. And I never voted "strongly..." out of principle that you either agree/disagree, no need to dredge up a bunch of emo partisan vitriol. I'm probably closer to Van HellSing in reality. Depends on the issue, really.
Also, I wish it had distribution information. It's different if you are centering on one spot, or if - more like me - you have a range of positions across the spectrum (out of principled balancing, not just schizophrenia) that just happen to balance out at one place.
Anyway, for the record (btw, how does one resize img tags? be nice to make this 85%):
Inline Image:
http://i8.tinypic.com/4yrl5hk.gifMalygris on 27/6/2007 at 21:53
Economic left/right: -6.38
Social libertarian/authoritarian: -3.69
Which from where I sit just proves that Paz may think it's bullshit but he went all the way through to the end anyway.
Paz on 27/6/2007 at 21:58
I was interested in how my results might differ from six years ago!
Not a lot, clearly. This time through I went STRONGLY for pretty much everything (because hey, if you're going to support or resist something you may as well do it wholeheartedly). Seems like I must have done that last time, too.
It's bullshit for "discovering" any political depth to a person, and I think it's fundamentally flawed as a test - but it can be moderately intriguing in other ways.
AR Master on 28/6/2007 at 02:26
.
Shug on 28/6/2007 at 02:40
Economic Left/Right: -1.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.90
I forgot how odd some of the sections were, such as one about the efficiency of a one-party state as compared to a regular democracy - as though the question could possibly have two different answers
