Paz on 29/6/2007 at 12:40
"We know our test is a bit rubbs, but maybe if we can fudge the worst parts into some kind of positive and add it to the FAQ we'll get away with it?"
Quote Posted by scumble
What's missing is a more refined spread of political opinions. It may be possible to create a better test by ditching the either/or agree/disagree model and replacing it with a better researched challenge/response model. Assuming that makes much sense.
I don't think the answer is a better test - you find out what people's politics are by the stuff they write and what they do. Half of the racist bastards in the world wouldn't tick a box saying "yep, I sure am racist" in an online test, but they will reveal themselves in prolonged conversation and deed. Even then, the term itself is quite subjective. Ahhh, fun and games.
It's all down to :words:
Aircraftkiller on 29/6/2007 at 14:41
Somehow I'm not surprised by the test results here haha ;)
Chimpy Chompy on 29/6/2007 at 14:57
Interesting looking at their readings for some recent elections. For one thing, Kerry ends up in the middle of the right, (guardian-readers nod in agreement, aGuy explodes). Then again so do New Labour which... I'm kinda skeptical of. Definitely centrist instead of left these days, but fully half-way across to the right?
Also, I was wondering "who actually falls in the left-authoritarian quadrant?" Answer: the BNP! Maybe invoking their name as part of attacking the "right" isn't so accurate, they're obviously STALINISTS!!:o
SD on 29/6/2007 at 15:53
Quote Posted by Chimpy Chompy
Interesting looking at their readings for some recent elections. For one thing, Kerry ends up in the middle of the right, (guardian-readers nod in agreement, aGuy explodes). Then again so do New Labour which... I'm kinda skeptical of. Definitely centrist instead of left these days, but fully half-way across to the right?
I think their assessment of British parties is some way off to be honest. They have the Green party as the most socially libertarian of the four, but there's nothing remotely libertarian about a party that only recently dropped its "one child per couple" policy. And apparently we Lib Dems are the most economically left-wing of the main parties, to the left of Labour, even though we're largely in favour of extending the free market while Labour have bumped taxes up and extended social security. It does make one wonder how they arrive at these coordinates.
Quote:
Also, I was wondering "who actually falls in the left-authoritarian quadrant?" Answer: the BNP! Maybe invoking their name as part of attacking the "right" isn't so accurate, they're obviously STALINISTS!!:o
I think everyone's aware by now that communism and fascism are different faces of the same coin. But the BNP are economically left wing in the sense that they would advocate a more centrally planned economy. This is nothing new really for fascism; Nazi Germany had its Four Year Plan, after all.
Convict on 29/6/2007 at 16:19
If one is pro-capitalism and wants to lower income tax for the bottom income tax bracket, would you be economically left or right on this I wonder?
SD on 29/6/2007 at 16:28
I don't think that particular policy is inherently left or right wing; it very much depends on what the rest of your economic agenda consists of.
Muzman on 29/6/2007 at 16:58
There was some study done a couple of years ago that involved putting people through a city managment sim somewhat like Sim City. But participents weren't god; they had to deal with politics and interest groups and regular popular opinion along the way.
Their political compass was taken before hand (or some similar survey) to determine what sort of politics they percieved themselves to have. Then they had to manage this city through some situations and see how they played it.
The interesting thing was that people rarely stuck to these ideological principles when faced with everyday practicalities. Hard conservatives often saw reason in making environmentally sound and interventionist policy descisions. The Liberals often found themselves reducing taxes and..uh.. liberalising some programs to attract population growth etc (It was an American study so I don't think the political spectrum was vast. You couldn't be all socialist, I don't think).
Anyway, it sounded pretty cool, and gives an idea how complex a study has to be to get that sort of thing out of people.
SD on 29/6/2007 at 19:53
Quote Posted by Muzman
Hard conservatives often saw reason in making environmentally sound and interventionist policy descisions. The Liberals often found themselves reducing taxes
What sad times we live in when the tags "conservative and "liberal" have become so abused that traditional conservative values such as environmental protection and traditional liberal policies like lower taxes are considered contrary to those philosophies.
Quote Posted by SD
I never realised there were so many libertarian socialists around... thank fuck the lazy bastards don't vote!
Quote Posted by D'Juhn Keep
For who :o
Noam Chomsky, most probably.
Maybe there is a God after all ;)
Jason Moyer on 29/6/2007 at 21:15
Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: 7.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.28
scumble on 2/7/2007 at 11:43
Quote Posted by Paz
I don't think the answer is a better test - you find out what people's politics are by the stuff they write and what they do. Half of the racist bastards in the world wouldn't tick a box saying "yep, I sure am racist" in an online test, but they will reveal themselves in prolonged conversation and deed. Even then, the term itself is quite subjective. Ahhh, fun and games.
I wasn't thinking of it as an "answer" to anything, just an interesting exercise. It would be interesting to think about what the indicators of a person's political stance are without trying to turn it into a test.
Ultimately, I reckon most people are very difficult to place in a political "zone" in the first place. It seems that often people get conned into thinking their views are simpler than they actually are to get them to fall into some kind of "line of opinion".
