How's your political compass read?

[Plavacek]

Political Compass test (http://64.224.165.166/politicalcompass/)

Test is a bit long, and seems to be slanted just a touch to the left.
Forgive me if someone already linked this up.
FWIW, I'm at -4.2, -4.2.

[bluddy_bloodnut]

i was: economic left/right 5.00
authoritarian/lbertatian 4.72

[Steve Wright]

Economic Left/Right: -5.88
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -6.82

Yup, last time I took it, it told me I was Ken Livingstone, and it's the same this time. I'm not developing at all. How depressing.

[screech-owl]

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -4.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.46

Woohoo. I'm Ghandi.

And I work in an office full of very conservative Republican lawyers (including a State Representative). Of course they never ask my opinion on anything.....

[Big Kahuna Burger]

Economic Left/Right: 1.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.59

If they took out those last two pages I'd probably a lot further toward the center in Authoritarian/Libertarian too. Economically I'm the same as Hitler [shudder]. It seems that in the UK I'm the closest to Simon Hughes. Care to enlighten me as to who he is exactly?

[Steve Wright]

Simon Hughes (http://www.simonhughes.org.uk/). See, he's a go-ahead politician, he has his own web page and everything.... He's the home affairs spokesman for the Liberal Democrats, our third largest political party, who used to be in the centre of British politics until the Labour part lurched suddenly to the right.

[Mr. Moto]

Economic Left/Right: 5.13
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -1.38


Milton Friedman

[Weird_AL_Einstein]

A lot of the questions are rigged, a few are difficult to understand, and there really needs to be a fifth "neutral" option. That said, I scored:

Economic Left/Right: 5.38 Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.15

The only other person in my quadrant seems to be this Charles Kennedy individual, 1996 vintage, about whom I know nothing. Anyone care to enlighten me?

[Jenner]

Economic Left/Right: -7.25
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -8.05

I'm way down there where even Ghandi fears to tread.

I don't know why I enjoy taking that type of quiz so much; I always know what the result's going to be.

[Steve Wright]

Originally posted by Weird_AL_Einstein
The only other person in my quadrant seems to be this Charles Kennedy individual, 1996 vintage, about whom I know nothing. Anyone care to enlighten me?

Do none of you know anything about the Liberal Democrats? He's the party leader.

[papertiger]

-4.00, -4.82 making me another Ken Livingstone-alike.

Weird Al Charles Kennedy is the likable Lib Dem party leader here in the U.K. I have no idea what he stands for but he was a lot chubbier and happier looking back in 1996. I think there must be a link between his current scrawny figure and dampened spirits and his rightward economic shift.

[Orual]

Economic Left/Right: -4.88
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.64


Does this mean I'm a pinko?

[Broodha]

Economic Left/Right: -6.13
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -6.82

[Yossarian]

First, I agree with what Weird_Al_Einstein said:

A lot of the questions are rigged, a few are difficult to understand, and there really needs to be a fifth "neutral" option.


Second, that said, it looks like me and Big Kahuna Burger could discuss politics without too much wailing and gnashing of teeth:

Economic Left/Right: 1.38
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.82

[ticker]

Economic Left/Right: -6.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -6.77

About as far from Iain Dickhead Smith as I could get. Suits me.

[divemaster]

I'm in the authoritarian/right quadrant on the graph.

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: 3.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: 2.15

And I agree some of the questions are poorly written.

[Achernar]

I took it in March and got (-2.88, -5.90).

When I was taking it, my friend told me that if you add a neutral position to a test, you remove 75% of its statistical validity.

[Skewbald]

Economic Left/Right: -6.75
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -8.67

Holy shit!

I didn't know I was an anarchist!

:eek:

[Skewbald]

So I'll guess I'll have to raise the black flag and throw molotov cocktails at the bank or something.

Sigh...

[Ferrous]

Economic Left/Right: -4.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -6.41

'Bout what I expected.

[Lodrain]

Economic Left/Right: -3.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.28

Well, I do like sitar music...

[BraheSilver]

Economic Left/Right: -1.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.05

I need to start getting passionate about things, it seems.

[BraheSilver]

Economic Left/Right: -1.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.05

I need to start getting passionate about things, it seems.

[Ranchoth]

I'm Economic Left/Right: -1.75 Authoritarian/Libertarian: -1.90. I guess that means I'm a pretty mellow guy...though if you look at my standing on most issues, it just looks like I want as many people either dead, or not reproducing, as possible. :eek:



Ranchoth
(Vlad the Impaler with an eye towards the arts?)

[Freudian Slit]

Whoohoo!!! I'm done.

Okay, I'm Economic Left/Right: -0.75
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.97

Hmmm. I always saw myself as more of a fascist than a libertarian. But I'm pretty close to the middle in terms of the economic one, which is true, IMHO. Stay the course, that's my spin on things. :)

[Netbrian]

Economic Left/Right: -2.63
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -7.33


Well... I'm a bit to the Economic left, but very strongly Libertarian. Go figure...

[ResIpsaLoquitor]

Economic Left/Right: -0.38
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -1.28

In other words, I'm almost smack in the center of this thing. I was a little spooked when I saw that.

I think this generally reflects where I am politically/morally, but I think the result was more because of a "law of averages" thing than because of the poorly-written questions.

[Ludovic]

Economic left/right: -4.38
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.64

i always knew i was socially liberal, but considered myself a fiscal conservative. I notice few questions regarding spending, more along the lines of "rights" of governments to intervene in the economy, if you define it that way, in terms of whether the govt has the right to intervene in the economy, that i am sort of to the left economically.

Just not so much that I dont believe that fiscal reforms such as welfare reform, social security reform, etc, are not worthlooking at, even if they bring harm to some people yet ultimately bring a greater reward to society as a whole through a lower natl debt. But i didnt see any questions on that.

"An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." I find that a particularly incomplete question. Yes, i believe that it would be just for an individual to recieve exactly the harm that they have visited upon others. Heck, i would go even further, in theory i would say that there's plenty of people who deserve death who did not mete it out themselves, serial criminals of any brand (theft, physical/sexual assault) especially. Does that give society the right to enact that punishment? no.

[5-HT]

I come out as
Economic Left/Right: 0.13
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.54

I was suprised I didn't come out further to the right economically, I have definately found that I've been moving to the left politically as I get older(not A LOT older, I'm only 24) but generally I thought the move was much more on a civil libertarian level than an economic one. I don't know who any of the UK politicians on the chart are, but apparently my views fall somewhere between Simon Hughes and Charles Kennedy, though slightly more libertarian than either of them.

[Ringo]

Economic left/right: 1.88
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -1.90

Whatever that means. Frankly, after reading the test, I don't think it really means very much (and that was an awful website to navigate - scroll, scroll, scroll...)

FWIW, I plotted closest to Freidman.

[Neurotik]

Economic: - 0.5
Authoritarian: -3.03

Woohoo! Closest to Charles Kennedy and Simon Hughes. That's about right, actually.

[dead0man]

Economic Left/Right: 2.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: 0.72

Some of those questions were pretty bad.
I'm pretty conservative economicaly IRL and I consider myself much more of libertarian than this shows. Would Thatcher and Hitler really score like that if they took the test? I dont think so. Blair is more Authoritarian than I am? I guessed I'd score closer to where that Friedman guy/gal scored.

dead0man

[Philosophocles]

Economic Left/Right: -9.13
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -9.03

That was a fun little test. Thanks.

[Kal]

Economic Left/Right: -6.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.72

Which puts me somewhere between Tony Benn and Ken Livingstone - Just about correct, I suppose.

[lel]

Economic Left/Right: -1.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.82

I'm near the center in the libertarian left quadrant, which seems to be fairly close to how I would represent my own views. I can't say anything about the politicians whose scores would be near my own, as I am not familiar with them.

[HPL]

Economic Left/Right: 0.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -3.44

Right on the damn line, and pretty far towards anarchy.

That sounds about right. I don't trust the left or right too much, and I don't trust Corporations or the Government.

Though I don't believe anarchy is better either, since it then just sets the scene for the emergence for a dictatorship or a feudal system, which helps no one.

I can't decide it if makes me moderate, a person with little faith in humanity, or just paranoid?

[HPL]

Economic Left/Right: 0.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -3.44

Right on the damn line, and pretty far towards anarchy.

That sounds about right. I don't trust the left or right too much, and I don't trust Corporations or the Government.

Though I don't believe anarchy is better either, since it then just sets the scene for the emergence for a dictatorship or a feudal system, which helps no one.

I can't decide it if makes me moderate, a person with little faith in humanity, or just paranoid?

[HPL]

sorry about the double post

[The Great Unwashed]

Economic Left/Right: -4.75
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -7.33

I find the tendency for people to fall along the main diagonal interesting -- those acquaintances of mine who I know to have scored off this diagonal always struck me as "odd". No offence intended to anyone.

BTW: The questions were not designed to be "good", or, "straight", and the neutral fifth option was deliberately missed out. There's an FAQ of the main page that says more about the design.

[The Great Unwashed]

Gulp -- I've just taken the test again (the previous results are from about a year ago), the score this time.

Economic Left/Right: -9.25
Authoritarian/Libertarian: : -6.77

What could have happened in the past year to move me four and a half clicks leftwards?

[Go alien]

Economic Left/Right: 1.13
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.10

Looks like I was once Charles Kennedy, :eek: but should now be starting my own party since no politician represents me.

I suspect that most dopers are libertarians since the boards are intrinsically anarchic.

[Shodan]

Economic Left/Right: 2.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -0.15


Holy shit, I'm Tony Blair.

Regards,
Shodan

[Daerlyn]

Economic Left/Right: -5.63
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.64

Dude, I'm Ghandi :D

[Umbriel]

Economic Left/Right: 0.63
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.92

A bit south and a hair to the right of center. Another retro-Charles Kennedy.

And I hope this hasn't been too traumatic a lesson in American parochialism for you, Steve Wright. You'll find there are few Americans who know anything about UK politics beyond the current PM, and a distressing number who don't know that.

[Achernar]

American parochialism? That seems a bit unfair. Do you think that most people from the UK could place Hu Yaobang, Abdurrahman Wahid, or Khaleda Zia on that chart?

[Rasa]

Economic Left/Right: -5.63
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -8.15

[capybara]

Economic Left/Right: -7.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -7.64


Hmm. Pretty left of Ghandi. Hey, Jenner, Shewbald--how're things in the neighborhood? But. . .

HOLY SHIT, Philosophocles! You make me look like a fascist!

[Deadly Nightlight]

-5.13 for the economic left/right
-3.13 for the authortarian/ liberterian

I am still trying to figure out who that puts me close to

[tarokaja]

I scored -7.38 and -7.33--in other words, both more socialist than I expected, and more libertarian than I expected. Go figure.

[donnerteaparty]

Economic Left/Right: -2.63
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -6.10

Closer to the center economically than I thought I'd be.

[AHunter3]

-1.25 / -5.44

lefty anarchist

:)

[AHunter3]

-1.25 / -5.53

lefty anarchist :)

[woolly]

Economic Left/Right: -2.63
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.95

Bloody hell, I used to be a tree hugging fascist, now I'm a bleeding heart liberal and, as the SO is now more authoritarian than me, I'm hen pecked to boot!

[Jenner]

Here are some stats for you guys:

Economic left/right:
Sample size: 46
Range: 14.63
Min: -9.25 (The Great Unwashed)
Max: 5.38 (Weird_AL_Einstein)
Mean: -2.07
Median: -2.63
Std Deviation: 3.72

Libertarian/Authoritarian:
Sample size: 46
Range: 13.75
Min: -9.03 (Philosophocles)
Max: 4.72 (bluddy_bloodnut)
Mean: -4.13
Median: -5.44
Std Deviation: 2.86

[Weird_AL_Einstein]

Originally posted by Jenner
Economic left/right:
Max: 5.38 (Weird_AL_Einstein)


The winnuh and still champeen :D. I think I would have scored a bit lower on authoritarian/libertarian if it hadn't been for the test bias (according to them, Hitler and Stalin were just slightly more authoritarian than Margaret Thatcher :rolleyes: ) , but I still likely wouldn't have beaten Philosophocles.

[Ludovic]

daerlyn wrote:
Dude, I'm Ghandi

FILM NAME!!!!!!!
(in the time honored tradition of "band name!")

[Sam Stone]

Economic Left/Right: 6.75
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -3.95

That's a pretty bad test. The questions are biased, and pretty much every bias I could see was designed to skew the results in one direction.

For instance, there were a lot of questions like this:

"If globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations."

"Corporations cannot be trusted to voluntarily respect the environment."

"It's a sad reflection on our society that something as basic as drinking water is now a consumer product."

But not a single question like this:

"Government cannot be trusted to serve the interests of the people"

"Power Corrupts. Therefore, government officials are more likely to become corrupted."

"I prefer an economy controlled by a myriad of companies rather than a single central authority".

The lack of such questions biased in the other direction suggests to me that this quiz has an agenda. The site claims to be completely academic and non-biased, but the banner at the top for 'One World Action" leads you to a fairly far-left activist organization, from what I could tell by a quick perusal.

For an example of a biased quiz, equally worthless, from a Libertarian perspective, try this one: http://www.self-gov.org/quiz.html

It would be interesting for the same people to take this quiz, and see if the results come out differently. If so, that would suggest that the tests are biased and unreliable.

What a shock. When I took the test, it said I was a 'libertarian'. I'll bet most people who don't think they are libertarians will score the same way. Because the test is rigged.

[Sparc]

Good show Sam.

I came out Libertarian Centrist slightly on the Left[?] in the first and [sic] Left Liberal in the second.

Fact is that I would describe myself as a Moderate Conservative with some Libertarian tendencies.

Indicates that the first one is more correct?

Not a chance in hell. As Sam points out they have an agenda, which pulls me leftwards and shoves me libertarianside. Had Sam's questions been part of the questionnaire I am fairly certain I would have ended up somewhere further Right and less Libertarian than I did.

The second test is just utter bunk if you ask me. Liberal Left? Yeah right! I know some members around here that would agree, but they neither know how to read me nor can they discern their derriere from their face. I probably ended up out on the left side because like Sam indicates the bias of the site probably wants you to end up Libertarian, when I answer it overreacts completely and chucks me out into the pinko camp.

Would love to hear what the second test does to someone who scores Left in test one as well as what both do to a full blooded Liberal.

BTW I don’t think any of those tests work very well for Europeans. I happen to have a more or less American political and social value system for reasons too complex to get into here. Let’s just say that In the states I’m a very Moderate Conservative and here in Europe I come across as being a raving ultra-Libertarian. Catch that in test if you can!

Sparc

[rsa]

Economic Left/Right: -0.88
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.79

Which seems closest to Simon Hughes. He's a good guy, right?

[Lorenzo]

Wow, lots of lefty/libertarians on this board.

Economic: +1.13
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.0

It's not so much that I don't feel strongly about anything, it's more like a lot of my opinions are contradictory.

[TVGuy]

Economic Left/Right: -2.38
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -6.67

I've suspected for a long time that I'm more conservative economically than socially...

[Weird_AL_Einstein]

On the test submitted by Sam, I scored 90 90, firmly in the libertarian quadrant. Although I seem to recall taking a version of that test with more questions on it, and scoring a bit lower. Or was I just imagining it...

[Philosophocles]

Just curious: what was the point of the astrology question?

Was the idea that people who are more proned to cling to superstitions would be more likely to accept an authoritarian regime? Or was the question intended to monitor tolerance toward spiritual beliefs that might be seen as somewhat out of the mainstream? Or perhaps an excessively rigid adherence to belief in the scientific method? (I can envision leftie peacenik hippies listening to the Fifth Dimension tune "Age of Aquarius/Let the Sun Shine In"...then again, it occurs to me that Himmler and some of the Nazis were quite interested in astrology too, so what then would be the ideological significance of astrology?)

For what it's worth, I don't think astrology is a real science. There are good people who believe in it; there are bad people who believe it. But I simply haven't seen any evidence that astrology explains the way things are, the way things will be, or the way things ought to be.

It seems to me that positive or negative views of astrology are more essentially rooted in epistemology than in ideology.

[Osakadave]

Originally posted by Weird_AL_Einstein


The winnuh and still champeen :D. I think I would have scored a bit lower on authoritarian/libertarian if it hadn't been for the test bias (according to them, Hitler and Stalin were just slightly more authoritarian than Margaret Thatcher :rolleyes: ) , but I still likely wouldn't have beaten Philosophocles.

Got you beat.
Economic Left/Right: 5.88
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.46

I have to say that was a very biased test.

[Mephisto]

Economic Left/Right: -3.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.90

[cainxinth]

Economic Left/Right: -3.25
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.41

[p@cific@812]

Economic Left/Right: -3.25
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.92

I will post until everything stops!
:D

[Michael Ellis]

Economic Left/Right: 1.25
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.82

[Erika]

Economic Left/Right: 2.38
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -6.10

[Angel of the Lord]

Economic Left/Right: -4.88
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -7.69

Which is about what I thought I'd be. Go figure.

[bernse]

Economic Left/Right: 2.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: 1.03

[RickJay]

I agree with Sam. What I find suspicious about the test is the sheer number of extreme scores. If people on the SDMB were actually that far off political center I think we would have noticed by now, because it's just about the only thing we'd discuss.

The test questions are just brutal, frankly. They're heavily biased towards a sort-of-liberal slant on the latest campus-newspaper fad issues.

[IzzyR]

Economic Left/Right: -1.13
Authoritarian/Libertarian: 0.21

A moderate leftist score, for one of the most right-wing right-wingers on this board. I don't think so - the test is skewed. (Specifically, I think many of the questions are simplistic, so I disagreed with many of the positions that they were presumably trying to associate with the Right).

[Netbrian]

Suprising myself even, I'll agree with Sam Stone. This test has several questions making the left-wing position seem to be the default. Accuracy would be much improved if it either added questions biased in all directions, or tried to keep it as neutral as possible.

But it is still fun.