# 2D political compass: where do you sit ? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 17, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594 "2004-02-17T02:55:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 2:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/1 "2004-02-17T02:55:46Z")
It would be interesting to find out where dopers political views rank on [the Political Compass](http://www.politicalcompass.org). This link is to a survey that tests your political views and maps them. Rather than the old left-right spectrum, it uses 2 axis. I’ll tell you mine soon. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@Kilvert\_s\_Pagan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kilvert_s_Pagan)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/2 "2004-02-17T03:03:48Z")
I took this test about 6 months ago. It’s a big improvement over left/right. I don’t remember my exact scoring, but I was delighted to score really near Ghandi and, just as importantly, to differ from George W Bush in two dimensions, not just left/right. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 3:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/3 "2004-02-17T03:22:54Z")
Economic Left/Right: -2.62 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.21 Pretty close to the Dalai Lama. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/4 "2004-02-17T03:33:02Z")
That site is hard to navigate with my browser. According to the rather opinionated folks (lots of those questions offered no answers that I could embrace) who generated the site, my score, by their accounting, was: Economic Left/Right: 4.00 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.28 and I fall in the quadrant where there is no one. ---
**Author:** ![chicksdigscars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/838e76/32.png) [@chicksdigscars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chicksdigscars)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/5 "2004-02-17T03:33:09Z")
Economic Left/Right: -8.12 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.62 A little more to the left of Gandhi. ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/6 "2004-02-17T03:36:10Z")
Upon further reflection (well, about three minutes’ worth), I don’t think they’re on to much of anything. ---
**Author:** ![fruitbat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/58f4c7/32.png) [@fruitbat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/fruitbat)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/7 "2004-02-17T03:47:54Z")
I had to redo it to remind myself. I am in no-man’s land at Economic 7.5 and Social -5.4. The test is biased towards pushing people to the left so I had to answer some of the more inflammatory questions as if they were a bit more nuanced. ---
**Author:** ![Atomic\_Badger\_Racing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/eada6e/32.png) [@Atomic\_Badger\_Racing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Atomic_Badger_Racing)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 3:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/8 "2004-02-17T03:50:07Z")
Economic Left/Right: -2.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.69 ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/d26b3c/32.png) [@Mr.Blue\_Sky](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Blue_Sky)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/9 "2004-02-17T03:59:24Z")
Economic Left/Right: -4.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.49 ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 4:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/10 "2004-02-17T04:17:30Z")
Economic Left/Right: -2.75 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.77 Socially, I’m more liberal than the Pope, but not as much as Mandela. And MUCH more “authoritarian” than anyone else so far, on the test site or on this board, I think. Call me a Compassionate Fascist, then! Ranchoth (“Save the whales, Nuke the commies. Make love AND war!”) ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 4:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/11 "2004-02-17T04:21:10Z")
The Libertarian party has been using a similar compass for about 25 years, now. About the only difference between the [Politicalcompass.org](http://Politicalcompass.org)’s chart and our Nolan chart is that we put the Libertarian axis on top (naturally). [Here](http://www.lp.org/quiz/) is their version of the same test but shorter – only five economic and five personal issue questions. Oh, and on the [Politicalcompass.org](http://Politicalcompass.org) test I came out 1.25 -5.00 DD ---
**Author:** ![Bricker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/977dab/32.png) [@Bricker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bricker)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 4:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/12 "2004-02-17T04:34:35Z")
Huh. Your political compass Economic Left/Right: 7.00 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.46 ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 4:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/13 "2004-02-17T04:38:41Z")
According to the Libertarians I’m a Libertarian. Surprise, surprise. ---
**Author:** ![Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/soul_brother_number_two/32/3515_2.png) [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 4:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/15 "2004-02-17T04:43:22Z")
Economic Left/Right: -7.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.38 I’m left of the Dalai Lama. I didn’t know that was possible. I agree with Fruitbat, and to a lesser extent Ringo. (Geez, if a non-Doper read that sentence, they would think I was talking about the Banana Splits or something.) The test is biased toward the left, and the questions were not exactly nuanced. There were several where none of the answers really applied. Interesting on a surface level, though. ---
**Author:** ![cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e95f7d/32.png) [@cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cynic)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 5:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/16 "2004-02-17T05:10:47Z")
Economic Left/Right: +5.62 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.46 ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 6:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/17 "2004-02-17T06:02:11Z")
Econ: -6.25 Soc: -2.05 Huh. I always assumed I was more of a facist. 🙂 I guess it’s all relative ---
**Author:** ![antechinus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/fbc32d/32.png) [@antechinus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/antechinus)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 6:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/18 "2004-02-17T06:59:09Z")
Im more libertarian than Ghandi, probably about where the Dali Lama sits. Economic Left/Right: -5.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.69 Some of the questions seemed more like an IQ test. Astrology predicts the future? Some people are born lucky? Gimme a break I wonder if this test was performed on a random population, where the average would lie - I hope at 0, 0. I wonder how this would change with time? ---
**Author:** ![leenmi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/f1d935/32.png) [@leenmi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/leenmi)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 7:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/19 "2004-02-17T07:20:01Z")
Economic Left/Right: 0.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.51 I’m just below center of it all. That sounds about right, although I’m not sure I liked the way some of those questions were phrased. ---
**Author:** ![Eli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@Eli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eli)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 7:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/20 "2004-02-17T07:37:36Z")
Economic Left/Right: -2.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.15 Odd. I expected a positive economic rating. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2004, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594/21 "2004-02-17T08:21:18Z")
Economic Left/Right: -2.75 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.97 It’s too bad they didn’t have the normal “somewhat agree/disagree” catogories these things usually do, since with the wording of a lot of the questions you had to pick agreeing or disagreeing with something you have little opinion on. For example: Do religious schools play a positive role in education? Well, they’re not playing an overtly negative role so I had to pick agree. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/2d-political-compass-where-do-you-sit/229594.md?page=2)