I can’t believe the average score is 90!
I got a 33.
I’ve just finished reading the first chapter. And he appears to make a major mistake in his major experiment. Two, actually. First, he’s using a narrow demographic: students who are young and less wise and less experienced. Second, he’s failed to check his results against actual reality: for most of history, humans have been ruled by authoritarians (and much still are) and yet we’re still here. I can therefore - for the moment - nihilipilificate his experiment. That opinion may change as I read further. I’ll also note that (so far, unless I’ve missed it) he’s made no mention of any correllation with sex: maybe there is none, but IME males tend to be more authoritarian than females. His description of what happenned in his big experiment with the non-authoritarians seems very reminiscent of female playground behaviour.
True to a point, though he uses “Right-wing” as a term of art:
(which I think is a dumb move, like the “Brights” trying to insist that everyone ignore the “intelligent” gloss the word normally has), but nevertheless he points out that die hard supporters of a Communist regime would still be “right-wing authoritarians,” though their politics are to the extreme left.
And yeah, he himself points out that we all know we’re going to be scored on an authoritarian scale, so that will skew our answers. On the other hand, I do think that I’m just naturally anti-authoritarian, and my dislike of the idea of being labeled an authoritarian follower flows from the same natural tendencies that make me a suspicious-of-government, less than 100% straight, atheist, feminist, war-averse, porn-loving, nudist-sympathizing, natural childbirthing, extended breastfeeding, freethinking nonconformist, rather than the other way around.
I got a 34; most of my extra points came from disagreeing with the wording rather than the sentiment. I’m surprised to see that the average is so high.
- Wow, that’s a lot higher that I expected. A lot of it was in the wording of the questions though.
I got a 45.
Must have been all the Heinlein I read growing up.
I got a 61. Giles feel free to put me on your ignore list.
The wording on some questions were awkward. I was annoyed by question 11. Especially the sexual preferences part. I have no problem with gays, bisexuals, heterosexuals or even Captain Jack Harkness’. But if someones preference is 5 year old children than I say no you should not be entitled to that preference. To clarify if one has those feelings I am not saying they should be experimented on to remove those feelings just that one should not act on those feelings.
I don’t have anyone on my ignore list. However, I did not have interpreted “sexual preferences” in that statement to include pedophilia, so I was happy to agree with it to a certain extent. I didn’t agree with it fully, because it seemed to imply that every one should be different just for the sake of being different, whioch seems a bit extreme to me.
I got 41. It would have been at least 14 points lower if I didn’t “slightly agree” with:
The “old-fashioned ways” and the “old-fashioned values” still show the best way to live.
and
Our country will be great if we honor the ways of our forefathers, do what the authorities tell us to do, and get rid of the “rotten apples” who are ruining everything.
Sorry, but values and abiding the law are somewhat important in society. I wasn’t whole-heartedly pouncing on these but what’s not to agree with there?
I got a 45. Like others, I disagree that I have to admire anyone. I also didn’t like the language of some of the questions: that some groups should be silenced. I don’t think any group should be silenced, whether I agree with their aims or not. Also anything about our leader (“I love the Leader!”) quashing “evil” etc.
I surprised myself by getting 36.
too high, aaaarrghhhh!
ah well.
- Of course it’s obvious as you’re answering the questions how each one is going to affect your score. The one that increased my score the most, “Homosexuals and feminists should be praised for being brave enough to defy ‘traditional family values’,” reads to me that defying traditional family values is in itself praiseworthy, irrespective of the motivation. That would be a bit too extreme to me.
I got a 1. That’s after my response to the first question, and then I Fought The Man by refusing to answer any more.
I got a 32. All that talk of traditional “morality” had me writing -4s all over the place.
Oh, and talk of “traditional family values” reminds me of a bit that Rick Mercer once did. “I believe that we should uphold the traditional definition of marriage as a union between a man and a woman… of the same race (and the wife being submissive and obedient to the husband).”.
- I’m a hard libertarian. And I could see fellow libertarians scoring close to a hundred - it would be consistent to have a strong preference for traditional gender roles and disdain for abortion/gays/whatever without seeking to exert government power on those preferences.
Well, I got a 49. Never thought of myself as authoritarian (and, according to the test, I’m not, just more so than all of you godless hippies), but I got there by answering honestly, as I understood it.
Take statement 5: “It is always better to trust the judgment of the proper authorities in government and religion than to listen to the noisy rabble-rousers in our society who are trying to create doubt in people’s minds.” I don’t agree that it’s always better, and I certainly don’t agree that you should trust the proper authorities because they are the proper authorities, and least of all I agree that the authorities in religion should be listened to at all, but I do agree that the authorities in government tend to be right more often than noisy rabble-rousers.
Or statement 17: “There are many radical, immoral people in our country today, who are trying to ruin it for their own godless purposes, whom the authorities should put out of action.” Yes, I think there are. Neo-Nazis and the like. That doesn’t make me authoritarian.
Those two statements netted me 13 points all on their own.
This sort of hits on why I think the test makes no sense. I believe that old-fashioned ways or values show the best way to live, but I don’t wish to force them on anyone by law, but this test assigns extra “authoritarian” points for believing in old-fashioned values.
And the real doozie was your last question. Honor our forefathers, check. Do what the authorities tell us, umm, if you mean respect the law and don’t rape, murder, and pillage, then sure. If you mean that if the local mayor orders me to kill my family at gunpoint, then absolutely no.
Get rid of “rotten apples” who are ruining everything? You mean peaceful voices of dissent, or people firebombing abortion clinics or fur processing plants?
Too many variables.
23 here. No real surprise.
- Must be showing my age.
I was neutral on #5, which got me 5 points:
It is always better to trust the judgment of the proper authorities in government and religion than to listen to the noisy rabble-rousers in our society who are trying to create doubt in people’s minds
I think when it comes to controversial subjects, ‘proper authorities’ and ‘noisy rabble-rousers’ are on extreme ends. My opinions tend to be in between.
I support authorities when they take action based on facts and investigations. I also find that I tend to favor government over Big Business (who I consider the real ‘rabble-rousers’ sometimes) on a number of historical issues. I don’t think the FDA, FAA, or SEC are perfect, but I support their existence. I’ll question their policies when something goes wrong, but I don’t want an unregulated, purely free market. In fact, in that case, Big Business becomes the ‘proper authorities’, and I’ll distrust them, too.
(Sorry for the economics slant–politics gets tied to who controls the money a lot.)
I got dinged 5 points on #12:
12. The “old-fashioned ways” and the “old-fashioned values” still show the best way to live.
I learned my values from my parents, who are the Greatest People on Earth. And they learned their values from their parents, and so forth. Hence, ‘old-fashioned’ ways and values. What’s wrong with that? Are honesty, ethics, education, kindness, forgiveness, tolerance, and respect that bad?
To challenge (oooh) those who disagree, what are ‘new-fashioned’ values nowadays? The opposite of what I listed?
Maybe I read too much into these questions. 
I still can’t believe the average score was 75. Then again, if I lived in Canada, I might trust then authorities more, too. Although the recent move to consider a more stringent DCMA gave me a shock :eek:
I think a lot of people here are just answering so that their score appears low without reading the directions or questions.
[quoty]What our country really needs is a strong, determined leader who will crush evil, and take us back to our true path.
[/quote]
You people really want a weak leader, who supports evil and will take us down the wrong path? Cause that’s how to get a 1 one on the question.
I would like somebody to explain how they got less than 5 points on that question.