Oh, I don’t know about that. In the [thread=482185]current thread[/thread] about the Canadian federal election, Sam Stone is clearly a Conservative supporter, while RickJay, Leaffan and possibly even featherlou appear to lean this way. From what I remember Uzi is another Conservative supporter. There are also a few supporters of left-wing parties (Gorsnak, matt_mcl, Le Ministre de l’au-delà and a few others I don’t remember) but they don’t seem to be such a large majority, if they are even a majority.
I also know of a few British right-wing posters (Quartz, Lust4Life and possibly chowder?) and Australian ones (TheLoadedDog), but I couldn’t tell if their views are in the majority among nationals of their country here.
Oh, and in case somebody’s interested, I redid the Political Compass test and got this:
Economic Left/Right: -2.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.03
I’m significantly less left-wing than the two last times I did it, which was more than three years ago.
To the OP: The problem with your list is that many of the members on it don’t normally post in political threads.
The question “does the board lean left” must be answered by content of political threads. For instance a “Doper picture thread”, being non-political, has no leaning.
I’d guess that Starving Artist’s 98/2 left leaning is pretty close to accurate with regard to those who post in political threads.
On that political test with the red dots representing the members here, I wonder who was the authoritarian conservative all the way in the upper right hand corner? Is Pat Buchanan a member here or something? Whoever that is, must be mighty lonely.
Despite the fact the test asks libertarian-leading questions, I scored around average fiscally and very liberal socially, which I’m pretty much in agreement with. (I’m not going to take it again due to its biases.)
They also didn’t add foreign policy. I’m centrist or even slightly right-leaning (especially compared to the rest of the world!) since I think we should have a strong military and not be afraid to use it, but I would make diplomacy goals based on human rights and humanitarian concerns, not just our narrow self-interest.
Ahem! I may come across as right-wing, but my politics are all over the place (being pro-abortion and wanting legalisation of all narcotics is hardly right-wing, is it?). Last time I took one of those tests, it showed me as mildly Libertarian. I’d suggest that appearing as right-wing is an artefact in part of the more active members of the Board being broadly left-wing, and in part of my engaging in debates with left-wingers. Granted that I’m likely to be to the right of many here, but that doesn’t make me a right-winger. And I’d suggest people bear that in mind when judging others - both ways, of course.
Quick question, I believe that you will defend Thatcher the way I defend Reagan. Is that correct?
If so, on this board, we both are to the right of the active posters in GD & the Pit. This despite us not being to the right overall.
The numbers showed **Brutus **below the graph. I don’t remember him, was he really that scary or was he just playing with the test?
It’s certainly consistent with a libertarian political philosophy.
Possibly. I’ve noticed you debating with left-wing and pro-Obama American posters, and in the [thread=483880]piss and moan thread[/thread] you’ve said that Democrats are sorer losers than Republicans, at least on this board (which I disagree with, they just show their disappointment in different ways). It’s not the first time I’ve seen you make this kind of comment either.
Well, if you don’t define yourself as a right-winger, no problem. (I’d still consider you as more to the right than What Exit?, because even though the latter poster appears to think of himself as a Reagan Republican first and foremost, most of his positions seem to fall among the moderate left of the American political spectrum.) Would you agree that you are at least right of centre?
Just to clarify, I think of myself as a Roosevelt Republican (Bull Moose) first and foremost. I just think Reagan was a much better President than most in my lifetime and I was happy to vote for him. Besides it took this Bush to convince me that being a Hawk has drawbacks when the Neo-Cons get to run the show. Reagan used the military wisely. Bush the First also did. Bush the second violated too much of what I believe in.
I’ve not noticed how you defend Reagan. Lets just say that I acknowledge both Thatcher’s pluses and minuses - and have had a few run-ins with Brit-dopers who see her as hellspawn.
No problem, I was just clarifying it. As few debates occur on Theodore Roosevelt and many do on Reagan and only a few of us will defend his legacy, I think many think I am further to the right than I am.
Quartz, I think politically we are similar, except for me being Greener.
Just for grins, I combed through the Canadian election thread counting noses. (Yes, I have too much time on my hands.)
I counted every poster (not post) who expressed so much as a leaning in the upcoming election, or if no leaning then how they had voted in past elections or any general party preference that they stated. I counted 5 Liberal, 4 Conservative (the four you listed), 1 Bloc, and 4 Green/NDP.
Of course you would expect the Bloc to be under-represented on an English language board. But among Anglos this is an over-representation of the left and especially the far left–albeit not as pronounced as I believe you find in the American threads.
If you’re counting me in the Green/NDP camp, I should perhaps note that these days I’m actually pretty centrist by Canadian standards. The last vote I cast was for the Saskatchewan Party in our provincial election, actually, and the one before that was for the NDP in the last federal election. I think those two cancel out, making me an electoral non-entity.
