# How's your political compass read? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [June 27, 2002, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207 "2002-06-27T11:17:40Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Go\_alien](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9d8465/32.png) [@Go\_alien](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Go_alien)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 10:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/41 "2002-06-28T10:20:45Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Shodan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9f8e36/32.png) [@Shodan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Shodan)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 4:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/42 "2002-06-28T16:32:08Z")
Economic Left/Right: 2.50 Authoritarian/Libertarian: -0.15 Holy shit, I’m Tony Blair. Regards, Shodan ---
**Author:** ![Daerlyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/898d66/32.png) [@Daerlyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Daerlyn)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 6:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/43 "2002-06-28T18:20:39Z")
Economic Left/Right: -5.63 Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.64 Dude, I’m Ghandi 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Umbriel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/9de053/32.png) [@Umbriel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Umbriel)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 7:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/44 "2002-06-28T19:03:14Z")
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. ---
**Author:** ![Achernar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e274bd/32.png) [@Achernar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Achernar)\ **Post date:** [June 28, 2002, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/45 "2002-06-28T23:19:45Z")
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? ---
**Author:** ![Rasa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rasa/32/3578_2.png) [@Rasa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rasa)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 2:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/46 "2002-06-29T02:49:46Z")
Economic Left/Right: -5.63 Authoritarian/Libertarian: -8.15 ---
**Author:** ![capybara](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/capybara/32/202_2.png) [@capybara](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/capybara)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 3:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/47 "2002-06-29T03:57:01Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![Deadly\_Nightlight](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/6a8cbe/32.png) [@Deadly\_Nightlight](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Deadly_Nightlight)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/48 "2002-06-29T04:49:19Z")
-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 ---
**Author:** ![tarokaja](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@tarokaja](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tarokaja)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/49 "2002-06-29T05:12:48Z")
I scored -7.38 and -7.33–in other words, both more socialist than I expected, and more libertarian than I expected. Go figure. ---
**Author:** ![donnerteaparty](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@donnerteaparty](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/donnerteaparty)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 5:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/50 "2002-06-29T05:16:18Z")
Economic Left/Right: -2.63 Authoritarian/Libertarian: -6.10 Closer to the center economically than I thought I’d be. ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/51 "2002-06-29T05:48:55Z")
-1.25 / -5.44 lefty anarchist 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![AHunter3](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ahunter3/32/368_2.png) [@AHunter3](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AHunter3)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 5:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/52 "2002-06-29T05:55:48Z")
-1.25 / -5.53 lefty anarchist 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![woolly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ebca7d/32.png) [@woolly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/woolly)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 9:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/53 "2002-06-29T09:36:22Z")
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! ---
**Author:** ![Jenner](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/ac8455/32.png) [@Jenner](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jenner)\ **Post date:** [June 29, 2002, 1:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/54 "2002-06-29T13:52:41Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c67d28/32.png) [@Weird\_AL\_Einstein](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Weird_AL_Einstein)\ **Post date:** [June 30, 2002, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/55 "2002-06-30T13:11:31Z")
> [@](#): > > \*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**. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [July 5, 2002, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/56 "2002-07-05T01:08:49Z")
daerlyn wrote: Dude, I’m Ghandi FILM NAME!!! (in the time honored tradition of “band name!”) ---
**Author:** ![Sam\_Stone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/ecccb3/32.png) [@Sam\_Stone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sam_Stone)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 6:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/57 "2002-07-06T18:15:49Z")
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](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. ---
**Author:** ![Sparc](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/65b543/32.png) [@Sparc](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sparc)\ **Post date:** [July 6, 2002, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/58 "2002-07-06T23:39:27Z")
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 ---
**Author:** ![rsa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/839c29/32.png) [@rsa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rsa)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2002, 12:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/59 "2002-07-07T00:02:25Z")
Economic Left/Right: -0.88 Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.79 Which seems closest to Simon Hughes. He’s a good guy, right? ---
**Author:** ![Lorenzo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4da419/32.png) [@Lorenzo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lorenzo)\ **Post date:** [July 7, 2002, 3:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207/60 "2002-07-07T03:35:11Z")
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. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/hows-your-political-compass-read/116207.md?page=4)