# Making a map of dopers' political opinions **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 15, 2002, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968 "2002-12-15T22:53:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![ray20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@ray20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ray20)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 10:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/1 "2002-12-15T22:53:52Z")
I’ve been studying you guys, trying to empirically map out the opinion space here (using a method that I’m working on for my master’s thesis). What I’ve got so far looks REALLY interesting. I will say that traditional political categories are not dominant, and that studying you guys is a pain in the ass. Congrats I guess for being so infuriatingly complicated. 🙂 So I officially give up on doing it “unobtrusively,” and so I’m hereby “obtruding” and asking for your help. Please take a minute to post whether you agree with each of these statements (mined from posts in this thread: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=142499](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?s=&threadid=142499)). You don’t have to answer each question, but please just answer agree or disagree to the ones you do answer. 1. People shouldn’t automatically have the right to reproduce 2. Abolish private ownership of income-generating property 3. Most prisons should be closed; give the inmates jobs and counseling 4. Armies should be replaced by lightly armed border guards 5. Fortunes over a million dollars should be confiscated 6. National forests should be offlimits to logging 7. Move to a hydrogen economy 8. People should be allowed to bill companies for time spent on hold 9. Kids of convicts should receive mentoring, tutoring, scholarships, etc 10. Low income seniors should get free drugs 11. The world’s institutions are patriarchal (based on male authority) 12. There is no such thing as “mental illness” 13. There’s no need for a hierarchy of people having authority over others 14. We are weakening our species by allowing defective specimens to survive 15. Spend $ on expansion (into space, oceans) not internal problems 16. Reach out toward the stars before the earth is rendered unlivable 17. Guns should be encouraged, and shooting skills should be taught in schools 18. Property tax should be abolished 19. Intellectual property laws hurt humanity as a whole 20. I enjoy riding on public transportation 21. It’s valid to not want to work 22. God exists 23. Homosexual behavior is a sin 24. Heaven and Hell exist 25. Underage drinking is wrong 26. Prisons are too luxurious - make them do more hard labor 27. Affirmative Action is racist 28. There is no place for guns in a civilized society 29. Communism has some promise with a few tweaks here and there 30. Socialism has some promise with a few tweaks here and there 31. Ararchism has some promise with a few tweaks here and there 32. Libertarianism has some promise with a few tweaks here and there 33. There should be one world government 34. The government shouldn’t mess with the market 35. Industrial development, oil rigs, highways, etc aren’t ugly 36. We should exploit energy reserves in the ANWR 37. No cause justifies violence 38. No cause justifies vandalism 39. We should all leave each other completely alone as much as possible 40. Limiting our individual freedoms will not stop terrorism 41. Laisse-faire capitalism is the most efficient possible economic system 42. Society shouldn’t starve people into productivity Thanks ---
**Author:** ![Magickly\_Delicious](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/4491bb/32.png) [@Magickly\_Delicious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Magickly_Delicious)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 11:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/2 "2002-12-15T23:07:25Z")
1. Agree 2. Disagree 3. Agree (but the operative word is “most”) 4. Disagree 5. Disagree (no number 6) 6. Agree (but only if areas are not replanted) 7. I don’t know what that means… 8. Agree 9. Agree (but probably only do-able in an ideal world) 10. Disagree (would rather provide free food in order to help prevent problems with oversubscribed drugs) 11. Agree 12. Disagree 13. Disagree 14. Disagree 15. Disagree (if we can’t fix our own problems, we can’t fix those elsewhere either) 16. Disagree (try to fix it first) 17. Disagree (although I think that a gun _safety_ course in schools would be a good idea) 18. Agree 19. Disagree 20. Agree 21. Agree 22. Agree 23. Don’t know, still deciding 24. Agree 25. Disagree 26. Don’t know, never been inside a prison 27. Disagree 28. Disagree 30-33) I don’t remember the definitions of what these are exactly 29. Agree 30. Disagree 31. Agree 32. What’s ANWR? ---
**Author:** ![astro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9dc877/32.png) [@astro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/astro)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/3 "2002-12-15T23:16:20Z")
These are many complex issues in this list and “agreeing or disagreeing” with the stand alone statements will yield nothing but facile and useless data about people’s opinions and perspectives. I’d think we’d be much more interested in the assumptions of this indexing methodology you’re using. Please tell us all about it. ---
**Author:** ![ray20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f0a364/32.png) [@ray20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ray20)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/4 "2002-12-15T23:37:28Z")
Astro I mostly agree with what you said. 🙂 I think agree/disagree is mostly useless with respect to individual opinions, but potentially useful to relate opinions to each other and place them in a map. Just don’t vote on the ones that aren’t phrased well enough to yield an agree or disagree vote. My program clusters opinions together based on the people who share them. So you might expect two big clusters easily identifiable as “left” and “right,” but that’s not what I’ve found so far. Details of how it works are still changing daily. I will post a better explanation soon though. ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 11:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/5 "2002-12-15T23:48:14Z")
I’m game. 1. Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Disagree 4. Disagree 5. D 6. Agree 7. D 8. D 9. Agree 10. Agree 11. Agree 12. Disagree 13. Disagree 14. Disagree 15. Disagree 16. Agree 17. Disagree 18. Disagree 19. Disagree quite strenuously; quite the opposite is true. 20. Agree 21. Agree 22. Disagree (currently) 23. Disagree 24. Disagree 25. Agree 26. Disagree 27. D 28. Agree 30 Disagree 29. Agree 30. Disagree 31. Disagree 32. Disagree 33. D 34. D 35. D 36. D 37. A 38. A 39. A 40. D 41. A ---
**Author:** ![Erika](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/47e85d/32.png) [@Erika](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Erika)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/6 "2002-12-15T23:54:02Z")
1. disagree 2. disagree 3. disagree 4. disagree 5. agree 6. disagree 7. disagree 8. disagree 9. agree 10. agree 11. agree 12. disagree 13. disagree 14. agree 15. disagree 16. disagree 17. disagree 18. disagree 19. agree 20. disagree 21. agree 22. Industrial development, oil rigs, highways, etc aren’t ugly 23. We should exploit energy reserves in the ANWR 24. agree 25. agree 26. agree 27. agree 28. agree 29. disagree ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [December 15, 2002, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/7 "2002-12-15T23:55:48Z")
1. Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Disagree 4. Disagree 5. Disagree 6. Agree 7. Agree 8. Agree 9. Disagree 10. Disagree 11. Disagree 12. Disagree 13. Disagree 14. Disagree 15. Disagree 16. Agree 17. Agree 18. Agree 19. Agree 20. Disagree 21. Disagree 22. Agree 23. Agree 24. Disagree 25. Disagree 26. Disagree 27. Disagree 28. Agree 29. Agree 30. Agree 31. Agree I left a good number blank - in some cases, I didn’t know exactly what the question meant, while in a couple I didn’t know what it was that the question referred to (a hydrogen economy, for example. I have no real idea what it is - I can make assumptions, but they may or may not be right). ---
**Author:** ![Muad\_Dib](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/35a633/32.png) [@Muad\_Dib](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Muad_Dib)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/8 "2002-12-16T00:03:54Z")
[list=1] [li]Agree[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]disagree.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Agree I guess, but this is not something that politics can create. We did not vote the industrial revolution into being. We cannot with the hydrogen revolution, if it comes.[/li][li]Disagree. How does this really reflect your politics? This would just be dumb and impractical.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Disagree. They are not “free”. Someone is paying for them.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Disagree. Again, what does this have to do with politics?[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Mu.[/li][li]Agree I guess. What do you mean by expansion and who will do the expanding?[/li][li]Meh. Agree, I guess.[/li][li]Uncertain.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Reply hazy, ask question later.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]See #23.[/li][li]Agree.[/li][li]Agree.[/li][li]Agree.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Agree.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Agree.[/li][li]Some are, some aren’t.[/li][li]Agree.[/li][li]Disagree. But you will amazed at the differences of opinion on what justifies it. [/li][li]See #38.[/li][li]Disagree.[/li][li]Agree.[/li][li]Agree.[/li][li]I have no idea what this means or implies.[/li][/list=1] ---
**Author:** ![TheLoadedDog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/35a633/32.png) [@TheLoadedDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TheLoadedDog)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/9 "2002-12-16T00:10:28Z")
1. Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Disagree 4. Disagree 5. Disagree - 1. Agree 2. Wot? 3. Disagree 4. Disagree 5. Agree 6. Agree 7. Disagree 8. Disagree 9. Disagree 10. Agree 11. Agree 12. Disagree 13. Disagree 14. Disagree 15. Disagree 16. Disagree 17. No bloody idea 18. Disagree 19. Disagree 20. Agree 21. Disagree 22. Agree 23. Agree (sorta) 24. Disagree 25. Disagree 26. Disagree 27. Disagree 28. Disagree 29. Agree (to a point) 30. Agree 31. Disagree 32. Disagree 33. Disagree 34. Agree 35. Disagree 36. Agree 37. Agree ---
**Author:** ![HerMajestyLorna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/7cd45c/32.png) [@HerMajestyLorna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HerMajestyLorna)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 12:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/10 "2002-12-16T00:41:39Z")
1. D 2. D 3. D 4. D 5. D 6. A 7. ? 8. D 9. A 10. D 11. A 12. D 13. D 14. D 15. D 16. D 17. D 18. D 19. D 20. A 21. A 22. D 23. D 24. D 25. D 26. D 27. D 28. A 29. D 30. A 31. D 32. A 33. D 34. D 35. D 36. ? 37. A 38. A 39. D 40. A 41. A 42. A ---
**Author:** ![Ringo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/779978/32.png) [@Ringo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ringo)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 12:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/11 "2002-12-16T00:44:46Z")
I agree with **astro** , which partially explains the many that are not answered. 1. Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Disagree 4. Disagree 5. Disagree 6. Disagree 7. 8. Disagree 9. Disagree 10. 11. Disagree 12. Disagree 13. Disagree 14. Agree 15. 16. 17. Agree 18. Agree 19. Disagree 20. Disagree 21. 22. Disagree 23. Disagree 24. Disagree 25. Disagree 26. Disagree 27. Agree 28. Disagree 29. Disagree 30. Disagree 31. Disagree 32. Agree 33. Disagree 34. 35. Agree 36. Agree 37. Disagree 38. 39. 40. 41. Agree 42. ---
**Author:** ![matt\_mcl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/7ab992/32.png) [@matt\_mcl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/matt_mcl)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/12 "2002-12-16T00:55:20Z")
1. Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Agree tentatively 4. Would agree in principle 5. Not confiscated, just heavily taxed 6. Agree 7. Agree 8. Agree! 9. Depending on need 10. Agree 11. Agree 12. Definitely think its importance is overstated 13. Only acceptable if the hierarchy is based on democratic legitimacy 14. Disagree 15. Disagree 16. Agree, but more important to work on the earth 17. Disagree 18. Strongly disagree 19. Agree 20. Agree (duh) 21. Depends by what we mean by “valid” and “want” 22. Agree 23. Disagree 24. They exist for their believers 25. Disagree, just stupid 26. Disagree 27. Disagree 28. Agree 29. Disagree 30. Agree 31. Disagree 32. Social lib., certainly; fiscal lib., certainly not 33. Undecided 34. Disagree 35. Disagree 36. Disagree 37. Disagree 38. Disagree 39. Depends in what way 40. Agree 41. Disagree 42. Agree ---
**Author:** ![Essured](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/278dde/32.png) [@Essured](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Essured)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/13 "2002-12-16T00:55:54Z")
1. Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Disagree 4. Disagree 5. Disagree 6. Agree 7. Disagree 8. Disagree 9. Agree 10. Disagree 11. Agree 12. Disagree 13. Disagree 14. Disagree 15. Agree (though not all the time) 16. Agree (It’s valid. But you’ll go hungry :)) 17. Disagree 18. Disagree 19. Disagree 20. Disagree 21. Disagree 22. Agree 23. Agree 24. Disagree 25. Agree 26. Agree ---
**Author:** ![Mephisto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/48db29/32.png) [@Mephisto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mephisto)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/14 "2002-12-16T01:00:21Z")
Man, I just completed all my school work for this semester, so what do I do? Somebody else’s homework. I must be nuts. But anyway . . . - 1. Disagree. - 1. Disagree. 2. Disagree. Big time. - 1. Disagree. 2. Agree, depending . . . 3. Agree. 4. Agree. 5. Are you crazy? I disagree. 6. Disagree. - - - - - 1. Disagree. - 1. Agree. 2. Agree. 3. Disagree. - - - - 1. Disagree. - - - - - - - 1. Disagree. 2. Disagree. 3. Disagree. - 1. Agree. 2. - 3. - The answers to the twenty-odd questions I didn’t answer are things like “I don’t know” or “It depends.” Sorry I couldn’t be more thorough. Good luck with your project. Let us know how it turns out. ---
**Author:** ![grendel72](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/91b2a8/32.png) [@grendel72](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/grendel72)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 1:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/15 "2002-12-16T01:01:51Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ray20 \* > \*\* > > 1. Disagree > 2. Disagree > 3. Disagree, this would create a new slave class. > 4. Strongly disagree > 5. Disagree, but extreme wealth should be taxed very heavily. > 6. Agree > 7. Agree > 8. Agree, but I don’t think the gov’t should provide it > 9. Agree > 10. Sadly true > 11. Disagree > 12. Disagree, but most heirarchies wind up being as bad as anarchy > 13. Very, very strongly disagree > 14. Disagree > 15. Disagree > 16. Disagree > 17. Agree > 18. Disagree > 19. Possibly, but not in any manner man-made religion would recognise > 20. Strongly disagree > 21. People make their own heave and hell > 22. Disagree > 23. Strongly disagree > 24. Strongly disagree > 25. Agree, with the caveat that we don’t live in a civilised society > 26. Disagree > 27. Agree > 28. Agree > 29. Agree > 30. Disagree > 31. Disagree > 32. Disagree > 33. Disagree > 34. Agree > 35. Strongly agree > 36. Agree > 37. Disagree > 38. Agree\*\* ---
**Author:** ![wedgerat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/e19b73/32.png) [@wedgerat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/wedgerat)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 1:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/16 "2002-12-16T01:02:22Z")
1. Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Disagree 4. Disagree 5. D 6. Agree 7. ?? 8. D 9. D 10. D 11. No Opinion 12. D 13. D 14. D 15. D 16. Agree 17. D 18. D 19. A 20. A 21. D 22. A 23. D 24. D 25. D 26. A 27. A 28. D 29. A 30. A 31. A 32. A 33. D 34. A 35. D 36. ?? 37. D 38. A 39. D 40. A 41. A 42. A ---
**Author:** ![HerMajestyLorna](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/7cd45c/32.png) [@HerMajestyLorna](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HerMajestyLorna)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 1:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/17 "2002-12-16T01:07:37Z")
Yes, do let us know what conclusions you reach! ---
**Author:** ![Kuli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/94ad74/32.png) [@Kuli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kuli)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/18 "2002-12-16T01:15:47Z")
I’ll give it a try. I hope no one minds. 1. Disagree 2. Disagree 3. Agree 4. Agree 5. Disagree 6. Agree 7. Disagree 8. Disagree 9. Disagree 10. Disagree 11. Agree 12. Disagree 13. Disagree 14. Agree 15. Disagree 16. Agree 17. Disagree 18. Agree 19. Disagree 20. Sort of. Agree, I guess… 21. Disagree 22. Agree 23. Disagree 24. Disagree 25. Agree 26. Agree 27. Disagree 28. Agree 29. Disagree 30. Disagree 31. Disagree 32. Agree 33. Agree 34. Agree 35. Agree 36. Disagree 37. Agree 38. Disagree 39. Agree 40. Agree 41. Agree 42. Agree ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 1:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/19 "2002-12-16T01:16:08Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by ray20 \* > > 1. A > 2. D > 3. D > 4. D > 5. D > 6. D > 7. A > 8. A > 9. D > 10. D > 11. A > 12. D > 13. A > 14. A > 15. A > 16. A > 17. A > 18. D > 19. D > 20. A > 21. A > 22. D > 23. D > 24. D > 25. D > 26. A > 27. A > 28. D > 29. D > 30. D > 31. D > 32. A > 33. A > 34. D > 35. A > 36. D > 37. A > 38. A > 39. A > 40. A > 41. D > > Thanks \*\* ---
**Author:** ![John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/2bfe46/32.png) [@John\_Carter\_of\_Mars](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Carter_of_Mars)\ **Post date:** [December 16, 2002, 1:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968/20 "2002-12-16T01:18:21Z")
1. D 2. D 3. D 4. D 5. D 6. D 7. ??? 8. A, But it would create its own problems. 9. D 10. A 11. 12. D 13. D 14. A, but that doesn’t mean I favor an enforced remedy. 15. 16. A, within reason 17. A 18. D 19. D 20. 21. 22. Who knows? 23. D 24. Who knows? 25. D 26. A 27. Maybe, but not unjustified im many cases. 28. D 29. D 30. D 31. D 32. D 33. D 34. A 35. D: Ugly but necessary. 36. A 37. D 38. A 39. 40. 41. A 42. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/making-a-map-of-dopers-political-opinions/142968.md?page=2)