Several TPC threads back, I went thru and took the test with the same response to all queations and you get:
Strong Dis: 0.00/-4.36
Strong Agr: 0.00/4.36
Disagree: -0.25/-2.41
Agree: 0.38/2.41
Which I thought was a bit odd since there was an asymmetry in the last two, indicating a slight bias to the right half of the economic spectrum.
The big problem with a test like this: WHERE do you put the center? Take a look at http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/uselection.php. They have Kerry somewhat on the economic right. Thus the last presidential election was a matter of how far to the right economically does the voter want? By world standards, the US tends to be farther to the right than most of Europe. Consider health care. Getting rid of national health care in Europe would be an extremely unpopular idea.
(-7.38, -8.34)
Astrology is complete bunk.
I imagine that the question would indicate a certain capability for irrational beliefs, superstitions, and religious credulity. It may also indicate a vulnerability to emotionally based political appeals.
(nearly 0, nearly 0)
It’s all about astronomy, not astrology. And other comments already made.
-3.0 -2.8 or something like that
The thing is, how the fug do you map that onto political bipole axes? Neither right nor left have a monopoly on appeal to emotion and irrational fears, nor on surrendering independent thought to “leaders who know better”. For instance, conventional Christian religiosity has a tendency to map conservative, but conversely it doctrinally spurns astrology and psychics; and churchmen are as often on the front lines of liberation or social-reform movements as on the picket lines against social liberalization.
[QUOTE=roger thornhill “Feng shui” and lucky days/dates are bunkum.
[/QUOTE]
-5.62, -5.49
Well, feng shui isn’t complete bullshit. There actually is some validity to the correlation between how certain pieces of furniture are placed and how comfortable one feels in a room. For example, few people like to be seated with their backs to a door or large open space.
But other than that, yeah, astrology and the like are complete and utter wastes of time.
I don’t know how it would indicate anything right or left but after further reflection, I wonder if they’re looking for contradiction/consistency in supernatural beliefs. Perhaps a yes to overtly religious religious questions and a no to astrology could indicate some sort of regimented enculturation or prejudice?
Or maybe a consistent no to ALL questions of supernatural belief skews one way or the other?
I don’t know but I’m guessing that question is only meanigful in context with other questions.
I see your point, but astrology claims that the differences have to do with the alignment of planets and stars (or something). Proponents never mention Earthly seasonal variations.
If your statement were true, surely astrological charts would be opposite (or at least very different) for the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Also differences would exist for tropical and temperate zones, etc.
I realise you are not supporting astrology, but I feel that conceding that it “may have had some validity” gives it a tiny bit of credence, which is a tiny bit more than it deserves.
But on average, Democrats tend to be less socially authoritarian than Republicans. Democrats are more likely to support abortion rights, gay rights, and oppose the idea of school prayer. Based on what you posted, looks like the Political Compass is scoring belief in astrology ass-backwards.
It seems so.
(4.25, -6.67) ticks strongly disagree. I suspect that several of the remaining questions will be pretty easy to find a consensus on.
Interesting cite regarding beliefs in astrology. I must admit to not being very surprised, though I could see a case being made either way.
I also wanted to mention, in case it hasn’t been noticed, that #52 and #55 have been changed since the start of this series of threads. #52 now reads “You cannot be moral without being religious.”, and #55 is “I would not wish to send my child to a school that did not instill religious values.”
I read the astrology column occasionally for entertainment, but I don’t believe in it. The chair I’m sitting in has more gravitational influence on me than the planets. The star charts people follow are wrong. Due to precession (?) the signs, houses and charts have drifted over the past 2000-3000 years. So, my birthday 13 May is not really in Taurus. It “drifted” into some other sign. The alignments of the planets is just a function of going around in circles. Sometimes they will appear to line up, but it means nothing. Sometimes they even appear to reverse direction (retrograde), but it is just an illusion. A big problem with astrology is, the predictions are so vague. They can be interpreted after the fact and made to fit anything that happened. My other biggest problem with astrology is the idea that we are predestined, based on birthdays and signs. I am arrogant enough to think I have some control over my own destiny.
I’m that way, because I like to see things happening, and feel less confined for some reason.
-5.62, -5.49
Well, feng shui isn’t complete bullshit. There actually is some validity to the correlation between how certain pieces of furniture are placed and how comfortable one feels in a room. For example, few people like to be seated with their backs to a door or large open space.
But other than that, yeah, astrology and the like are complete and utter wastes of time.
[/QUOTE]
You should watch the Penn and Teller’s “Bullshit” episode on feng shi sometime. They totally destroy it.
I think you’re right, uf (although I think you mean “introspection” not “introversion”. Authoritarianism requires the people to accept things unquestioningly, despite their possible dubiousness.
Agreed, which is why (economic) left or right is unchanged regardless of how you answer this proposition. Only the vertical axis changes, and perhaps this does have a lot to do with (social) authoritarianism vs. libertarianism.
But note that US Democrats could be authoritarians compared to other parties in other Western democracies: correlating the Compass results solely with respect to two particular parties in one single country might be a little misleading in that respect.
Fair point. However, can anyone here in Europe comment about whether people there who believe in astrology tend to belong to the more authoritarian parties? And in particular on both the left and right wing extremes?
I think Apos might have guessed right what the Political Compass folks were thinking is “Dividing people up into different supopsed characters by the dates and times of their birth is no more sensible than doing so by the color of their skin, and no more laudable.” Think here of the more simplistic way of looking at astrology, such as someone who’d say “I’d never have a girlfriend who is a Libra.” Those who believe in astrology in that sense would be authoritarian in that they were letting other people (astrologers) tell them what other people are like based on the time of their birth, rather than make up their own minds.
However, I agree with you that “I feel that this is the one (and only one, in my opinion) proposition where they have genuinely fucked up.”
Absolutely not. As I wrote before, it is my clear impression that astrology, numerology, Feng Shui as well as Buddhism, Pagens and other “alternative” religions & magic are much more the norm amongst the liberal wishy-washy feel-good “soft”-left. While perhaps not authoritarian left, they’d most certainly not tend to be on the right wing.
Nitpick: Buddhism is larger then Judaism and older then Christianity, hardly “alternative” in most all senses of the word.
Also, while I agree that astrology and such are more common amongst liberals, I doubt they’re “the norm”, as in they’re belived by more then 50%.
Yes I know. I was addressing the west, or Europe - where it is “alternative”.
Can’t speak for Europe but according to this Buddhism is about equal in number of followers to Islam or the Unitarian churches in the U.S., which I doubt most people would consider “alternative”. Of course one could say all of these churches are alternative in that they aren’t part of mainstream christianity, which is the traditional church of most of the peoples living in the U.S, but if you want to make that your deffinition of “alternative”, then I’d say you’d have to include The Church of LDS as an “alternative” church, in which case I question your assertion that more liberals then conservatives belive in alternative religons, as there are several million mormons and they are overwelmingly conservative.