I know that this political test has been brought up before, but I thought I’d share it again, just to see where everyone falls nowadays. Also, I had a couple of questions.
I just took the test. I was pretty much dead center; Economic Left/Right: 0.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.31. I’m not sure that’s right, but… Apparently, according to this page, The Political Compass, I’m farther left than any current candidate, and farther down that anyone except Ron Paul. I find this ridiculous. I’m definitely right of Obama, at least slightly; I can see myself being very low, though. What I don’t understand is, how did they arrive at these figures? So I wanted to see if you guys could take this test and see where it places you relative to political figures, and whether I’m the only one who doesn’t agree with his own placement, so to speak.
I keep sliding further to the southwest every time this comes up. Gandhi was a fascist, compared to me!
Economic Left/Right: -8.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.46
OTOH, I do have enough maturity to know that my agreement or disagreement in theory doesn’t make for a workable form of governance or economics. I’m aware that “why can’t we all just get along and share our resources?!” is not going to feed the hungry and give jobs to those who need it and keep us safe from violence and give us drivable roads. I wouldn’t actually expect a -8,-6.46 politician to make a nation I’d want to live in.
What’s that saying? “In theory, theory and practice are the same…”
Economic Left/Right: -4.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.64
So middle of the bottom left, like a lot of people here. But, as WhyNot has also noted, that’s entirely a theoretical position and has nothing to do with any pragmatic political policy position I may or would hold, which would almost certainly be up and to the right of there.
As for comparison to Obama - and for the umpteenth time - he’s not the radical screaming lefty some folks like to portray him as. He only looks that way in comparison to the competition, who are attempting to achieve singularity-level mass in the upper right corner.
I’m enjoying the music, which I don’t remember the last time I visited the site, particularly the national anthems.
Babale, maybe either 1) Obama isn’t as left as you imagine, as pointed out by others, or as left as his rhetoric or media portrayal and so on or 2) you are conflating your southness with your eastness of him.
Did you check the FAQ? It seems answers to your questions might be found in some of these:
though the last one about their methodology is disappointingly vague.
I consider myself somewhat middlish, and answered several questions in a “right-wing” way, yet still finished at Economic -4.88, Social -3.95.
That almost all important political leaders are in the opposite quadrant, if true, tells us something frightening about how dominant Kleptocracy has become.
On that chart Obama and Romney get almost identical scores. This seems odd since a recently linked-to “libertarian quiz” shows me agreeing 78% with Obama and 2% with Romney.
It occurs to me that the test seems to use the strength of an opinion as a measure of its position on the scale. Is this valid?
I answered only a few questions with “strongly agree” or “strongly disagree,” because I can’t help but think of exceptions, special cases, “shades of gray,” and other moderating effects. In fact, I wished that some of the questions had an option for “neither agree nor disagree.” Some things have a lot of nuance and context.
Should this attitude – that things are more complex than can be answered in only four ways – really be of major influence in determining one’s ideological stance? I’m sensing a fallacy here…
Economic Left/Right: -7.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.64
No real surprises, my views haven’t changed much since the last time. I’m further left than all of the 2008 candidates and the current field. What’s interesting is that it backs up what many of us liberals have been lamenting for a long time: there is no real Left in this country, only slightly Right and Extreme Right.
For most questions, I simply put an Agree or Disagree, but if the question has words like “always” or “never”, it was easier for me to formulate at least one example to the contrary to see if I would always or never think like that, and then I could bump my choice to Strongly Agree/Disagree. I hope the political compass makers are aware of those types of questions and how they affect responses.
Also, I noticed that a lot of my responses in the last couple of pages, when it comes to social stuff like gay marriage or sex, are in the Strongly category. Economics is complex enough for me a large range of differing opinions, but when it comes to my own body and what I want to do with it, you better believe I want people to stay away from it.
At Economic -3.2, social -5.7, I’m in the lower left corner with a lot of other people from here.
I dislike how some of those questions are asked. I’m probably slightly more left that my score indicates, but I keep coming up with exceptions that keep me from answering Strongly Agree or Strongly Disagree.
I’d be really surprised if there were very many political candidates that tested out as negative on the authoritarian scale. These are, after all, people who spend their time making and upholding laws. I can’t find where the sites creators state how they decided where senators would fall, but I’m guessing it at least partially depends on how they have voted, and how do you score someone as liberitarian based on what kind of laws they make?
