# What is your political typology? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [May 10, 2011, 10:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445 "2011-05-10T22:34:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/41 "2011-05-11T19:02:31Z")
Never heard of post-modern as a political division before. I won’t argue about the designation, but damn, those choices were vague. ---
**Author:** ![suranyi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e36b37/32.png) [@suranyi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/suranyi)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 8:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/42 "2011-05-11T20:31:59Z")
I came out as Post-Modern, which I think is probably correct, according to the overall typology schema. I generally do vote for Democrats. ---
**Author:** ![Skammer](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/skammer/32/143_2.png) [@Skammer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Skammer)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/43 "2011-05-11T20:48:39Z")
New Coalition Democrat (which you have listed twice, btw). > [@](#): > > What They Believe > Strongly pro-government > Upbeat about the country’s ability to solve problems and an individual’s ability to get ahead through hard work > Approve of regulation and environmental protection > More positive about business than other Democratic-oriented groups > Generally liberal on racial issues > Hospitable to immigrants: 78% believe they strengthen society > Very religious and socially conservative I’m surprised to be labelled “more positive about business” but I guess that’s because I said most companies make a fair profit (key word being “most”). I did say business should be regulated by the government. Hmm, very interesting. It confirms my belief that I’m a political minority, for sure. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 9:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/44 "2011-05-11T21:09:53Z")
A general comment to those who complained about the poor dichotomies. Everybody who ever takes a dichotomy test - ideological, psychological, whatever - complains that the two choices aren’t really opposite and they hate choosing between them. So why do firms use that wording? Because they’ve pretested it and found that wording to be better. I suppose you could argue that every firm is always wrong, but that’s not an argument I’d want to make. And Pew has done its typologies many times before, and they are well respected and much studied and analyzed. If they didn’t work well for the purpose you’d see them being slammed instead of quoted everywhere. (Many polling firms do have bad reputations, as do many psychological tests, so it’s not a case that everyone gets praised.) I think this is another case where the layperson doesn’t see the nuances that experts do. See every thread about physics, law, medicine… As long as you don’t try to make the case that the typologies are anything more than a useful tool allowing some predictive generalization rather than a perfect guide to our interiors, I wouldn’t dismiss them lightly. P.S. One of those New Coalition Democrats should be Hard-Pressed Democrats. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/45 "2011-05-11T21:20:09Z")
Exapno, many times it’s a self-fulfilling prophecy. If you are forced to select between two outrageous choices, the typologists feel justified in dividing the public into only a handful of categories because the surveys show that there isn’t a lot of middle ground on opinions :rolleyes: At least these questions aren’t as bad as the Political Compass ones that basically asked leading questions so that nearly everyone came out on the libertarian quadrant. And the fact that many of these questions I personally find unobjectionable belies your assertion that everyone always complains about these. If they only asked those sorts of questions then the questions themselves would be unobjectionable even if the results would still not fit neatly for many people. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2011, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/46 "2011-05-11T21:31:34Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > So why do firms use that wording? Because they’ve pretested it and found that wording to be better. > … > If they didn’t work well for the purpose you’d see them being slammed instead of quoted everywhere. _Better_ for what _purpose_? ---
**Author:** ![pullin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/c57346/32.png) [@pullin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pullin)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 11:18am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/47 "2011-05-12T11:18:13Z")
Odd. I ended up with “Libertarian”. I’ve always been more of the traditional solidly-republican-with-with-Reagan’s-picture-on-the-mantle conservative, at least voting-wise. Something to think about, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/48 "2011-05-12T11:25:29Z")
> [@Knorf](#): > > Apparently a lot of people in this thread didn’t read the directions: We did. There’s a difference between “not exactly right” and “not remotely right”, which was the case for some of those questions. ---
**Author:** ![Jackmannii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jackmannii/32/311_2.png) [@Jackmannii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jackmannii)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 12:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/49 "2011-05-12T12:35:27Z")
I had to give up on the quiz because I kept disagreeing with both alternative answers to questions. In the New Utopia of extreme centrism, there will be no need for jive-ass polls. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 12:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/50 "2011-05-12T12:43:03Z")
I did an experiment and changed all the questions I was on the fence about but had answered the stock “liberal” answer to instead be the stock “conservative” answer. Around 4 answers were changed toward the red, yet it still showed me as a “Post-modern”. Then, I answered my original answers and only changed my self-avowed political affiliation from “independent leaning dem” to “strong republican”. And now I am a “Main Street Republican”. So according to Pew, one’s actual views don’t matter too much, it’s mainly what you think your views are. My hypothetical Main Street Republican was much more liberal in actuality than my hypothetical Post Modern! ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 1:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/51 "2011-05-12T13:11:17Z")
I like the way that I am a Libertarian, unless I don’t have enough money to make ends meet. Then I am merely disaffected. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Defenestrator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/13edae/32.png) [@The\_Defenestrator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Defenestrator)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/52 "2011-05-12T17:49:46Z")
> [@don\_t\_ask](#): > > I like the way that I am a Libertarian, unless I don’t have enough money to make ends meet. Then I am merely disaffected. I got Solid Liberal unless I don’t have enough money to make ends meet. Then I am also disaffected. I characterize myself as independent, maybe slightly left leaning. ---
**Author:** ![The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecc23a/32.png) [@The\_wind\_of\_my\_soul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_wind_of_my_soul)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 6:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/53 "2011-05-12T18:02:23Z")
One way in which I think the poll could have been improved was with a strongly agree to strongly disagree continuum. The candidates and political parties people support are not the ones who align with your overall views on everything. They are the ones who share the same viewpoint on issues that are fiercely important to you. ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/54 "2011-05-12T18:21:03Z")
If I identify myself as a Democrat (as I mostly vote that way), I get Solid Liberal. If I identify myself as Independent leaning Democrat (as I technically don’t vote for parties), I become a New Coalition Democrat. And if I say I am a Republican (as I still officially am), I become Disaffected, which makes sense, since my beliefs don’t match my party affiliation. Also, on the race questions, I split the difference. I went with saying both “Racial discrimination is the main reason why many black people can’t get ahead these days” and “Our country has made the changes needed to give blacks equal rights with whites.” My rationale of picking that split is that I definitely did not agree with the alternate choice of the first one, and I think we are closer to being finished than not for the second one. I’ve had to deal with polls not giving good answers for a long time, and I generally have an idea of how they work. There are almost always at least two versions of the same question. ---
**Author:** ![Bryan\_Ekers](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bryan_ekers/32/183_2.png) [@Bryan\_Ekers](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bryan_Ekers)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/55 "2011-05-12T19:01:47Z")
> [@Derleth](#): > > A lot of those questions were very poor, as they forced you to into a false dichotomy. I’m a Post-Modern by their standards but I doubt their standards mean much. Indeed, I found myself choosing which statement was the least wrong, and ended up a Post-Modern as well. ---
**Author:** ![kushiel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/bbce88/32.png) [@kushiel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kushiel)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 10:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/56 "2011-05-12T22:17:58Z")
This reminds me of the Canadian party quiz where it said I was socially conservative because of my stance on immigration, even though I answered strongly liberal on practically every other social issue. ---
**Author:** ![etv78](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/d78d45/32.png) [@etv78](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/etv78)\ **Post date:** [May 12, 2011, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/57 "2011-05-12T23:19:05Z")
> [@Fretful\_Porpentine](#): > > Was anybody else bothered by “Racial discrimination is the main reason why many black people can’t get ahead these days” vs. “Blacks who can’t get ahead in this country are mostly responsible for their own condition”? Strictly speaking, I don’t think _either_ of these statements is true (or rather, both might be true for some individuals, but I think there are other, more complicated factors in play, and a lot of them have to do with class rather than race per se). this Solid Liberal had the same reaction. ---
**Author:** ![what\_do\_I\_type\_here](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/a5b964/32.png) [@what\_do\_I\_type\_here](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/what_do_I_type_here)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/58 "2011-05-13T14:40:19Z")
Why would my economic situation determine my political leanings? ---
**Author:** ![Unintentionally\_Blank](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/unintentionally_blank/32/5418_2.png) [@Unintentionally\_Blank](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Unintentionally_Blank)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/59 "2011-05-13T14:57:07Z")
If you have money, you skew republican? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 13, 2011, 4:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445/60 "2011-05-13T16:17:38Z")
I must be really slow. I’ve been reading this thread with incomprehension, before the truth finally dawned on me. You people think that the silly internet quiz you’re been responding to was the actual survey. It never occurred to me that anybody could believe this. That’s like thinking that clicking on an ad to take an internet survey on intelligence is the same as going through an hours-long IQ exam. It’s not true. If any of you had clicked over and read anything at the actual site, you’d have known it wasn’t true. [Here’s](http://people-press.org/files/2011/05/Political-Typology-Topline.pdf) the complete survey. For good measure, [here’s](http://people-press.org/methodology/questionnaire-design/) a lengthy discussion of questionnaire design, including question wording and pretesting. All the stuff you’ve written here is based on a game to draw traffic to their site. And you took it seriously. You actually thought that the real world was based on something that simplistic, and you criticized it without ever checking a single fact for yourself. All the links I have are sitting on the main page of the survey report that I linked to and that L. G. Butts, Ph.D. gave in the first line of the OP. They sit above the link to the quiz. Anybody could have found them. But not you. Do us all a favor in 2012. Be a Bystander. Don’t vote. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-is-your-political-typology/581445.md?page=4)