# Where Are You on the Political Compass **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 9, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631 "2010-10-09T19:45:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/f04885/32.png) [@Qin\_Shi\_Huangdi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qin_Shi_Huangdi)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/1 "2010-10-09T19:45:46Z")
Economic Left/Right: 2.12 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.36 ---
**Author:** ![Dr.Love](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Dr.Love](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dr.Love)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 9:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/2 "2010-10-09T21:10:58Z")
Economic Left/Right: 5.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.67 We did a series of discussions on every proposition in this test about 5 years ago. Links are [here](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=330918) ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 9:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/3 "2010-10-09T21:23:46Z")
What are those numbers supposed to mean? ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 9:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/4 "2010-10-09T21:27:21Z")
> [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](#): > > What are those numbers supposed to mean? Yes, excellent question… ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/5 "2010-10-09T21:34:07Z")
I found a quiz online when Googling “Political Compass” Here are my numbers, but not sure if it’s the same test: Economic Left/Right -5.62 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.46 Here’s the link I used: [http://www.politicalcompass.org/index](http://www.politicalcompass.org/index) ---
**Author:** ![Kyla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/eada6e/32.png) [@Kyla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kyla)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 9:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/6 "2010-10-09T21:59:42Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Here’s the link I used: [http://www.politicalcompass.org/index](http://www.politicalcompass.org/index) Using that link, I’m at: Economic Left/Right: -3.62 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.31. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 10:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/7 "2010-10-09T22:04:15Z")
-7.12 -6.82 ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 10:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/8 "2010-10-09T22:10:08Z")
> [@IvoryTowerDenizen](#): > > Economic Left/Right -5.62 > Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.46 > > Here’s the link I used: [http://www.politicalcompass.org/index](http://www.politicalcompass.org/index) Using same link, I got Economic Left/Right: -4.00 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.90 Looking at [recent Presidential candidates](http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2008) this puts me near Ralph Nader (whom I’d never vote for.) Well, at least I’m not as Lefty as **IvoryTowerDenizen**! 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Acid\_Lamp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/d6d6ee/32.png) [@Acid\_Lamp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Acid_Lamp)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/9 "2010-10-09T22:12:51Z")
Economic Left/Right -3.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.72 ---
**Author:** ![Walkabout](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walkabout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walkabout)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/10 "2010-10-09T22:19:02Z")
-2.75 -2.97 ---
**Author:** ![Gil-Martin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/a3d4f5/32.png) [@Gil-Martin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gil-Martin)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/11 "2010-10-09T22:19:10Z")
Economic Left/Right: -4.62 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.21 I guess that puts me somewhere in the vicinity of Nelson Mandela and Gandhi. Well, I’ve been found in worse company, I suppose. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/12 "2010-10-09T22:27:17Z")
Economic Left/Right: 6.50 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.90 Libertarian right, apparently, and there’re no world leaders in my quadrant. I do see Friedman in the example graph, though, and I’ve been meaning to get around to reading him. I really thought that I’d score better on the Libertarian part (i.e., more negative). ---
**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:** [October 9, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/13 "2010-10-09T22:42:30Z")
Economic Left/Right: -1.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.85 ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 10:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/14 "2010-10-09T22:42:31Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Economic Left/Right: -4.00 > Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.90 I consider myself relatively centrist, “Agreed” on many of the right-ist questions and was surprised I scored so leftishly. It may be because there were a large number of questions about public financing for art or media and I “Strongly Agreed” on all of those. ---
**Author:** ![Ludovic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7ab992/32.png) [@Ludovic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ludovic)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/15 "2010-10-09T22:59:03Z")
There are a couple things wrong with the test, namely, that most people who take it are in the -,- part of the quadrant. It is a rare person indeed who will admit to being in the +,+ quadrant. This skewage is partly because the answers are often worded in such a way that technically your answer might be one thing, but the question is so poorly worded or the issue is so nuanced that the answer isn’t really helpful. Or even worse, you can believe firmly that certain social or economic woes are terrible, yet not believe it is the government’s role to do anything about it. The test (at least the last time I looked at it) didn’t seem to address morality versus belief in the laws. A third issue is that it doesn’t touch on foreign policy at all. While I am firmly in the -,- quadrant (although not as much as some,) I would be more toward the “center” if the test contained a third axis of foreign policy, because I think we need a strong military and we need to use it. (However, I think Gulf War II was a mistake because it was poorly sold, planned and executed, not that I was against removing Saddam by force.) ---
**Author:** ![Balthisar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/balthisar/32/2825_2.png) [@Balthisar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Balthisar)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 11:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/16 "2010-10-09T23:01:20Z")
I did the correct thing (we’re talking about a “compass,” right?) and converted my score away from Cartesian coordinates: (6.78, 343.7) since that specifies both a magnitude and a vector, and is much easier to visualize. Oh, and I left that degrees because that’s easiest for most people. ---
**Author:** ![Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/qadgop_the_mercotan/32/83_2.png) [@Qadgop\_the\_Mercotan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Qadgop_the_Mercotan)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 11:15pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/17 "2010-10-09T23:15:12Z")
Economic Left/Right: -3.62 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.18 I’m fairly Libertarian Left. What a surprise. Not. ---
**Author:** ![IvoryTowerDenizen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ivorytowerdenizen/32/17937_2.png) [@IvoryTowerDenizen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/IvoryTowerDenizen)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 11:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/18 "2010-10-09T23:24:20Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > Well, at least I’m not as Lefty as **IvoryTowerDenizen**! 😃 Yeah, good lord you wouldn’t want that… 😛 ---
**Author:** ![koeeoaddi](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/koeeoaddi/32/408_2.png) [@koeeoaddi](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/koeeoaddi)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/19 "2010-10-09T23:34:52Z")
Economic Left/Right: -2.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.79 Used to be Libertarian, dead center and now I’m Libertarian, slightly left. Old and dotty or older and wiser? ---
**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\ **Post date:** [October 9, 2010, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631/20 "2010-10-09T23:37:36Z")
Economic Left/Right: -3.12 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.79 [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/where-are-you-on-the-political-compass/556631.md?page=2)