Take the political test...

[i_like_1981]

Now, I hear a lot of talking about politics on this forum, mainly from American Democrats who don't seem to have much love for their right-wing opponents. I also hear the word "authoritarian" getting thrown around a lot on this forum, so now I think it is time to see where exactly you stand. So, here is what to do: visit www.politicalcompass.org and take the test. There are six pages of questions to complete, and after the quiz you will be presented with a large screen of information on which you will find your personal political compass and your overall standing on a left/right, libertarian/authoritarian scale.

Now, I can respect the fact that we may have members here who wish to keep their political views private, especially if their results contradict beliefs they have expressed on this forum and wish to keep up the pretence by not enlightening us with this new-found information. That is absolutely fine, and I have thought with that in mind. I have created a poll on this thread for you to enter your standing on the compass anonymously if you do not wish to reveal your political views to the rest of the forum by posting them on here. Of course, if you wish to let everyone know how you did, that's fine, but that's a matter of choice and political opinions are a private issue to some people. However, I would very much like to see some results being tallied up on this poll, so get over to the site and find out where you stand.

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[HugeFanOfBadReligion]

I took that test a couple years back (or at least a similar one) although I can't remember at all what my results where, however I also took that test about a month or two ago and I found myself on the left libertarian side, yet I was somewhat close to the centre.

[Fat Man]

I took the test, and it shows that I'm near the center and slightly above the border line between Libertarian Left and Authoritarian Left.

Political Test.JPG (15.46 KiB) Viewed 1019 times

I believe that what put me near the Authoritarian Left is that I believe in the death penalty for the most violent crimes, like serial killers, rapists, and pedophiles.

On the other hand, prison should only be for those who have committed violent crimes. I don't think people should go to prison merely for possession of small quantities of drugs for personal use. I understand addiction, because I admit, I'm addicted to food, so I'm in no position to judge other addicts.

I also believe that school attendance should be mandatory, that learning science and math, and history should be mandatory because we live in a complex society, and math skills are very important.

I believe that big corporations or big businesses should be regulated, in order to protect the environment from pollution and to prevent them from unfairly exploiting their workers.

Now there were some questions where I neither agreed or disagreed entirely, but there was no category for something like, "depending on the circumstances" so I sort of leaned toward agree.

Of course, this is really not a scientific test.

I have taken similar tests in the past, and have gotten somewhat different results, but I was usually somewhere near the center.

I think it's my advocating the death penalty which gave me a long blue arrow toward the right.

OK, so be it.

Anybody who harms a child or rapes someone should be put to death!

So, when it comes to dishing out punishment to pedophiles and rapists, then I'm a bloody Fascist! OK?

I also think that pedophiles and rapists should be publicly humiliated as they are being taken to the gallows, or the electric chair, or gas chamber, or whatever the penalty is in the state they are living in, or rather, dying in!

I would even advocate the guillotine!

CHOP! CHOP!

[ChrisOH]

I came out left-wing libertarian, but like Fat Man, I found some of the questions kind of ambiguous, and there wasn't a category for "undecided", so I leaned either toward the disagree or agree options, and avoided the "strongly" choices.

I, too, believe in the death penalty for premeditated killings for sure -- that's one crime you can never make restitution for, since you can't bring the victim back to life. As far as rapists and pedophiles go, I've been kind of ambivalent on death sentences for them, in the past, since they didn't actually take the life of another. I'm starting, though, to think that they do take lives from their victims, as their victims' lives will never be the same again -- their sense of security and safety is likely gone forever, and many times a victim never gets over the violence that occurred to them, which can lead to substance abuse and even suicide, thereby leading to an actual physical loss of life for the victim.

So, that's something I'm re-evaluating in my mind. I've heard both sides of the death-penalty debate, how it doesn't really deter crime, how there can be mistaken convictions, etc., but I've never been able to justify in my own conscience showing more mercy to the perpetrator of a crime than to they did to their victim.

[Fat Man]

I came out left-wing libertarian, but like Fat Man, I found some of the questions kind of ambiguous, and there wasn't a category for "undecided", so I leaned either toward the disagree or agree options, and avoided the "strongly" choices.

Yeah, on some questions I avoided the "strongly" agree or disagree.

The chart is 2 dimensional, with only 2 axis, Economic and Social. There should be a third axis, such as Political, another words, a 3 dimensional grid instead of just a 2 dimensional grid.

Hell, maybe even a fourth or a fifth dimension.

Because I believe the human mind is far too complex to describe all of it's aspects in just 2 dimensions.

And thanks to computer technology, we can work with multidimensional coordinates!

By the way, I believe that if you're a serial killer, your last meal before your execution should be a bowl of cold cereal with sour milk and salt instead of sugar!

[Lewis]

Economic Left/Right: 2.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.00

I believe in the free market, but I think it does need some regulation to prevent things like the banking crisis. As for the Social aspect, I'm a live and let live kind of guy.

[Fat Man]

Whoops!

In my previous post, I copied the wrong image.



I should have posted this one instead.

[Indurrago]

They need a "neutral" or something like that choice on these questions.
"First-generation immigrants can never be fully integrated within their new country." LOL. this one makes me laugh, because it applies to me. Being raised here most people don't even think of me as an immigrant(tho I'm a naturalized citizen for almost 10 yrs now) especially since I don't have a noticeable accent.

[HugeFanOfBadReligion]

I remember taking that test and having similar thoughts that there should be an option along the lines of "neutral". However, we recently had a lesson in civics class on the subject of the political spectrum and we even took a different political test (which only accounted for the left-right spectrum) and the teacher noted that one reason why there can be no "neutral" option is because that would allow people to score in the exact centre, which is impossible. That's because you can't be exactly in the centre in your political standings, you will always lean to one side to some extent, whether that extent is massive or insignificant. You can only be extremely moderate in your viewpoints, bringing you very close to the centre, but you will always have tendencies to a certain side. I guess my advice is just to go with the answer that you generally lean towards, even if you are somewhat unsure or have mixed feelings about it.

[Indurrago]

Meh, especially on those "unsure" questions I feel like choosing any of the options wouldn't really reflect how I feel that is if I feel anything at all.
I got placed Left-Libertarian.

[recovering_fan]

Now, I hear a lot of talking about politics on this forum, mainly from American Democrats who don't seem to have much love for their right-wing opponents.

"Lack of love" doesn't do it justice. Bottomless hate would be more accurate. When people want you stop to breathing and to stop living, how are are you supposed to feel about those people?

I agree with Fat Man that the idea of accurately describing a person's social philosophy two-dimensional grid is complete nonsense. Like Fat Man, I scored on the Libertarian-Left. In my case, I scored at (-4, -4), right between Nelson Mandela and the Dalai Lama. There's a considerable distance between me and Stalin, as you can see.

One thing this right-wing push-poll deliberately ignores is the totalitarian horrors that factory owners imposed on workers before unions existed. You only have put down Orwell for awhile and pick up a copy of Steinbeck, Dickens, or even Disraeli (an English Conservative for Pete's sake !!!), to see what I'm talking about. And those were supposedly "libertarian societies" where people were supposedly "free." In reality, workers were tied to the factory, and if they chose to leave because supervisors abused them, the factories would put the word out on them to assure they never worked again. Since they owned nothing, they had no other means to live. (Blacklisting still happens today.) The blacklisted workers ended up in poor houses because there were no options open to them, and the rich complained (just as they complain about Fat Man today) that the poor were just lazy and unwilling to work. What utter crap !!!

EDIT (4/16/11): I cleaned up the first paragraph a bit, because my level of incivility embarrassed me.

[i_like_1981]

Really wasn't that long ago since you were defending the Republicans against the wrath of Fat Man, recovering_fan. But anyways, you, him and any other person on here whose views on the Republicans are less than admiring may get a kick out of these YouTube videos:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aYJVfd5WRhE

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wdqbi66oNuI

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Im1Ct3lf00

Best regards,
i_like_1981

[recovering_fan]

Really wasn't that long ago since you were defending the Republicans against the wrath of Fat Man, recovering_fan.

That was my final, vain attempt at civility towards them.

But as their own hero, Joseph McCarthy, might have put it, they "are not gentlemen, they don't understand being treated like gentlemen."

(Anyway, it's true that they are NOT Nazis or perverts, so I felt I had to defend them against that false accusation.)

[ChrisOH]

Really wasn't that long ago since you were defending the Republicans against the wrath of Fat Man, recovering_fan.

That was my final, vain attempt at civility towards them.

But as their own hero, Joseph McCarthy, might have put it, they "are not gentlemen, they don't understand being treated like gentlemen."

(Anyway, it's true that they are NOT Nazis or perverts, so I felt I had to defend them against that false accusation.)

Hello RF!

I've noticed, too, that Republicans/conservatives in America never seem too willing to compromise on anything for the good of the citizenry, yet it seems like Obama and the Democrats have kowtowed to them over and over again.

Personally, I have no problem with liberal and conservative sides of issues both being represented in governmental circles, but it seems the Republican Party and conservatism has taken a much darker turn recently, showing contempt for those of different races, religions, socioeconomic backgrounds, etc. It's like they've gone from "I don't agree with your views" to "your views don't even have a right to exist or be heard".

One thing that particularly peeves me about Republicans today is how use different issues or interest groups to "bait and switch" the voters. To those who are concerned about the economy, they act as though they're fiscal conservatives and interested in protecting taxpayers' rights, reducing inflation and unemployment, etc., all the while furthering their ultra-right-wing social agenda, such as outlawing abortion and gay marriage (ever notice how they don't want any government interference in citizens' private affairs, except when it comes to abortion and gay rights, then it's perfectly OK for politicians to intrude into one's private life?). On the other hand, to win over the religious conservatives, they'll brag about their stances on such issues to win over these "values voters", as they like to call them, and at the same time are pushing legislation to favor huge corporations and bigwig campaign donors (even though many "values voters" are working-class people or small business owners, who are getting royally screwed by the policies favoring the corporate fatcats).

Do Democrats do the same kind of thing? Probably so -- they're certainly not a party of perfectionists. At least to me, though, this dark downward trend is much more apparent in the Republican ranks.

[Fat Man]

In response to ChrisOH:

Yes, the Republicans are getting really vicious while the Democrats have been wimping out! As I have said before, I like Obama, I voted for him, but he seriously need to grow a pair! Because he's been all to willing to compromise and kowtow to the right-wing.

OK, I know that NOT ALL Republicans are right-wing whack-jobs! There are some who are only moderately conservative and I have no quarrel with them. Some are moderate, and there are a few liberal Republicans, which I know, is a contradiction in terms.

But here lately, the Republican party has been hijacked by those on the extreme right, which is why I have come to so despise the Republican party! The party has been hijacked, and they are going to fly it into the ground! These morons can't even fly a paper airplane because they only know how to fold paper footballs!

Of course, the Democrats aren't perfect either. The Democratic party also has a right-wing, commonly referred to as Dixiecrats. They are indigenous to the south, in redneck states like Arkansas, Lousiness, Mississippi, Kentucky, etc. etc. while most Democrats are moderate to liberal.

Now, if I had been living back in the 1850s and 1860s, I would most likely had been a Republican. Abraham Lincoln was a Republican, and a damn good one at that! If you had wanted to abolish slavery, then the Republican party would have been the way to go.

I remember back in 1979, I watched the movie that was going around back then titled "Roots" and as you should know, the symbol for the Republican party has always been the elephant, but back then, the symbol for the Democratic party was just simply a five pointed star. I really don't know when the Democratic party finally adopted the donkey as their symbol.

Anyway . . . . .

There were many blacks back then who didn't know how to read or write because in the south, it was against the law to teach blacks how to read. Nice! Eh?

But some people believed that they too should be allowed to vote. On the polls, there was an elephant and a star, and the educated black leaders told them, if you want to see slavery abolished, to check off the names under the Elephant.

But then, somebody had noticed that the names were switched around on some of the polls, but the fraud was discovered in time before too much damage was done. It was some of the Democrats who were responsible for the attempted fraud.

So, back then, after the Civil War, blacks generally voted Republican.

Anyway . . .

Over the years and decades afterwords, the Republican party became more and more conservative drifting further to the right, while the Democrats became more and more liberal, and less and less racist, with the exception of the Dixiecrats. They unfortunately, are still with us.

The way the Republican party, the party of Lincoln has been going lately, dear ol' Abraham Lincoln must be whirling dervishly in his grave!