Where are you on the political spectrum?

[Florestan]

Thanks for posting them. They show clearly the difference between the radiant joy of having a personality and the dull grimness of being part of a herd. 

[Ken B]

  Libertarian seems to come in a lot of forms. I generally associate Libertarian with political views that involve low levels of state involvement in everyday life, not as being another term for "socially liberal".

  Though like just about everyone here, I am green, but if someone just gave me the chart and said "Where are you?" I'd probably put myself in lower middle of the red quadrant.

Trust your instincts. The transparent goal of the quiz is to place you in the bottom half. I have seen several libertarian sites even discuss the tactic, try to make them see how libertarian they really are and then they'll agree with us.

[Moonfish]

Thanks for posting them. They show clearly the difference between the radiant joy of having a personality and the dull grimness of being part of a herd. 

Keep in mind that both "sides" view the issue in the same fashion.....       

[Pat B]

For fun, I did the quiz picking in each instance the most authoritarian answer. Regulate sex, push religion, restrict, regulate, control, ban. Joe Stalin and Jerry Falwell blended. I ended up less than halfway up the North arm of the NS axis.

There are definitely some problems with the quiz, but I don't think that is one of them. I managed to get 8.00 right and 9.44 upper -- that's far right and almost at the top edge. THIS IS NOT MY SCORE, it was the score that resulted from a deliberate attempt to get as close to the top right corner as possible.

My actual score was green, closer to the bottom than the left. I didn't write it down but it was around -4,-6. That's not too far off from how I think of myself -- I'm probably a bit closer to center on the left-right axis.

[Ken B]

I'll just leave this here, for people to make of what they will, and hope no-one notices the irony.
http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/12/beware-the-man-of-one-study/

[Pat B]

I'll just leave this here, for people to make of what they will, and hope no-one notices the irony.
http://slatestarcodex.com/2014/12/12/beware-the-man-of-one-study/

Pretty good read, and yes, I get the connection, but then, I didn't need that quiz to know I was on the libertarian side of any relevant libertarian-authoritarian axis.

[greg]

Retook this test and results are attached. (is it better nowadays to link or attach images?)

Though I think in reality it should be center horizontally and much more libertarian.

[Irons]

My best friend who passed away on new year's eve 2018 accused me with a twinkle in his eye of being on the right of Genghis Khan! So I guess I would be off the scale with test.

[greg]

My best friend who passed away on new year's eve 2018 accused me with a twinkle in his eye of being on the right of Genghis Khan! So I guess I would be off the scale with test.

Trying to replace the entire population of the planet with one's own genes is conservative? 


The big problem of the test is that they ask at least two undisputable facts (not opinions) that push my score to the left authoritarian side.

[Florestan]

[drogulus]

     I did the test a few years ago, and the results vanished. Now I find myself unable to get past the first question, like so:

If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations.

     I accept the premise of inevitability as having some meaning, imprecise as it is. The "rathering" I can't accept, nor can I even imagine a form of economics designed solely to serve an interest so narrow that only buyers or sellers, workers or owners, or any such pure dichotomy should prevail. How are consumers and workers supposed to win over producers and owners, or how could it be that capitalists could win so decisively over their workers that their erstwhile customers are too poor to buy what they sell? Instead of choosing a winner we should choose to win by balancing the needs of all the players to the benefit of all of them. A radical philosopher told me so:

It is the great multiplication of the productions of all the different arts, in consequence of the division of labour, which occasions, in a well-governed society, that universal opulence which extends itself to the lowest ranks of the people.

What improves the circumstances of the greater part can never be regarded as an inconveniency to the whole. No society can surely be flourishing and happy, of which the far greater part of the members are poor and miserable.

     Both are quotes from Adam Smith. I hold that a systems flourishes best when the least "rathering" is done. Even with little in the way of theoretical superstructure you can see some kind of optimal balance is desirable as a purely practical matter.

     Whether measures are statist or not has too much hogwashery in it to be of use. The standards of "proof" over which is better are comically low. The debating points tend to obscure the otherwise obvious fact that both invisible and visible hands are needed and always will be.

[Carlo Gesualdo]

I'm not a commie
I'm not a Nazi
I'm not an anarchist (pseudo politic of left)

I'm a Political nihilist in the center purist centrist.I seen too much corruption on both side left and right in Canada.

Je suis un Nihilist pure et dure, Sacco & Vanzzeti were heros...

And totalitarian should be drag in the street and shot, right that give too much latitude like francois legault to cops is illegal, I  really hate cops they persecute me since a long time... I don't wont to talk about it.

I want less rights for cops, to annoy honest less wealthy citizen,
because this is what they do if a rrich son of a b*tch complain about you for annything they will take  there side,, for them all less wealthy are all criminals presumption, mentally hill are all schizoid and moron, I'm not a schizoid and my I.q is about 125-135, guess what I'm smarter than most regular cops perhaps not detective that I'm  in same league of intellect, and they broke the law in my case for so long, espionage, harrassement because neighbor did not like my music not volume.They camouflage my attempted murder from media an send me to not house , mob cops should all be slain, those cops that do hitman job for private , I preffer the regular mob at this state, governement should  do a commission on corruption in police force not for protecting drug dealer, but those that  do contract killing for private in other word hitman cops should be kick out of the force and prison.

Cops here all vote for CAQ I truely hate this party, quebec solidaire want the third world to flood quebec, like Salvadorian street gang I'm against it, Canada not a gangster chavy street gang paradise.

I hope I did not offend anyone, have a nice day all...

[greg]

I don't think you need a higher IQ than that to be a detective. I think it was like 125 or so to be a professor (of advanced subjects), which was the highest of the professions listed. But maybe I'm wrong?

[jess]

not quite -10 -10 but close

[JBS]

Economic Left/Right: 0.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.0

[greg]

not quite -10 -10 but close

Wow.

My impulse would be extreme libertarian (anarchy) but it's more of a fantasy, because in reality too many people (cough, sheeple) want to be led around so the power vacuum would only lead to authoritarian dictatorship in the end. So moderately libertarian would be the most sustainable system.

[jess]

I would describe myself as an anarcho-communist but it isn't really as much a fantasy as one might think. Rojava doesn't describe their system as 'anarcho-communist' per se but it's the kind of society that I think humanity should aspire to, and it's working really well for them too!

[Jo498]

The main difference between the communist utopia and the libertarian/anarchocapitalist fantasy is that there has not been a Soviet union style attempt at the latter, so its adherents can keep dreaming without appearing obviously naive or cynical.
I fail these tests because I am on the left of most actual Leftist parties in some economic issues but I am also skeptical about too powerful a state, disagree with their internationalism and I am culturally/morally further to the right than most contemporary rightwing parties (although my main disagreeement with them is the neocon/libertarian strain).

[greg]

I would describe myself as an anarcho-communist but it isn't really as much a fantasy as one might think. Rojava doesn't describe their system as 'anarcho-communist' per se but it's the kind of society that I think humanity should aspire to, and it's working really well for them too!

Is this Rojava in Syria? (just looked it up).

Kind of hard to imagine anything but auth right existing in the middle east (maybe Qatar is an exception?)

[Florestan]

I would describe myself as an anarcho-communist but it isn't really as much a fantasy as one might think.

How someone can honestly believe that the most heavily regulated and restricted market can coexist with the most complete personal freedom is beyond me.