h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I noticed a slant on the test.. not that it wasn't expected. It makes sense that people who go to that website would (mostly) test as libertarian, as it appears to be a libertarian website, and the test uses bias inducing questions. Ah, well. Still, a good test. Excellent article, CS.

-jb

Yeah, I noticed that, too. But at least the numbers provided by that research group represent a variety of test takers. People who went looking for it on a libertarian site would of course score highly libertarian, but the people who took the test on that research site identified themselves as all over the gamut. And the bias can't be that strong, since the second-most popular fringe group was authoritarianism, which is the lib's polar opposite.

I took the test, it told me I'm a Libertarian. I could have told you that, but, as we learned from Zaphod Beeblebrox, it's one thing to say it yourself, but quite another when a computer prints it out for you.

Likewise - and way out on the edge at that. With other questions I would probably have come out as the wishy-washy liberal I think of myself as. For example. I think education and health care should be free at the point of delivery. Therefore I would (and do) willingly pay taxes for those things
Still, thanks for introducing me to the subject and I look forward to the newsletter.

I took the test fully expecting to come out as a wishy-washy liberal, and came out as a left liberal! What happened to me??????? Not that I strongly disagree with that, but it is a surprise to see it in writing.

I'm now sworn off tests, since I did one recently which told me I'm a control freak (which doesn't sit well with being a left-liberal)

Anyway, thanks for the eye-opener, I'm off to research the subject some more soon.

FYI, most Libertarians see left-liberals as control freaks.

Part of the idea of being liberal today is that you want to control the redistribution of wealth, control how minority groups are treated, control what is taught in schools.

Libertarians are very much against that.

I see left-liberals and right-conservatives both as control freaks... just in different ways. The conservatives want to tell you how to live your life... what gods you worship, what music you listen to, what you do with your body, what is taught in schools, etc.

Actually, libertarians see ANY liberal as a control freak.

And right conservatives are also control freaks, in the way you described. The difference to me is that at least the right conservatives admit what they're doing.

If it helps any, I'm very closely aligned with Libertarians. My only major disagreement is that I think a strong foreign policy that takes an active part in world affairs (and occasionally military action) is a good thing.