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

http://politicalcompass.org

Me: http://www.politicalcompass.org/printablegraph?ec=-5.12&soc=-5.90 (This is subject to change.)

TRiG.

in the bermuda triangle with the needle spinning like a top

http://politicalcompass.org/printablegraph?ec=-3.75&soc=-5.49

Economic Left/Right: -3.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.49

So a left-libertarian, apparently.

Oh right next to me ! Ghandi, Mandela and the Dalai Lama seem to be sharing that space with us as well. what lovely neighbours.

Oooh I do feel enlightened all of a sudden

http://politicalcompass.org/printablegraph?ec=-7.75&soc=-8.21

I wonder if anyone in the 'opposing' quarters would post here?

Economic Left/Right: -7.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.28

http://politicalcompass.org/test

hmmmm... not really sure about that - the questions are a bit strangely worded in some places.

Sho
I wonder where we differ economically
Mine comes to Economic Left/Right -4.5
But my Social Libertarian/Authoritarian is the same as yours -5.28

I'm feeling particularly liberal today after an argument with someone (very young) who thinks we should pay much much less tax and tighten up social security so that you have to be dead to qualify (he prefers the American model of healthcare)

I guess it's because he's young, his parents are very wealthy and he's never been sick or unemployed (it's his first job after Uni, completely paid for by parents - he didn't even have a part-time summer job)
So I'm feeling a bit more stroppy about financial safety nets right now.
Usually I get the same as you...

This thing pops up from time to time - it's a bit dodgy but kinda fun. My results:

Economic Left/Right: -6.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.36

The economic one in particular is a bit dodgy, because what I really believe in is a non-capitalist but also non-centralised economy, and that doesn't really fit on their left/right axis.

Yes ~ Dodgy in that it's trying to measure intangibles. I'd probably be seen as one of the more right-wing people on this site. (Unless we have some closet BNP members)

Last time I did this I scored

Economic -6.62
Lib/Auth -0.97

However the suffering since has hardened my views.

I now score

Economic -5.75
Lib/Auth -0.36

But according to the Political Compass, the BNP aren't actually right-wing. They're slightly left of centre (roughly the same as the Greens, on the horizontal economic axis), but very authoritarian.

TRiG.

Oh dear, not this site again...

The political compass is rubbish. "Left" and "Right" are not about economics (strictly speaking, the two axes should be split into "economic liberal/authoritarian" and "social liberal/authoritarian") and even then these two axes are woefully simplistic.

Say, for example someone is opposed to gay marriage. They're a social authoritarian, right? Now, along comes someone else who thinks speed cameras should be set up on mainstreets to stop people speeding. They're also a social authoritarian but their reasoning and worldview is very different.

True Trig

True Zagreb - the questions asked show me as economically left because I am against global corporations, you can only have a global market when you have a global work-force and a global currency. I'm also in favour of state ownership of utilities and so I shoot off left.

"But according to the Political Compass, the BNP aren't actually right-wing."

But the BNP aren't far-right because of their economics, they're far-right because of their social views, racism, isolationism and extreme-nationalism. Political compass doesn't take these into account. Racism doesn't fit onto either axe, nor does nationalism or isolationism (it's possible for someone to hold libertarian social and ecomomic views and yet be racist, isolationist, nationalist even militarist).

The only reason I think the old "left-right" continuum is still relevant is that humans are tribal and, especially in times for crisis, the "left" and "right" do have a tendency to bunch into two separate (if disparate) groupings. Any serious study of politics, though, has to deal with multiple ideological strands for which four-axes (let alone two-axes) "graphs" are woefully inadequate.

" I'm also in favour of state ownership of utilities and so I shoot off left."

It's a myth that the left is in favour of state-ownership as some kind of ideological constant: the left only tends that way because of 20th century socialism and its idea that the government owning companies in the public name was necessarily to the public good. It's possible for the state to own a company and for it not to be for the public social good: government control for the purposes of waging war, for instance.

Similarly opposing "global corporations" isn't the left's sole position. American paleoconservatives, for example, aren't fond of globalisation, nor are old-fashioned Powell-ite Tories.

Incidentally, I just went to the first page of the "test" and several of the questions had nothing to do with social or economic views whatsoever. "The enemy of my enemy is my friend" for example. What's that got to do with either axis?

Another criticism I remember having about the questions from when I first discovered the site was that there seemed to be no questions to determine whether someone was "authoritarian-left" since all the "authortiarian/liberal" questions were right-slanted.

"So a left-libertarian, apparently."

Interestingly, every time I've seen someone take the test they always come out as that.

>>every time I've seen someone take the test they always come out as that.

An American lad I know appeared in the other side:

http://politicalcompass.org/printablegraph?ec=5.75&soc=-2.62

TRiG.

Economic Left/Right: -4.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.03

didnt like some of those questions 4 options of yes or no, where is the maybe