Comments on: Comments on 13908

Post number 13908

silusGROK — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 13:58:06 -0800

World's Smallest [Libertarian-centric] Political Quiz... Nothing earth-shattering. It's short, thought-provoking, and a tad biased. Or maybe it isn't and I'm just chafing at being called an Authoritarian (neither Fascist, nor a Communist... somewhere in between). I'm not I tell you... really!

By: silusGROK

silusGROK — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 14:01:51 -0800

[Props to Sean Meade for the original link]

By: argybarg

argybarg — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 14:07:54 -0800

I like the menu of choices they give you after you've taken the quiz: "Find out more about: Libertarianism"

By: Shadowkeeper

Shadowkeeper — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 14:14:48 -0800

It told me I was a Scientologist. Hmm. Actually, I came out as a "Left-Liberal," which is news to exactly no one.

By: dhartung

dhartung — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 14:14:56 -0800

It was invented by a libertarian to persuade people that they're sympathetic to it even if they didn't know what it was all about. (The national party's positions are certainly iconoclastic enough to confuse people: shut down all public schools; break all foreign military alliances ...) As long as you know it's libertarian, no harm no foul. What annoys me is that the questions are designed to that end. There's a version (not this one, perhaps) that shows you the closest presidential candidate to your own views, based on this quiz. I (and many other webloggers) kept taking it and finding out that, according to the quiz, our views were closest to .... David McReynolds of the Socialist party. Uh, not. Being liberal is one thing, being more liberal than Al Gore is another, but being ready to embrace a fringe party's platform is something else entirely. I just don't feel there were enough questions to distinguish the difference there, which bespeaks either an ignorance of that area of the spectrum, either accidental or deliberate.

By: Ty Webb

Ty Webb — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 14:19:32 -0800

They forgot this question: GOVERNMENT IS, LIKE, TOTALLY EVIL. (Y) (M) (N)

By: raysmj

raysmj — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 14:25:23 -0800

This is so (censored) old, already.

By: thirteen

thirteen — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 14:28:40 -0800

[Props to Sean Meade for the original link] Nobody doesn't like Sean Meade.

By: ttrendel

ttrendel — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 14:30:15 -0800

I took this a few years and have been getting spammed by the Liberatarian Party ever since. This is slightly more subtle than the quizzes in the UTNE Reader.

By: th3ph17

th3ph17 — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 14:39:01 -0800

i came in as left-liberal also, !!! the thing a quiz like this never accounts for is what people will vote for to Fit in a particular label. if you wish to vote Green with a Democrat slant, please select the following answers to the quiz

By: Owen Boswarva

Owen Boswarva — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 14:49:40 -0800

The Political Compass test does the same thing in a more thorough manner.

By: papalotl

papalotl — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 15:01:25 -0800

I have seen this test translated to Spanish and advertised by the Libertarian party in my country (Costa Rica). Only that the spanish version is extremely biased in order to make you believe you are the most libertarian person on earth and you should vote for them...

By: justlooking

justlooking — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 15:36:42 -0800

I came out as a 'Centrist' ....not exactly news either ... But I guess its one thing to think about these issues in the abstract, quite another to see these applied to a specific issue in a specific geographies. Nader appeared to be a darling of the liberals, but when he actually did stand for an election ......

By: quarsan

quarsan — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 16:22:00 -0800

left liberal.... who are these swine to call me liberal? i'm old labour and proud

By: Kevs

Kevs — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 16:41:02 -0800

This test is quite...out there. I've taken a few, more thorough, political spectrum tests, and I invariably come out as a centrist, usually slightly nudged up towards libertarianism. On this test, I was on the far left wall as a left-liberal. I don't think anyone who knows me would call me a left-liberal, though. Bizarre.

By: phatboy

phatboy — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 16:55:57 -0800

I was on the border between centrist and liberal. Wonder where Fold_and_Mutilate would end up?

By: Doug

Doug — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 17:14:50 -0800

Phatboy, are you trying to get a rise out of him or something? I found this article at Arts & Letters Daily, which I think everyone considering becoming a libertarian should read.

By: phatboy

phatboy — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 17:37:49 -0800

Nothing wrong with an innocent rise, it is just interesting that there are so few people on MeFi whose politics I can identify immediatly. F&M is one of them. STUFF magazine ran an interview regarding "what women want", and a vast majority wanted a moderately left leaning partner. Probably because they seem cuddlier.

By: Hildago

Hildago — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 17:55:07 -0800

Anybody have a link to more thorough political spectrum analyses? (Thanks for that one Owen, btw)

By: Eamon

Eamon — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 18:35:55 -0800

I was reminded of PoliticalCompass.org recently while looking at revbrian's user profile here on MeFi. Surprisingly, I've moved farther from the center since I last took the test (two years ago) -- I'm outstriping Gandhi in my libretarian-socialist leanings now!

By: Slithy_Tove

Slithy_Tove — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 20:24:51 -0800

The Political Compass test is amusing. I came out modestly Right-Libertarian (Left-Right 4.5, Authoritarian-Libertarian 3.08). According to the site, there is no current major British politician who is even in my quadrant of the political spectrum. That quadrant is completely blank. Somehow, I suspected as much. Reminds me of when I used to live in Philly (I'm in its 'burbs, now) and everyone I voted for in any local election automatically lost. On f_&_m's politics: aren't they obvious? Economically authoritarian, socially libertarian would be my guess. F_&_m, am I close?

By: justlooking

justlooking — Wed, 16 Jan 2002 22:22:55 -0800

I liked the political compass test too. I came out left libertarian (left-right -0.50, Authoritarian/Libertarian: -3.79). Gave me pause for thought. I always thought that I occupy the center!

By: mlinksva

mlinksva — Thu, 17 Jan 2002 01:29:15 -0800

The WSPQ is indeed biased. The Libertarian Purity Test is more amusing, and you almost certainly won't get a high score.

By: a3matrix

a3matrix — Thu, 17 Jan 2002 04:51:52 -0800

The Political Compass, I was almost dead center. Economic Left/Right: -0.13 Authoritarian/Libertarian: -0.77 Small Pol Quiz: Centrist

By: yesster

yesster — Thu, 17 Jan 2002 06:49:57 -0800

On the political compass quiz, I come out strong liberal, strong left. No surprises there. Still, I find the labels to be restrictive and misleading. One question that should be asked, and the answer to which does not indicate anything about the cartesian coordinate position on that quiz scale, is: "Should the laws governing society be rule-based or principle-based?"

By: DevilsAdvocate

DevilsAdvocate — Thu, 17 Jan 2002 13:10:08 -0800

I think the WSPQ and the Political Compass are very good things. Not because they're incredibly accurate or unbiased (they aren't), but simply because they make people aware that there's more than one dimension to political viewpoints. It's a peeve of mine whenever anyone tries to label all political views on a single liberal-conservative axis. (On the other hand, I consider it a personal victory when I'm accused of being part of the Far Right and part of the Far Left on the same day.)