World getting divided between Right and Left? (Now discussing non-linear 'Political Compass')

Repost of the link for those who don't want to dig through the thread to find it:

The Political Compass

EDIT:

My new scores are:

Economic Left/Right: 2.88
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -1.44

My old scores were:

Economic Left/Right: 2.00
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.00

I see that the guy has updated the site, though, so maybe he changed the test too...

 

Yodashizzle, your scores seem to indicate you're a classical lefty! You have leftist views on society and economics.

There are new questions, BTW: Military action that defies international law is sometimes justified, for example.

And my test results again:


Economic Left/Right: 0.62
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.31

OK, I've shifted rightwards a bit. Interesting; I thought I'd score more left this time... ? But hey, Kimball and I had similar scores before and we've both gone rightwards.

I disagree with the international graph; there is no way in hell that George W Bush is more right wing than Ariel Sharon!!!

Also, I did the iconoclasms test; love this quote: "To occupy Iraq would instantly shatter our coalition, turning the whole Arab world against us and make a broken tyrant into a latter-day hero ... assigning young soldiers to a fruitless hunt for a securely entrenched dictator and condemning them to fight in what would be an un-winnable urban guerilla war. It could only plunge that part of the world into even greater instability." George Herbert Walker Bush, 1998

Cute, eh?

E_S

 

I moved slightly to the left.

Now:

Economic Left/Right: -2.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -3.79

Previously:

Economic Left/Right: -2.62
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.21

 

See, I don't buy that website, because this is how I came out

Economic Left/Right: 0.12
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -0.92

HELL NO!!!!

 

Ah, yeah, actually I can see that TripleB...



E_S

 

I think that the 'centre' on that compass is somewhere around (-1.0, -2.0). I think I posted that opinion on a previous page...

 

Well wouldn't it be impossible to get a 0.0/0.0 score?

E_S

 

Ok. Here goes trying to provide an update on the statistics.

First, I'm hurt that Darth_Overlord had the nerve to knock me out of my place as closest to the center of the graph. That just wasn't nice.

We have moved to a more central mean. The new mean is centered at (-0.55, -3.01).

In order from closest to farthest from the center of the graph, we have:

Darth_Overlord
Kimball_Kinnison
TripleB
Jansons_Funny_Twin
Ender_Sai
farraday
Darth Mischievous
StarFire
Darth Fierce
DeathStar1977
Red-Seven
yodashizzzle
Jediflyer
ShaneP
AJA
Gonk
Obi-Wan McCartney
Jades Fire
Darth_Omega
Fire_Ice_Death
TheScarletBanner
Jabbadabbado
Obi Anne
Saint_of_Killers
GrandAdmiralPellaeon
JediSmuggler
Darth_Guy
KaineDamo

Everyone from Gonk to KaineDamo was more than 5 points away from the center, making their positions the more "extreme" by the terms I defined earlier.

However, when we sort people by their distance from the mean, we see a different listing:

Ender_Sai
farraday
yodashizzzle
Jediflyer
Jansons_Funny_Twin
TripleB
Darth_Overlord
Red-Seven
Darth Fierce
Kimball_Kinnison
DeathStar1977
Obi-Wan McCartney
Gonk
StarFire
Darth_Omega
Jabbadabbado
Fire_Ice_Death
Jades Fire
Saint_of_Killers
KaineDamo
Obi Anne
Darth_Guy
GrandAdmiralPellaeon
ShaneP
Darth Mischievous
AJA
TheScarletBanner
JediSmuggler

In this case, everyone from ShaneP to JediSmuggler was more than 5 points away from the mean. I should also note that they were all on the right side of the graph as well.

I think that the 'centre' on that compass is somewhere around (-1.0, -2.0). I think I posted that opinion on a previous page...

I think I'm going to disagree with you on that one, RedSeven. I'll agree that the center of the graph is not the same as the 'centre', but I think that on the economic axis (Left/Right) it's fairly close to accurate. Of course, that's my perogative, since I have all the statistics.

I was really surprised by where yodashizzzle wound up. Considering how much we have agreed in almost every debate we've both participated in, I would have thought that he was closer to my position than to Obi-Wan McCartney's position (since we've had many disagreements on those same issues).

Kimball Kinnison

 

KK - Thanks for compiling all of those stats.

I too am surprised where I landed.

 

I'm left, and i don't need to do a test to know that...

But i did it anyway, here's my score...
About The Political Compass

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -7.75
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.33

 

I was really surprised by where yodashizzzle wound up.

so was i, really. i think it's a good sign though that people can find common ground and maybe work together in discussions. thanks for the contributions on this thread, Kimball.

 

The fact that people are still blabbering on about whether they?re 'left' and 'right' kind of suggests to me that they're missing half the point of the test. On this scale, 'left' and 'right' is a purely economic thing - whether a person leans towards authoritarianism or libertarianism is an almost totally separate, and if anything more important, issue. People seem to miss the fact that, for example, it's possible to be socially liberal and right wing at the same time.

If people thought along the lines of this test, instead of using dumb, generalised 'Left/Right' labels all the time, I bet it would cut out quite a hefty chunk of the pointless bickering that clogs up so much of the discussion on this forum - dumb arguments over whether it was the left or the right who was more responsible for the major disasters of the last century, and so on. It was extremists authoritarian dictators who caused most of the misery ? their economic stance is largely by the way.

No one besides real authoritarian extremists (regardless of whether they?re economically left or right) is ever really going to support a totalitarian dictatorship, so it's a waste of time trying to link them to any given dictator just because they have loosely corresponding economic beliefs.

 

Yeah, you're right. It's the whole "I H8 LIBERALS" or "I H8 CONSERVATIVES" crap that ruins so many debates.

E_S

 

the problem is that while I have my convictions, when you ask the questions they were asking, I don't answer Strong very often, and the result is that I got a lot of 'near t he center' answers, which I don't like because I am no moderate.

 

heh, I wouldn't have seen you answering anything less than STRONGLY AGREE or STRONGLY DISAGREE, and whilst each page loaded you took potshot at a picture of Clinton taped to a dartboard with a Daisy BB pistol!

E_S

 

Hey, but Triple B voted for Clinton, correct? Perhaps he mildly disagreed with Bush Sr. and Perot??? See Triple B, you need to be stronger!

Kimball, excellent work.

DeathStar1977, "I too am surprised where I landed. " Yeah, you landed right next to me!

 

Yeah, you landed right next to me! [face_shocked]



Yes, that was very surprising. Or perhaps we agree on more issues than we previously thought [face_shocked] [face_shocked]

It's the whole "I H8 LIBERALS" or "I H8 CONSERVATIVES" crap that ruins so many debates.

100% correct. A very close friend of mine always votes Republican. Whenever we talk Bush or Clinton, things turn ugly. Whenever we talk specific issues, things are very civil.

 

I thought I'd add another update. However, this time, you can look at the same graph I have.

I've created a PDF file of the spreadsheet I'm using for this. You can get a copy here. It really is a pretty amazing distribution on the graph.

Kimball Kinnison

 

retest:

Economic Left/Right: 2.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -3.69


I think that's very close to previous results. Definitely different questions...and I still didn't like the way many were phrased.

 

I've updated the PDF I created to reflect the updated scores.

You can download it here.

Kimball Kinnison

 

Update:

Economic Left/Right: -2.62
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -3.28

Compared with last time:

Economic Left/Right: -3.25
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -5.69


Sorry K_K I guess you have to change it again

 

Sorry K_K I guess you have to change it again

Already done.

Updated file.

It appears that the grouping towards the lower left is starting to spread out as more people take/retake the test. It should be interesting to see how it develops over time.

Kimball Kinnison

 

What the...?

Before:
Economic Left/Right: 2.12
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -2.51

After:
Economic Left/Right: 0.12
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -1.54

I too am moving Left? Something's amiss, methinks. Next thing they'll be telling me I should be watching Gore TV.

DeathStar1977 - I was mixed up looking at KK's charts. The one where we are right next to each other was distance from the center, not our own proximity. You're still significantly left than me (well, you were until now), so I'm sure there's still plenty for us to argue about.

KK - Great work tracking this.

 

Darth Fierce said

Hey, but Triple B voted for Clinton, correct? Perhaps he mildly disagreed with Bush Sr. and Perot??? See Triple B, you need to be stronger

Unlike a lot of you 'Liberal from the moment you set foot in public school' people out there, I actively attempted to walk the middle, and during that time, from 1992 to early 2000, drifted left and right on a regular basis all the time.


I can say that I have seen both sides and yes, I did vote for Clinton twice when I was going thru liberal phases in my life. But ultimately, it strengthened my own convictions (nothing more so then the Second Amendemnt) to the point that I now believe my course on the right is set, although you never know...things could change. Just 3 years and a few months ago, I had this paranoia that I HAD to walk exactly down the middle on EVERYTHING in order to be right.