www.PoliticalCompass.org

[Whimsicality]

Welcome to The Political Compass (http://politicalcompass.org/).
There's abundant evidence for the need of it. The old one-dimensional categories of 'right' and 'left' , established for the seating arrangement of the French National Assembly of 1789, are overly simplistic for today's complex political landscape. For example, who are the 'conservatives' in today's Russia? Are they the unreconstructed Stalinists, or the reformers who have adopted the right-wing views of conservatives like Margaret Thatcher ?
On the standard left-right scale, how do you distinguish leftists like Stalin and Gandhi? It's not sufficient to say that Stalin was simply more left than Gandhi. There are fundamental political differences between them that the old categories on their own can't explain. Similarly, we generally describe social reactionaries as 'right-wingers', yet that leaves left-wing reactionaries like Robert Mugabe and Pol Pot off the hook.

This is a very good site that's main point, as stated in the paragraph above, is to show that the traditional way of viewing human's political views as "left wing" or "right wing" is bullshit. There is an annonymus test to show how you fall on their scale, plus maps showing where various political leaders past and present fall, as well as a map specifically for the U.S. 2004 election.

The whole site is very clear and descriptive without being boring or too wordy. It doesn't take long to read, although it's set up nicely so you can just skip to what looks interesting.

So. Opinions, anyway? Did you take the test yourself?

I did, and the results were Economic Left/Right: -2.38;
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.72. This put me slightly below and to the right of Ghandi and Nelson Mandela, and Ralph Nader, if you need a visual.

[htep.fan]

I can't see the site, my browser sucks. But I agree, that left-right thing is really oversimplyfing, and to me, confusing. It varies from country to country to country too. Left and right in here are way much different and complex than in my country.

[User Name]

I remember this site now. I think it was posted before in an old SC chat, but I'm not too sure.

[Kate]

Woah. This shows that I'm a flaming liberal.

Economic Left/Right: -9.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.59

[Link04]

I agree with the initial statement.

Libertarian's for life!

Economic Left/Right: -3.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.26

[Sylar]

(w00t)

Economic Left/Right: -4.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.77


At Least I'm not in the right wing. I hate my conservative friends, they piss me off :lol:

[User Name]

Economic Left/Right: -2.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.00

I'm closest to Nelson Mandela, David Cobb, Ralph Nader, and Ghandi.

[Whimsicality]

Originally posted by BuriedxTragedy@Nov 18 2004, 06:45 PM
(w00t)

Economic Left/Right: -4.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.77


At Least I'm not in the right wing. I hate my conservative friends, they piss me off :lol:
You know what pisses me off? People who automatically assume that "conservative" means someone is an arrogant asshole. I'm no right-winger (although as the site points out, you can't accuratly label someone just "right wing" or "left wing" unless we're talking strictly ecomonicly) but this whole hatred bewteen liberals and conservatives is stupid.

The absolute nicest, sweetest person I know is very conservative. Yes, we disgree on certain (okay, quite a few) issues, but niether of us hold it against each other because we realize that just because someone's beliefs are different then yours doesn't make them a bad person.

[Willstar]

Economic Left/Right: -2.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.08

Ghandi. :D

[Sylar]

Originally posted by Whimsicality+Nov 18 2004, 09:44 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Whimsicality @ Nov 18 2004, 09:44 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--BuriedxTragedy@Nov 18 2004, 06:45 PM
(w00t)

Economic Left/Right: -4.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.77


At Least I'm not in the right wing. I hate my conservative friends, they piss me off :lol:
You know what pisses me off? People who automatically assume that "conservative" means someone is an arrogant asshole. I'm no right-winger (although as the site points out, you can't accuratly label someone just "right wing" or "left wing" unless we're talking strictly ecomonicly) but this whole hatred bewteen liberals and conservatives is stupid.

The absolute nicest, sweetest person I know is very conservative. Yes, we disgree on certain (okay, quite a few) issues, but niether of us hold it against each other because we realize that just because someone's beliefs are different then yours doesn't make them a bad person. [/b][/quote]
...i didn't say all conservatives, MY FRIENDS that are conservative. I never made a generalization at all. I don't know where you got that from. :unsure:

[Whimsicality]

Originally posted by BuriedxTragedy@Nov 18 2004, 10:16 PM
...i didn't say all conservatives, MY FRIENDS that are conservative. I never made a generalization at all. I don't know where you got that from. :unsure:
I didn't mean to make it sound like I was attacking you specificaly. I know it came out that way, but it wasn't supposed to--it wasn't what you said (you're right, you weren't generalizing), it was just that what you said made me think of what I hear constantly from a lot of people both around me and in the media. "Conservatives are evil," etc etc.

So I'm sorry for sounding vicious. Things just keep getting me fired up tonight :-P

:hugz:

[Sylar]

Originally posted by Whimsicality+Nov 18 2004, 10:39 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Whimsicality @ Nov 18 2004, 10:39 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--BuriedxTragedy@Nov 18 2004, 10:16 PM
...i didn't say all conservatives, MY FRIENDS that are conservative. I never made a generalization at all. I don't know where you got that from.* :unsure:
I didn't mean to make it sound like I was attacking you specificaly. I know it came out that way, but it wasn't supposed to--it wasn't what you said (you're right, you weren't generalizing), it was just that what you said made me think of what I hear constantly from a lot of people both around me and in the media. "Conservatives are evil," etc etc.

So I'm sorry for sounding vicious. Things just keep getting me fired up tonight :-P

:hugz: [/b][/quote]
Oh, its alright. :hugz:

It's flies both ways too, One of my friends is HIGHLY conservative and all he does is call people he doesn't like or agree with, Liberal Hacks and he constantly makes a lot of generalizations. So I know where you are coming from on that ;)

[Whimsicality]

Originally posted by Whimsicality+Nov 18 2004, 10:39 PM--></span><table border='0' align='center' width='95%' cellpadding='3' cellspacing='1'><tr><td>QUOTE (Whimsicality @ Nov 18 2004, 10:39 PM)</td></tr><tr><td id='QUOTE'> <!--QuoteBegin--BuriedxTragedy@Nov 18 2004, 10:16 PM
...i didn't say all conservatives, MY FRIENDS that are conservative. I never made a generalization at all. I don't know where you got that from.* :unsure:
I didn't mean to make it sound like I was attacking you specificaly. I know it came out that way, but it wasn't supposed to--it wasn't what you said (you're right, you weren't generalizing), it was just that what you said made me think of what I hear constantly from a lot of people both around me and in the media. "Conservatives are evil," etc etc.

So I'm sorry for sounding vicious. Things just keep getting me fired up tonight :-P

:hugz: [/b][/quote]
That it does. The reason that conservative-hating liberals pop into my mind before the reverse is simply because I've always lived in mostly liberal areas (I know VA voted Bush overall but my county voted Kerry).

[Maëlle]

Economic Left/Right: -6.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.85


:blink: I'm deep.

[Kate]

Originally posted by Maëlle@Nov 18 2004, 09:32 PM
Economic Left/Right: -6.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.85


:blink: I'm deep.
But not quite as deep as me. Probably a good thing...I'm a little over the top sometimes.

[Todd]

I forgot what I got and don't feel like taking it again, but I was pretty close to the very bottom left corner. Not surprising though.

[Odaton]

Economic Left/Right: -7.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.15

So yea, I'm a left-wing libertarian I guess! I'm suprised that with so many people that have scored as low as I have, that more people didn't support Ralph Nader in the election.....because the Democrats are actually quite in the right/centre of that spectrum.

http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/images/USelection2004.gif

[Whimsicality]

Originally posted by Odaton@Nov 21 2004, 06:02 PM
So yea, I'm a left-wing libertarian I guess! I'm suprised that with so many people that have scored as low as I have, that more people didn't support Ralph Nader in the election.....because the Democrats are actually quite in the right/centre of that spectrum.
I think that's because no one took him seriously as a canidate.

[Alacrity]

Economic Left/Right: -6.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.49

[Ryan]

Economic Left/Right: 1.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.26

Just like i thought i little bit right of center on economic issues and pretty center in being authortarian vs. liberatarian. Mark is probably wondering why i don't like Paul Martin.

I'm really surprised that they consider Ralph Nader to be that close to center, i tohught he would be in the far left.