Debunkers, Skeptics and Conspiracists: Where are you on the political compass?

Mick West

Mick West

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Staff member
The political spectrum is not one dimensional left-right. There have been many ways of attempting to describe it, but the Political Compass model is probably the simplest, while still capturing some of the complexity. Take the test and see where you are:

http://politicalcompass.org/test

(To copy the image into a post, just right click on it, then "Copy Image", and then you can post it directly into the editor here)

This is me:
http://politicalcompass.org/printablegraph?ec=-5.00&soc=-6.10
Economic Left/Right: -5.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.10

upload_2013-7-20_12-52-6.png


Some relative positions:

upload_2013-7-20_12-53-39.png


Other people:

upload_2013-7-20_12-52-41.png


I've found the skeptical movement seems to be populated with social libertarians, which makes sense as we are skeptical of arbitrary rules and moral codes - especially when based in religion. However there seems to be a good left-right spread on economic factors, with many skeptics being quite right wing (free markets) economically. I'm more left-wing, preferring a degree of regulation to counteract market excesses and negative externalities.
 
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That definitely feels more correct as a visual representation of politics. I just never thought of a second axis to represent social positions.
 
As an exercise in perception, I've taken the test pretending to be Joe. The results came out as:

Economic Left/Right: 6.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.97
upload_2013-7-20_13-12-30.png

I'd be interested to see how my perception differs from actuality.
 
Me.
Economic Left/Right: -2.12
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.77
pcgraphpng.png

I could be Mandela's political twin.
 
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If anyone has trouble posting the image, then just post the numbers, and I'll add the image for you.

You need to actually copy and paste the image, you can't just drag it from the web page, as they don't let you hotlink.
 
pcgraphpng.php.png


Economic Left/Right: -4.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.85


I always thought of myself as liberal with elements of libertarian ideas.... Never thought that I was THAT MUCH of a libertarian.
 
Eh took it a second time and got -4.88x/-4.05y. I thought more on stuff. I guess this would be a better version.
Economic Left/Right: -4.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.05
upload_2013-7-20_13-52-57.png
 
I also took this test and came out as:
http://www.people-press.org/typology/quiz/
External Quote:

Based on your responses, YOU are a…Solid Liberal
Along with 14% of the public

Solid Liberals
14% OF THE PUBLIC

What They Believe
  • Strongly pro-government and very liberal on a broad range of issues
  • Very supportive of regulation, environmental protection and government assistance to the poor
  • One of the most secular groups; 59% say that religion is not that important to them
  • Supportive of the country's growing racial and ethnic diversity
  • Two-thirds disagree with the Tea Party
Who They Are
  • Highly politically engaged
  • 75% are Democrats
  • Concentrated in the Northeast and West
  • 57% are female
  • Best educated of the groups: 49% hold at least a bachelor's degree and 27% have post-graduate experience
  • A third regularly listen to NPR, about two-in-ten regularly watch The Daily Show and read The New York Times
  • 59% have a passport
  • 42% regularly buy organic foods
  • 21% are first or second generation Americans

 
The Political Compass
Economic Left/Right: -5.25
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.85
politicalcompass.org_facebook_pcgraphpng.php
 
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Hard-Pressed Democrats
13% OF THE PUBLIC

What They Believe
  • Very cynical about government
  • Critical of business
  • Supportive of the social safety net
  • View immigrants as an economic burden and a cultural threat
  • Supportive of environmental protection, but concerned about its economic impact
  • Pessimistic about their future finances
  • Socially conservative and very religious
Who They Are
  • 84% are Democrats
  • More than six-in-ten are female
  • Largely blue collar; about two-thirds have no formal education beyond high school
  • One of two groups with a sizeable concentration of African Americans (35%)
  • Nearly half live in the South (48%), with many others in the Midwest (23%)
  • More than four-in-ten describe their household as struggling
  • 61% regularly watch network evening news and 44% watch CNN
  • 23% follow NASCAR racing

Some of these I'm not sure how it describes me, but that's what I got.
 
Mick West said:
As an exercise in perception, I've taken the test pretending to be Joe. The results came out as:

Economic Left/Right: 6.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 0.97
View attachment 3547
I'd be interested to see how my perception differs from actuality.
Click to expand...
Nope got that wrong . Guess you really don't know me as well as you think . Of course if Im the Joe your were talking about ?
 
On vacation in PEI, only got the pad, can't post the image. Still,
Economic Left/Right: -8.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.44
1 row from the furthest left, two-and-a-half rows from the bottom.

upload_2013-7-20_17-30-30.png
 
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Oxymoron said:
Make of it what you will

politicalcompass.org_facebook_pcgraphpng.php
Click to expand...

Pretty much the same as me.

I think though the test really does not reflect the key dividing factor here - the degree of suspicion of the Powers That Be. While we probably have similar ideas about what government should be doing, we differ greatly on what we think it is doing, and how it decides what to do (i.e. if there's a big conspiracy).

That, like I said before, needs another axis.
 
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These are the resulst from the German Jury
(Insider Joke for Europeans and some Australians)

politicalcompass.org_facebook_pcgraphpng.php


As an Euorpean You can tell from the questions that they are directed to US-American Peoples.
Enviromental Questions are more importent here than religios questions


Edit:


Oooops: Drag&Drop first get me a wrong picture
 
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Interesting. Mick, is there a way to plot everybody on one chart, just for easier perspective?

Economic Left/Right: -2.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.56

politicalcompass.org_facebook_pcgraphpng.php
 
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Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -2.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.18
upload_2013-7-21_9-4-10.png
 
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politicalcompass.org_facebook_pcgraphpng.php

Apart from the fact that I'm woefully un-informed on the 'issues' , some questions weren't really straight forward and I could have gone either way - like whether people with a high likelihood of passing on a serious genetic disability should be allowed to breed; they probably *shouldn't*, but they should have the right to, and it depends if medicine can fix it.

Some I just don't know enough about - how would I know if rich people are taxed too much unless I was one?

And the question that said a significant advantage of a one-party state is that it avoids all the arguments that delay progress in a democratic political system.
Well yes, I agree, that's an obvious truism - but I wouldn't support it.

A lot of questions I just felt uncomfortable committing to any position at all, some I was sure about though.
 
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Soulfly said:
I'm retaking my test, Joe's is too close to mine and it makes me skeptical. o_O
Click to expand...

Heh. It only gets worse because you now have two joe's squatting on your sector and I'm as skeptical as you, since I landed near a lot of folks who seemingly don't agree with me on virtually anything.

politicalcompass.org_facebook_pcgraphpng.php


These things seem notoriously hamfisted when it comes to nuance because of the poorly worded questions and limited options. This is why I don't like boxes to begin with--too neat and too sloppy at the same time.

Odd that I would land closest to Gandhi in that a couple of years ago I would have been proud of that, but I've had to do a major reevaluation of him based on further data and don't see him in the same I used to see him at all.
 
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Joe Newman said:
These things seem notoriously hamfisted when it comes to nuance because of the poorly worded questions and limited options.
Click to expand...

I agree. I feel like I could/would get a completely different result each time I took the test...I took it again this morning and ended up in the green- must have been in a bad mood yesterday :)
 
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