Our beloved forum is biased! I have found the definitive proof in the post icons box, right here: If I wish to give a thread a thumbs up symbol, the symbol is pointed to the right, while the thumbs down is pointed conspicuously to the LEFT! I demand equal representation! It’s bigoted, I tell you. The liberal media is a lie! This media right here is SO conservative it’s scary!
[/rant], I just had a funny thought pop into my head and wanted to post it. Discuss.
EDIT: lol, i forgot to put a left-pointing thumbs down as the icon…
As much as I dislike going to Wikipedia for political issues I’m going to give in and do it here cause it’s the quick and easy link to find. Right-wing politics Left-wing politics
And just realize that Wikipedia is not a definitive source for controversial or political issues cause it’s too easy to edit just for kicks by kooks on either side.
Talk about subliminal bias. I got a score of MINUS one (a little left of the middle) on the left-right scale. Harper would probably get a significantly “better” score. Yet another thing besides the swimsuit model career to be envious about. Oh well… I’ll just have to accept that I’m inferior
It is a tricky survey. You have to know your feelings and position on all the issues presented to get an accurate score. I don’t fully agree with the score it gave me. I answered a lot of questions with agree or disagree. To get a more accurate score that moves you further away from the center it looks like you need to answer strongly agree or strongly disagree more often or when appropriate. That takes more thinking. It’s easy for most of the questions to figure out the agree or disagree part. Figuring out if it goes into the strongly agree or strongly disagree category is more difficult.
I’ll have to try the survey again and pay attention to using the strongly agree and strongly disagree options when appropriate.
Some of the questions are also kind of hard to figure out what exactly they’re aiming at.
I don’t much like the Political Compass either. Getting an accurate result is tricky and I suspect that the vast majority of people taking the survey do not get a final result that is not actually correct. I suspect that it does an OK job of putting you in the correct quadrant but the positioning in that quadrant is going to be hit or miss depending on how well the survey taker understands the global (Western democracy) political spectrum and range of views.
One thing that seems to have thrown me off is that I was answering from a very US centric point of view. I wasn’t thinking globally. In the US the political system operates within a narrow area of the political compass. On that compass there isn’t a lot of difference between a typical Democrat and a typical Republican. On a global scale the US system and range of accepted political ideology is very limited. So answering the questions based on a US centric view will skew the results. Gotta think about how your views fit on a global scale.
Other countries also have similar problems. For example a conservative in Canada is more like a liberal Democrat here in the US. So a Canadian answering the questions from a Canadian centric view will also end up with a skewed result.
I’ll have to retake the survey later with all that in mind.
It’s been a while since I took a statistics class, but I’m pretty sure the survey-taker isn’t suppose to know what the questions are aiming at. It’s not about trying to get yourself into the quadrant that you perceive yourself being in. Otherwise, why ask the questions, just put a dot on the grid.
For what it’s worth:
-6.38
-4.77
Just a hair below Ghandi, and almost perfectly diagonal from G. W. Bush.
(Don’t judge me too hard, I’m still young and idealistic, I’m sure I’ll gravitate up and right as I get older and lose hope for the world.)
But isn’t having US-centric or global-centric views part of where you end up falling on the political spectrum. Right now you are viewing your result on a US-centric model by even bringing in the concept of Democrat and Republican because the test itself certainly doesn’t bring thos terms into the discussion.
In order to even out the scores among each other to keep our scores comparable we should all retake the test answering only agree or disagree, and ignore stongly agree and strongly disagree.
As far as the US-centric vs. global-perspectived that is all part of your political view point. If you’re taking the test from a US-centric point of view is that because you tend to see the world in a US-centric manner?
We all understand the inaccuracy of the test but I am still curious to see your results, not so much to judge you, but to judge the test see we already have a limited understanding of your poitics from your posts on the board.
There are questions that very much depend on what you consider to be the moderate position. For example the economic and business regulation questions. What we in the US would consider heavy handed regulation would be considered very light regulation in someplace like Sweden. A US liberal would be considered a right winger in some countries. So basing your answers on a US centric view will tend to skew your results to the left side of the compass graph.
I was looking at the survey all wrong. I’ll have to retake it later tonight when I get back home. I don’t have time right now.
The first time I took the survey I ended up slightly to the left of John Kerry. That is way way wrong. That’s why I need to take it again considering the global perspective.
I think you still ahve it wrong by trying to filter your views through a country. Take all of the questions personally. If the statement is something you would say mark, agree. If it’s something you wouldnt’ say mark disagree.
I look your looking way too into this and trying choose answers on how you think you’re supposed to think rather than how you do think.
I will admit that taking a survey like this is difficult. Everything exists in shades of grey so sometimes it’s hard to mark an answer when there are only black or white to choose from.
Many cosider the failings of our current president, that he is only able to see issues as black or white. He’s even vocalized this belief with statments like, “you’re either for us or against us”. So it’s sort of hypocritical for me to ask you to take black or white stances on all of these issues, but this is just for a little internet test, not to determine the future of the free world.
That is way way wrong. That’s why I need to take it again considering the global perspective.