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Your Politics

Do you consider yourself left wing or right wing?


  • Total voters
    67
I just did mine.

Economic Left/Right: -8.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.44

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I'm pretty far left, even for a European.

I forgot to mention, I'm an actual member of the party Die Linke (The Left) here in Germany.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Left_(Germany)
 
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this was posted by clicking on the image and dragging it to the reply window and letting go of the click I had no idea that is why we moved to this forum nice ,,,, very nice.
 
I've gone for centre left, which as many have already pointed out is far left in America. Whilst in principle liberal, however, my leftism is primarily of the trade union variety, with my opinion of an unchecked welfare state somewhat tarnished by years of living on council estates.

So yeah, Marxist I guess.
 
this is my political compass for 2016
Went to the site (www.politicalcompass.org) to take the test myself, oh my God the phrasing of those questions are loaded!

Instead of "If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations." it could have been "If economic globalization is inevitable, should it primarily serve humanity or should it primarily serve the purpose of free trade?"

Or something more like that?

The original phrasing heavily steers the test-taker, shouldn't the phrasing be as neutral as possible?
Push a girl on the playground? Spray paint swear words on a neighbor's garage door? Get a girl drunk and try to sleep with her?
And if one of us girls does any (or all) of these thing, is it "girls will be girls?

To the OP, I'm moderate right of center (in Europe that's bouncing off the right wall, yes?). I dislike both the American Presidential candidates but early voted for Trump as the better choice.
 
The Political Compass questions do a lot of leading to point you to the "right" answer that will give you a libertarian leaning. That's basically the point of the test, to make you think you're a libertarian.

I don't think I've ever seen anyone end up above the middle line. If they did I'd be... a little disturbed.
 
I'm British (Left) and I always have been. I don't think I've ever read or heard a Right opinion that I didn't in some way find offensive.
 
I consider myself more "conservative" than solid "republican" (US), aka Center Right.
My ideals and values are certainly shaped by my religious background, but i've also come into a lot of opinions simply on my own.
For example: i'm in favor of common-sense gun control that respects the constitution while also attempting to prevent gun violence. What exactly that would entail I haven't given much thought to.
Healthcare in the US is atrocious: Having to see my primary dr. to get a referral (at a cost of $15 per visit) in order to see a specialist (at $30 per visit) to get a prescription for a needed medicine with a copay of $10-$50 - and that's just the nuisance. Paying $800 or so a month for an employer-subsidized family plan (i know people who have it worse) with deductibles in the thousands....etc. Considering that just a few years ago costs were half that, I think the government should be investigating the cause of these price spikes and making efforts to reduce these costs across the board, rather than shoving mandates down the throats of insurance companies and consumers. Instead, half the representatives and senators are bought and paid for by lobbyists from all industries.
Taxes are too high - I make a fairly decent salary to support my family, but if I were to make just a few thousand more by tax rates would jump - eating significantly into my income.
Foreign Affairs - since Eisenhower, the US was content to keep crackpot dictators across the world in check with promises of money and guns and keeping the military away from them.
Post Arab Spring, we have several countries in the middle east in the midst of chaos and turmoil (Libya, Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq etc) and Al Quada and ISIS running wild. (This I blame as much on Bush as Obama).

What it comes down to is that generally my views mirror republican, but not exclusively.
 
I don't think I've ever seen anyone end up above the middle line. If they did I'd be... a little disturbed.

Indeed!

(The rest of this reply is not directed at you, so please don't interpret it as such!)

In addition to the libertarian leaning of the Political Compass test itself, I think it flows from a false premise that people tend to vote based on values rather than party allegiances. While values do play a role, it's just not as simple as "I believe x, therefore I vote for y party/candidate who shares those beliefs." Lots of people vote against parties and candidates, and the single-issue voter is absolutely a thing. So someone might support universal healthcare, gay marriage, high taxes on the wealthy, and more education funding, but abortion is an absolute dealbreaker for them... so they vote Republican.

This goes a long way to explaining what otherwise look like very strange voting habits in the US. Polls show Americans support all kinds of liberal/progressive ideas, but the second you turn them into political questions that signal identifiable party planks or individual politicians, partisan sorting kicks in--it doesn't end up mattering so much what people believe, since it doesn't have a lot of influence over how they ultimately vote.

That is not to say that the compass is totally useless. I think it's good for producing comparative measurements, both against yourself and others. But it is presented as an absolute biaxial diagram, as if it defines an essentially complete universe of political positions.
 
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