20-01-2002 20:15									#1
	You and the Political Compass Got spare money?

First of all, I do not know if this has been posted here before - I assume that it has not been at least for a while, since the forum search was unable to find anything related to it.

Anyway, my history & politics group made the Political Compass test (http://www.politicalcompass.org) in school last week to see how it (the group) would be aligned politically. While making the test, I got the idea of repeating the same experiment here on Apolyton Off-Topic - and here's the result. To participate, just go to the web site and take the test, then return here and enter your result to the poll above.

The test itself is pretty clever - as you may see, it replaces the classical left-right classification with a two-axis "left-right, authoritarian-libertarian" compass. I splitted it into nine categories instead of the original four to make the results easier to analyze.

To see your category, compare your score to these numbers:

Authoritarian Left (smaller than -4, bigger than 4)
Intermediate Left (smaller than -4, between -4 and 4)
Libertarian Left (smaller than -4, smaller than -4)
Authoritarian Centre (between -4 and 4, bigger than 4)
Intermediate Centre (between -4 and 4, between -4 and 4)
Libertarian Centre (between -4 and 4, smaller than -4)
Authoritarian Right (bigger than 4, bigger than 4)
Intermediate Right (bigger than 4, between -4 and 4)
Libertarian Right (bigger than 4, smaller than -4)

Finally, to make the poll more "valid", please follow the following two guidelines:

- Answer the questions of the test honestly and according to your true opinions and/or deeds.

- When answering the poll here, choose the alternative that the official test gave you - not the one you at least though you belonged to.

	20-01-2002 20:23									#2
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The libertarian compass is a joke. It is deliberately skewed to make thir point of view look the most free. I could just as easily create a compass that made communism the most free point on the compass.

	20-01-2002 20:29									#3
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I got both numbers only a bit smaller than -4.

	20-01-2002 20:30									#4
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Politics schmolitics.

	20-01-2002 20:32									#5
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Eli's a socialist!

Eli's a socialist!



I got -7, -6.5 (Duh)

	20-01-2002 20:35									#6
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4.13 Economic Right, -1.95 Libertarian

	20-01-2002 20:37									#7
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Economic Right: 2.38
Authoritarian: 0.46

	20-01-2002 20:59									#8
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Libertarian Centre. I am so unsurprised.
Almost identical placement to Gandhi, but a bit more centered.

	20-01-2002 21:08									#9
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Economic Left/Right: 2.63, Authoritarian/Libertarian: -3.59

Not much surprise there, then.

	20-01-2002 21:27									#10
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I got libertarian left. Is that a term that's widely used, or..? Usually "libertarian" would be asscoiated with right-wingers.

	20-01-2002 21:58									#11
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L/R: -5.88
A/L: -5.23

Hasta la victoria siempre!

	20-01-2002 21:59									#12
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I got -6.25 and -7.79. All that tells me is that the people who created this survey would label me as being Libertarian Left. I would not accept that label because I can't see how they scored the questions.

Consider the question "I'd always support my country, whether it was right or wrong." If you strongly agree with this question, does this make you an authoritarian. If yes, then why? Or what about the question "Our nation has many unique virtues." IF I agree with that, does it make me an authoritarian or a liberatarian.

What I find funny is the use of the term Libertarian for people I would describe as being liberal or socialist.

Overall, a ridiculous survey.

The concept that this politcal compass would cover the political spectrum is also absurd. Where do you place conservative values that seek to maintain what exists and that are against change?

To me it seems like a simple tool for liberatarian propoganda.

	20-01-2002 22:14									#13
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This has been posted and posted and posted and posted and posted here, and always, clear majority is shown to be Libertarian Left. I think it goes without question that this is very, very skewed poll to the direction of Libertarian Left, and questions show it, too. I think we here at Apolyton should create a better test. Any ideas by... anyone?

	20-01-2002 22:28									#14
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Libertarian left... that doesn#t make me or Eli a socialist... it means we are Social Democrats in the European sense and evil communist child eaters in the American sense

	20-01-2002 22:42									#15
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I eat only Christian children.

	20-01-2002 22:52									#16
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so you eat american children

	20-01-2002 23:30									#17
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Economic Left/Right: -0.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -4.56

	20-01-2002 23:36									#18
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quote: Originally posted by Stefu This has been posted and posted and posted and posted and posted here, and always, clear majority is shown to be Libertarian Left. I think it goes without question that this is very, very skewed poll to the direction of Libertarian Left, and questions show it, too. I think we here at Apolyton should create a better test. Any ideas by... anyone?

Which came first, the chicken or the egg?

	20-01-2002 23:39									#19
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quote: Anyway, my history & politics group made the Political Compass test (http://www.politicalcompass.org) in school last week to see how it (the group) would be aligned politically. While making the test, I got the idea of repeating the same experiment here on Apolyton Off-Topic - and here's the result. To participate, just go to the web site and take the test, then return here and enter your result to the poll above.

Check out the results for CGN

My views are more economically right wing, and less libertarian than last time I did the test.

Economic Left/Right: 5.00
Shift of 2.5 to the right

Authoritarian/Libertarian: -1.48
Shift of 1.3 to the "up".


Edit - quoted the wrong person.

	20-01-2002 23:56									#20
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Given that people such as Naomi Klein, Noam Chomsky and Ralph Nader are listed as Libertarian Left, I guess I ought to be there too...

Only I'm not Libertarian, I'm a left-liberal...

	21-01-2002 00:01									#21
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Some of the questions were too ambiguous, like this one:

quote: Jews surely have to take some of the responsibility for their persecution over the past 2000 years.

	21-01-2002 00:54									#22
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Actually, my hypothesis was quite right, since most of the people I know (and even some who are know around here for so-called "rightist" opinions) got left-liberal answers. It seems to be that our local critics do have a point about the "neutrality" of the test.

	21-01-2002 00:57									#23
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quote: Originally posted by chegitz guevara The libertarian compass is a joke. It is deliberately skewed to make thir point of view look the most free. I could just as easily create a compass that made communism the most free point on the compass.

Now that I'd like to see.

Yeah, the test sucks, but so does anything which puts you into a "yes/no" framework without specific context.

I got -.25 on the economic side, -4.21 on the authoritarian/libertarian side, so the rest of you must be goddamned free love hippie commies.

	21-01-2002 01:41									#24
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Economic Left/Right: -2.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -6.72

I'm close to Gandhi too! Yippie!

	21-01-2002 01:54									#25
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Left-Lib.

I don't like it when do don't have a "I don't hold an opinion either way/I couldn't care less" option. It immediately cuts out the vast majority of people who couldn't give a toss.

	21-01-2002 02:16									#26
	Put an end to popups!

Economic Left/Right: 5.13
Authoritarian/Libertarian: 0.10

Immediate Right.

Overall a bad test. I am in fact mostly Libertarian on social issues, but this test incorporated enough questions about your own personal morality that it managed to push my score above the authoritarian line.

	21-01-2002 02:20									#27
	Remove this text

3.38/-3.95, which is intermediate center by the standards of the survey but just a shade off of libertarian right, which is where I would expect to find myself.

I agree that most of the questions draw a hard vacuum.

	21-01-2002 02:45									#28
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I noticed a few new and rephrased questions since last time I took it. And they took out that silly question about floods and earthquakes, I think

Economic Left/Right: 2.88
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -0.26

If I'm a libertarian then you'd have to be pretty extreme to classify as authoritarian.
They're still asking irrelevant questions. Too many of them are about sex. The questions about religion make atheists score very libertarian.

	21-01-2002 02:56									#29
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Your political compass:
Economic Left/Right: 6.50
Authoritarian/Libertarian: 8.67

Mmmuh, I gave false answers .

edit: worryingly similar to Iain Duncan-Smith

	21-01-2002 02:56									#30
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quote: Originally posted by Dr.Oogkloot Economic Left/Right: 2.88 Authoritarian/Libertarian: -0.26 If I'm a libertarian then you'd have to be pretty extreme to classify as authoritarian.

I've become more extreme than you