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October 31, 2003

Comments

Cosma

Actually, this test has been around for quite a while, and part of the point is to ask leading questions that produce a large number of apparent libertarians. It's a political recruiting tool more than anything else.

woof

After having taken the test, I wondered whether one could only answer "Strongly" to each question. That is, the questions are structured in such absolute terms that they don't allow shading in their answers. I regret having not answered "strongly" in all cases, because my implicit moderation of the answer is not allowed by the totality of the questions. Anyway, I'm with Nelson.

http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/questionnaire.pl?page=printable_graph&X=-5.50&Y=-3.44

Russell Arben Fox

I've never liked these tests. Not necessarily because they are inaccurate--though I agree with the criticisms made in these comments here--but because they always emphasize what I already know: that almost everybody, when put to the test, expresses libertarian rather than communitarian sympathies; and that almost nobody ever joins me in the upper-left hand corner. And then the test makes me feel even better by telling me that if I happen to believe that social cohesion and personal happiness requires a defense of both economic equality and civic morality, then I must be cut from the same cloth as Vladimir Lenin. Delightful.

Economic Left/Right: -6.25
Libertarian/Authoritarian: 1.56

(More on my view of these tests here: http://philosophenweg.blogspot.com/2003_09_01_philosophenweg_archive.html#106452049985483597)

Anton Sherwood

That's funny, I thought some of the propositions were designed to scare people into the upper left, because only a monster would agree with ``The rich are too highly taxed'' or ``An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth,'' or disagree with ``globalisation ... should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations'' or ``Governments should penalise businesses that mislead the public.''

And I wonder how these are scored for political content: ``When you are troubled, it's better not to think about it, but to keep busy with more cheerful things.'' ``Astrology accurately explains many things.'' ``No one can feel naturally homosexual.''

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