Where does your political compass fall?

[Lissa]

Found this online after seeing someone talk about it on YouTube.

Your Political Compass

Here's where some famous world leaders fell:



Here's where I ultimately fell:



So looks like I have tendencies similar to Gandhi

I wish there had been more options to the questions outside of strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree (would have been nice to have a slightly agree, slightly disagree, and neutral).

[FireIceTalon]

Pretty sure either I or someone else made a thread with this same compass some years ago. Anyways, I've come to find that many of the questions are piss poor - either cause they are too vague, they make (incorrect or lofty) assumptions, or they contain a false dilemma.

For instance, one of the questions I take issue with is this one:

"The only social responsibility of a company should be to deliver a profit to its shareholders."

I'm not even sure how to answer that, because the context is vague. Is it being asked in a moral or ethical context, or is it being asked in a real world sense? I assumed the former, and put "strongly disagree" since the question contains the word "should". But if its the latter, then I would say "strongly agree" because of the way the capitalist system operates in THE REAL WORLD and not based on some abstract idea - a corporations only goal is to accumulate more capital and ultimately generate more profits, at the expense of everything else. Of course, that is exactly why I am a communist, because I realize there is no reforming a system that cannot be reformed, but nevertheless I figured the question was probably being asked from an idealist standpoint.

There is plenty of other questions I had similar issues with. One such question is this one:

"A genuine free market requires restrictions on the ability of predator multinationals to create monopolies."

There is no such thing as a genuine free market. Anytime you have a system of social relationships that is fundamentally defined by class rulership and struggle, that requires a some sort of entity, usually a State, to maintain that relationship. Capitalism sucks with or without "regulations", but state intervention to some degree is almost always a requirement for its preservation. The question also makes the naive error in assuming that the reader accepts capitalism as a legitimate way for humans to organize themselves. Overall, a pretty dubious question.

Anyways...



   

[kandrathe]

I wish there had been more options to the questions outside of strongly agree, agree, disagree, and strongly disagree (would have been nice to have a slightly agree, slightly disagree, and neutral).

Ya, the trouble is often I have personal beliefs I wouldn't foist upon my neighbors. For example, I wouldn't mind my kids school instilling religious values, but it doesn't mean I would want to have a government school do that.



Although I think my personal conservatism is probably a bit construed as political conservatism. I find myself politically more borderline. Mostly now, I give much thought on what and when I am willing to authorize my government to use its power on my behalf, including on what to spend other peoples money.

[Archon_Wing]

I actually think the questions are intentionally shitty so you don't know what the actual agenda is. :p Anyhow maybe I should strongly agree on more things. I just lean left because of porn apparently.

[FireIceTalon]

Most of the questions are devised from a very pro-capitalist, pro-bourgeois stance. Don't know about anyone else here, but I have no illusions on the agenda.

Porn is a difficult subject for me, personally. On one hand, no one has the right to dictate what consenting adults may do in their own home. On the other hand, porn is often very reactionary in that it reinforces some of the worst aspects of bourgeois society: patriarchal ideas, misogyny, objectification, and even violence against women. I suspect pornography under a socialist organization of society would not exist, or at least would not be of any substantial consequence as it is now. Like with prostitution, many women, often younger women burdened with outrageous student-loan debt, are streamlined into pornography to make ends meet.

[kandrathe]

...I just lean left because of porn apparently.

Porn makes you lean to the left? ?

Hmmm, right wing porn probably involves firearms.

[Archon_Wing]

...I just lean left because of porn apparently.

Porn makes you lean to the left? ?

Hmmm, right wing porn probably involves firearms.

That would depend on the angles.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1MP_KY5rMI
Not exactly what I expected.

[kandrathe]

Most of the questions are devised from a very pro-capitalist, pro-bourgeois stance.

... Right. ? Instead of from the more widely hailed proletarian ... Would you rather shed the chains of your capitalist oppressor, or lead the revolution culminating in the long awaited commonly owned collective utopia?

Why do Marxists hate Earl Grey? Because he represents the petite bourgeois, or because all proper tea is theft?

Why do Marxist revolutionary cells comprise three people? One to read the codes, one to write the codes, and one to keep an eye on the intellectuals.

Which is preferable? To pretend to pay the workers, or pretend to work?

Which is the better method for ridding your farm of mice? Hire a unionized cat, or collectivize so half starve and the remainder run away?

[Jester]

These things always drive me a bit batty - some of the questions are empirical rather than political theory, which opens a whole other can of worms about cultural cognition. But I came out the same as always, slightly left, very libertarian.



-Jester

[FireIceTalon]

Most of the questions are devised from a very pro-capitalist, pro-bourgeois stance.

Which is preferable? To pretend to pay the workers, or pretend to work?

This is a great question for a capitalist, since they are very good at doing both of these things.

Anyways, point was that many of the questions assume the reader accepts capitalism as a legitimate system so you get a skewed result that isn't necessarily representative of the readers actual views.

"Protectionism is sometimes necessary in trade."

Horrible question. Who says I favor trade to begin with?

Also, the radical left isn't so streamlined as you think. Here is similar political compass made for the various parties and political views of the day during the Russian Revolution, but even if you are a conservative the questions still apply. I think most these are much better than the ones on the regular political compass even though it pertains to a specific time period, and that the result is more sincere in understanding ones political views:

http://arzamas.academy/materials/1269

Plus this one at least has a neutral option. I got Left SR, naturally.

[Jester]

Why do Marxists hate Earl Grey? Because he represents the petite bourgeois, or because all proper tea is theft?

Pfft, that's not even a Marxist joke. Are you proud, hon?

-Jester

[FireIceTalon]

Why do Marxists hate Earl Grey? Because he represents the petite bourgeois, or because all proper tea is theft?

Pfft, that's not even a Marxist joke. Are you proud, hon?

-Jester

But, Proudhon was ofc an Anarchist, and not a Marxist.

His work "What is Property" is respectable and had a large influence on Marx, but Proudhon also had many reactionary tendencies; he was deeply sexist for instance and believed that men should use their (typically) stronger physical strength to "keep women in their place". He also had many personal racial prejudices. Both things that any Marxist or Anarchist of today would find unacceptable.

[LennyLen]

[kandrathe]

Why do Marxists hate Earl Grey? Because he represents the petite bourgeois, or because all proper tea is theft?

Pfft, that's not even a Marxist joke. Are you proud, hon?

-Jester

Yes, Darjeeling!