Vice Underdogs

Discussion => Debating Board => Topic started by: Skirmant on January 19, 2016, 06:40:09 pm

Title: Political spectrum thread
Post by: Skirmant on January 19, 2016, 06:40:09 pm
I'm curious how the great community of VC:MP aligns politically
Take these tests and post your results

https://www.politicalcompass.org/test
https://www.isidewith.com/elections/2016-presidential-quiz

I'll start:

(https://www.politicalcompass.org/chart?ec=8.88&soc=-2.36)

(https://i.imgur.com/srXhwWB.png)
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: ferrari32 on January 19, 2016, 07:58:12 pm
(https://www.politicalcompass.org/chart?ec=-3.63&soc=-4.05)
(https://viceunderdogs.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FVMj5T7C.png&hash=907a715b1b2636b7a574bbc2f98be67569d041f2)
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: Charley on January 20, 2016, 10:22:47 am
Ohai Skirmant :D

So, as I already presumed would be the case, I'm a lefty cunt. I wouldn't personally place myself so far towards libertarian though, as I think that strong government has an important role to play in creating and maintaining a healthy society.

(https://www.politicalcompass.org/chart?ec=-8.38&soc=-7.18p)

I'll do the presidential one later

Edit: done

(https://www.isidewith.com/results-image/elections/2016-presidential/1670057210.jpg)

Edit 2: British 2015 elections:

(https://viceunderdogs.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi64.tinypic.com%2Fxaxrmg.jpg&hash=08c7fd76472a492a014e74b7534658ae5fa235c1)

and political leaning graph from that test:

(https://viceunderdogs.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi68.tinypic.com%2F15clj86.jpg&hash=71ee5f78119a5b79066f7742201c0c1282f46f87)
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: Skirmant on January 20, 2016, 12:21:30 pm
Ohai Skirmant :D

So, as I already presumed would be the case, I'm a lefty cunt. I wouldn't personally place myself so far towards libertarian though, as I think that strong government has an important role to play in creating and maintaining a healthy society.

Hey Charley. The compass test might be a bit skewed because there some apolitical questions like believing in astrology, wishful thinking etc. Also, I've seen Obama and Cameron score as right wing libertarians which doesn't seem to reflect on reality.
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: Charley on January 20, 2016, 12:26:04 pm
Well Cameron is very right wing, so that makes sense, and Obama isn't exactly left wing. In the states the choice is pretty much between hardcore right wingers (republicans) and centrists with frequent right wing flirtations and occasional left wing jaunts (democrats). Remember that this scale is talking left or right economically, and Obama is most certainly right wing economically.
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: Skirmant on January 20, 2016, 01:09:41 pm
Well Cameron is very right wing, so that makes sense, and Obama isn't exactly left wing. In the states the choice is pretty much between hardcore right wingers (republicans) and centrists with frequent right wing flirtations and occasional left wing jaunts (liberals). Remember that this scale is talking left or right economically, and Obama is most certainly right wing economically.

Are you sure about that? Hillary is a carbon copy of Obama and you agreed on 95% of the issues in the presidential test, even though he's supposedly right wing and you're far left wing.
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: Charley on January 20, 2016, 01:37:19 pm
Are you sure about that? Hillary is a carbon copy of Obama and you agreed on 95% of the issues in the presidential test, even though he's supposedly right wing and you're far left wing.

Lol I just noticed the 'show X more questions' - my results were based on like 1-3 questions per category. Even looking at the extended list, though, I would say that the quiz doesn't really probe the economy in much depth. It is limited to discussions that candidates have had and have answers to, and does not include questions that they have not addressed. Of course there are many reasons that certain discussions about the economy haven't happened amongst the various candidates, and high among them is (with the exception of Bernie Sanders) a reluctance of mainstream politicians of all alignments to hint at endorsements for genuinely left wing economic policy. So my alignment with Hillary and Obama is indicative more of an opposition to positions farther right than theirs, in the absence of any space in which to position myself further left.

Edit: I've just done the UK 2015 election test, and scored highest with Labour, Greens, SNP and Lib Dems. Labour and The first three are broadly speaking socialist, while Lib Dems are centre-left.

(https://viceunderdogs.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi64.tinypic.com%2Fxaxrmg.jpg&hash=08c7fd76472a492a014e74b7534658ae5fa235c1)

and

(https://viceunderdogs.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi68.tinypic.com%2F15clj86.jpg&hash=71ee5f78119a5b79066f7742201c0c1282f46f87)
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: GangstaRas on January 20, 2016, 02:08:46 pm
(https://www.politicalcompass.org/chart?ec=-5.13&soc=-1.18)

(https://www.isidewith.com/results-image/elections/2016-presidential/1670256431.jpg)
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: Skirmant on January 20, 2016, 02:26:10 pm
Lol I just noticed the 'show X more questions' - my results were based on like 1-3 questions per category. Even looking at the extended list, though, I would say that the quiz doesn't really probe the economy in much depth. It is limited to discussions that candidates have had and have answers to, and does not include questions that they have not addressed. Of course there are many reasons that certain discussions about the economy haven't happened amongst the various candidates, and high among them is (with the exception of Bernie Sanders) a reluctance of mainstream politicians of all alignments to hint at endorsements for genuinely left wing economic policy. So my alignment with Hillary and Obama is indicative more of an opposition to positions farther right than theirs, in the absence of any space in which to position myself further left.

Bernie and Hillary are very similar in their social and economic policies. They both want nationalized health care, free college education, higher taxes for the rich, more gun control,  pro gay marriage. You can argue that Hillary has a strong connection to wall street, is more likely to support military intervention or is a more establishment candidate and you would be right, but aside those few issues their official policies are almost the same.

http://presidential-candidates.insidegov.com/compare/35-40/Bernie-Sanders-vs-Hillary-Clinton

I challenge you to find a major difference in their positions.

Edit: I've just done the UK 2015 election test, and scored highest with Labour, Greens, SNP and Lib Dems. Labour and The first three are broadly speaking socialist, while Lib Dems are centre-left.

There's a big difference between socialism and social democracy. The textbook definition of socialism is when a government has a planned economy and controls most of the means of production like factories, companies and infrastructure. This is coming from someone who's parents and grandparents lived under socialism in the USSR.
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: Charley on January 21, 2016, 04:31:33 pm
I'm not sure dude, I don't know enough about either candidate to make a well-informed point, all I'm saying is that the space to discuss left-wing ideas in the US is a little limited by the structure of political norms over there.

Yes there are differences between socialism and social democracy, but using a 'textbook' definition of socialism is perhaps a bit naive, don't you think? It's a word that has different histories and different interpretations in different parts of the world, just like communism.
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: Skirmant on January 21, 2016, 11:25:23 pm
That's alright, I was just curious why you considered Sanders more left wing.

Yes there are differences between socialism and social democracy, but using a 'textbook' definition of socialism is perhaps a bit naive, don't you think? It's a word that has different histories and different interpretations in different parts of the world, just like communism.

Point taken, political terms tend to change according to time and culture. A notable example is how the right wing definition of Liberalism in the US switched over to left wing ideas and Libertarianism which was left wing became right wing. But there still has to be a some sort of consistency in language. Could you define the difference between social democracy and socialism in the UK using your own terms?
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: Charley on January 26, 2016, 05:09:26 pm
Well when we talk about social democracy in the UK, generally speaking, we just leave the 'democracy' bit out, and say socialism. So when we are talking about our own political situation and say socialist, we mean social democratic. The prospect of losing or seriously altering our democracy such that it could be considered anything close to authoritarianism is not particularly imaginable, so we just take it for granted, and leave it out. It's more of a semantics issue than an ideological one, fed by the norms of our political culture. A bit like how we usually just say Britain instead of Great Britain.
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: stormeus on January 28, 2016, 06:42:09 am
So, as I already presumed would be the case, I'm a lefty cunt. I wouldn't personally place myself so far towards libertarian though, as I think that strong government has an important role to play in creating and maintaining a healthy society.

ahoy

(https://www.politicalcompass.org/chart?ec=-5.25&soc=-5.85)

(https://viceunderdogs.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2FFLZ8X0I.png&hash=4a66bc39afe5962078d7bf6e02c229476fbfa8f7)

(https://viceunderdogs.com/proxy.php?request=http%3A%2F%2Fi.imgur.com%2F7qmfct9.png&hash=524fc06fddb4da69b0b24ead61333fd6f73a3c00)

I go to a university known for being extremely liberal so this was entirely expected. O0
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: GangstaRas on January 30, 2016, 02:10:26 am
America needs to be like Cuba
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: Milko on February 05, 2016, 05:25:11 pm
stormeus president
yes
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: [EAF]King on June 02, 2016, 01:18:02 am
Interesting...


Philippines has been "enjoying" democracy for years. With the new "Trumpish" (not really) President elected, some think it's a bad thing since because the government system might switch to federalism. I don't think it is bad, right? At least he ain't going on the opposite: unitarian.
Title: Re: Political spectrum thread
Post by: Skirmant on July 17, 2016, 04:50:38 pm
Here's a handy visual guide of what different parts of the spectrum represent

(https://i.imgur.com/9aNTY4M.png)

(https://i.imgur.com/AC8vQEh.jpg)