[Poll] Political Leanings

[Swad]

I thought it'd be interesting to see where folks in this community see themselves politically. Vote early and vote often...

 

Also, explain your vote and position.

 

ie. "I voted moderate because I'm a communist on most things but lean toward libertarian on others."*

 

*Not my position, just an example.

[gwprod12]

I'm a libertarian for the most part Mash. Except when it comes to political discussions, then I'm a dominatrix.

[keith]

I voted Conservative, though I vote for what suits me best. Im not a fan of big government, I try hard enough to get em' to leave me alone as is.

[henbjo]

I voted moderate, because I find my self more or less in the middle between the two extremes in most cases. That's in Norway though, and the spectres do vary from country to country, so I think I'm closer to liberal in America.

[DrJägermeister]

Anarchist, I always do what I want

I´ve voted APPD (Anarchistiche Pogo Partei Deutschlands) and I will always vote for them.

Here´s the TV clip broadcasted 2005:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN0tncz1CBw&search=appd

[quixos]

and the antidote...

 

"Anarchism is the political philosophy of those who believe that a society based on shared ownership and voluntary agreements among individuals and groups is possible and that without each person's consent and involvement in the social order all established forms of government essentially rest upon the threat of force." random googlecache of some definition page, the quote is everywhere.

 

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i voted very liberal. i would have been a moderate about 10 years ago.

 

i've voted republican and democrat in local elections in the past, but haven't been in an area that encourages independent republican politicians to run for a long time. i've been voting straight democratic party ticket locally. sad very sad.

 

our present voting system is simplistic and harmful.

 

Explore the possibilities of the Condorcet, and other alternative voting methods!

 

Accurate Democracy

[killbot1000]

Im from seattle, obviously im a liberal heheh. But seriously, has anybody had a thought as to WHY we have certain political views, id say geography, it seems like people in general are liberal if raised in a city with different ethnic groups, and they become more conservative when they grow up in an area of people exactly like them (in general). just an observation, what do you guys think?

[gwprod12]

It's simple.

 

When people live in the city, they live in close quarters with people who are different than them. That leads them to have to tolerate other people's differences. People who live in sparser, more homogenous populations have less reasons to be tolerant because the quarters arent as close, and everyone is mostly the same.

[OryHara]

Where is Independant? I guess that would be moderate. Depends on the issue with me.

[jgrimes80]

I notice the spectrum has many "invalid" choosings....

 

Liberal, Conservatism, Moderate is all relative and do not indicate anything (standing alone) in terms of politics...

 

For example

It's a Liberal Republican... one who alines him/her self with the Republican platform but either seeks to change the platform or venture from it.

 

A Conservative Libertarian... one who strongly ties him/herself to the Libertarian platform.

 

I don't mean to be a {censored}, but anyone who voted from #2 to #6... Pay attention! Relavant to what?...

[altaskier11]

Perhaps our political leanings would be easier to visualize if we used the Political Compass. You just take a quiz, and it spits out a coordinate and plots you on a graph, and you can even make your own chart in Excel or something and plot everyone against each other (I'll make the graph if everyone takes the test).

 

Myself? I am leftist/communist:

Economic Left/Right: -6.13

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.46

 

I advocate in worker's counsels, agrian reform; to simplify it, McCarthy would have had me locked up. I started off as a moderate, but I move further to the left with each breath I take.

http://www.politicalcompass.org/index

 

Its pretty wild to see yourself compared to historical figures.

 

 

EDIT: also, the poll is not accurate, as Anarchism is a social belief and Communism is an economical belief. You can't compare them against each other, as they are not mutually exclusive. It might be better to, say, take the political compass quiz! (I don't work for them, as hard as it is to believe)

[Franzy]

Economic Left/Right: -5.38

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.51

[killbot1000]

The way I see it, the world is always changing, and if one wants to survive in this world, change with it, learn to adapt to the quickly changing world, rather than clinging desperately to the present, and trying to keep everything the same, thats just the way I see it though...

[Swad]

Welcome to the forum, altaskier11. Thanks for the link to the compass - I couldn't remember what it was called.

 

killbot - While I agree that a lot of conservatives are all for "clinging to the past" I don't think that applies to all their views. Free trade, for example, is quite "progressive" in a lot of ways and does a lot for the Third World, yet it's usually this country's "liberals" who stand by the old American unions and trade setups (note the criticism of Clinton by his own party with NAFTA).

 

FWIW, I don't fit nicely into either group, so I went with Moderate. Whatever group makes the most sense on an issue is what I go with.

[killbot1000]

Welcome to the forum, altaskier11. Thanks for the link to the compass - I couldn't remember what it was called.

 

killbot - While I agree that a lot of conservatives are all for "clinging to the past" I don't think that applies to all their views. Free trade, for example, is quite "progressive" in a lot of ways and does a lot for the Third World, yet it's usually this country's "liberals" who stand by the old American unions and trade setups (note the criticism of Clinton by his own party with NAFTA).

 

FWIW, I don't fit nicely into either group, so I went with Moderate. Whatever group makes the most sense on an issue is what I go with.

 

Well, I like to call myself an independant, I usually take a liberal stance on things, but sometimes ill suprise you heheh . Im not a big fan of unions, but sometimes I think they are necessary, in an environment where one cannot compete, an assembly line for example, you have to have a union, otherwise theres no way for a worker to stand out, but if you have a group of computer programmers or something, a union is the worst thing you can do because that kind of job can totally be measured by performance, an assembly line worker cannot.

 

Free trade is a tricky thing in my opinion, it can sometimes help one area at the expense of another, let me give you an example (and again, this example is hard to remember the details, but its a good one).

 

One of the reasons for the WTO riots in seattle was over fishing, thats right, fishing. There were pretty much the same kind of fish off the coast of washington, and off the coast of vietnam, the nets usually catch other creatures as well, such as sea turtles, that would die if they got caught in the net, in washington, thats illegal, so the fisherman are required to buy a special net, that is alot more expensive, but it doesnt get anything except the fish they want. To equalize the price of this fish, tarrifs were put in place on the vietnamese product to equalize the price, the WTO kind of put and end to tarrifs in this area, so the vietnamese were able to sell their fish to us at much cheaper, while killing other animals as well, where as the washington fisherman has to go out of business because they are required by law to have that special net, AND because of that, they have to sell their fish at a higher price, and of course grocery stores and whatnot choosed the vietnamese fish and the local fisherman were put out of business. Washington went to court with the WTO and lost, (what a big suprise). Its instances like this that make me doubt the idea of total free trade, I mean on cars and everything else its ok, but like every issue, its not so cut and dry, sometimes by having total free trade, one area can be dragged down, while another can be boosted up. And if theres an easy way to prevent that by putting a 1$ tarrif on items, whats the harm? The prices will be the same so people will buy both fish's. Everybody wins, this is a little bit of socialist talk but, I think it makes sense.

 

heheh ive rambled, I apologize heheh

[altaskier11]

Welcome to the forum, altaskier11. Thanks for the link to the compass - I couldn't remember what it was called.

 

Thanks for the personal welcome. I am a close friend of Franzy here, and have (with his help) successfully implemented the OSx86 techniques, but using an external hard drive instead of a partition of my internal hard disk.

 

Bragging aside, I'd like to take this opportunity to thank you and other members of this community for the choices offered in the way of improving the PC and stimulating the mind.

 

 

So far, we only have two Compass coordinates. Frankly, I am appalled at the inability of InsanelyMac users to take a 10 minute quiz. I considered you all to be intelligent, but alas I am disappointed.

[rick taylor]

I voted anarchist, but thats more of an ideal for me, I do live in the real world (most of the time). I would like to see a stronger Libertarian movement in my country (the UK libertarian movement doesn't believe in joining the electoral process, which in my opinion makes them irrelevant) something along the lines of the US libertarian party, who apparently are the nearest thing to a third party.

[johnniecarcinogen]

Economic Left/Right: -2.13

Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.51

 

Another much shorter test is @: http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

[altaskier11]

Another much shorter test is @: http://www.theadvocates.org/quiz.html

 

Using more than one test in the same scale is a bad idea; if we want an accurate representation/comparison of member's philosophies, we must standardize the method for obtaining the political coordinates. Your version is very short, but it also allows the user, weather consciously or unconsciously, to easier "tweak" his results, so to speak.

 

In any event, longer tests tend to produce a more accurate representation of what they are evaluating.

 

...something along the lines of the US libertarian party, who apparently are the nearest thing to a third party.

 

The nearest thing to a third party in the United States is the Green Party; it does have the ability to alter election results, after all.