Where Do You Stand Politically?

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Clarissa

September 4, 2011

April at ethecofem linked to this fun quiz that determines your political stance. The questions are worded in a way that is often quite weird, but if you manage to get past that, the quiz is fun. You can find it here. (Access the quiz by pressing on the second line from the top).

And here is my diagnosis, in case people are wondering:

You want government out of people’s personal lives, but you appear to desire some continued government control over people’s economic activities. There is no political party that represents your views. The Green Party does run many candidates with similar views, but the overall Green Party platform is much more socialistic than you are. You would need a mix of Democratic, Green, and Libertarian politicians in office to get the balance of freedom and social justice you desire. The ratio between these depends on how high up your dot is on the chart.

Approximately 12% of the takers of this quiz scored in this area, 18% for all liberals outside the centrist circle.

I can’t say I’m surprised by any of this, so it means the quiz must be working at least somewhat.

Enjoy and don’t forget to share your results!

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44 responses to “Where Do You Stand Politically?”

Professor Zero (@profacero)

September 4, 2011

Hmmm on these quizzes I usually get radical liberal (that left point) but this one had odd choices for the questions, seemed to have some sort of slant, and I couldn’t figure out how to answer questions in a way I could be sure that I was really answering what the quiz author was asking … and on some, the answer I would give wasn’t an option, or the configuration of answers, from more lefty to more righty (supposedly) didn’t seem too accurate to me. In the end, it said I was an “economic liberal” which would make me a solid Democrat with Green tendencies.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  September 4, 2011
  
  The questions were definitely weirdly worded.
  
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  1. Steve
    
    September 5, 2011
    
    Aren’t economic liberals supporters of Reagan’s economics – now commonly called Neoliberals?
    
    I looked at the test, but opted out at the second question, whiuch I did not understand. A far better-designed quiz is Political Compass. See more here: Notes from underground: Taking your political temperature redux
    
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    1. Rimi
      
      September 5, 2011
      
      Steve — yes, they are. This is one point that seems to elude contemporary talk on economic policy. Economic conservatives wish to conserve the national economies. Economic liberals wish to ‘liberate’ it from silly national regulatory fetters and watch it become more ‘fair’, as it stops coddling the lazy deadweight leeches and starts benefiting only the hard-working smart people.
      
      Second, this ‘test’ is far too shallow and steeped in American-cable-news. Hence the entrenched bias that Prof. Zero noticed. Just looking at the questions and options is making me itch for a red marker. Plus, I can tweak this test very easily and get it to identify me as a complete conservative. That easy an algorithm is a little boring.
      
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Melissa

September 4, 2011

I haven’t taken the quiz yet, but just looking at the terminology on the chart, I’m guessing it was written by a Libertarian. (Not that it matters, it’s just funny the way it’s worded)

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nominatissima

September 4, 2011

This one was very weird, like Professor Zero pointed out, the questions were worded in a way that was very difficult for me to answer. The advertisements for the Thomas Paine fund and Christian organizations that I got at the end was a tad disconcerting too.
In any case, I got about two squares lower and more to the right than yours.

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1. Rimi
  
  September 5, 2011
  
  They match links to your results, I think. I was told no party exactly matches my political ideologies, but some moderate Green Party members and some staunch Democratic Socialiasts would be a reasonable mix for me. And they linked to these parties, plus the Democratic Freedom caucus, and Freedom and Equality.
  
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Luna

September 4, 2011

Ha! I got the leftmost “Radical Liberal” one.

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titfortat

September 4, 2011

Well considering Im Canadian I thought it might be interesting to see what kind of American I could be. 😉

Im a left leaning Libertarian. 🙂

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David Gendron

September 5, 2011

There’s better:

http://www.politicalcompass.org/

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David Gendron

September 5, 2011

Or, more entertaining, this:

http://www.nationstates.net/

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  September 5, 2011
  
  The game looks like fun! I think I’ll build a matriarchy. Thank you, David. You always bring cool links.
  
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  1. David Gendron
    
    September 5, 2011
    
    🙂
    
    http://nationstates.wikia.com/wiki/UN_Category (just for understanding on the political spectrum)
    
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    1. bloggerclarissa
      
      September 5, 2011
      
      New York Times Democracy is priceless. 🙂 🙂
      
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      1. David Gendron
        
        September 5, 2011
        
        When I abandoned this game a long time ago, my nation was considered a “Civil Rights Lovefest” type.
        
        But anyway, here’s my new “Nation”:
        
        http://www.nationstates.net/nation=anarcho-separatist
        
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        bloggerclarissa
        
        September 5, 2011
        
        “The average income tax rate is 52%, and even higher for the wealthy. Private enterprise is illegal”
        
        -Sounds like starvation is just around the corner. Also, where do the wealthy come from if there is no private enterprise? 🙂
        
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        David Gendron
        
        September 5, 2011
        
        Yeah, when you start a nation, these freak things can arrive! 😉
        
        I remember my former nation, It was not like that! 🙂
        
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        bloggerclarissa
        
        September 5, 2011
        
        My nation is my blog and I constantly have to reject applications for immigration from all kinds of freaks. 🙂 🙂
        
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        David Gendron
        
        September 5, 2011
        
        What a staunch conservative you are! 😉
        
        Seriously, when you answer issues, you can change the shape of your nation.
        
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      2. David Gendron
        
        September 5, 2011
        
        Funny:
        
        http://forum.nationstates.net/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=105811&p=5282340&hilit=liberal+categories#p5282340
        
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jsietsema

September 5, 2011

I got social liberal on the test you linked to Clarissa, a few grids right and down from you. On the Political Compass that Steve and David pointed out, I as usual got near the bottom – left libertarian (-7.5, -7.74 for economic left and social libertarian).

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  September 5, 2011
  
  We did the political compass on this blog a while ago (https://clarissasblog.com/2010/05/06/political-compass-test/#comments) and I was placed politically right where the Dalai Lama was. And I don’t even like the Dalai Lama. 🙂
  
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Diego

September 5, 2011

“You want government out of people’s personal lives, but you appear to desire some continued government control over people’s economic activities. There is no political party that represents your views. The Green Party does run many candidates with similar views, but the overall Green Party platform is much more socialistic than you are. You would need a mix of Democratic, Green, and Libertarian politicians in office to get the balance of freedom and social justice you desire.”

I am surprised by the results. My dot was on the triple intersection of “centrist”, “liberal” and “libertarian”. I think that is a fairly accurate description of my political views. However, considering how disgusted I am by most national Democrat and Republican politicians, I would be very skeptical about “Democratic…politicians in office”.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  September 5, 2011
  
  I got the same description. I guess we are being told about the Democrats in office because it’s either them or the Republicans. I passionately want the Dems out of the office because they have disgraced themselves over and over again. But I don’t want them out so that the Republicans or Tea Partiers can come in.
  
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  1. Diego
    
    September 5, 2011
    
    Indeed! Sort of like being in favor of the February Revolution and terrified that the October Revolution will follow.
    
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David Bellamy

September 5, 2011

Didn’t you post a similar quiz a year or so ago, Clarissa?

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  September 5, 2011
  
  Yes, it was similar but a lot more intelligent. 🙂 This is a dumbed down version. 🙂
  
  I hope the evolution of the political quiz does not reflect the general evolution of this blog. 🙂
  
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David Bellamy

September 5, 2011

http://www.quiz2d.com/quiz/showLinks.php?picfile=SocialLiberal.png&personal=81&economic=24.8

was my result here.

I think I took something similar earlier, but I am not going to look for it now.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  September 5, 2011
  
  We are all pretty much the same politically on this blog, aren’t we? I keep waiting for an authoritarian to appear among us but no such luck. 🙂
  
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  1. Diego
    
    September 5, 2011
    
    I have a friend who sometimes made her money with whips and chains. Is that what you had in mind?
    
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    1. Rimi
      
      September 5, 2011
      
      I really don’t think that is what she has in mind 🙂
      
      I went to a stern Church school, and while still at school (even my first year of college, I think) I had some fairly authoritarian ideas, but mostly about personal conduct and social propriety. The only reason I am that close to the Centrist spectrum is because I still have some vestiges of it left in me. Fourteen years in a disciplinarian system will have *some* lasting effects!
      
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n8chz

September 5, 2011

It’s basically a Nolan Chart, so the questions and responses are loaded so that any other-than-libertarian (in the American sense) answer has the same tone as “have you stopped beating your spouse yet?” Also, it won’t process a form with items left blank, and for almost every question, I have a well-thought-out view that happens not to be similar to any of the options on the list. I panned a significantly less loaded questionnaire (representing a “left libertarian” viewpoint) here. I don’t even know where to start on this Quiz2D thing. People like me aren’t even on their radar screen.

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1. bloggerclarissa
  
  September 5, 2011
  
  Maybe you should create a political quiz of your own. You are obviously very knowledgeable. I’d like to take a political quiz that doesn’t tell me I’m the Dalai Lama and that I want the Democrats in office. 🙂
  
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  1. n8chz
    
    September 5, 2011
    
    Actually, it’s been on my round tuit list for awhile. Thankx for the prod.
    
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  2. n8chz
    
    September 5, 2011
    
    A rough draft of a rough draft
    
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    1. bloggerclarissa
      
      September 5, 2011
      
      This is going to be real fun.
      
      Tell me as soon as its done, and I’ll share it with my readers. An intelligent ideology sorter is what we really need in the blogosphere.
      
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      1. n8chz
        
        September 17, 2011
        
        First draft ready to roll at http://voodothosting.com/23/
        Should get interesting later on as I add statistical analysis.
        
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        bloggerclarissa
        
        September 17, 2011
        
        I just did it and the questions are fun, but where are the results? For now, I just now that my results are exactly the same as those of somebody called ‘apathy.” 🙂 I’m not sure how I feel about that. 🙂
        
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        n8chz
        
        September 17, 2011
        
        “apathy” is a profile I created with the neutral/no opinion response to all 27 items. If you are who I think you are (which I will neither confirm nor deny due to my promise of anonymity :-)), you are more than 20 arbitrary units of separation from apathy; or far from apathetic. The maximum possible separation from apathy is 108, but that’s based on a “sum of squares,” so 20+ is actually fairly opinionated.
        
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        bloggerclarissa
        
        September 17, 2011
        
        There needs to be some kind of a description of the test results that people will be able to understand and like.
        
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        n8chz
        
        September 17, 2011
        
        I know. I’m working on that.
        
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        bloggerclarissa
        
        September 17, 2011
        
        The questions are lots of fun already. 🙂
        
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2. n8chz
  
  September 5, 2011
  
  Ah, closer inspection reveals this “more precise” version of the Nolan Chart to be a project of Carl S. Milsted; a frequent commenter on David Brin’s blog. I like Milsted, who advocates what I affectionately call (to paraphrase Gorbachev) “libertarianism with a friendly face” (he calls it “holistic politics”).
  
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Lee Ideology Sorter | In defense of anagorism

September 5, 2011

[…] avoiding words with strong positive or negative connotations, etc. Kudos to and kind words for Clarissa for helping me find a round tuit for this […]

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