Have you ever taken the political compass test? If so, what were your results?

[FlaviusStilicho]

This test, specifically:

https://www.politicalcompass.org/

Here is my results chart.

Updates

+1 y

I'm surprised that only dudes have answered.

[nightdrot]

Can't speak to who has responded to this survey, but it is not really a serious attempt to explore - even at a superficial level - the political ideas it purports to explain. The questions are lopsided and not objectively structured and it sets up a somewhat oversimplified model of how people think.

In terms of the questions, the very first one gives the game away - "If economic globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations."

Aside from the problem that it postulates a hypothetical - no "fact" begins with "if" - it gives you an alternative between humanity and loaded words like trans-national. To this added the irony being that humanity is transnational too.

Suffice to say I found not a few more questions like that and as a guy with a degree in communications and political philosophy and having worked in politics for over 30 years, the flaws in the methodology are pretty stark. It would not be viewed as even remotely useful for scientific purposes.

Thus, I found it impossible to take the survey. The questions being either too generic or too lacking in nuance to allow for more than the most superficial responses.

For my part, I call myself "conservative," my conservatism is not what Americans typically call conservative. Because what Americans call conservative is, historically speaking, not conservatism but is, rather, classical liberalism.

My conservatism, which for convenience I will call classical or Tory conservatism, traces its intellectual pedigree through Aristotle, St. Thomas Aquinas - and probably most importantly - the 18th century British statesman and political philosopher, Edmund Burke, and also the British Prime Minsiters Benjamin Disraeli and Lord Salisbury.

In an American context, it shows up in the thinking of Alexander Hamilton and then - almost by historical accident, the American Whig Party, and the former Whig turned Republican, Abraham Lincoln. (It is a great historical "what if" as to what the GOP would have looked like had Lincoln lived and the radical Republicans not gained the ascendancy.)

Classical conservatives believe, unlike American conservatives and liberals, that the purpose of government is to answer Aristotle's first questions of politics, "How ought we to live? What kind of a people do we wish to be?"

To which classical conservatives respond that the purpose of government is to nurture civic virtue. To reinforce those habits and customs, legitimized by historical usage over time, that make a harmonious and stable social order possible.

Classical conservatives believe in the free market as a tool, rather than an end in itself. They recognize that it is a powerful wealth creator, efficient to some degree, and a guard against an overweening state. However, they believe, as Burke said, "The effect of liberty to individuals is that they may do what they please. We ought see what it will please them to do before we risk congratulations."

Consequently, classical conservatives support an ameliorative welfare state. (The welfare state was invented by two conservatives - Disraeli and Bismarck.) The purpose such a welfare state being to reconcile the public to the dynamics of a free market economy by alleviating the negative impact of old age, illness and temporary unemployment.

CONT.

[nightdrot]

In this they differ from American liberals who see the welfare state as a lever to engineer social transformation. That is, to restructure society according to some abstract a priori vision. Classical conservatives argue that such a vision is ultimately going to be oversimple and will lead to adverse and unintended consequences.

Tories believe that political philosophy should take as it starting point not human reason, but human nature. That political rights are developed through historical usage, and are not abstract pre-existing. Which is to say that they don't deny that such abstract rights exist. Merely that they are of no practical benefit or use in civil society and law. As Burke put it, "Their abstract perfection is their practical defect."

In all this, then, classical conservatives tend to see less difference between American conservatives and liberals than they see between themselves. Albeit that classical conservatives are more likely to align with their American counterparts insofar as American liberals tend to be more deeply hostile to custom and tradition.

If you can tell me then where I might fit in under the spectrum of the test, I will accept that definition. However, I am not sure how valuable that would be.

[ladsin]

Yeah, several times. A few years ago (yikes I guess about 7 years ago no) when I first took it I was ~ -0.5 left/right, and -2.5 libertarian/ authoritarian if I recall correctly. The last time I took it was about a year ago and the only major shift I recall was being slightly right leaning ~+0.5 my libertarian leaning were still largely the same.

[Naydyonov]

The test is biased towards the Left. I have not seen anyone who has gotten a point to the far right.
From what I remember there was the question: "Should abortion be illegal".
Now we can probably all agree that when someone answers Yes, then this puts them closer towards Authoritarianism. And yet, if we include the question "Should murder be illegal", then the result would be the same, no?

But that's a ridiculous comparison you might say. Is it? If I view abortion to be murder, then I say Yes not because I am more supportive of Authoritarianism, but because I view it as a crime to be punished.

I don't remember the other questions, but I know that a few questions were such that I, quite Libertarian, still barely passed the middle line. I also was very close to the center, despite the fact that I would place myself somewhere in the middle between Center and Right.

[SirRexington]

I'm not surprised mostly dudes answered. Politics is predominantly a male thing.

Whenever I take this test, its usually in the lower left hand quadrant. I'll take it again now to see what it says.

So here is what I got.

I consider myself a left libertarian, so this is mostly accurate.

[docster]

www.politicalcompass.org/chart?ec=5.0&soc=1.69

I'm pretty much where I expected. EC=+5.0 soc=+1.69.

[Frankiealaplaaja]

https://www.politicalcompass.org/chart?ec=-9.25&soc=-7.79

Feel the Bern.

[SirRexington]

Thats way further Left than Americas dad, Bernard Sanders. It's even further Left than me, and I'm a socialist.

[Frankiealaplaaja]

@SirRexington And what does this teach you about such tags?

[BeMuse]

https://www.politicalcompass.org/chart?ec=-1.38&soc=-4.41

[BeMuse]

[wankiam]

its been on here many times before... if you rate an American socialist as middle left im about three feet further off the page if thats any help

[wankiam]

so whats the downvote for... because you are right wing yourself or you dont like the fact i think the scale is too simplistic?

[BCA6010]

The wording of the questions have a very strong bias. I'm much more libertarian than it claims.

[BCRanger10]

Yes, I have. I think mine was actually pretty similar to yours. Maybe slightly more to the right though.

[Rangers]

It put me on right authoritarian, but many of the questions had a biased tone to them and my beliefs are much more on the far right libertarian side, so I still identify as such.

[Burtonfan]

We are exactly the same my dude.

[FlaviusStilicho]

*Internet bro fist bump*

[selfdestruction]

Center right. But this is a biased test.