Political compass test

I found this neat little test to find one's own political compass. It's a cool little test. I had fun with it

https://www.politicalcompass.org/

It's funny, I thought I would be further right but I'm almost a centralist.

Well it's worth noting that the political compass tries to cover literally the entire range of political beliefs, including the most extreme ones.  The last 20-30 years have seen a significant drift to the right, however, so even "liberal" parties (or in Europe, "socialist" ones) often fall right-of-center on charts like this.  While the compass is a lot better than the one-dimensional left-right timeline approach more commonly favored, it's still fairly reductive.

They rightfully point out that right-wing and left-wing approaches to economics do not necessarily bear any relation to other political positions, but the main weakness of the chart comes from its simplification of everything else to authoritarianism vs. libertarianism (this goes back to the compass' origins as a rhetorical device invented by the US Libertarian Party).  It completely ignores the compromises that have to be made on every issue of liberty (to pick a current example: do you protect the rights of shop-owners to refuse to serve certain customers, or the rights of a disadvantaged minority to live their lives like everyone else?).  And while it can't really be blamed for real people holding inconsistent beliefs, it's hard to assign a label to, say, wanting to cut taxes while raising spending, or keep the government out of religious matters while simultaneously using the government to enforce your definition of marriage on everyone else.

Not trying to shit on the political compass idea because it's definitely useful in getting people to think, just wanted to touch on some of the shortcomings as well.  It's been a while since I've taken the test myself so I'll probably do that again.

I've taken this test many times. Most recent would probably be the 2012 election. I've forgotten where I landed lady time, probably left libertarian, or somewhere in there. Yeah I think I was fairly close to green party candidate Jill Stein. At this point I just don't know how to answer some of these questions. Plus I'm not a big fan of the "agree /disagree" format. There are too many grey areas.

The questions were too simplistic, but overall I'd mostly agree with them putting me halfway between Gandhi and the SDLP and Plaid C*nru, whatever the heck they are. It looks like I'm in the appropriate spot on the chart, is what I mean.

All those stupidly weighted transnational corporation questions probably shifted me over the middle line between Communism and Libertarianism.

Plaid Cymru are the Welsh nationalists. Like many Irish and Scottish nationalists, they tend to be left-wing.

Tests like these (whether they're political, psychological, or whatever) tend to annoy me when there isn't any neutral option.  But the greater problem is that I found myself saying over and over and over "it depends".  Anyway, I found myself solidly in the left-libertarian quadrant where I've been before, almost at the same spot as the Green, but a little further out on both axes.  I'm actually not sure if this is quite as reflective of my beliefs as it may have been in the past, as I've become ... not necessarily a fan of capitalism, but more aware of the lack of a viable superior alternative (the old Churchill quote about democracy comes to mind).  I'm not really happy about being in this position, mind you, but it's hard to argue with the improvements in standards of living, and not just in the "First World". But I'm still no fan of laissez-faire.

Took it again and landed in the middle of the green square. Not much has changed in the years.

I am way to the left of Plaid Cymru. which is weird as I assumed I would be in the UKIP camp. so I am not the reactionary fascist I thought I was. which is nice.

That sounds like Petty taking a "Purist or Liberal?" test and finding out that he ranks in the very top of Peter Jackson fans.

Not to say that I think of you as a reactive fascist (most of the time) Mrs. Figg, but the idea of discovering that you hold the opposite beliefs that you thought you did thanks to an internet test is pretty amusing.

Forest Shepherd wrote:

That sounds like Petty taking a "Purist or Liberal?" test and finding out that he ranks in the very top of Peter Jackson fans.

Not to say that I think of you as a reactive fascist (most of the time) Mrs. Figg, but the idea of discovering that you hold the opposite beliefs that you thought you did thanks to an internet test is pretty amusing.

 yeah it was a surprise. I am a Hippy at heart, I just fell off the tofu fed donkey..also the older you get the more to the right you stagger. I never used to believe that but its true. I remember my politics teacher at school telling the class that no matter all our youthful idealistic anger we would all end up voting like our parents, and everyone getting really upset and scornful like there was no way in hell that would EVER happen. couldn't believe he said that, but its kinda true and a bit weird.

I came out as a Economic left / social libertarian ? Ive been bunged with the Plaid Cymru bunch.

I took the test and came out with:

Your Political Compass

Economic Left/Right: -3.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.82

I've taken tests like these before, but I generally find them a waste of time, I wouldn't classify myself as either left or right wing leaning, and the results don't tend to match my views very well (I'm probably more liberal on social issues than I am on political ones, that's why I find it hard to vote, I'm split down the middle on things).