CCCToad on 3/9/2012 at 20:48
Quote Posted by LarryG
Boiling things down to left vs. right is simpler, sure, but also horribly inaccurate. It distorts reality more than it illuminates.
Which is exactly why the American political elite try so hard to fit everything into "left vs right". It's not an accident, its DELIBERATE because it distorts the discussion in a way that benefits our established political entities. Our example is how the Libertarian fringe in America used to be considered "left wing extremists" when the complained about Bush, but when they complain about the same policies under Obama they are now "right wing extremists". Extremist? Yes....but they are neither "right wing" or "left wing" extremists.
Shug on 4/9/2012 at 02:11
Quote Posted by faetal
Shug - if you are talking about definitive Left/Right, then name me one government which sits in the other quadrant.
There are four quadrants, not two. The Australian Greens party would sit in the lower left, Ireland's Labour is in the lower right. I'm not sure if any currently sitting governments in the first world pop up in the lower left. Possibly the current French Socialist Party does, but I haven't seen an analysis of their policies.
Larry, that's why people make the distinction between social and economic / regulatory viewpoints. That sort of discussion doesn't usually happen in the US, though, so I understand your despair on the subject.
LarryG on 4/9/2012 at 02:23
I would say "should make distinctions," but sadly most discourse is limited to sound bites and it is so much easier if you can frame them as either/or where your point of view is blazingly obviously reasonable and the other side is just as blazingly obviously evil. Sad. But sadder still is that it is effective.
faetal on 4/9/2012 at 09:33
Quote Posted by Shug
There are four quadrants, not two. The Australian Greens party would sit in the lower left, Ireland's Labour is in the lower right. I'm not sure if any currently sitting governments in the first world pop up in the lower left. Possibly the current French Socialist Party does, but I haven't seen an analysis of their policies.
Larry, that's why people make the distinction between social and economic / regulatory viewpoints. That sort of discussion doesn't usually happen in the US, though, so I understand your despair on the subject.
I know what a quadrant is (quad is a give-away), I would have thought it was implicit I meant lower left.
DDL on 4/9/2012 at 10:16
Well, I was tempted to ask someone to enlighten me about this whole quadrant thing, but then I remembered that google exists.
So I'm assuming it's the economic=X, Social=Y chart system?
Assuming so, I found this!
(
http://www.politicalcompass.org/test)
It's quite fun*, and only takes about 10mins, depending on how much you dither on morality or definitions:
(Does believing those with deleterious inheritable genetic conditions should have mandatory screening mean I disapprove or approve of the statement 'people with deleterious inheritable genetic conditions should not breed'?)
I come out as
Economic Left/Right: -3.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.49
Which apparently makes me a slightly more libertarian dalai lama (?) so I'm not entirely sure of the accuracy, but if anyone else is bored enough to have a go, we could find out how well it seems to match everyone's respective soapbox positions. :p
*more fun than analysing qPCR data, so YMMV
faetal on 4/9/2012 at 10:31
It was more fun than annotating Western blot images, but not stellar:
Economic Left/Right: -6.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.38
I do question how good it is though.
"It's a sad reflection on our society that something as basic as drinking water is now a bottled, branded consumer product."
Dafuq?
DDL on 4/9/2012 at 10:53
If you buy Dasani you're a FASCIST, maybe?
I guess it's a 'how much you approve of rampant commercialisation for the sheer WTF of it' question, though I agree: for a decent percentage of the questions I really wanted a DAFUQ button.
faetal on 4/9/2012 at 10:59
At the very least a "no opinion" button would greatly aid it.
Shug on 4/9/2012 at 11:16
Quote Posted by faetal
I know what a quadrant is (quad is a give-away), I would have thought it was implicit I meant lower left.
TASTE THY OWN MEDICINE, HAHAAAAA
faetal on 4/9/2012 at 11:18
I'm not sure I follow.
