Thursday, February 8, 2018

On The (political) Spectrum

I took this particular political quiz back in 2010.  I'm sure the questions have changed some.  So I'm not sure if the change in my score is due to changes in the questions or changes in me.  Both are reasonable options.

My complaints remain the same as before.  Some of the questions are loaded to get a specific emotional response.  Other questions ask the respondent to endorse A and B where I was inclined to support A but oppose B.  So which one do you choose; support both or oppose both?

Formerly, I was Economic Left/Right: 4.12 and Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.92.  Now I seem to be Economic Left/Right 4.5 and Social Libertarian/Authoritarian -4.46.

They also had a series of graphs of various governments and political parties for comparison purposes.
The US presidential candidates in 2016.  No wonder I voted for Gary Johnson.



The UK in 2015.  I'm not close to anybody there.



Germany in 2017.  Same story.  Glad I'm an American.




France in 2017.  Curiously, Macron is close to Gary Johnson.




Australia in 2016.  Again, I'm all alone.




Canada in 2015.  I could manage there OK.




Ireland in 2011.  I'd manage there as well, oddly enough.




And a conglomeration of European nations.  I'm assuming that they are plotted based on government policies rather than on any specific party.  Here's an odd thing.  Of my interlocutors regarding political subjects that live within the EU, the most earnest opposition that I receive comes from people in countries like The Netherlands, Sweden, and Germany.  And those are the countries to which I am more closely aligned politically!

Mostly these are folks that perceive of their nations as being essentially "socialist".  The truth is that those nations clearly are not socialist.

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I modest note.  I've added the word "political" to the title of this post.  As it was originally posted, the title was a bit too "click bait-y" for me.

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