Is it time to do the Political Compass test again?

PS_RalphW · Post by **PS_RalphW** » 12 Jul 2009, 22:09

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -6.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.31

I didn't think I was that liberatian. Maybe I am too meek to confront behaviour I object to.

biffvernon · Post by **biffvernon** » 12 Jul 2009, 22:12

-8.25 -8.36

I don't really understand how any nice, sensible person could get a score much closer to zero let alone a positive score.

JohnB · Post by **JohnB** » 12 Jul 2009, 23:01

Economic Left/Right: -7.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.69

I've heard people say that you get more right wing as you get older, but I used to vote Conservative

Mean Mr Mustard · Post by **Mean Mr Mustard** » 12 Jul 2009, 23:46

Still hanging out with Nelson Mandela for company. Interesting how the parties move their ground. You'd think they were chasing votes, when not preoccupied with claiming 'expenses', mostly within the rules, of course.

You'd have also thought the first mass produced shipments of Chinese made floating duck houses would have been in B&Q by now? They must be all the rage, at least for those left with credit limits to extend.

CountingDown · Post by **CountingDown** » 13 Jul 2009, 07:04

Economic Left/Right: -7.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.56

Wonder what the results would be on LATOC . . .

2 As and a B · Post by **2 As and a B** » 13 Jul 2009, 07:25

Mean Mr Mustard wrote:Interesting how the parties move their ground. You'd think they were chasing votes, when not preoccupied with claiming 'expenses', mostly within the rules, of course.

Is it perhaps the case that industrial democracies tend towards the extreme of the top right quadrant, towards fascism? Are the migrations of the three main UK politicians that way just a reflection of the increased influence of business on politics? Of the fallacy of "democracy"?

This from the Political Compass FAQs...

18. Why is Hitler slightly right ? The Nazis were socialists, so they weren't fascists either.

Let's start with the second part first. Some respondents confuse Nazism, a political party platform, with fascism, which is a particular structure of government. Fascism legally sanctions the persecution of a particular group within the country - political, ethnic, religious - whatever. So within Nazism there are elements of fascism, as well as militarism, capitalism, socialism etc. To tar all socialists with the national socialist brush is as absurd as citing Bill Gates and Augusto Pinochet in the same breath as examples of free market capitalism.

Economically, Hitler was well to the right of Stalin. Post-war investigations led to a number of revelations about the cosy relationship between German corporations and the Reich. No such scandals subsequently surfaced in Russia, because Stalin had totally squashed the private sector. By contrast, once in power, the Nazis achieved rearmament through deficit spending. One of our respondents has correctly pointed out that they actively discouraged demand increases because they wanted infrastructure investment. Under the Reich, corporations were largely left to govern themselves, with the incentive that if they kept prices under control, they would be rewarded with government contracts. Hardly a socialist economic agenda !

But Nazi corporate ties extended well beyond Germany. It is an extraordinarily little known fact that in 1933 a cabal of Wall Street financiers and industrialists plotted an armed coup against President Roosevelt and the US Constitutional form of government. The coup planners - all of them deeply hostile to socialism - were enthusiastic supporters of German national socialism and Italian fascism. Details of the little publicised Congressional report on the failed coup may be read in 1000 Americans:The Real Rulers of the USA by George Seldes.

Fascism, according to the American Heritage Dictionary (1983) is A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership, together with belligerent nationalism. Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentile's entry in the Encyclopedia Italiana read: Fascism should more appropriately be called corporatism because it is a merger of state and corporate power. No less an authority on fascism than Mussolini was so pleased with that definition that he later claimed credit for it.

Nevertheless, within certain US circles,the misconception remains that fascism is essentially left wing, and that the Nazis were socialists simply because of the "socialism" in their name. We wonder if respondents who insist on uncritically accepting the Nazis' cynical self-definition would be quite as eager to believe that the German Democratic Republic was democratic.

Dominic, take note of the last paragraph.

Hmm. "Belligerent nationalism." Add in terrorism laws that are used not just against parts of society that are opposed to belligerent nationalism (the wars being fought for resources for industry) but also against any opponent of industry, an imported cheap work force living in labour camp conditions and exported sweatshops and and it is clear where we are headed.

The difference this time is that many victims of fascism are submitting themselves willingly as they are desperate for the type of life that they think the money on offer will buy, no matter that everyone is scrabbling for the same money and, as we've seen, the money isn't worth what we all thought it was.

DominicJ · Post by **DominicJ** » 13 Jul 2009, 19:04

The Nazis were socialists because they believed the state should control the majority of the economy, that's not my fault.

"A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership,"

How can merged state/corporate interests be "right"? Corporatism is a left wing ideology, in which the state gives certain groups monopolies.
Like before that wonderful woman you all hate imported Australian coal.

CountingDown · Post by **CountingDown** » 13 Jul 2009, 19:22

DominicJ wrote:The Nazis were socialists because they believed the state should control the majority of the economy, that's not my fault.

"A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership,"

How can merged state/corporate interests be "right"? Corporatism is a left wing ideology, in which the state gives certain groups monopolies.
Like before that wonderful woman you all hate imported Australian coal.

Wow, that's pretty impressive. So many options . . . I'm not even sure where to start with challenging this one. So . . <Laughs and Shakes Head>

bigjim · Post by **bigjim** » 13 Jul 2009, 20:23

Economic Left/Right: -7.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.90

That'll do me fine.

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 13 Jul 2009, 20:38

I think I've worked it out.

I'm a Green ... but I get to wear a nice uniform too!

Vortex · Post by **Vortex** » 13 Jul 2009, 20:41

dominicj, how did your score come out?

landyowner · Post by **landyowner** » 13 Jul 2009, 20:50

My score:

Economic Left/Right: -1.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.92

From last time I did this I seem to have moved up by about 4 and right about 3. Last time I did it I was in line with Gandhi but much lower towards the libertarian end of the scale.

2 As and a B · Post by **2 As and a B** » 13 Jul 2009, 21:07

DominicJ wrote:The Nazis were socialists because they believed the state should control the majority of the economy, that's not my fault.

"A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business leadership,"

How can merged state/corporate interests be "right"? Corporatism is a left wing ideology, in which the state gives certain groups monopolies.
Like before that wonderful woman you all hate imported Australian coal.

I knew you would be too ignorant to be able to understand!

raspberry-blower · Post by **raspberry-blower** » 13 Jul 2009, 21:27

My score puts me into Mobbsey territory - SW of Ghandi.

Actually, my score is worringly close to my eye prescription

- time for a check-up.

No, I don't go to Specsavers as I don't rate them

mobbsey · Post by **mobbsey** » 14 Jul 2009, 00:42

Is PowerSwitch predominantly peopled by a wonderfully bubbly set of anarchists?

...ah, that's why I'm here and not ASPO, LATOC, TOD, etc.