Of Course, The Devil Is In The Details [Updated At Bottom]
[Posted by reader_iam]
The experience of taking this quiz, which supposedly determines where one belongs on the political spectrum, makes me remember why I chose "Achieving Balance Only Through Contradiction" as the tag line for my old blog.
I scored 25, for what that's worth.
Hat tip.
Update: In the comments, Internet Ronin brings up the Political Compass questionnaire, which measures this sort of thing in more than one dimension. (One axis measures social libertarian/authoritarian and the other economic left/right; follow the link and read the home page for a less simplistic description.)
I'd taken that one before, but it had been long enough ago that I didn't remember the specific questions, though I remembered more or less where I'd fallen. Taking the test really, really quickly just now, I fell pretty close to what I recall, with just a touch of variation.
Unfortunately, there's no code supplied for me to paste in my results, mapped on a graph, but just picture me pretty much dead center on the left/right scale and three notches south of center toward the libertarian side ("Your political compass: Economic Left/Right: 0.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.77"; in graphical terms, that .25 puts my dot smack on the line). Better yet, go take the questionnaire yourself, see where you stand, and envision where I must fall.
In any case, the short of it is that the test classifies me as exactly what I've basically said I am: overall, a solid centrist with a libertarian streak. (I'd say the latter is mostly due to a mix of live-and-let-live and a suspicious nature toward political authoritarianism of any flavor.)
The devil is still in the details, though.
[Later:] Of course I went back in and fixed a typo or two as well as an inexplicable, brain-burped homophone error, and added the skipped "update" designator. Lovely, the ability to fix things like that.
The experience of taking this quiz, which supposedly determines where one belongs on the political spectrum, makes me remember why I chose "Achieving Balance Only Through Contradiction" as the tag line for my old blog.
I scored 25, for what that's worth.
Hat tip.
Update: In the comments, Internet Ronin brings up the Political Compass questionnaire, which measures this sort of thing in more than one dimension. (One axis measures social libertarian/authoritarian and the other economic left/right; follow the link and read the home page for a less simplistic description.)
I'd taken that one before, but it had been long enough ago that I didn't remember the specific questions, though I remembered more or less where I'd fallen. Taking the test really, really quickly just now, I fell pretty close to what I recall, with just a touch of variation.
Unfortunately, there's no code supplied for me to paste in my results, mapped on a graph, but just picture me pretty much dead center on the left/right scale and three notches south of center toward the libertarian side ("Your political compass: Economic Left/Right: 0.25 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.77"; in graphical terms, that .25 puts my dot smack on the line). Better yet, go take the questionnaire yourself, see where you stand, and envision where I must fall.
In any case, the short of it is that the test classifies me as exactly what I've basically said I am: overall, a solid centrist with a libertarian streak. (I'd say the latter is mostly due to a mix of live-and-let-live and a suspicious nature toward political authoritarianism of any flavor.)
The devil is still in the details, though.
[Later:] Of course I went back in and fixed a typo or two as well as an inexplicable, brain-burped homophone error, and added the skipped "update" designator. Lovely, the ability to fix things like that.
