World's Smallest [Libertarian-centric] Political Quiz...

January 16, 2002 1:58 PM

World's Smallest [Libertarian-centric] Political Quiz... Nothing earth-shattering. It's short, thought-provoking, and a tad biased. Or maybe it isn't and I'm just chafing at being called an Authoritarian (neither Fascist, nor a Communist... somewhere in between). I'm not I tell you... really!
posted by silusGROK (25 comments total)

[Props to Sean Meade for the original link]
posted by silusGROK at 2:01 PM on January 16, 2002

I like the menu of choices they give you after you've taken the quiz:

"Find out more about:
Libertarianism"
posted by argybarg at 2:07 PM on January 16, 2002

It told me I was a Scientologist. Hmm.

Actually, I came out as a "Left-Liberal," which is news to exactly no one.
posted by Shadowkeeper at 2:14 PM on January 16, 2002

It was invented by a libertarian to persuade people that they're sympathetic to it even if they didn't know what it was all about. (The national party's positions are certainly iconoclastic enough to confuse people: shut down all public schools; break all foreign military alliances ...) As long as you know it's libertarian, no harm no foul.

What annoys me is that the questions are designed to that end. There's a version (not this one, perhaps) that shows you the closest presidential candidate to your own views, based on this quiz. I (and many other webloggers) kept taking it and finding out that, according to the quiz, our views were closest to .... David McReynolds of the Socialist party. Uh, not. Being liberal is one thing, being more liberal than Al Gore is another, but being ready to embrace a fringe party's platform is something else entirely. I just don't feel there were enough questions to distinguish the difference there, which bespeaks either an ignorance of that area of the spectrum, either accidental or deliberate.
posted by dhartung at 2:14 PM on January 16, 2002

They forgot this question:

GOVERNMENT IS, LIKE, TOTALLY EVIL.
(Y) (M) (N)
posted by Ty Webb at 2:19 PM on January 16, 2002

This is so (censored) old, already.
posted by raysmj at 2:25 PM on January 16, 2002

[Props to Sean Meade for the original link]
Nobody doesn't like Sean Meade.
posted by thirteen at 2:28 PM on January 16, 2002

I took this a few years and have been getting spammed by the Liberatarian Party ever since.

This is slightly more subtle than the quizzes in the UTNE Reader.
posted by ttrendel at 2:30 PM on January 16, 2002

i came in as left-liberal also, !!!

the thing a quiz like this never accounts for is what people will vote for to Fit in a particular label.

if you wish to vote Green with a Democrat slant, please select the following answers to the quiz
posted by th3ph17 at 2:39 PM on January 16, 2002

The Political Compass test does the same thing in a more thorough manner.
posted by Owen Boswarva at 2:49 PM on January 16, 2002

I have seen this test translated to Spanish and advertised by the Libertarian party in my country (Costa Rica). Only that the spanish version is extremely biased in order to make you believe you are the most libertarian person on earth and you should vote for them...
posted by papalotl at 3:01 PM on January 16, 2002

I came out as a 'Centrist' ....not exactly news either ...

But I guess its one thing to think about these issues in the abstract, quite another to see these applied to a specific issue in a specific geographies. Nader appeared to be a darling of the liberals, but when he actually did stand for an election ......
posted by justlooking at 3:36 PM on January 16, 2002

left liberal.... who are these swine to call me liberal? i'm old labour and proud
posted by quarsan at 4:22 PM on January 16, 2002

This test is quite...out there. I've taken a few, more thorough, political spectrum tests, and I invariably come out as a centrist, usually slightly nudged up towards libertarianism. On this test, I was on the far left wall as a left-liberal. I don't think anyone who knows me would call me a left-liberal, though. Bizarre.
posted by Kevs at 4:41 PM on January 16, 2002

I was on the border between centrist and liberal. Wonder where Fold_and_Mutilate would end up?
posted by phatboy at 4:55 PM on January 16, 2002

Phatboy, are you trying to get a rise out of him or something?

I found this article at Arts & Letters Daily, which I think everyone considering becoming a libertarian should read.
posted by Doug at 5:14 PM on January 16, 2002

Nothing wrong with an innocent rise, it is just interesting that there are so few people on MeFi whose politics I can identify immediatly. F&M is one of them.

STUFF magazine ran an interview regarding "what women want", and a vast majority wanted a moderately left leaning partner. Probably because they seem cuddlier.
posted by phatboy at 5:37 PM on January 16, 2002

Anybody have a link to more thorough political spectrum analyses? (Thanks for that one Owen, btw)
posted by Hildago at 5:55 PM on January 16, 2002

I was reminded of PoliticalCompass.org recently while looking at revbrian's user profile here on MeFi. Surprisingly, I've moved farther from the center since I last took the test (two years ago) -- I'm outstriping Gandhi in my libretarian-socialist leanings now!
posted by Eamon at 6:35 PM on January 16, 2002

The Political Compass test is amusing. I came out modestly Right-Libertarian (Left-Right 4.5, Authoritarian-Libertarian 3.08). According to the site, there is no current major British politician who is even in my quadrant of the political spectrum. That quadrant is completely blank. Somehow, I suspected as much.

Reminds me of when I used to live in Philly (I'm in its 'burbs, now) and everyone I voted for in any local election automatically lost.

On f_&_m's politics: aren't they obvious? Economically authoritarian, socially libertarian would be my guess. F_&_m, am I close?
posted by Slithy_Tove at 8:24 PM on January 16, 2002

I liked the political compass test too. I came out left libertarian (left-right -0.50, Authoritarian/Libertarian: -3.79).
Gave me pause for thought. I always thought that I occupy the center!
posted by justlooking at 10:22 PM on January 16, 2002

The WSPQ is indeed biased. The Libertarian Purity Test is more amusing, and you almost certainly won't get a high score.
posted by mlinksva at 1:29 AM on January 17, 2002

The Political Compass, I was almost dead center.

Economic Left/Right: -0.13
Authoritarian/Libertarian: -0.77


Small Pol Quiz: Centrist
posted by a3matrix at 4:51 AM on January 17, 2002

On the political compass quiz, I come out strong liberal, strong left. No surprises there. Still, I find the labels to be restrictive and misleading. One question that should be asked, and the answer to which does not indicate anything about the cartesian coordinate position on that quiz scale, is: "Should the laws governing society be rule-based or principle-based?"
posted by yesster at 6:49 AM on January 17, 2002

I think the WSPQ and the Political Compass are very good things. Not because they're incredibly accurate or unbiased (they aren't), but simply because they make people aware that there's more than one dimension to political viewpoints. It's a peeve of mine whenever anyone tries to label all political views on a single liberal-conservative axis. (On the other hand, I consider it a personal victory when I'm accused of being part of the Far Right and part of the Far Left on the same day.)
posted by DevilsAdvocate at 1:10 PM on January 17, 2002