Where are you on the Nolan political spectrum?

[HappySkeptic]

You misunderstand me.  I reject the idea of pigeonholing, full stop. The notion that a chart can accurately label the political and economic positions of anyone is fallacious on the face of it.  If it makes you feel better to have someone who knows literally nothing about you to reduce the complexities of how you feel about politics, economics, and society to something that would fit on a Post-It note, help yourself.

I flatter myself than I'm a little less qualifiable than that.

Boru

There are two aspects to the chart.  One is the 5 names.  The other is the 2 axes.

I think the two axes do represent something meaningful, though the names may not.

The personal freedom axis represents a value.  I personally see the value in maximizing individual freedom, and not as much in maximizing order and fostering sheep.

The economic freedom axis describes how you think about whether the best societal good is gained from letting each individual make their own business choices (and sink or swim), or whether government needs to intervene with regulation, rules, or even wealth redistribution.  My personal opinion is that while economic freedom is an aspect of freedom in general (and therefore a good thing), there is nothing free about letting monopolies, cartels, mafia, or 0.1%s win everything.

But I don't like being labelled with a name either (which may be why I chose a corner point between 3 names).

Tough crowd for my first OP -- but that's a good thing

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Liberal and conservative aren't part of our nature or any nature.  They're a hasty imposition of ambiguous political claims and shifting mores.

I think they are both.

In my OP was trying to distinguish the political terms of conservative or liberal (perhaps I should've said progressive) from the literal meanings.

Conservative literally means resistant to change.  That is part of our nature, and NOT a political affiliation.  People get more conservative as they get older.  Young people have less roots in the way things used to be, and are more willing to find their own path.  Political parties know this and try to exploit it (and brand it).

But, on any particular issue, I was trying to say that I may be conservative -- i.e. resistant to change.  You believe in giving a guaranteed income to everyone?  Prove that isn't going to bankrupt the nation.  You want to change the government representation to be equal to proportional vote?  Prove to me that won't lead to wackadoodle parties getting the balance of power.

I am getting older, and I'm less likely to buy into someone's utopian bullshit (even if I'm wrong).  I like the devil I know, even with its flaws.  That is part of our nature, and it should be part of our nature.  That's being conservative. 

I also have my own progressive utopian ideas that I hope other people will treat with the same degree of skepticism.  This is how good change happens, with skeptical thought and tension between our conservative and progressive nature, hopefully moving in the right (or is that left?) direction.