RE: authoritarian/libertarian-left/right spectrum test
September 8, 2014 at 9:03 pm
(This post was last modified: September 8, 2014 at 9:48 pm by tjakey.)
Economic Left/Right: -8.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.00
Some of the questions seemed to assume accepting nation / states as being necessary and permanent. I disagree. The test seemed a bit pre-occupied with sex as well, which I don't see having much to do with economic politics, unless once is in the porn industry. As far as determining libertarian / authoritarian tendencies, why not ask about speed limits or parking tickets instead of sex? Question the old 55 mph speed limit or speed traps and nearly everyone would come out -10 on Libertarian / Authoritarian.
Though a -8 in the libertarian scale, in no way do I think of myself as a Libertarian. As a political position I consider the Libertarians to be self-centered, judgmental, and hostile to any but a narrowly selected few. I also suspect they are not very good at math, wanting a first world society without paying for it or, worse, wanting someone else to pay for it. That aside, I consider both the desire to lead and the desire to follow as moral failings. I will work with you. I have no desire to work for you, or have you work for me. All politics should flow from the same basic attitude, and the only legitimate governments are those made of elected officials who are nothing more or less than representatives enabling large groups of people to work things out so they can work together.
Human beings are social animals who function best as members of a society. But society is only a collection of people working together. The "rugged individual" is as much a myth as any religious deity. My problem with liberals / left is they tend to worship society as a thing in and of itself. My problem with Libertarians / right is they tend to worship the individual. (Often themselves.) But worshiping is never a good thing, not when we worship, and not when we are worshiped. A scale of authoritarian to libertarian is, to me, a false scale. Can you work with others to get things done ... that is the scale that matters.
But then I am an atheist in a world full of religious people, as are most on this forum. We are a pretty small minority with a word view vastly different than most of the rest of the human race. All by itself I suspect that skews our placements on this test. After all, how "authoritarian" is any atheist in a western society likely to be, regardless of his or her politics?
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.00
Some of the questions seemed to assume accepting nation / states as being necessary and permanent. I disagree. The test seemed a bit pre-occupied with sex as well, which I don't see having much to do with economic politics, unless once is in the porn industry. As far as determining libertarian / authoritarian tendencies, why not ask about speed limits or parking tickets instead of sex? Question the old 55 mph speed limit or speed traps and nearly everyone would come out -10 on Libertarian / Authoritarian.
Though a -8 in the libertarian scale, in no way do I think of myself as a Libertarian. As a political position I consider the Libertarians to be self-centered, judgmental, and hostile to any but a narrowly selected few. I also suspect they are not very good at math, wanting a first world society without paying for it or, worse, wanting someone else to pay for it. That aside, I consider both the desire to lead and the desire to follow as moral failings. I will work with you. I have no desire to work for you, or have you work for me. All politics should flow from the same basic attitude, and the only legitimate governments are those made of elected officials who are nothing more or less than representatives enabling large groups of people to work things out so they can work together.
Human beings are social animals who function best as members of a society. But society is only a collection of people working together. The "rugged individual" is as much a myth as any religious deity. My problem with liberals / left is they tend to worship society as a thing in and of itself. My problem with Libertarians / right is they tend to worship the individual. (Often themselves.) But worshiping is never a good thing, not when we worship, and not when we are worshiped. A scale of authoritarian to libertarian is, to me, a false scale. Can you work with others to get things done ... that is the scale that matters.
But then I am an atheist in a world full of religious people, as are most on this forum. We are a pretty small minority with a word view vastly different than most of the rest of the human race. All by itself I suspect that skews our placements on this test. After all, how "authoritarian" is any atheist in a western society likely to be, regardless of his or her politics?
