Political Compass Thread

Tfw the democratic and GOP establishment have moved so far to the right that a centrist like Sanders is considered a leftist.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2016

Sanders is not a centrist; polcom is biased in favour of the Left, and is prone to presenting Left-wing parties and candidates as less Left-wing than they actually are.

Wanting to hike taxes by $15T and implement a single-payer healthcare system are not centrist proposals.

polcom is biased in favour of the Left, and is prone to presenting Left-wing parties and candidates as less Left-wing than they actually are.

No it isn't.

And is he proposing to hike taxes by $15 trillion, or is he hiking them to $15 trillion?

I mean, there's a big difference there.

polcom is biased in favour of the Left, and is prone to presenting Left-wing parties and candidates as less Left-wing than they actually are.

No it isn't.

This is a discussion which revolves around where the "centre" of politics lies, and we can disagree about that but nobody with a brain is going to meaningfully believe Sanders is a fucking centrist. Most of his support comes from the fact that he emphatically positions himself as not a centrist. . .

Harlow from Sapphire took the test multiple times and always finds himself on the lower right, despite being Harlow.

But no, clearly it's biased in favor of the left when even the most leftist guy you could think of can't even land in the green quadrant.

Harlow from Sapphire took the test multiple times and always finds himself on the lower right, despite being Harlow.

But no, clearly it's biased in favor of the left when even the most leftist guy you could think of can't even land in the green quadrant.

Thank you for this further reflection on how PolCom is shit.

Harlow also wasn't that leftist; he believed capitalism would burn itself out through technological creation and lead to some kind of socialist, post-scarce system of production. Which is pretty much the same as what Camnator believes. All that glitters is not gold.

Not only do you know Sanders is not a centrist, but you also know Bush and Rubio are not Hitler-levels of authoritarian, despite the compass trying to place them in that vicinity.

This is a discussion which revolves around where the "centre" of politics lies, and we can disagree about that but nobody with a brain is going to meaningfully believe Sanders is a fucking centrist. Most of his support comes from the fact that he emphatically positions himself as not a centrist. . .

I'm not saying I necessarily agree with their positioning of Sanders--I raised an eyebrow at it, too. They attempted to give their reasoning on that page, but I'm still eh on it. I'm just sick of this "bias" meme. Can any test be 100% unbiased? Probably not, but the thing is, you'll find that a lot of people on the right claim that the test is biased towards the left, and a lot of people on the left claim it's biased in favor of the right. It's a bad meme.

I don't know if you've even cared to read this.

How can you determine where politicians are honestly at without asking them?

How can you tell where they're honestly at by asking them? Especially around election time. We rely on reports, parliamentary voting records, manifestos … and actions that speak much louder than words. It takes us a great deal longer than simply having the politician take the test — but it's also a far more accurate assessment. In our early experience, politicians taking the test often responded in ways that conflicted with their actions but conformed to the prevailing mood of the electorate.

We are occasionally asked about publishing the individual responses of politicians. We frown on this. The propositions are too vague to be considered statements of policy, and the individual responses are not significant in themselves. When summed to give an economic and social score, however, they provide an accurate profile of a mental state.

You might not like the placement, but they're quite self-aware about any and all reservations one may have about the legitimacy of the test.

Not only do you know Sanders is not a centrist, but you also know Bush and Rubio are not Hitler-levels of authoritarian, despite the compass trying to place them in that vicinity.

Well, they address that, too.

How can I be in the same quadrant as Pol Pot/Hitler/Stalin? I'm no Pol Pot/Hitler/Stalin!

The quadrants are not separate categories, but regions on a continuum. The fact that The Pope is in the same quadrant as Stalin does not make The Pope another Stalin. His closeness to the axes makes him a moderate, and therefore closer to Gandhi and Chirac, even though they are in different quadrants. Each quadrant contains enormous variability and can accommodate philanthropists and monsters, differing in the extremity of their views.

Tfw the democratic and GOP establishment have moved so far to the right that a centrist like Sanders is considered a leftist.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2016

Sanders is not a centrist; polcom is biased in favour of the Left, and is prone to presenting Left-wing parties and candidates as less Left-wing than they actually are.

Wanting to hike taxes by $15T and implement a single-payer healthcare system are not centrist proposals.

if they biased towards the left, then why would they portray someone like Obama as being nearly identical to someone like Romney? If they were biased towards the left  wouldn't they portray him as being more liberal than he actually is?

As far as Sanders not being a centrist, keep in mind that he's not a socialist and is probably more comparable to a New Dealer. He probably only calls himself a socialist as a way to market himself as unique and outside of the pack.

Especially around election time. We rely on reports, parliamentary voting records, manifestos … and actions that speak much louder than words. It takes us a great deal longer than simply having the politician take the test — but it's also a far more accurate assessment. In our early experience, politicians taking the test often responded in ways that conflicted with their actions but conformed to the prevailing mood of the electorate.

So?

All this tells me is that they have a better methodology for determining positions than simply asking people, what this doesn't entail is that the positioning of any test-taker's point isn't being placed in a way which is basically arbitrary because the creators have given us no word on how placement actually occurs. You could answer every question perfectly and in accordance with your internal preferences, and still get a shit result because the creators are dumb and relying on things like voting records is not going to allow them to place a candidate on a compass with any decent degree of accuracy.

Well, they address that, too.

That doesn't even slightly address my it. . . Obviously its a continuum, the question is why Rubio and Bush are placed literally as authoritarian as Hitler. Not somewhere just in the same quadrant, but literally pretty much the same distance along a specific axis.

that cursor is annoying

if they biased towards the left, then why would they portray someone like Obama as being nearly identical to someone like Romney? If they were biased towards the left  wouldn't they portray him as being more liberal than he actually is?

No, for two reasons:

First, Obama is obviously not that close to Romney. Obama is much, much closer to the centre than Sanders, to the point where current Sanders supporters and more generally former Obama voters feel betrayed--the guy is basically Hillary in a Sanders mask. PolCom is biased to the Left, not the Demorats.

Secondly, if they were trying to place Leftist candidates as Leftist as they reasonable could, how would this benefit Leftists? Some of the biggest arguments against a Sanders presidency are that his policies are too extreme, and that he wouldn't get anything past Congress.

and is probably more comparable to a New Dealer.

Sanders is more left-wing than the New Deal Democrats; not only did the New Deal retain a focus on fiscal discipline, but its bloc of support also included banks and oil companies. The New Deal, at least at the time, was essentially the Big Tent of U.S. politics.

That doesn't even slightly address my it. . . Obviously its a continuum, the question is why Rubio and Bush are placed literally as authoritarian as Hitler. Not somewhere just in the same quadrant, but literally pretty much the same distance along a specific axis.

So what, to you, would qualify someone being in Hitler's position on their compass?

Do they have to have started a holocaust? That wouldn't seem very balanced.

that cursor is annoying

ye
I'm using ShareX so I don't clog up my imgur or anything

Didn't see the cursor, pretend its not there

So what, to you, would qualify someone being in Hitler's position on their compass?

Why is the onus on me to explain why Bush and Rubio shouldn't be considered in the same authoritarian-libertarian region as Hitler? Neither of them are ultra-nationalist totalitarians.

So what, to you, would qualify someone being in Hitler's position on their compass?

Why is the onus on me to explain why Bush and Rubio shouldn't be considered in the same authoritarian-libertarian region as Hitler? Neither of them are ultra-nationalist totalitarians.

I'm not saying you're obliged to, I'm just asking.

Are you saying only ultra-nationalist totalitarians belong near Hitler's point? Because if we're going to account for every facet of every political ideology possible, I don't think that would make for a very efficient compass, either. That's all I'm saying.

Are you saying only ultra-nationalist totalitarians belong near Hitler's point?

No, I'm saying people of that--or similar--descriptions belong towards the top of the authoritarian-libertarian axis.

easy

Tfw the democratic and GOP establishment have moved so far to the right that a centrist like Sanders is considered a leftist.
http://www.politicalcompass.org/uselection2016

I feel like that's a bit... dramatic. Are they seriously so far up there that they're in the same breath as Hitler's policies?