Re: Political Compass

From: Charlie Stross (charlie@antipope.org)
Date: Wed Aug 29 2001 - 14:22:37 MDT


On Wed, Aug 29, 2001 at 08:37:44AM -0700, Lee Corbin wrote:

> Yes, what is scary is that objectivity has eluded us once more.
 
Agreed.

> But what is infinitely more scary is a second possiblity: that
> indeed the World's Shortest Political Quiz is mainly objective,
> that this one on the contrary is to a great degree *more* loaded,
> and that many people who agree with the objectives of this later
> quiz don't mind it being so.
 
Naah. This quiz doesn't actually imply that the people who set it
support these positions; it's designed to establish whether you,
the person who's sitting the quiz, supports those positions. To that
extent, it's a success. What would be most scary would be if, say,
it characterised you as a left-wing authoritarian, for example --
a position that's radically far away from one you'd self-identify
with, if I'm not mistaken.

> In other words, what is really scary is when even slight injustices
> aren't confessed as such when they are in the service of ideology.
> It's another case of the good ends justifying the not-so-good means.

Eh?

I don't follow you. You seem to be confusing the political compass
quiz (which is aimed at people who come from a culture that is not
your own, where political discourse is framed in different terms --
for example the "nigger" word is merely considered rude, and what
you call a "liberal" would probably be at home in the conservative
party) with an expression of the ideologies it's polling.

-- Charlie



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