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You know you're a Conservative when...
Chris Dillow responds to the question:
NB: I'm aware that there are smart conservatives, and that conservatism in and of itself is not necessarily a philosophy that contradicts itself. I'm also aware that not all Tories contribute to the frequently used moniker "stupid party". Unfortunately for the smart and fairly liberal Conservatives on my friends list, they do remain a minority within the membership. If the evidence of online activity is anything to go by, a small minority.
Hmm, I know, let's turn this into a little meme. Duncan informed me earlier that Facebook now has a Political Compass application[1]. My liking of the Compass as a good way of broadly assisting you place yourself and opinions remains strong, and the app is fairly good, so...
Either install the Facebook App [2]or complete the test on the main website, and post your results either in a post or in a comment here. It's been ages since we did this, lots of new friends and people may have clarified their opinions if they've done it before.
I'm now at:
Which means I've moved (again) further down (I used to be at -5) and also closer to the center (I was at -5 there as well). So that's 4 times I've taken it (third on here), and each time I've moved further down and further to the middle. I remain convinced that it's because they're classifiying support for markets on the left/right spectrum when as they're strongly an aspect of econic activity, they should be on the up/down axis.
Alternatively, of course, we could try to answer Iain's questions: You know you're a conservative when.
Anyone else looking forward to there being an actual Tory policy on something? I dunno, thinking of running an anti Govt tactical voting campaign isn't made easier when it involves you persuading people to vote for Mr Cameron's Flip Flops...
[1] There are some other good apps on his list, I especially also recommend Irrepressible
[2] One of the good bits about the facebook app is it allows you to compare yourself to friends, hence doing it there is better if you've an account. Plus, the image they display on FB has within the properties the plotting for the marks on the graph, which makes C/Ping it to display much easier—right click, properties, copy in IE, or right click, copy image location in Fx, or if you've got IMG tag, well, you know what to do...
Iain Dale is inviting people to complete the sentence, "you know you're a Conservative when..."The comments to both posts are comedy brilliance as well. Plus more than half at Iain's made me want to say "no doofus, that makes you a liberal" (note the lack of capitalisation there is deliberate, not all liberals are Liberals, and unfortunately a chunk of Liberals aren't liberal—there are also liberals within all the main British parties).
OK. Here goes:
1....you think people should get on their bike and look for work, unless they cross a border in doing so.
2...you think people should stand on their own two feet, unless they have a rich daddy.
3...you think people should stand on their own two feet, unless they do so by joining trade unions.
4...you believe in equality under the law, even though it's mostly your opponents who have achieved this.
5...you think state authorities shouldn't intervene in markets, unless doing so would benefit your business or support share prices or house prices.
6...you deplore youngsters' ignorance of history, but forget about primitive accumulation.
7...you think a centrally planned economy is a bad idea but centrally planned companies are great.
NB: I'm aware that there are smart conservatives, and that conservatism in and of itself is not necessarily a philosophy that contradicts itself. I'm also aware that not all Tories contribute to the frequently used moniker "stupid party". Unfortunately for the smart and fairly liberal Conservatives on my friends list, they do remain a minority within the membership. If the evidence of online activity is anything to go by, a small minority.
Hmm, I know, let's turn this into a little meme. Duncan informed me earlier that Facebook now has a Political Compass application[1]. My liking of the Compass as a good way of broadly assisting you place yourself and opinions remains strong, and the app is fairly good, so...
Either install the Facebook App [2]or complete the test on the main website, and post your results either in a post or in a comment here. It's been ages since we did this, lots of new friends and people may have clarified their opinions if they've done it before.
I'm now at:
Economic Left/Right: -2.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.69
Which means I've moved (again) further down (I used to be at -5) and also closer to the center (I was at -5 there as well). So that's 4 times I've taken it (third on here), and each time I've moved further down and further to the middle. I remain convinced that it's because they're classifiying support for markets on the left/right spectrum when as they're strongly an aspect of econic activity, they should be on the up/down axis.
Alternatively, of course, we could try to answer Iain's questions: You know you're a conservative when.
Anyone else looking forward to there being an actual Tory policy on something? I dunno, thinking of running an anti Govt tactical voting campaign isn't made easier when it involves you persuading people to vote for Mr Cameron's Flip Flops...
[1] There are some other good apps on his list, I especially also recommend Irrepressible
[2] One of the good bits about the facebook app is it allows you to compare yourself to friends, hence doing it there is better if you've an account. Plus, the image they display on FB has within the properties the plotting for the marks on the graph, which makes C/Ping it to display much easier—right click, properties, copy in IE, or right click, copy image location in Fx, or if you've got IMG tag, well, you know what to do...
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Economic Left/Right: -9.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.36
I've gone a lot more Commie, but about as Liberal.
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Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.08
* joins you in the evil commie bastard corner *
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I blame Chris, all this knowledge of economics makes me look right wing even as it makes me more socialist...
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God knows what downstairs is like...
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So many dodgy lefties on my friends list. Quite amusing really.
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Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.31
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Economic Left/Right: -8.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.51
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*repeats grumbles about markets not being right wing*
*does it again just because*
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At some points, issues come up and you feel you can make a difference; sometimes then you get involved-I'm a lot more involved now than I was 2 years ago, but nowhere near as involved as, say Cllr Barlow (
Mostly I have to work to get rid of the apathy—it's part of the appeal of bloggin, I can play a small part without putting a huge amount of effort into it.
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Economic Left/Right: -6.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.74
but I still had trouble with some of the market questions too. ie...
"A genuine free market requires restrictions on the ability of predator multinationals to create monopolies."
I strongly disagreed with that, treating the statement as being about a system, not a means to an end. The alternative is a bit like saying that competition is good, but there mustn't be any winners.
Monopolies are the natural product of a genuine free market...
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Traditional record companies versus new methods of distribution, for example. The RIAA is instead of trying to adapt and compete, using some rather dodgy practices to sue people for notional infringements, etc.
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Some sort of regulation is bound to happen, even if just the policing of contracts.
Then of course you get into the interminable debate about what is meant by freedom—a market free from exploitation for example. But then, I exploit my brain typing this, well, sort of, it's not working great currently.
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Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.38
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Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.08
I'm a little more "down with The Man" than I used to be. Go figure, living in this country.
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Social: -7.79
I seem to have gone more towards the middle economically than I was before, but still out by the edge socially.
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Economic Left/Right: -4.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.08
Plus ça change, plus c'est le même chose.
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Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.18
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That said, my results were:
Economic Left/Right: -0.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.49
Or libertarian centrist on the graph, which these days is probably about right.
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OTOH, those results?
Centrist! Burn him!
(and compared to everyone else, you don't seem to be that libertarian either ;-)
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Working for GW taught me the importance of competition—because they're an effective monopoly, they had completely lost their edge. Then CCGs and Pokemon came along and they nearly went under.
It's why I like Chris Dillow and his brand of market socialism—co-operatives and partnerships should always work better, because middle management are there on behalf of the staff, not on behalf of the bureacracy.
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Economic Left/Right: -2.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.36
Strikes me as about right - it's all those views on the economy stopping me from being further left...
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But yeah, they do seem to rate economic freedom as left/right, which is annoying.
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Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.21
Some of the questions were well dodge though. Astrology? How the fuck does that fit in? Russell Grant or Carl Jung version?
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Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.67
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Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.15
Hmmm. I can't say that I agree with the social bit. I must just be horrid at answering questions because I'm probably one of the biggest social liberals I know. Oi.
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Two possible responses—either the test didn't give you nough room, or you don't know enough liberals.
The latter is actually more likely; despite their professed liberalism, I tend to keep details about elements of my private life fairly discrete when I'm around candidates and similar, because despite being liberal, they can still double take at some things.
I'm getting a lot more hardnosed in my Liberalism the more I think about it, but the word means different things to different people; to USians it really means 'socialist' but, well, let's not go there ;-)
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Economic Left/Right: -6.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.03
So would I qualify as a socialist or a neo-something?
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You're roughly where I was when I first took the test and knew a lot less about economics-now I'm more left wing, but the test makes me look less so.
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Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.33
Yikes. I think I'm more authoritarian than I used to be, but also more left-wing...
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Note my standard caveat that I should be further to the left, but they seem to view markets & choices as a left/right thing, which I don't think it should be.
Meh, supposed to be working...
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Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.72
Pretty much where I expected to turn up.