You know you're a Conservative when...

[matgb]

Chris Dillow responds to the question:

Iain Dale is inviting people to complete the sentence, "you know you're a Conservative when..."
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.

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).

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...

Comments

[tyrell.livejournal.com]

Um.

Economic Left/Right: -9.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.36

I've gone a lot more Commie, but about as Liberal.

[purplecthulhu.livejournal.com]

Economic Left/Right: -5.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.31

[cosmolinguist]

I'm still hangin' out way in the corner, as I have been pretty consistently for the last three or four years.

Economic Left/Right: -8.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.51

[misscoollinda.livejournal.com]

Economic Left/Right: -7.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.38

[baseballchica03.livejournal.com]

Economic Left/Right: -7.50
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.

[getawaywithit.livejournal.com]

Economic: - 1
Social: -7.79

I seem to have gone more towards the middle economically than I was before, but still out by the edge socially.

[burkesworks.livejournal.com]

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -4.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.08

Plus ça change, plus c'est le même chose.

[jackthomas.livejournal.com]

Economic Left/Right: -6.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.18

[davidnm.livejournal.com]

One of the problems with these tests is I often want to argue with their questions, e.g. 'Making peace with the establishment is a part of maturity ' makes me want to say 'peace on *whose terms*, mine or theirs?'

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.

[paulatpingu.livejournal.com]

My results:

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...

[thapunkprincess.livejournal.com]

Economic Left/Right: -9.38
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?

[rhythmaning.livejournal.com]

I loved that Chris Dillow piece. It was a timely antidote to thinking that David Cameron seems to be making sense!!!

[mooism.livejournal.com]

Economic Left/Right: 0.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.67

[susanne-est-moi.livejournal.com]

Economic Left/Right: -4.13
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.

[gaeriwitch.livejournal.com]

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -6.75
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.03

So would I qualify as a socialist or a neo-something?

[raggedhalo.livejournal.com]

Economic Left/Right: -8.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -7.33

Yikes. I think I'm more authoritarian than I used to be, but also more left-wing...

[davegodfrey.livejournal.com]

Economic Left/Right: -8.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.72

Pretty much where I expected to turn up.