Political Compass III

[strijder20]

Moved 1.5 tiles towards the left since last taking it, which TBH surprised me.

 

[Monsterzuma]

Netherlands: 52% income tax, 21% VAT Tax, most right-libertarian country on the list...

 

[Traitorfish]

Income tax is hardly the only thing they're measuring.

edit: Also, the Netherlands does not have "52% income tax". That's only the highest bracket, for income over €55,991, which is about two and a half times the average annual income.

edit2: In fact, come to think of it, why would either of those things be considered inherently "left-wing"? Leftism is typically defined by egalitarianism, and regressive taxes like VAT are anything but egalitarian.

 

[Borachio]

Um... this is vaguely interesting.

Woody Allen quipped that every time he heard Wagner, he was overcome with the urge to invade Poland. The positions of most others are less clear in their work, although we can hear the difference between the assertive nationalism of Wagner and the gentle folk nationalism of Dvořák or Grieg. In the case of opera, of course, there are more clues. Mozart's, for example, dealt with class war (The Marriage of Figaro) and the liberal values of the Enlightenment. Biographies often provide helpful political information as well. Some composers, like Bartók, were known to have championed the underdog and sometimes clashed with the authorities as a result. Others, like Stravinsky, Mascagni and Puccini, enthusiastically embraced fascism. Still others, like Smetana and Tchaikovsky, were tolerant individualists who kept their distance from mass movements.

Because of the relative paucity of information, our composers' political chart is largely for amusement. People like Schubert, Bach, Debussy and Donizetti, who don't seem to have left any hints of their politics, have been left out altogether.

 

[danjuno]

Interesting. I'd like to see some from the 1960's and 1970's though I'm afraid it would resemble the CFC scatter chart.

 

[Gucumatz]

Who doesn't want to invade Poland? If I ever get the chance in real life I need to get myself a life-time supply of Pierogis.

 

[Gucumatz]

I also think the compass skews quite to the left in general because of measurements. IE if you actually measured any of the politicians listed, I am sure the majority would appear much more to the left/south than is projected.

If I were a policymaker I would still have relatively similar views to what I have now, I believe. And if I were being judged from "afar" I am sure I would be placed far more to the "right" and "Authoritarian" than the test judges me.

 

[Borachio]

There's also the distortion due to the discrepancy between what any individual thinks their own views are and how their actions are interpreted by someone else? Or is that what you're saying anyway?

edit: on second thoughts, it looks like that's exactly what you're saying.

 

[Cheezy the Wiz]

I shared in the popular "understanding" of Wagner until I watched this Intelligence Squared debate. The case the man makes for a far more nuanced Wagner is very compelling. I no longer regard him as some proto-Fascist nationalist who influenced generations of Germans to take on the world in mortal combat as a national ritual.


Link to video.

 

[Monsterzuma]

Income tax is hardly the only thing they're measuring.

edit: Also, the Netherlands does not have "52% income tax". That's only the highest bracket, for income over €55,991, which is about two and a half times the average annual income.

edit2: In fact, come to think of it, why would either of those things be considered inherently "left-wing"? Leftism is typically defined by egalitarianism, and regressive taxes like VAT are anything but egalitarian.

you're mistaking us for poland. it's about 1.5 times average annual income, but since that figure includes the non-working most actual working people pay very close to that rate over most of their income. and rest assured that the lower brackets aren't much more generous.

 

[Darth Caesar]

So this is me post-conversion to Libertarian Socialism.

Economic Left/Right: -6.62
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.51

Damn I've joined the rest of you commies.

 

[Zack]

What changed?

 

[Darth Caesar]

What changed?

It was a gradual slide to the left fueled by keeping an open mind and continual disillusionment with government and then accelerated by trying to think what would be a better system and then doing some research into other systems. Eventually I decided to disgorge every Conservative opinion I had shoved down my throat and look at things from a different perspective. The research eventually lead me to reading about the fundamentals of Social Anarchism/Libertarian Socialism and after spending about a week in deliberation with myself I decided it fitted my beliefs better while also realizing I found Capitalism to be morally and philosophically distasteful.

So that, in a nutshell is how I went from a Conservative to Libertarian Socialist.

 

[azzaman333]

Abandon and Boundless are banned rather than just long time missing? I remember enjoying their presence wheneverthehellthatwas.

Yeah, they got permbanned.

 

[Monsterzuma]

ok, so if those graphs with all the politicians and nations active in politics being Right-Authoritarian are half right, does that mean we, as left-libertarians, just want the political establishment utterly destroyed or something? where does that sentiment lead exactly? anarcho-primitivism?

 

[Borachio]

I think the latest term is anarcho-populism. V for Vendetta. Anonymous. 99%. Russell Brand. All that.

Anarcho-populism (not intended in a pejorative sense) stands to indicate the uncanny marriage between anarchism and progressive populism at a time of widespread economic and political crisis. In the aftermath of the financial crisis of 2007-08 anti-government messages of the “GTFO” type are not targeted any more at a small bunch of militant anarchists. Rather they are aimed at large, potentially majoritarian sectors of the population, increasingly disgruntled with a State that is taking more and more the semblance of an obnoxious Leviathan preoccupied with buttressing collapsing banks and spying on citizens, rather than defending any notion of the common good.

Or maybe the psychedelic anarchism of Pinchbeck?

I think, on a global scale, we need to repurpose the media, including social media and mass media, to bring about a rapid evolution of planetary consciousness, to face the multidimensional ecological crisis that threatens us, to address social injustice and economic inequity, and also to raise the level of people’s thoughts. At the moment, the media acts as a consciousness control system that keeps the collective mind at a low frequency, normalizes violence, and amplifies fear.

http://www.danielpinchbeck.net/tag/psychedelics/

 

[Traitorfish]

Movie V, but comic V is definitely more of a Galleanist.

 

[Borachio]

Really? I've only read the comic. It didn't strike me as focused on direct violent action.

Still, maybe. As a catalyst, I suppose.

I don't buy into it, though.

 

[Traitorfish]

That was pretty much the whole Galleanist approach. Blow things up, something something, general insurrection.

They weren't a a bunch that could be accused of over-thinking things.

 

[Borachio]

Yeah. It's the classic anarchist caricature, holding the big round black bomb with the lit fuse.