While We Wait: Writer's Block & Other Lame Excuses

[TheMeanestGuest]

The Daharai Republic ended up as E: -0.25 and S: 2.87.

 

[Daftpanzer]

Max Libertarian, balanced left/right.

Info on the server is here: http://www.mobiusgamers.org/forums/minecraft.5/

This is a very cooperative server, with no griefing or stealing allowed. There are also some youngsters that play on it (mostly kids/family members of other players), so language and adult content need to be watched. It is whitelisted so if you want to be added, simply make a post on that forum, or PM me.

There is a live Dynmap of the server you can look at as well.

Interesting, thanks for the link!

 

[Symphony D.]

what mod/texture pack is that?

Using this modpack, trying to set up a decent base at start. Might get a server up if/when I have a steady income.

NESers getting bored

I've come to really loathe the weighting and spread of questions on that test as it basically puts anyone even modestly progressive way down in the bottom-left. It's not actually very good at measuring the authoritarian-libertarian axis, I think.

 

[mrrandomplayer]

And. I join the crowd.

 

[Symphony D.]

To put my money where my mouth is:

Economic Left/Right: -5.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.56

Token Statements I'd Make and Agree With:
• Edward Snowden is a sellout, fugitive from justice, and guilty of espionage, although not technically guilty of treason
• American military funding should not be cut, and should be restored to pre-Sequestration levels, although it would possibly do fine with some internal shuffling from there
• Reconstitution of the American nuclear arsenal in the 21st century is important
• Global Zero is a dumb idea
• There are benefits to American-led Western hegemony
• I find eternal American skepticism of government post-Watergate somewhat depressing
• In a perfect world, with perfect bureaucracy, in a direct democracy, I would be in favor of restricting elements of the franchise based on proven ability or knowledge on the subject; e.g., voting on a foreign policy issue would require having the Foreign Policy Voting License
• I would totally be down for reproductive licenses, similar to driving licenses
• I find negative liberties far more attractive a basis for a society than positive rights

Yup, I'm both far more radically leftist than the Dalai Lama and far more Libertarian, you nailed it, quiz.

 

[Kozmos]

Ideally I would be all up for city-states if you could get around solving funding for big science, infrastructure and medical care. If we have to have big states where we are bargaining for levels of acceptable suffering then I'm for voting, reproductive licenses with some form of e-democracy managed by aliens or machines. Also guns for everyone, women as the majority of the Army for defensive purpose and peacekeeping operations, gay men/manly men in the Marines/Special Forces for offensive needs.

 

[Masada]

The scores for the federation are interesting E: -6.12, S: -2.21 and the product of being a multiethnic and multireligous state.

 

[Immaculate]

Not what i expected, but hey:

 

[ork75]

Joining the party...

E: -8.75
S: -2.72

 

[North King]

Guys, it's really easy to add dots:

Spoiler :

I've come to really loathe the weighting and spread of questions on that test as it basically puts anyone even modestly progressive way down in the bottom-left. It's not actually very good at measuring the authoritarian-libertarian axis, I think.

Oh, it's abysmal, don't get me wrong. I practically endorsed the NSA and broad military interventionism in my quiz, and you can see where that landed me.

We were really bored.

The scores for the federation are interesting E: -6.12, S: -2.21 and the product of being a multiethnic and multireligous state.

Seems suspect; the Aya'se really being more libertarian than the orgy that is Cyve?

Spoiler won't make much sense outside of End of Empires :

 

[thomas.berubeg]

 

[Gem Hound]

Thats what I got for Serkos:

 

[Symphony D.]

Oh, it's abysmal, don't get me wrong. I practically endorsed the NSA and broad military interventionism in my quiz, and you can see where that landed me.

It annoys me mostly out of their pretense at it being factual with their stupid "world leaders" chart, which is itself laughable. Like, yeah, Obama, Romney, and Hu Jintao, all basically the same guy except for their willingness to shoot protesters praise the almighty apparatus of state slight differences in authoritarianism. Sure.

 

[Grandkhan]

It annoys me mostly out of their pretense at it being factual with their stupid "world leaders" chart, which is itself laughable. Like, yeah, Obama, Romney, and Hu Jintao, all basically the same guy except for their willingness to shoot protesters praise the almighty apparatus of state slight differences in authoritarianism. Sure.

I think its because the spectrum of political opinions (both economic and social) is so wide and they're trying to plot all of it. As a result, if you are relatively mainstream in your political opinions you get pushed to a pretty small zone at which point Obama and Romney look pretty much the same, because your spectrum is so wide.

It also places more emphasis on vague ideas rather than practical implementations of economic or social policy, which is where the big difference between conservatives and liberals stem from. Yes, everybody believes that globalisation should serve the individual - nobody says "Yes, idealogically I believe that governments should hold the interests of multinational megacorporations over the interests of their own voters!" its just that conservatives believe that in practice forcing them to conform to some standard is only going to cripple them and that multinationals do more good than harm whereas liberals believe that in practice regulation won't hurt them as badly as conservatives think and that it will force them to conform to a certain standard of human rights/market practices.

Its a nuance that the test loses.

 

[DC123456789]

Indeed. I find that's a shortcoming of basically every political test I've ever taken.

 

[Symphony D.]

I think its because the spectrum of political opinions (both economic and social) is so wide and they're trying to plot all of it. As a result, if you are relatively mainstream in your political opinions you get pushed to a pretty small zone at which point Obama and Romney look pretty much the same, because your spectrum is so wide.

The fact that every time I've ever seen this test the vast majority of the people taking it wind up in the bottom-left, since about 2002, while anecdotal, and the supposed clustering of world leaders in the top-right (when several of them are trying to maximize votes by being dead-center in the bell curve of their electorates) suggests that the calibration is just flat out wrong. Neoliberal economics is a thing, sure, and a lot of this assuredly comes down to weighting of particular questions, but to say that Jintao, Romney, and Merkel all believe in the same economics, and only differ in how much of an iron fist they use in deploying it, even on the total spectrum of economic positions, is still laughable. (This also calls into question what they assume these politicians' answers are; if you actually sat them down and made them take the test, I'm willing to bet they wouldn't wind up where they supposedly are.)

It's just drivel. It doesn't remotely correlate anyone's actual positions to anything or anyone real, and probably doesn't even correlate them much with one another.

 

[Anonymoose]

But it looks neat. Grids, dots, and contrasting colors. Man I just about lost it looking at all those pretty colors.

 

[Symphony D.]

Have I got something for you!

 

[Lord_Iggy]

And if that doesn't work...

 

[Crezth]

socialist dictatorship