Classifying yourself politically?

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speedracer

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[quote name='berzirk']Just for giggles, someone should make a poll for poster's political beliefs. Starting with extremely liberal, through extremely conservative. It would be interesting to see how people classify themselves.[/QUOTE]

So?
 
I picked liberal, by the US's general standards I guess (not the minds of republicans). In pretty much any other western nation I imagine I'd be a centrist.
 
went with conservative. almost put centrist, but im probably edge slightly into the conservative realm. my liberal side is never really highlighted in this forum because when people agree on things, it just gets passed over. we mostly post to contend with one another.
 
"Cautiously Left-ish" is what I calls myself.

But I'm Canadian, so I think that translates to "I jack off Lenin" for the lot of ya's.
 
since there is no libertarian on the poll. I picked extremely conservative.


but everyone's views on politics varies.

Political spectrum's on a line stick me all the way to the right

one's in a circle or diamond stick me all the way at the top (libertarian/individualist) center-left (liberal)

so whatever I hate statism
 
[quote name='Papa Neorev']since there is no libertarian on the poll. I picked extremely conservative.


but everyone's views on politics varies.

Political spectrum's on a line stick me all the way to the right

one's in a circle or diamond stick me all the way at the top (libertarian/individualist) center-left (liberal)

so whatever I hate statism[/QUOTE]

I'm pretty much in the same boat. I refuse to respond to this poll because I'm too libertarian; which makes me disagree too strongly with many common conservative views to pick conservative. I'm clearly no liberal, since they almost uniformly believe bigger government is the answer to most problems.

Even "Anarchy" would describe my political compass better than "conservative".
 
Cool, nice poll. I went with Centrist. Friend of Sonic, if you're mostly liberal, but agree with a couple of things on the right...you wouldn't consider yourself liberal then? Not disagreeing with your personal assessment, just interested in why you'd call that "Centrist".

It's also interesting that several here have selected conservative, but not conservative like the Replubicans. Personally I probably would allign Libertarians with a centrist view, since they may back typically liberal policies like Pro-Choice, but back typically conservative issues like immigration.

I dunno. The responses are just a fun read for me. I like to see how people classify themselves without having someone hijack a thread and start disparaging one group or the other.

Edit: OK, fine, I should've said "illegal immigration"
 
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Many libertarians are actually open border folk. The platform of the Libertarian Party is also that of a mostly open border:

"3.4 Free Trade and Migration We support the removal of governmental impediments to free trade. Political freedom and escape from tyranny demand that individuals not be unreasonably constrained by government in the crossing of political boundaries. Economic freedom demands the unrestricted movement of human as well as financial capital across national borders. However, we support control over the entry into our country of foreign nationals who pose a threat to security, health or property."
 
I ain't ashamed to call myself extremely liberal. Hella proud of it, in fact. "Just to the right of Karl Marx himself," as my mama once said.

But I'm in fucking stitches seeing some of y'all deny your conservatism. This line from thrust almost had me choke on my dinner: "I refuse to respond to this poll because I'm too libertarian."

EDIT: I mean, really now - people who are decrying the HCRA as "socialism" consider themselves "center-right"? You folks is just trollin', now, ain'tcha?
 
[quote name='berzirk']

I dunno. The responses are just a fun read for me. I like to see how people classify themselves without having someone hijack a thread and start disparaging one group or the other.[/QUOTE]

[quote name='mykevermin']
But I'm in fucking stitches seeing some of y'all deny your conservatism. This line from thrust almost had me choke on my dinner: "I refuse to respond to this poll because I'm too libertarian."

EDIT: I mean, really now - people who are decrying the HCRA as "socialism" consider themselves "center-right"? You folks is just trollin', now, ain'tcha?[/QUOTE]

...Then there are people like Myke...
 
I wasn't disparaging a group, I'm disparaging individuals who misidentify where they're standing politically.

Would you believe me if I said I thought of myself as a "moderate liberal" or "centrist"?
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I wasn't disparaging a group, I'm disparaging individuals who misidentify where they're standing politically.

Would you believe me if I said I thought of myself as a "moderate liberal" or "centrist"?[/QUOTE]

And I love that you can admit you are a "ultra-liberal" as I believe you've put it before.
 
Right. Because I know where I stand politically. I wish the rest of you could be so honest with yourselves.

I do believe there are indeed some centrists here: Ram, you for sure. bezirk, I can't say I know much about you. You live in Oregon, so you can't be that bloody conservative. ;)

But Papa, you and thrust are in complete bloody denial. Ain't nobody on earth thinks the tea party is founded on good ideas, principles, and intellectual thought that can be found in the political center - by the very *definition* of the group.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']I wasn't disparaging a group, I'm disparaging individuals who misidentify where they're standing politically.

Would you believe me if I said I thought of myself as a "moderate liberal" or "centrist"?[/QUOTE]

I wouldn't much care. Might ask you to explain why you classified yourself as such. It's just dazzling that you think you know screen names well enough to tell them what group they actually belong to.
 
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[quote name='mykevermin']Right. Because I know where I stand politically. I wish the rest of you could be so honest with yourselves.

I do believe there are indeed some centrists here: Ram, you for sure. bezirk, I can't say I know much about you. You live in Oregon, so you can't be that bloody conservative. ;)

But Papa, you and thrust are in complete bloody denial. Ain't nobody on earth thinks the tea party is founded on good ideas, principles, and intellectual thought that can be found in the political center - by the very *definition* of the group.[/QUOTE]

I never said anything about center. for me the political spectrum goes Statist to Individualist. I'd just as much like to had burned down Bushes big government house just like I want to treat Obama to the same.

that's why labels are kinda crap. I mean if you went issue to issue say we started with "gay rights/same sex marriage" I would be tossed in with liberals
 
[quote name='berzirk']I wouldn't much care. Might ask you to explain why you classified yourself as such. It's just dazzling that you think you know screen names well enough to tell them what group they actually belong to.

If you ever do a poll on "Am I an asshole or not" I'll be sure to place a vote with a thorough explanation.[/QUOTE]

Asshole? Nooo. Trust me, I have a great sense of humor and I'm loads of fun to be around. Well, you don't drink right? Scratch that. ;)

I so like to play devil's advocate, and I do like to debate, however. I have enough sense to see Ram as a moderate, despite the fact that he's maybe said one thing that we both could agree on ever.

But I'm also learned enough to know that there's no such thing as a centrist anti-statist or a centrist anarchist. It's not a very difficult concept to elaborate on.
 
But remember, we found a lot of common ground with regards to coffee. I fully confess to being a coffee snob! Heh.

Edit: But I will say this, the title of the poll is "Where do you think you are in the spectrum" and the title of the thread is "Classifying yourself politically." Not, "How does Myke classify my political classification." I'm guilty of the same sin that you tend to commit, and that is, to think so highly of my own opinion that everyone else just HAS to hear it, whether it's relevant, invited, or uninvited.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']
But I'm also learned enough to know that there's no such thing as a centrist anti-statist or a centrist anarchist. It's not a very difficult concept to elaborate on.[/QUOTE]

Exactly.

Conservative and extremely conservative doesn't equal republican. Libertarians should be choosing those options.
 
[quote name='berzirk']But remember, we found a lot of common ground with regards to coffee. I fully confess to being a coffee snob! Heh.[/QUOTE]

Yeah, but I talk a lot more and a lot faster when caffeinated.

I'm more amazing when drunk though.
 
myke is an evil progressive, according to the hero of the libertarians here (Beck).

@berzirk
He can consider himself moderate. Your hero O'Reilly wants to legalize weed, gay marriage, and believes in global warming, so QED he's a centrist.
 
[quote name='Feeding the Abscess']When did O'Reilly say he's for legalizing marijuana? Did he do a 180 turn or something?[/QUOTE]

I think someone spilled some sarcasm on the floor and forgot to clean it up.
 
[quote name='berzirk']Cool, nice poll. I went with Centrist. Friend of Sonic, if you're mostly liberal, but agree with a couple of things on the right...you wouldn't consider yourself liberal then? Not disagreeing with your personal assessment, just interested in why you'd call that "Centrist".
[/QUOTE]
*shrugs* You have to be 50/50 to be Centrist? I don't know the definition of the word, so you'll have to enlighten me if this is the case.

Although, I will middle-of-the-road politics and politicians are preferred for me-- I think each party has good ideas that the other party should consider. Well, except for the Republicans...they stopped having good ideas a while ago.
 
listen to his NPR interview with terry gross (around 2003). The facts are there, it's just a question of finding them.
 
I put down liberal, according to most wingnuts I am a commie but in most every other country in the world I'd be a milquetoast centrist.
 
I feel strongly liberal about some issues (health care, abortion, stem cell research) and strongly conservative about others (immigration, military spending). However in practice I vote straight Democrat (and it's variants in local elections in Vermont where it didn't matter) ...so I guess extremely liberal.
 
Put down conservative.

Fiscally, I'm extremely conservative and I've never met a spending program that I didn't want to eliminate, limit, or curtail.

Socially, I'd call myself a right leaning centrist who believes, most of all, in personal responsibility. I think the war on drugs is a joke and disaster and would argue for the legalization of most drugs with the concomitant disbanding of the DEA. I believe in treating people on the basis of how the treat others. If someone is a good person who works to help others, government should stay out of his or her way. Bad people who harm others and reduce the quality of life for all should be punished severely and only given 1 or 2 chances prior to being removed from society either via execution or permanent imprisonment in labor camps (my only fear about this is that I don't know if we can trust the government enough to give it power to hand out such severe punishments since they may abuse this for nefarious means). Censorship is a big no-no in my eyes. Global warming is an unproven theory. Evolution is a well-supported theory and the field of evolutionary psychology in particular is fascinating. Pure creationists and fundamentalists are misguided or crazy. Liberal extremists like the ones running the country now are crazy. Conservative extremists (like the Christian Conservatives) are also crazy.

People, in general, are irrational and biased beings http://www.predictablyirrational.com/ (see Dan Ariely's book), who are trying to adapt to a complex world using brains that evolved to deal with much simpler environments http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Savanna_principle

True intelligence involves developing an awareness of one's innate limitations and being able to transcend them through the use of common sense and logic.
 
[quote name='Papa Neorev']since there is no libertarian on the poll. I picked extremely conservative[/QUOTE]
I thought about putting libertarian on there, but then I thought I'd have to put anacho-whatever on there, then have to put shades of communist on there, then someone would gripe about monarchist... just figured this was easiest.

Ya'll know I'm pretty goddamn liberal. When I lived in Hawaii and attended a liberal meeting at the university, I was called a fascist pig (and much worse) for disagreeing with them and saying that students should be required to pay at least a little tuition in order to incentivize student performance. When I said America was better than Cuba, I was damn near physically assaulted.

I think your immediate surroundings most significantly impact how people think of themselves. I would have probably voted myself centrist bordering on conservative while living there, even though my views have not changed at all.
 
I'm a libertarian. Bush II fixed me of my conservatism.
If Obama maintains both wars for a full eight years, a lot of people will be fixed of liberalism.
 
[quote name='speedracer']I think your immediate surroundings most significantly impact how people think of themselves. I would have probably voted myself centrist bordering on conservative while living there, even though my views have not changed at all.[/QUOTE]


yeah I think that is very much true in alot of cases. but then again most people here think i'm a damned liberal
 
A few months ago my response would have just been "I'm from Massachusetts" but since that doesn't mean what it once did, I'll say extremely liberal. I'd say I'm to the far left on pretty much any issue, especially social ones. The only traditional progressive policy I'm not really for is affirmative action, but I think that can probably be attributed to being a white male from a middle to upper-middle class background. So progressive and self-interested. :roll:
 
[quote name='JolietJake']I guess in texas you're a pinko commie.[/QUOTE]
In Houston I'm left of center but not by much. Outside city limits I'm Marx in the flesh.
 
[quote name='mykevermin']Right. Because I know where I stand politically. I wish the rest of you could be so honest with yourselves.

I do believe there are indeed some centrists here: Ram, you for sure. bezirk, I can't say I know much about you. You live in Oregon, so you can't be that bloody conservative. ;)

But Papa, you and thrust are in complete bloody denial. Ain't nobody on earth thinks the tea party is founded on good ideas, principles, and intellectual thought that can be found in the political center - by the very *definition* of the group.[/QUOTE]

I applaud just about any group of people actively showing their disapproval at government's size and power - that's the extent of my tea party endorsement. I haven't seen an official mission statement from an official leader or founder for the tea party that we can argue points on, have you?

The reason I did not pick conservative is that I don't want to be grouped in with the nutty religious right and the hard core creationists that want to essentially create a theocracy. Most people associate conservatives and those folks as one in the same - which is why I avoid the conservative label.

But if being almost 100% libertarian in my views also makes me a conservative to myke, then so be it.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']I applaud just about any group of people actively showing their disapproval at government's size and power - that's the extent of my tea party endorsement. I haven't seen an official mission statement from an official leader or founder for the tea party that we can argue points on, have you?
[/QUOTE]

If their disapproval stopped there it would be one thing, but I think we all know that the tea party movement actively hates quite a few more things than just big government.
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']I applaud just about any group of people actively showing their disapproval at government's size and power - that's the extent of my tea party endorsement. I haven't seen an official mission statement from an official leader or founder for the tea party that we can argue points on, have you?

The reason I did not pick conservative is that I don't want to be grouped in with the nutty religious right and the hard core creationists that want to essentially create a theocracy. Most people associate conservatives and those folks as one in the same - which is why I avoid the conservative label.

But if being almost 100% libertarian in my views also makes me a conservative to myke, then so be it.[/QUOTE]

I was having this same thought.

Just a young adult question: Did you have a burn barrel during your 10-18 years?
 
[quote name='thrustbucket']
But if being almost 100% libertarian in my views also makes me a conservative to myke, then so be it.[/QUOTE]

Libertarians are conservatives in the pure sense of the word.

Just because many associate conservatives with the religious right etc. doesn't mean that's what conservatism is. That's just one set of ideology on the conservative side of the political spectrum. Libertarianism is another ideology on that side of the spectrum.

I mean I don't hesitate to call myself liberal for fear of being associated with PETA, the ELF and other extreme left wing ideologies. There's a lot variations in ideology on both sides of the political spectrum.


[quote name='speedracer']In Houston I'm left of center but not by much. Outside city limits I'm Marx in the flesh.[/QUOTE]

I feel the same here in Atlanta. Not all that liberal here really, but super liberal once I step outside the 285 Beltway.
 
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