Political Compass for Salem

[MagicManICT]

I'm thinking more of some of the socialist ideals practiced in some of the utopian communities in the US in the 19th century, not necessarily how they were practiced by large governments. If you were to apply the terms as used nowadays for liberals and conservative, they'd definitely be far left, but really, they were very traditional and conservative in action and thought.

[Snowpig]

Economic Left/Right: -6.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -3.74

...not far away from Dalai Lama

[FearTheAmish]

You'll find that communists tend to be right and Authoritarian, sir. Real Americans tend toward the left and libertarianism.

If you think communists are "right," you have your definitions all mixed up. Authoritarian, yes, but they are the definition of left-wing authoritarianism, not right-wing.

To be honest, I find the whole right/left dichotomy to be misleading anyway. If a dictator is taking their citizens' assets/freedom, does it really matter whether they are "left" or "right"? A more accurate depiction of the political spectrum would be something like a circle, with authoritarianism on top and anarchy on the bottom, and perhaps social-liberals on one side and conservative-liberals on the other.

...And of course, no assumptions in my model would be made that any of the four poles is inherently racist. But then again we can't all be expected to remain unbiased when blinded by bigotry.

It is an old term from Prior to the Civil war were US senators sequestered themselves and each claimed a side of the aisle. The conservative pro slavery group claimed the Right side and the liberal Anti-slavery claimed the left. So newspapers at the time would just say the Left and the Right instead of going into this whole long break down of their politics, and the name stuck. Also Communism is a economic model not a government model, for example. The United States is a Capitalist Democracy, the USSR was a Communist Dictatorship, China is currently Communist Oligarchy (doesn't have one man leadership but is run by a Politburo with one First among equals). Communism just means that most industry is state owned instead of privately owned and became a known as a dictatorship when the Menshevic's failed against the Bolsheviks at the London conference before the Russian revolution. The Menshevics were in favor of Russia being run by a council made up of people from all classes i can't remember the exact break down but went something like this, A Doctor, Farmer, Scientist, factory worker, etc. But Lenin and Trotsky were firmly in the camp of the Bolshevik's which believed in one leading man.

[malaclypse]

Communism just means that most industry is state owned instead of privately owned .

It could be stated more generally as a form of economic organization where the means of production is either collectively owned or owned by the worker-producers. That can be taken even further to say an economy without private property. No state is required for communism, you'll find the majority of anarchists are also communists.

[inabearsuit]

Yeah, looks about right

[Sachaztan]

What is this, not even a hint of a flamewar yet? Might it just be that my experiences on other forums has made me unduly cynical?

[Mereni]

What is this, not even a hint of a flamewar yet? Might it just be that my experiences on other forums has made me unduly cynical?

Everyone's trying to behave until the OP posts the compiled chart.

[Gacrux]

Voted for obama...

regrets it

he's too conservative

[fox]

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -1.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.26


p.s. Facebook watch. They are teh know.

[Snowpig]

It would be interesting to cross-correlate this chart with the nationalities of the users....