I got "Outsider Left", presumably because I said I rarely have a candidate I can get excited for at elections and I ranked the Democrats pretty low on that "how much do you like them" scale (but...
I got "Outsider Left", presumably because I said I rarely have a candidate I can get excited for at elections and I ranked the Democrats pretty low on that "how much do you like them" scale (but ranked Republicans even lower). I am literally a socialist so it's not a horrible categorization, though the graphic placing that group as closer to "center" annoyed me because I'm FAR to the left of the Democratic party.
I found it funny how the only two options for the military power question were "America should stay the most powerful militarily" and "Other countries could also get as powerful as America" without any option for weakening US military power, but I suppose that accurately reflects the political climate in the US.
I also thought the military question needed more nuance. My answer changes depending on who we're talking about becoming a superpower and what their policies are. Ideally we'd all scale back on...
I also thought the military question needed more nuance. My answer changes depending on who we're talking about becoming a superpower and what their policies are. Ideally we'd all scale back on military spending, but that's difficult to make happen.
I disagree. I got "ambivalent right" but I intensely disliked that question's options (and a few others). I felt that maybe only one or two questions weren't super pigeon-holey. Politics is way...
I disagree. I got "ambivalent right" but I intensely disliked that question's options (and a few others). I felt that maybe only one or two questions weren't super pigeon-holey.
Politics is way more nuanced than that, but it wasn't inherently a bad quiz.
Eh, imo this was way closer to "what harry potter house are you" stuff than legit political quiz. Too many options where it's quite clear that people who strongly identify as one thing or another...
Eh, imo this was way closer to "what harry potter house are you" stuff than legit political quiz. Too many options where it's quite clear that people who strongly identify as one thing or another have a clear answer, and it's so very very obvious where that answer puts you on the spectrum.
Political positions are made up of lots of nuanced takes on various issues, and this just doesn't represent that. For example I'm probably more on the side of smaller government, but also think that healthcare is a slam dunk example of where you NEED big government.
A test like this isn't really capturing that kind of nuance, nor looking to.
I think it tracks with "where do you align with the US political parties given our two party system". It's not about where you are ideologically independent of that system, it's where you fit in...
I think it tracks with "where do you align with the US political parties given our two party system". It's not about where you are ideologically independent of that system, it's where you fit in this specific system
Sure, but even then I don't think it gives options for anything remotely centrist. It's literally just averaging out your opinions on repeated extremes.
Sure, but even then I don't think it gives options for anything remotely centrist. It's literally just averaging out your opinions on repeated extremes.
I still prefer the three-dimensional progressive-regressive, conservative-radical, liberal-authoritarian scheme better. Even that works best when you do separate charts for social vs economic...
I still prefer the three-dimensional progressive-regressive, conservative-radical, liberal-authoritarian scheme better. Even that works best when you do separate charts for social vs economic beliefs (acknowledging that social and economic ideologies are ultimately fundamentally inextricable).
I felt like any question where you were like, "there should be far more detail to this" was leading straight to outsider left. Shitty questions, and even shittier answers IMO.
I felt like any question where you were like, "there should be far more detail to this" was leading straight to outsider left. Shitty questions, and even shittier answers IMO.
I think the whole thing could have used nuance. For the question about prison time I answered, "people are given too much prison time" but I would loved a more nuanced option addressing that we...
I think the whole thing could have used nuance. For the question about prison time I answered, "people are given too much prison time" but I would loved a more nuanced option addressing that we punish the poor with prison time (large sentencing for minor things) and rarely apply justice to the wealthy or white collar crime. But I get why there isn't that option. If this is actually Pew collecting data it would be nice to have a comment/context box for each question.
I just view the chart as either the left side is Democrat, or the right side is Republican, or the middle is neither, but despite it's obvious appearance, I don't view it as a real political...
presumably because I said I rarely have a candidate I can get excited for at elections and I ranked the Democrats pretty low on that "how much do you like them" scale (but ranked Republicans even lower). I am literally a socialist so it's not a horrible categorization, though the graphic placing that group as closer to "center" annoyed me because I'm FAR to the left of the Democratic party.
I just view the chart as either the left side is Democrat, or the right side is Republican, or the middle is neither, but despite it's obvious appearance, I don't view it as a real political spectrum because of how it weighs how someone feels about the parties. The more supportive you are of the defined parties, the more to the left or right you are, which is kind of nonsense. But at the same time, not surprised that it's yet another thing that is designed around or weights towards the established two party system. I guess the best I can give it is that it at least has a category to acknowledge people who are not happy with it.
That alone doesn't do it, as I did similar and got Progressive Left. I think it's a lot about the other questions. Some of which are definitely too A or B
I got "Outsider Left", presumably because I said I rarely have a candidate I can get excited for at elections and I ranked the Democrats pretty low on that "how much do you like them" scale (but ranked Republicans even lower).
That alone doesn't do it, as I did similar and got Progressive Left. I think it's a lot about the other questions. Some of which are definitely too A or B
Hrm, I answered with the pretty obviously most progressive answers for the other questions that I can remember, so I wonder what did it. Maybe it was the degree to which I said I didn't like the...
Hrm, I answered with the pretty obviously most progressive answers for the other questions that I can remember, so I wonder what did it. Maybe it was the degree to which I said I didn't like the Dems? Or maybe it was some other combination of answers. Now I'm curious.
It does show your results! I think the two questions I mentioned are indeed the source of the difference, according to this: I answered differently for this question, saying that there isn't...
It does show your results! I think the two questions I mentioned are indeed the source of the difference, according to this:
You answered: I usually feel like there is at least one candidate who shares most of my views
I answered differently for this question, saying that there isn't usually a candidate that shares my views, and I rated the Democrats MUCH lower than you did -- less than 50.
That's fair, I do suspect that I am feeling somewhat bouyed by the recent campaign vibes. I actually forgot I put them as high as I did. But I do think that some of that is also being in a fairly...
That's fair, I do suspect that I am feeling somewhat bouyed by the recent campaign vibes. I actually forgot I put them as high as I did.
But I do think that some of that is also being in a fairly blue state and feeling fairly well represented. Even if I don't love everything Dick Durbin does, I know he's going to vote yea on the policies I want him to.
And perhaps that's where my slightly more centrism comes out in too much faith in the system
Yeah that's valid. Since I live outside the US my focus is mostly on the national party politics. Keeping updated on Gaza has also very much lowered their score for me -- I would've probably been...
Yeah that's valid. Since I live outside the US my focus is mostly on the national party politics. Keeping updated on Gaza has also very much lowered their score for me -- I would've probably been much closer to you in how I ranked them if I'd taken this before the current conflict, when I was largely ignorant of Palestine.
That's fair, I'm probably also being optimistic about where they'll land on Gaza after the election vs before it. I personally suspect a lot of diplomatic shit is happening behind the scenes and...
That's fair, I'm probably also being optimistic about where they'll land on Gaza after the election vs before it. I personally suspect a lot of diplomatic shit is happening behind the scenes and talking about it won't help much.
Whether I like that specific diplomatic shit is up in the air for sure until it comes out.
Similarly, I found the question about the US being the greatest/among the greatest/worse than others to be lacking the very obvious option of it being impossible and pointless to rank countries as...
I found it funny how the only two options for the military power question were "America should stay the most powerful militarily" and "Other countries could also get as powerful as America" without any option for weakening US military power, but I suppose that accurately reflects the political climate in the US.
Similarly, I found the question about the US being the greatest/among the greatest/worse than others to be lacking the very obvious option of it being impossible and pointless to rank countries as overall better or worse rather than on specific metrics.
Well, there was always skipping the question, I suppose. I don't think it's pointless to rank countries in some ways (there are certainly countries that are better or worse for me to live in as a...
Well, there was always skipping the question, I suppose. I don't think it's pointless to rank countries in some ways (there are certainly countries that are better or worse for me to live in as a trans person, for instance) and appreciated the opportunity to express that I don't believe in the American exceptionalism that is very normalized in the US.
Outsider Left 4lyfe! I feel like we should get leather jackets made. I straight up skipped a few questions because they were overly simplistic. I wonder how that affected my result?
Outsider Left 4lyfe! I feel like we should get leather jackets made.
I straight up skipped a few questions because they were overly simplistic. I wonder how that affected my result?
Progressive Left, but thought some of the questions were overly simplistic and tended to box answers in ways that don't really reflect my views. On trade policy, for example, "open" trade has...
Progressive Left, but thought some of the questions were overly simplistic and tended to box answers in ways that don't really reflect my views. On trade policy, for example, "open" trade has resulted in race-to-the-bottom living standards, job loss, and environmental issues, but that's largely because U.S. labor and environmental law enforcement has gone down the tubes.
I'm pretty much in the U.S. Democratic Socialist a/k/a Euro Social Democrat camp, but with a much stronger human rights bent than most parties admit to these days. And f*ck authoritarians of all stripes.
Definitely agree on the questions (and answer categories) being too simplistic. I got stuck on too much or too little jail time because both happen a lot, but to say jail time is about right...
Definitely agree on the questions (and answer categories) being too simplistic. I got stuck on too much or too little jail time because both happen a lot, but to say jail time is about right implies acceptance.
Me: It's too little jail time for white collar crime and for some segments of the population, while too much jail time for non violent crimes and racially profiled population. Pew Research: sounds...
Me: It's too little jail time for white collar crime and for some segments of the population, while too much jail time for non violent crimes and racially profiled population.
I had the same exact gripe. I'm chalking it up to them keeping with broad strokes. I'm guessing you went for "too much jail time" as I did. I think it would be interesting to deploy a LLM on text...
I had the same exact gripe. I'm chalking it up to them keeping with broad strokes. I'm guessing you went for "too much jail time" as I did.
I think it would be interesting to deploy a LLM on text based data to allow for short answer questions that can then get batched into broader categories.
I was letter writing for Kamala Harris with a friend — we're both queer Democrats — and when he asked me what my top two issues are, I told him that open trade is one of them. It allows American...
I was letter writing for Kamala Harris with a friend — we're both queer Democrats — and when he asked me what my top two issues are, I told him that open trade is one of them.
It allows American companies exploit and abuse the global environment and foreign laborers, while depriving American workers opportunities. It's not that these companies want to be evil, I think; it's do or die. There are American companies that source ethically or sustainably and hire American workers and treat them well — but there's no way they can compete against companies that source cotton that's been harvested with slave labor or make their clothings in Bangladeshi sweatshops that pay their workers pennies, so they often remain tiny and niche.
The race to the bottom puts downward pressure on American workers and companies alike. With open trade, doing business ethically is a competitive disadvantage.
This is not my first language and I am not American. So that quiz is not relevant to me. I took it anyway. Apparently I'm an outsider left, which seems right because I am literally outside the US....
This is not my first language and I am not American. So that quiz is not relevant to me. I took it anyway. Apparently I'm an outsider left, which seems right because I am literally outside the US.
As an outsider left that often talks to Americans online, I can easily make people across the spectrum angry at me with a single sentence. That is my superpower.
I've been reading for decades that America's political spectrum is to the right of many European nations. Our center is the "right" for other countries. Not such a superpower on social media and...
I've been reading for decades that America's political spectrum is to the right of many European nations. Our center is the "right" for other countries.
I can easily make people across the spectrum angry at me with a single sentence. That is my superpower
Not such a superpower on social media and in the year 2024. :-)
A one dimensional scale can only go so far, in the end. There are issues to which US is to the right of other countries, and there are issues to which the US is to the left of other countries.
A one dimensional scale can only go so far, in the end. There are issues to which US is to the right of other countries, and there are issues to which the US is to the left of other countries.
I got "Democratic Mainstay", not my most favorite words as I consider myself a "liberal", but looking at the map at the bottom of the answer page it is about right. I'm left of center and further...
I got "Democratic Mainstay", not my most favorite words as I consider myself a "liberal", but looking at the map at the bottom of the answer page it is about right. I'm left of center and further left than most people on that side, but not extreme left. I was surprised at the designation given by the quiz, as I gave what seemed like edgy answers to the questions.
I also got democratic mainstay, and the question about crime didn't allow specificity for different groups like rich vs poor. I'm going to take it a second time and see if I get the same results....
I also got democratic mainstay, and the question about crime didn't allow specificity for different groups like rich vs poor. I'm going to take it a second time and see if I get the same results.
Same but I wasn't too confident in many of my answers. I do not particularly care for the Democratic party. The problem I have is that there is no valid opposition party in the United States. We...
Same but I wasn't too confident in many of my answers.
I do not particularly care for the Democratic party. The problem I have is that there is no valid opposition party in the United States. We have:
A Democratic party, which is flawed and corrupt and mostly serves corporations and the people in power, but is slightly accountable to voters
A Republican party, which only serves corporations and billionaires, is completely unaccountable to voters, and runs an incompetent criminal for president 3 elections in a row.
It would be super nice if the press was more effective in general and if people weren't so easily manipulated by propaganda, especially right wing propaganda.
Outsider left. I don't like the arrow placement in the middle. I would consider myself more Square root(-1) rather than 0: my placement needs to be along another axis. I consider many of these...
Outsider left.
I don't like the arrow placement in the middle. I would consider myself more Square root(-1) rather than 0: my placement needs to be along another axis.
I consider many of these questions to be asking things periphery to my core beliefs: wealth inequality. I dont give a flying squirrel butt if trade has been good "for you/us/the Nation", when I can see that either way, inequality has been terrible for most and would have gotten this bad with trade done any other way. Ditto weapons or immigrants or languages or racism or whatever: concentration of wealth is at the root of much of the problem and we'd all be less on edge about all those other problems if we weren't so stressed out from being poor.
In terms of environmental issues I would place myself so far left the entire spectrum condenses into the same line. But that's not something Pew Research cares about.
Really don't like the questions as I think they're vastly overgeneralizing, and it's pretty obvious which questions line up with what, which also tends to reek of bad design. Depending on my...
Really don't like the questions as I think they're vastly overgeneralizing, and it's pretty obvious which questions line up with what, which also tends to reek of bad design.
Depending on my answers on several of those questions I'm Outsider Left or Ambivalent Right, with it mostly coming down to moderate social and conservative fiscal.
Outsider left. I didn't love the answers though, like a lot of people, nor do I know if I feel too strongly about left vs. right anymore as long as the end results are equally positive. I did like...
Outsider left. I didn't love the answers though, like a lot of people, nor do I know if I feel too strongly about left vs. right anymore as long as the end results are equally positive.
I did like the policy one. I originally wanted to say "yes, knowing a subject well makes you better at making decisions involving the subject." But, you can know a topic well and lack the ability to turn that into public policy that helps people.
Maybe it’s not enough questions, in Germany the political quizzes place me around the Social Democrats, somewhat center-left and here I’m supposedly ambivalent right. I’m also in the Party of...
Maybe it’s not enough questions, in Germany the political quizzes place me around the Social Democrats, somewhat center-left and here I’m supposedly ambivalent right.
I’m also in the Party of Humanists and align around 90% with their views.
There’s no such category in the US. I vote Democrat, I liked McCain, but agreed more with Obama. That’s where I am.
I find it kinda bizarre that you're SPD in Germany but ambivalent right on this quiz, given how much farther to the right the US political parties are compared to the German ones. I'd put the US...
I find it kinda bizarre that you're SPD in Germany but ambivalent right on this quiz, given how much farther to the right the US political parties are compared to the German ones. I'd put the US Democrats to the right of the SPD on a lot of the issues on this quiz, and most of the Humanist Party policies are further left (or otherwise more extreme) than the Democrats' policies. I'd assume anyone who wouldn't vote AfD in Germany wouldn't vote for the US Republicans.
I think my answers about US military skewed it. I’m also European and even though I hope for a European Army, other than the EU, I do not want another superpower to equal the United States...
I think my answers about US military skewed it. I’m also European and even though I hope for a European Army, other than the EU, I do not want another superpower to equal the United States militarily.
EDIT: Nevermind, changing those answers does not affect my score. Weird, I’ll take a look later.
Maybe it’s just nuance. Per capita social spending in the US is a little bit less than in Germany for example (the US is between Italy and Germany in world ranking), so I don’t think government spending needs to increase significantly, the US needs reform. You could probably even make the whole thing cheaper.
If I only slightly change my answers, I can get to outsider left. I really think the quiz should have more detailed questions.
Yeah, I also think it assumes a lot of understanding of the general cultural background of politics in the US in ways that could influence a non-American's answers. Discussion about "increased...
Yeah, I also think it assumes a lot of understanding of the general cultural background of politics in the US in ways that could influence a non-American's answers. Discussion about "increased government spending" in the US is very rarely actually about the actual dollar amount being spent and much more about "should the government expand the services it provides people for free". While these things are related, the fact that the US spends so much per capita while providing so much less to its citizens than the government does here in Germany illustrates the difference in practice. But in the US these are generally collapsed into a single discussion, to the extent that even increases to welfare or social services that pay for themselves are often decried as excessive government spending.
Outsider left, probably mostly because I'm pretty far left on monetary issues (many, many more services should be state owned, "big government" as a Boogeyman is a diversion tactic, governments...
Outsider left, probably mostly because I'm pretty far left on monetary issues (many, many more services should be state owned, "big government" as a Boogeyman is a diversion tactic, governments have the responsibility to end poverty and homelessness if it is within their means to do so), I'm a left leaning centrist on many social issues (I think trans rights are important, but not nearly as important overall as is given the absolutely mind boggling amount of mind share to, which ends up being a very useful distraction for the democratic party, who get to continue to kiss corporate ass while saying they're progressive, and for the Republican party, who get to make up stories about rampant child abuse).
I don't think you can really capture much about anyone's political opinions by ranking them on a single axis though.
Progressive left doesn't surprise me in some ways but I'm so used to strong leftist spaces, and feeling like I'm far more to the center, that I wouldn't have put myself there on my own initiative.
Progressive left doesn't surprise me in some ways but I'm so used to strong leftist spaces, and feeling like I'm far more to the center, that I wouldn't have put myself there on my own initiative.
It's a weird test because in every social related question I chose progressive and didn't get that. There's a question that was basically if you would want to either reform institutions or remake...
It's a weird test because in every social related question I chose progressive and didn't get that.
There's a question that was basically if you would want to either reform institutions or remake them from scratch. I clearly voted "wrong" because I'm more practical, it would take way more time and work to remake things literally from scratch.
It's probably more realistic to greatly alter, reform, and improve institutions like the Congress or the Supreme Court than to completely throw them away and start all over again. Maybe that makes me less progressive to the test? IDK.
Removing those institutions would basically require refounding the country all over again, and I am generally against Civil War.
I mean, countries have put new constitutions into effect without war, but the US doesn't seem like that kind of country to me.
It is more realistic and it's what I'd advocate for 9 times out of 10 myself because of that. But I do believe that fundamentally to be fixed, many of them need a full rewrite from scratch. And I...
It is more realistic and it's what I'd advocate for 9 times out of 10 myself because of that. But I do believe that fundamentally to be fixed, many of them need a full rewrite from scratch. And I think that ideological difference or the difference in the way we interpreted the question (ideology or what we'll actually do) makes the difference there. I think many leftists would find me too centered. Some of that is some purity bullshit but some of that is I'm more likely to advocate for moderation when there isn't a clear path to rebuilding after burning down the institution
The US managed a high degree of democratic continuity. To the point that no living American ever experienced a complete democratic break. I have the impression that some take that stability for...
The US managed a high degree of democratic continuity. To the point that no living American ever experienced a complete democratic break. I have the impression that some take that stability for granted. They have no Idea how fragile the whole concept of nation becomes when you remove its fundamental institutions.
Once you're back to square one, a beautiful democracy does not occur naturally and promptly.
Just take a look at the recent history of Russia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba, and Bolívia. One should be very cautious about that kind of stuff. The US is most certainly a wonderful and admirable place, and I would even go as far as to say that it is remarkable and special. But it is not that special.
So I'd like to be clear that I'm not advocating for the dissolution of the country, but I'd love to be able to actually rewrite the Constitution and not have to fear some absolutely bonkers things...
So I'd like to be clear that I'm not advocating for the dissolution of the country, but I'd love to be able to actually rewrite the Constitution and not have to fear some absolutely bonkers things being added. And I'd love for us to dismantle our prison system. I could probably argue that if we just remove it entirely it would be overall less harmful than its current state. But I'm not inclined to actually do that as I think it'd be counterproductive. Hell I saw how people treated the removal of cash bail - like it was going to be the Purge.
I'm sure there are some want to be revolutionaries who want to burn the whole country down, just like there are tankies and folks who would somehow argue for what Venezuela has going on right now (I have a student from there and they're dealing with knowing a friend of theirs has been taken by the police and is almost certainly tortured and dead but they can't help but be hopeful.) and some of them deeply lack perspective and some are so blind to who it would hurt - the most vulnerable, not the majority - that they can't imagine why oppressed populations don't take up with them.
But when I'm talking about tearing it down it's not with literal bombs.
I got Democratic Mainstay. I feel that this might be a mixed bag because I feel that half of the answers that I had gave only barely aligned with my political leanings on some of the questions....
I got Democratic Mainstay. I feel that this might be a mixed bag because I feel that half of the answers that I had gave only barely aligned with my political leanings on some of the questions. Like most of the people here, I feel that the answers are little to simple to really get what people feel about certain things.
Establishment liberal. Can’t say I’m entirely surprised, although I suspect if it’d asked more specific issues-based questions, my result would move a little more to the center. But, like @stu2b50...
Establishment liberal. Can’t say I’m entirely surprised, although I suspect if it’d asked more specific issues-based questions, my result would move a little more to the center. But, like @stu2b50 said, a 1-D scale only goes so far.
Democratic Mainstay, which is probably correct. I think I'm somewhere left of center, but probably further left than most that might fit there? I'm not exactly sure, I kind of feel like my...
Democratic Mainstay, which is probably correct.
I think I'm somewhere left of center, but probably further left than most that might fit there? I'm not exactly sure, I kind of feel like my politics are fluctuating these days.
Does anyone agree the test misses a lot of the important topics? Something like abortion, climate action, gun laws, worker rights. Taking these tests in my home country tends to be a lot more in...
Does anyone agree the test misses a lot of the important topics? Something like abortion, climate action, gun laws, worker rights. Taking these tests in my home country tends to be a lot more in depth. But maybe that is because they need to separate 20ish parties with their questions. See https://eu.kieskompas.nl for example with a 2D spectrum as result.
I feel pretty strongly that we don't spend enough time talking about what our overall goal is for prisons. We talk about rehabilitation, but really the system is set up for punishment. Then, once...
I feel pretty strongly that we don't spend enough time talking about what our overall goal is for prisons. We talk about rehabilitation, but really the system is set up for punishment. Then, once the person is adequately punished, we dump them back into society, often without the ability to get a job or rent an apartment with the same ease as they did before. We never really stop punishing them, it just takes a different form. And that's in the "best case" scenario where the person actually is guilty of something rather than having been coerced into a plea bargain when they did nothing wrong.
How much time a person spends in prison feels to me like a distraction.
I came here to say the same thing. I could not answer that question in a way that felt right at ALL. I had to go with "people spend the right amount of time in prison" even though it's horribly...
I came here to say the same thing. I could not answer that question in a way that felt right at ALL. I had to go with "people spend the right amount of time in prison" even though it's horribly wrong. It really, really depends on which group of people you're talking about.
Look at it this way, the heinous violent crimes represent an absolute minority of the prison population, at which point I'd figure it shouldn't go into you answer. I'd also wager it's very...
Look at it this way, the heinous violent crimes represent an absolute minority of the prison population, at which point I'd figure it shouldn't go into you answer. I'd also wager it's very reasonable to assume that there's plenty more people who never even see a prison conviction at all due to money or other judicial bullshit, than people who actually deserve a life stay.
All in all I did not feel wrongly about picking "Too much"
I got "Outsider Left", presumably because I said I rarely have a candidate I can get excited for at elections and I ranked the Democrats pretty low on that "how much do you like them" scale (but ranked Republicans even lower). I am literally a socialist so it's not a horrible categorization, though the graphic placing that group as closer to "center" annoyed me because I'm FAR to the left of the Democratic party.
I found it funny how the only two options for the military power question were "America should stay the most powerful militarily" and "Other countries could also get as powerful as America" without any option for weakening US military power, but I suppose that accurately reflects the political climate in the US.
I also thought the military question needed more nuance. My answer changes depending on who we're talking about becoming a superpower and what their policies are. Ideally we'd all scale back on military spending, but that's difficult to make happen.
Honestly, the fact you're looking for nuance at all probably pegs you in Outsider Left by itself.
I disagree. I got "ambivalent right" but I intensely disliked that question's options (and a few others). I felt that maybe only one or two questions weren't super pigeon-holey.
Politics is way more nuanced than that, but it wasn't inherently a bad quiz.
Eh, imo this was way closer to "what harry potter house are you" stuff than legit political quiz. Too many options where it's quite clear that people who strongly identify as one thing or another have a clear answer, and it's so very very obvious where that answer puts you on the spectrum.
Political positions are made up of lots of nuanced takes on various issues, and this just doesn't represent that. For example I'm probably more on the side of smaller government, but also think that healthcare is a slam dunk example of where you NEED big government.
A test like this isn't really capturing that kind of nuance, nor looking to.
I think it tracks with "where do you align with the US political parties given our two party system". It's not about where you are ideologically independent of that system, it's where you fit in this specific system
Sure, but even then I don't think it gives options for anything remotely centrist. It's literally just averaging out your opinions on repeated extremes.
The political compass quiz is much much better since it’s two-dimensional.
I still prefer the three-dimensional progressive-regressive, conservative-radical, liberal-authoritarian scheme better. Even that works best when you do separate charts for social vs economic beliefs (acknowledging that social and economic ideologies are ultimately fundamentally inextricable).
Agreed, when you read the questions you know what to answer to get you to the "desired" class.
I felt like any question where you were like, "there should be far more detail to this" was leading straight to outsider left. Shitty questions, and even shittier answers IMO.
I think the whole thing could have used nuance. For the question about prison time I answered, "people are given too much prison time" but I would loved a more nuanced option addressing that we punish the poor with prison time (large sentencing for minor things) and rarely apply justice to the wealthy or white collar crime. But I get why there isn't that option. If this is actually Pew collecting data it would be nice to have a comment/context box for each question.
I just view the chart as either the left side is Democrat, or the right side is Republican, or the middle is neither, but despite it's obvious appearance, I don't view it as a real political spectrum because of how it weighs how someone feels about the parties. The more supportive you are of the defined parties, the more to the left or right you are, which is kind of nonsense. But at the same time, not surprised that it's yet another thing that is designed around or weights towards the established two party system. I guess the best I can give it is that it at least has a category to acknowledge people who are not happy with it.
That alone doesn't do it, as I did similar and got Progressive Left. I think it's a lot about the other questions. Some of which are definitely too A or B
Hrm, I answered with the pretty obviously most progressive answers for the other questions that I can remember, so I wonder what did it. Maybe it was the degree to which I said I didn't like the Dems? Or maybe it was some other combination of answers. Now I'm curious.
Not sure if this link will show my results or just the test again, if it helps
It does show your results! I think the two questions I mentioned are indeed the source of the difference, according to this:
I answered differently for this question, saying that there isn't usually a candidate that shares my views, and I rated the Democrats MUCH lower than you did -- less than 50.
That's fair, I do suspect that I am feeling somewhat bouyed by the recent campaign vibes. I actually forgot I put them as high as I did.
But I do think that some of that is also being in a fairly blue state and feeling fairly well represented. Even if I don't love everything Dick Durbin does, I know he's going to vote yea on the policies I want him to.
And perhaps that's where my slightly more centrism comes out in too much faith in the system
Yeah that's valid. Since I live outside the US my focus is mostly on the national party politics. Keeping updated on Gaza has also very much lowered their score for me -- I would've probably been much closer to you in how I ranked them if I'd taken this before the current conflict, when I was largely ignorant of Palestine.
That's fair, I'm probably also being optimistic about where they'll land on Gaza after the election vs before it. I personally suspect a lot of diplomatic shit is happening behind the scenes and talking about it won't help much.
Whether I like that specific diplomatic shit is up in the air for sure until it comes out.
Similarly, I found the question about the US being the greatest/among the greatest/worse than others to be lacking the very obvious option of it being impossible and pointless to rank countries as overall better or worse rather than on specific metrics.
Well, there was always skipping the question, I suppose. I don't think it's pointless to rank countries in some ways (there are certainly countries that are better or worse for me to live in as a trans person, for instance) and appreciated the opportunity to express that I don't believe in the American exceptionalism that is very normalized in the US.
I think they are probably looking to tease out nationalism/blind patriotism with those questions, even if more nuance would be very, very helpful.
Outsider Left 4lyfe! I feel like we should get leather jackets made.
I straight up skipped a few questions because they were overly simplistic. I wonder how that affected my result?
I didn't skip, but there were a lot of bad options. Not at all surprised I got pegged as an outsider.
Progressive Left, but thought some of the questions were overly simplistic and tended to box answers in ways that don't really reflect my views. On trade policy, for example, "open" trade has resulted in race-to-the-bottom living standards, job loss, and environmental issues, but that's largely because U.S. labor and environmental law enforcement has gone down the tubes.
I'm pretty much in the U.S. Democratic Socialist a/k/a Euro Social Democrat camp, but with a much stronger human rights bent than most parties admit to these days. And f*ck authoritarians of all stripes.
Definitely agree on the questions (and answer categories) being too simplistic. I got stuck on too much or too little jail time because both happen a lot, but to say jail time is about right implies acceptance.
Me: It's too little jail time for white collar crime and for some segments of the population, while too much jail time for non violent crimes and racially profiled population.
Pew Research: sounds like we doin gud. 'Merica!
I had the same exact gripe. I'm chalking it up to them keeping with broad strokes. I'm guessing you went for "too much jail time" as I did.
I think it would be interesting to deploy a LLM on text based data to allow for short answer questions that can then get batched into broader categories.
I was letter writing for Kamala Harris with a friend — we're both queer Democrats — and when he asked me what my top two issues are, I told him that open trade is one of them.
It allows American companies exploit and abuse the global environment and foreign laborers, while depriving American workers opportunities. It's not that these companies want to be evil, I think; it's do or die. There are American companies that source ethically or sustainably and hire American workers and treat them well — but there's no way they can compete against companies that source cotton that's been harvested with slave labor or make their clothings in Bangladeshi sweatshops that pay their workers pennies, so they often remain tiny and niche.
The race to the bottom puts downward pressure on American workers and companies alike. With open trade, doing business ethically is a competitive disadvantage.
This is not my first language and I am not American. So that quiz is not relevant to me. I took it anyway. Apparently I'm an outsider left, which seems right because I am literally outside the US.
As an outsider left that often talks to Americans online, I can easily make people across the spectrum angry at me with a single sentence. That is my superpower.
I've been reading for decades that America's political spectrum is to the right of many European nations. Our center is the "right" for other countries.
Not such a superpower on social media and in the year 2024. :-)
A one dimensional scale can only go so far, in the end. There are issues to which US is to the right of other countries, and there are issues to which the US is to the left of other countries.
Outsider left.
I didn't answer several questions as well since both answers were unacceptable. For the record I'm an anarchist.
I got "Democratic Mainstay", not my most favorite words as I consider myself a "liberal", but looking at the map at the bottom of the answer page it is about right. I'm left of center and further left than most people on that side, but not extreme left. I was surprised at the designation given by the quiz, as I gave what seemed like edgy answers to the questions.
Got the same one. Close to half of the questions I didn’t feel confident in my answer, though. Too many binaries.
That has been my experience with similar quizzes, none of the answers seemed to fit me well.
They should redo this with more options and ranked choice!
I also got democratic mainstay, and the question about crime didn't allow specificity for different groups like rich vs poor. I'm going to take it a second time and see if I get the same results.
Edit: yep, Democratic mainstay again.
Same but I wasn't too confident in many of my answers.
I do not particularly care for the Democratic party. The problem I have is that there is no valid opposition party in the United States. We have:
It would be super nice if the press was more effective in general and if people weren't so easily manipulated by propaganda, especially right wing propaganda.
I sort of treat progressive and moderate Democrats as separate parties. They have aligning goals, but different philosophies
Outsider left.
I don't like the arrow placement in the middle. I would consider myself more Square root(-1) rather than 0: my placement needs to be along another axis.
I consider many of these questions to be asking things periphery to my core beliefs: wealth inequality. I dont give a flying squirrel butt if trade has been good "for you/us/the Nation", when I can see that either way, inequality has been terrible for most and would have gotten this bad with trade done any other way. Ditto weapons or immigrants or languages or racism or whatever: concentration of wealth is at the root of much of the problem and we'd all be less on edge about all those other problems if we weren't so stressed out from being poor.
In terms of environmental issues I would place myself so far left the entire spectrum condenses into the same line. But that's not something Pew Research cares about.
Yeah, it was really telling for me that only one or two of the questions even kinda tangentially touched on wealth inequality.
A shot online quiz from the Pew Research that will tell you where you are on the (assuming American) political spectrum.
Really don't like the questions as I think they're vastly overgeneralizing, and it's pretty obvious which questions line up with what, which also tends to reek of bad design.
Depending on my answers on several of those questions I'm Outsider Left or Ambivalent Right, with it mostly coming down to moderate social and conservative fiscal.
Outsider left. I didn't love the answers though, like a lot of people, nor do I know if I feel too strongly about left vs. right anymore as long as the end results are equally positive.
I did like the policy one. I originally wanted to say "yes, knowing a subject well makes you better at making decisions involving the subject." But, you can know a topic well and lack the ability to turn that into public policy that helps people.
Maybe it’s not enough questions, in Germany the political quizzes place me around the Social Democrats, somewhat center-left and here I’m supposedly ambivalent right.
I’m also in the Party of Humanists and align around 90% with their views.
There’s no such category in the US. I vote Democrat, I liked McCain, but agreed more with Obama. That’s where I am.
I find it kinda bizarre that you're SPD in Germany but ambivalent right on this quiz, given how much farther to the right the US political parties are compared to the German ones. I'd put the US Democrats to the right of the SPD on a lot of the issues on this quiz, and most of the Humanist Party policies are further left (or otherwise more extreme) than the Democrats' policies. I'd assume anyone who wouldn't vote AfD in Germany wouldn't vote for the US Republicans.
I think my answers about US military skewed it. I’m also European and even though I hope for a European Army, other than the EU, I do not want another superpower to equal the United States militarily.
EDIT: Nevermind, changing those answers does not affect my score. Weird, I’ll take a look later.
Maybe it’s just nuance. Per capita social spending in the US is a little bit less than in Germany for example (the US is between Italy and Germany in world ranking), so I don’t think government spending needs to increase significantly, the US needs reform. You could probably even make the whole thing cheaper.
If I only slightly change my answers, I can get to outsider left. I really think the quiz should have more detailed questions.
Yeah, I also think it assumes a lot of understanding of the general cultural background of politics in the US in ways that could influence a non-American's answers. Discussion about "increased government spending" in the US is very rarely actually about the actual dollar amount being spent and much more about "should the government expand the services it provides people for free". While these things are related, the fact that the US spends so much per capita while providing so much less to its citizens than the government does here in Germany illustrates the difference in practice. But in the US these are generally collapsed into a single discussion, to the extent that even increases to welfare or social services that pay for themselves are often decried as excessive government spending.
Outsider left, probably mostly because I'm pretty far left on monetary issues (many, many more services should be state owned, "big government" as a Boogeyman is a diversion tactic, governments have the responsibility to end poverty and homelessness if it is within their means to do so), I'm a left leaning centrist on many social issues (I think trans rights are important, but not nearly as important overall as is given the absolutely mind boggling amount of mind share to, which ends up being a very useful distraction for the democratic party, who get to continue to kiss corporate ass while saying they're progressive, and for the Republican party, who get to make up stories about rampant child abuse).
I don't think you can really capture much about anyone's political opinions by ranking them on a single axis though.
Progressive left doesn't surprise me in some ways but I'm so used to strong leftist spaces, and feeling like I'm far more to the center, that I wouldn't have put myself there on my own initiative.
It's a weird test because in every social related question I chose progressive and didn't get that.
There's a question that was basically if you would want to either reform institutions or remake them from scratch. I clearly voted "wrong" because I'm more practical, it would take way more time and work to remake things literally from scratch.
It's probably more realistic to greatly alter, reform, and improve institutions like the Congress or the Supreme Court than to completely throw them away and start all over again. Maybe that makes me less progressive to the test? IDK.
Removing those institutions would basically require refounding the country all over again, and I am generally against Civil War.
I mean, countries have put new constitutions into effect without war, but the US doesn't seem like that kind of country to me.
It is more realistic and it's what I'd advocate for 9 times out of 10 myself because of that. But I do believe that fundamentally to be fixed, many of them need a full rewrite from scratch. And I think that ideological difference or the difference in the way we interpreted the question (ideology or what we'll actually do) makes the difference there. I think many leftists would find me too centered. Some of that is some purity bullshit but some of that is I'm more likely to advocate for moderation when there isn't a clear path to rebuilding after burning down the institution
The US managed a high degree of democratic continuity. To the point that no living American ever experienced a complete democratic break. I have the impression that some take that stability for granted. They have no Idea how fragile the whole concept of nation becomes when you remove its fundamental institutions.
Once you're back to square one, a beautiful democracy does not occur naturally and promptly.
Just take a look at the recent history of Russia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Cuba, and Bolívia. One should be very cautious about that kind of stuff. The US is most certainly a wonderful and admirable place, and I would even go as far as to say that it is remarkable and special. But it is not that special.
So I'd like to be clear that I'm not advocating for the dissolution of the country, but I'd love to be able to actually rewrite the Constitution and not have to fear some absolutely bonkers things being added. And I'd love for us to dismantle our prison system. I could probably argue that if we just remove it entirely it would be overall less harmful than its current state. But I'm not inclined to actually do that as I think it'd be counterproductive. Hell I saw how people treated the removal of cash bail - like it was going to be the Purge.
I'm sure there are some want to be revolutionaries who want to burn the whole country down, just like there are tankies and folks who would somehow argue for what Venezuela has going on right now (I have a student from there and they're dealing with knowing a friend of theirs has been taken by the police and is almost certainly tortured and dead but they can't help but be hopeful.) and some of them deeply lack perspective and some are so blind to who it would hurt - the most vulnerable, not the majority - that they can't imagine why oppressed populations don't take up with them.
But when I'm talking about tearing it down it's not with literal bombs.
Yes, of course. That makes total sense.
I got Democratic Mainstay. I feel that this might be a mixed bag because I feel that half of the answers that I had gave only barely aligned with my political leanings on some of the questions. Like most of the people here, I feel that the answers are little to simple to really get what people feel about certain things.
Establishment liberal. Can’t say I’m entirely surprised, although I suspect if it’d asked more specific issues-based questions, my result would move a little more to the center. But, like @stu2b50 said, a 1-D scale only goes so far.
Yep, outsider left as well. I'd consider myself a liberal or a soclib and on "political compass" tests I'm usually LibCenter to LibRight.
"Progressive Left" here. That's sort of how I identify with regards to terminology anyway.
Democratic Mainstay, which is probably correct.
I think I'm somewhere left of center, but probably further left than most that might fit there? I'm not exactly sure, I kind of feel like my politics are fluctuating these days.
Outsider left, which is entirely unsurprising.
Yet another Outsider Left here.
Does anyone agree the test misses a lot of the important topics? Something like abortion, climate action, gun laws, worker rights. Taking these tests in my home country tends to be a lot more in depth. But maybe that is because they need to separate 20ish parties with their questions. See https://eu.kieskompas.nl for example with a 2D spectrum as result.
I feel pretty strongly that we don't spend enough time talking about what our overall goal is for prisons. We talk about rehabilitation, but really the system is set up for punishment. Then, once the person is adequately punished, we dump them back into society, often without the ability to get a job or rent an apartment with the same ease as they did before. We never really stop punishing them, it just takes a different form. And that's in the "best case" scenario where the person actually is guilty of something rather than having been coerced into a plea bargain when they did nothing wrong.
How much time a person spends in prison feels to me like a distraction.
I came here to say the same thing. I could not answer that question in a way that felt right at ALL. I had to go with "people spend the right amount of time in prison" even though it's horribly wrong. It really, really depends on which group of people you're talking about.
Look at it this way, the heinous violent crimes represent an absolute minority of the prison population, at which point I'd figure it shouldn't go into you answer. I'd also wager it's very reasonable to assume that there's plenty more people who never even see a prison conviction at all due to money or other judicial bullshit, than people who actually deserve a life stay.
All in all I did not feel wrongly about picking "Too much"