3/29    Take a political compass test. Also here's where those democratic
        primary guys fell on their scale:
        http://www.digitalronin.f2s.com/politicalcompass/usprimaries.html
        Based on that scale, China does fall closest to fascism, since it's
        authoritarian but economically going towards center-right.
        \_ Check out the wording on those questions.  Most impressive.
             -- ilyas
           \_ Well, they also have a FAQ. I think it placed me correctly
              (slightly left and libertarian).
              \_ "Why are you throwing tomatoes at yourself?"  Let's look at
                 this gem of a 'proposition' as they call it:
                 "Many personal fortunes are made by people who simply
                 manipulate money and contribute nothing to their society."
                 Now, let's say I put in 'disagree.'  How will they read this?
                 Will they read it as "I think many personal fortunes are NOT
                 made by people like that" ... OR "Manipulating money
                 contributes something (loans provide value)".  The question
                 is so loaded and faulty that any possible response will likely
                 be incorrectly interpreted.  Their test, btw, incorrectly
                 placed me as basically a moderate republican, which I am
                 certainly not. -- ilyas
                 \_ Right, well, I would hope that the intent of that question
                    would be a judge on economic left-rightedness, where
                    agreement implies that some control should be put on these
                    useless capitalists. Based on their rationale I don't think
                    it has to be flawed, but it obviously can't be perfect and
                    they likely have a bias anyway.
                    \_ Except this question does not judge any such thing.
                       I could be a card-carrying liberal and still believe
                       most personal fortunes are not made by manipulation
                       of money (in fact, I don't have handy statistics on
                       this matter).  The question is stupid, as is the entire
                       test.  You have to phrase things a lot more carefully
                       and 'wordily'. -- ilyas
                       \_ it didn't say "most" it said "many". Although many is
                          a relative term. Anyway though I agree, their agenda
                          appears to be to have right wingers take the test and
                          discover they're somehow actually lefties. But the
                          background stuff surrounding it seems sound. And the
                          bias they do have could be justified if it tests
                          discrepancies between what someone thinks they think
                          and what they actually think, if they haven't thought
                          about it much already. (notions of pol. correctness)
                          \_ See, you don't understand the nature of my
                             objection.  A test like this only works when a
                             given response to a question actually
                             differentiates political views.  I gave an example
                             where the same response could be given by both
                             a fiscal liberal and a fiscal conservative.
                             Anyways, it's late, and I am tired of explaining
                             the same thing three different ways.  If you think
                             it's a good test, that's great. -- ilyas
                             \_ well you're basically quibbling with the word
                                "many" in that example. anyway, fine, motd
                                censor will clean this up before long, g'nite.