Where are you on the Political Compass?

[Santa_Claus]

Me and Gandhi have a lot more in common than I thought.

[Animavore]

You're both kiddie fiddlers?

[Hermit]

I was never a hooligan. I just got rid of some unrealistic ideas, I think.

That's what most ex-radicals say. "I had only the best of intentions, but now I realise how unrealistic my ideas were. By the way, I was using the term 'hooligan' only because that's what the dyed-in-the-cardiganned-wool Spiessbürger thought of left-wing political activists when JimC was one of the latter. I also recommend that you don't take my earlier post too literally. For starters, I can't imagine you as having been a political activist. All I alluded to, is that you - like JimC before you - are following a well trodden path: the older you get, the more conservative you become.

[Animavore]

I was never a hooligan. I just got rid of some unrealistic ideas, I think.

That's what most ex-radicals say. "I had only the best of intentions, but now I realise how unrealistic my ideas were. By the way, I was using the term 'hooligan' only because that's what the dyed-in-the-cardiganned-wool Spiessbürger thought of left-wing political activists when JimC was one of the latter. I also recommend that you don't take my earlier post too literally. For starters, I can't imagine you as having been a political activist. All I alluded to, is that you - like JimC before you - are following a well trodden path: the older you get, the more conservative you become.

I still think I'll always be just off to the left. I simply can't imagine being on the right. Not with the way I answered the latter questions, the more moral ones on homosexuality, religion, abortion and science. These are the only ones I answered in the strongly agree or disagree categories and I can't see those view changing without some sort of religious conversion.

[eXcommunicate]

Cool! My old thread.

17 April 2009


12 Feb 2011


I believe there were a couple more "personal freedom" questions on the quiz, which pushed me a little lower on the grid.

[JimC]

I was never a hooligan. I just got rid of some unrealistic ideas, I think.

That's what most ex-radicals say. "I had only the best of intentions, but now I realise how unrealistic my ideas were. By the way, I was using the term 'hooligan' only because that's what the dyed-in-the-cardiganned-wool Spiessbürger thought of left-wing political activists when JimC was one of the latter. I also recommend that you don't take my earlier post too literally. For starters, I can't imagine you as having been a political activist. All I alluded to, is that you - like JimC before you - are following a well trodden path: the older you get, the more conservative you become.

Who appointed you my biographer!



I retain a fair bit of my earlier leanings, including a profound distrust of the motives of people with power, wealth and a great deal of self interest in having socety follow rules that benefit them and their heirs (ie the Liberal Party... ). I see a strong need for an active union movement, a cynical free press, and a population prepared to dissent, strongly but peacefully. I also see more need for active government anti-discrimination legislation to counteract the dead hand of reactionary power blocks such as churches, and their poisonous attempts to apply their morality on others. Personal freedom is important, but it is not the inviolable holy writ of the libertarian. Community living requires a certain trade off between liberties and the enforcement of reasonable rules; libertarians have such an amusingly romantic view of this...

What I have turned away from is any desire to have a marxist revolution or anything remotely similar, with its virtually inevitable drastic reductions in personal freedoms, a stifling of innovation in economic activity, and totalitarian rule; in addition, I am increasingly appalled by the mindless thuggery of the cretins who get their jollies by trashing cities all over the world in the name of the brave struggle against globalisation... .

I'm not sure that calling this "becoming more conservative" is very accurate. Cardigan wearing, of course, is an exercise in irony and subtlety; I think a bow tie might be next...

[Hermit]

What I have turned away from is any desire to have a marxist revolution...

So, like Animavore, you have "just got rid of some unrealistic ideas". It seems to me that comparing you two, differences notwithstanding, was inside the ballpark.

Thanks for providing more material for the upcoming, unauthorised biography.

[JimC]

What I have turned away from is any desire to have a marxist revolution...

So, like Animavore, you have "just got rid of some unrealistic ideas". It seems to me that comparing you two, differences notwithstanding, was inside the ballpark.

Thanks for providing more material for the upcoming, unauthorised biography.

Can you portray me as a sardonic, darkly amusing and slightly devilish gentleman that may appeal to a certain interesting sub-genre of females?

Ta muchly...

[Animavore]

Hey! I was never a Marxist, Commie bastard. I grew up hearing about the disaster that was Russia. Even knew some older kids that had been there on a scout trip, others I knew were in East Germany. It always seemed like a stupid idea. I can't ever remember not being a capitalist.

[JimC]

Hey! I was never a Marxist, Commie bastard. I grew up hearing about the disaster that was Russia. Even knew some older kids that had been there on a scout trip, others I knew were in East Germany. It always seemed like a stupid idea. I can't ever remember not being a capitalist.

I wasn't a marxist child, but I had a brief infatuation at uni...

I even used to wear a beret with a Mao badge...

[Atheist-Lite]

Hey! I was never a Marxist, Commie bastard. I grew up hearing about the disaster that was Russia. Even knew some older kids that had been there on a scout trip, others I knew were in East Germany. It always seemed like a stupid idea. I can't ever remember not being a capitalist.

They've got you best when you don't know they've got you. It is probably a communist dentist that began your indocrination.

[Hermit]

What I have turned away from is any desire to have a marxist revolution...

Thanks for providing more material for the upcoming, unauthorised biography.

Can you portray me as a sardonic, darkly amusing and slightly devilish gentleman that may appeal to a certain interesting sub-genre of females?

Can do, but it'll cost you money. You see, like Meeky, I lack the literary talent to be picked up by an agent who will then get a mainstream publisher to pay for the production of the book, so I too will need to pay Vanity Press up front for the cost of all 25 copies of the biography's print run.

For an extra grand, I'll make you irresistible to every woman. For another two grand I will not make you irresistible to every man.

[Hermit]

Hey! I was never a Marxist, Commie bastard. I grew up hearing about the disaster that was Russia. Even knew some older kids that had been there on a scout trip, others I knew were in East Germany. It always seemed like a stupid idea. I can't ever remember not being a capitalist.

So, like Animavore, you have "just got rid of some unrealistic ideas". It seems to me that comparing you two, differences notwithstanding, was inside the ballpark.

[Animavore]

Typical Ireland with it's centralised parties. I still don't know who to vote for.

[Atheist-Lite]