What’s your political identity?
Not sure about this result!
It’s almost the end of the year, so it’s a time when a lot of people do some personal stock-taking about how the year’s gone or how they’re doing as a personal.
I love politics (as anyone who knows me online has probably figured out!) so sometimes I take political identity quizzes. Because it’s totally possible to determine someone’s entire political philosophy by answering a few multiple-choice questions from random sites on the Internet [/sarcasm].
So anyway, here are results from 3 questionnaires I did: 8Values, Political Compass, and Pew Political Typology Quiz. I agree with some of the results, but not others. And looking at one quiz that compares your answers to other respondents, some of the results are encouraging while others are depressing for what other people apparently think on some issues.
If you’d like to do one or more of quizzes too, the links for each are with my results below.
1) 8Values. This is the one of the three I took that has the most questions. According to this survey, I’m a Libertarian Communist. But I wouldn’t self-identify as either: if you asked me if I’m a libertarian, I’d say no. Same thing with communist, but I do think I’m further left than many socialists. Maybe I need to review some definitions to better judge both of these!
2) Political Compass. This one places you on a grid with axes (as in, axises and not hatchets!) ranging from Authoritarian to Libertarian for one axis, and Left to Right for the other. You get placed at a specific point in one of the four quadrants based on your answers. The results show me as being nearly as far left and as libertarian as possible. Some people are a poet and don’t know it, so maybe I’m a libertarian and (something that rhymes with libertarian)? I think the idea of having a certificate, along with their ranking of famous politicians and political thinkers, is fun. I’m apparently most like Emma Goldman!
3) Pew Research Center Political Typology Quiz. Pew Research is NOT some random site; they’re one of the most important sources of survey data and analysis in the US. But I’m not sure I completely agree with their results on their political typology quiz.
Overall, I’m classified as Progressive Left. Which I agree with. But they say that only 6% of the public are Progressive Left?! Then why do a majority of people agree with progressive politics like Medicare For All (which was conspiculously absent from the survey), union rights, climate action, reigning in excessive corporate profits, and a few other policies or outlooks their own survey says? Bernie Sanders twice came close to winning the Democratic nomination, FFS!
Maybe they mean that I’m among the 6% who would self-identify as progressive despite the fact that many more people actually would be if they knew what it was or realized other people shared their views?
In any case, here are a couple of promising results and a couple of depressing ones. The top bar indicates how many fellow Progressive Lefters replied the same way I did, and the bottom one is how many people overall (regardless of ideology) replied that way.
72% think state and church should be separate! As a very devout atheist, this is promising news. I wonder if this is at least a small factor in why some conservatives aren’t completely behind the overtly Christian MAGA cult.
Nearly 2 out of 3 people taking the quiz think openness to other countries or cultures is part of what it means to be American. Again, the increasingly overt racism of the Republicans may be keeping them from becoming more popular, which I guess is a (non-religious) blessing in disguise?
But there are several results that are not encouraging.
Only 38% of people taking the survey think it’s good that trans people are becoming more accepted in society overall. This is completely unacceptable. It’s no wonder depression and suicide are rampant in the trans community. Society still has a long way to go to support and accept trans people for who they really are.
As someone fluent in another language (French) and with a general love for languages, this one disappoints and perplexes me. 66% of people think openness to other countries is part of being American, yet 38% don’t want another language spoken in their community? Does this mean other cultures are fine as long as they always speak English or if they don’t live in my community?!
