The political position of the community is ...

[lala]

This poll is to decide, once and for all, what the political persuasion of this board is. Ne'er more will whinging righties be able to complain about the place being 'infested' with lefties, or vice versa, without reference to the undeniable, empirical evidence of this poll ...

Choices are grouped into seven broad categories (ECONOMY, SOCIAL, PATRIOTISM, AGGRESSION, GLOBAL WARMING, ANIMAL RIGHTS, RELIGION) Please don't carp about the categories I've chosen. Set up your own poll if you think you can do it better.

Select up to EIGHT options. This gives room for some ambivalence, but try not to contradict yourself too much.

[lala]

n.b. Obviously, the description for 'Social liberal' should read "As long as it doesn't harm others."

Irritatingly, we can't edit polls, so the blunder has to stay there, to my eternal shame.

[chris]

Of course your setting the questions shows a lot, where do Nazis or Communists tick

[lala]

The categories chosen were what even struck me when I was making up the poll. It was more an experiment in what could be done with the format, than a real attempt to gauge the political tendencies of the baord. Though it may still do that, for all that it is idiosyncratic an error strewn.

Nazis would tend to be Economic Mixed, Social Comservative, Nationalist and Aggressive. Their views on religion would be debateable, but i'd tend to put them in the Strongly Religious category - though what a Nazi state religion would look like is unclear, it would surely have emerged, given time. Their opinions on animals is unclear, Hitler was, famously, a vegetarian, but given their attitude towards humans, I can't imagine they would, on the whole, have expressed too many scruples. Their opinion on global warming can be guessed at - they'd have declared it part of the Jewish conspiracy to control the world.

Communists are a bit more complicated because first of all you need to decid what you mean by communist. Ideologically pure, university lecturer sort of pipe dreams, or Stalinism. Stalinism would probably be Economically Statist, Socially Conservative, Nationalist (given that Stalin was more along the lines of the tsarist despot than a real communist), Agressive, Animal Exploiting and anti-religious. He would, of course, have declared that global warming was part of the capitalist conspiracy, or have blamed Trotsky.

So not much difference between Hitler and Stlain at all. Which doesn't justify any sort of "Nazis were socialists" bollocks.

[peakman]

14% (more or less) in favour of treating animals with respect. That can't be a bad thing.

[lala]

So, at this time, we can say that:

The membership of this community is overwhelingly infavour of a mixed economy, where some functions are delivered through the state and some through private enterprise. The big question arising from this is how to divide the resources and services between the two. But, overall, we're pretty traditional, 1970s thank you, not 1980s.

Social liberals and social conservatives balanced each other out, which is encouraging as it suggests there are no psychopaths lurking in the community who don't understand that other people have rights and feelings as well. The issue here is how to resolve the desire for some people to see social mores and standards maintained, and others to shrug and say, "each to his or her own." There will have to be some movement on both camps - civil unions for homosexuals seems like the sort of issue that would require both sides to take a bit of a hit. Yes, it is 'gay marriage.' Yes it means that people in legally recognised relationships will have superior rights to those who aren't. But, as said in Calvin and Hobbes, a good compromise leaves everyone mad.

Strong patriotism was noticeable. This was a tricky one to define, so I defined Nationalism as seeking to maintain a status quo and reject outside ideas or changes, whereas a patriot might be very proud of their culture but would see it as something changing over time - not too quick though, and perhaps accomodate some differing or alien ideas as long as they weren't being forced on him / her. I'df be interested in knowing who the internationalists are, whether they are generally lefties or righties, as there are valid reasons for both taking that position.

Thankfully, most rejected the notion of 'agressive self-defence.' No prizes will be offered for identifying the sole advocate of pre-emptive attack. Over-whelmingly, people supported a considered response to threat, and a preference for multi-lateral, authorised action.

Only a few rejected the idea of global warming outright. Again, their identity can be guessed by those familiar with the endless debates on AGW. The crucial question is, once more, how much can the "happening but not human" and the "happening and human" camps work together to meet the problem? Working together, they can form an unopposeable bloc.

Animals would also be happier if the members of this community had their say. Most regarded it as important to balance their explotation with apprpriate husbandry, while a sizeable minority strongly supported even stronger pro-animal position. How much this translates into actual behaviour is another matter.

We're not a religious bunch. Overwhelmingly, e don't profess much religious feeling, though a small group do.

Overall, a very middle of the road sort of place. What surprised me most was the attitude towards animal rights and global warming - I was not expecting such a strong tendency to emerge.

[vania]

I'm bumping this because I am bored and I just found it and so I'm just answering it now. Pity it's over here as fewer people will see it. Ho hum.

[cn]

Jan 9, 2009 11:58:22 GMT chris said:

Of course your setting the questions shows a lot, where do Nazis or Communists tick

In lala's world these things do not exist

[wazwo]

Any number off question choices could be given in many different ways in any poll and so I dont think polls tell the true picture also we on this board are a miniscule representation of society are we not?

Nah leave the polls to those that are unsure of themselves and their values I say.