Where do you stand politically?

[Imran Siddiqui]

This is exactly why you can't have a scale like this. THERE ARE MORE THAN TWO DAMN IDEOLOGIES!!

Damn, when Sava and I agree, you know you are ****ed .

[Thirgaral]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

This is exactly why you can't have a scale like this. THERE ARE MORE THAN TWO DAMN IDEOLOGIES!!

Damn, when Sava and I agree, you know you are ****ed .

[Drogue]

There are more than two ideologies, however a left-right scale is commonly used for many things, and most people who vote know where their party lies on it. There are far more, but you can still lie somewhere on a left-right line. However there is the problem with economic libertarians who would be right, and authoritarians who would also be right.

However I still think there is a left and right on some things, and so you can have an idea whereabouts you stand.

[Ramo]

the thing is...they don't care who does it....as long as it gets done...that's the difference..

Who is "they" and what is "it?"

Social democrats are capitalists???WTF? No they are NOT...I should know...I live in a country where over 40 % are Social Democrats!!!!!

They are capitalists according to the classical definition of socialism - worker control of the means of production. Of course, since the social democrats have become relatively politically powerful in Europe, social democracy has been associated with socialism.

I still have friends who are anarchists, I don't care what their political opinions are...

Then why did you say that you don't associate with anarchists? In any case, it's pretty clear that either you don't know anything about your friends' political opinions, or your friends have no idea what they're talking about.

[Winston]

Originally posted by Drogue
5 - I'm a complete centrist. I have some left views, some right views, and many centre ones.

5 on this scale is left of center. Center would be 5.5.

[Kontiki]

Originally posted by Thirgaral
Social democrats are capitalists???WTF? No they are NOT...I should know...I live in a country where over 40 % are Social Democrats!!!!!

Man, this fallacy is really starting to annoy me.

Canada, the US, Scandinavia, western Europe, Australia, etc, etc, etc. are all social democracies to varying degrees. There are still privately owned companies, stock exchanges, no limits (outside of taxes) to how wealthy one can get on their own, among many other capitalist notions. Just because there are some socialist elements (public health care, education, utilities, etc.) does not mean that capitalism has been stamped out.

[Drogue]

Well, slightly left of centre might be right. According to the political compass, I am -0.35 left, and -5.65 Libertarian.

[Drogue]

Kontiki is right, they are capitalists, however they do not have to be right of centre. Indeed, Social Democrat, in the sense of having good public services and relatively high taxes, would generally be left of centre, even though, since it is not based on a communist market, it is capitalist.

Although Social Democracy could be left enough to be not based on capitalism, but that wouldn't be the norm IMO.

[SlowwHand]

Winston missed his calling as an actuary.

[Bosh]

Ramo is right, anarchism as and always has been, a sub-set of socialism. All that socialism means is control of the means of production by the people (and since Social Democracy leaves companies in the hands of capitalists it is NOT socialist, merely reformist). However there's a couple ways to put people in control of the means of production, through an intermediary such as the state (state sociailism, marxism etc.) or directly in which case all companies would be owned by their employees (most form of anarchism) and then a few mixed systems such as guild socialism and, arguably Syndicalism.

[SlowwHand]

No. Socialism is government control.
He's wrong, again.

[Drogue]

Not necessarily. If all companies were owned by their workers, that would be socialism. Indeed, it is what Marx wanted, in some respects IIRC. Government control comes into it in that it would probably never happen without, and so almost always is involved, but it is not a prerequisite for Socialism, IMHO.

[Agathon]

Since I want Bush, Cheney, Wolfowitz and Perle to be shot at the earliest convenient time I guess I would have a pretty low number.

[Drogue]

Agathon: Democrats would still be a little right, or maybe centre, on a worldwide scale.

[Odin]

I'm a 3