Farkin's Political compass: Where do you stand?

[bazza]

it would be good to do this test again in 10 years time. especially for me and some of the other younguns on here.

 

[gravelclimber]

All corporations are evil. I saw it in a filum, so it must be true.

1. What is a Corporation?
The Corporation has emerged to be today’s dominant institution, one that creates great wealth but also great harms. This documentary examines the history of the corporation and the role it plays in society and our everyday lives. They are artificial creations to produce profit sometimes likened to an eagle, a whale, or a Frankenstein monster out of control.

2. Birth
How the corporation came to be. Originally, corporations were set up to serve the public good. Corporation lawyers gained rights through the US Supreme Court using the 14th Amendment (set up to protect slaves) that gives them the rights of a person. In the last century, the corporation is given more and more rights while people are increasingly stripped of theirs.

3. A Legal “Person”
Having acquired rights of immortal persons, what kind of person is the corporation? By law, the corporation can only consider the interests of their shareholders. It is legally bound to put its bottom line before everything else, even the public good.

4. Externalities
What is an externality? Milton Friedman describes it as the effect of a transaction between two parties on a third party who is not involved in the transaction. A technical sounding term that basically means let somebody else deal with the problems the corporation creates.

5. Case Histories
Case histories can be used to diagnose the kind of personality that makes the corporation an externality-creating machine. Externalities such as harm to employees through the use of sweatshops: the exploitation of Third World countries’ employees resulting in a huge discrepancy of price versus cost. Other externalities such as pollution and adverse health effects emerge. These include the genesis of the petrochemical industry and links to cancer, birth defects and other toxic effects. Another externality is harm to the biosphere or the environmental costs resulting from the way corporations operate, costs that will be passed off to future generations. Have we created a doom machine?

6. The Pathology of Commerce
If we look at the corporation as a legal person, it exhibits all the characteristics of a psychopath using a personality diagnostic checklist by the World Health Organization.

7. Monstrous Obligations
Who bears the moral responsibility for the actions of a psychopathic institution? The employees of the corporation can be the nicest people in their personal lives but still engage in monstrous endeavours at work. Can we separate the individual from the corporation?

8. Mindset
The profit motive drives the actions of the corporation and creates a mindset of competition and anything goes. Meet corporate spy and self-described predator Marc Barry as he describes his tactics for gathering intelligence from competing corporations. Juxtapose his attitude with Ray Anderson, President of Interface, who, in an epiphanic moment, realized he was a plunderer and it was only a matter of time before the law figures it out.

9. Trading on 9/11
A trader describes the tragedy of 9/11 as a blessing in disguise because for some people, it translated into great riches. Brokers celebrated the death and destruction of the Iraq war because in devastation, there is the opportunity for profit.

10. Boundary Issues
We used to regard many areas as too essential to the public good to be commercialized for opportunity, and they were protected by tradition and regulation. Now, everything is becoming fair game in the private taking of the commons – land, oceans, air, water, education, health, energy and social assistance. Where do we draw the line?

11. Basic Training
Marketing has transformed itself into a sophisticated, pervasive force that extends into every part of our lives. Slick advertising campaigns are designed for the express purpose of manipulating children into buying products and training them to become mindless consumers of goods they don’t really want. The Nag factor, a marketing study that evaluated the effect of nagging, was designed to teach children how to nag more effectively. Consumers are made, not born.

12. Perception Management
Some of our best creative minds are employed to create illusions that divert us from the real issues and manufacture our consent. Beyond their products, the corporation sells us the idea of a better way of life and produces propaganda that affirms their power as necessary for human progress.

13. Like a Good Neighbour
Pfizer attempts to “make the community better” with a transit security system. An illustration of how the corporation works behind the scenes to reconfigure public policy to suit their needs, yet the image we’re shown is markedly different.

14. A Private Celebration
Branding is not just advertising, it’s production. It’s the dissemination of the idea of the corporation, such as Disney building a town called Celebration, Florida. They are selling the living embodiment of what the Disney brand is supposed to represent.

15. Triumph of the Shill
Welcome to the new world of undercover marketing and product placement. With staged encounters such as passer-bys discussing a hot new CD, advertising is infiltrating our lives in ways we’re not even aware of.

16. Advancing the Front
Where do tomorrow’s opportunities for profit lie? In the US, the Supreme Court ruled that anything alive can be patented except a human being. Life is ruled commercial fair game, gene pirates scour the world for new sources and the human genome project takes on new fervour.

17. Unsettling Accounts
Journalists Jane Akre and Steve Wilson were fired by the Fox News television station they work for after refusing to change their investigative report on Posilac, a Bovine Growth Hormone (BGH) made by Monsanto. Their research documents potential health and safety problems of drinking milk treated with the synthetic hormone, but threatened with legal action from Monsanto, Fox wants the negative effects played down. The court eventually throws out Akre’s whistle blower lawsuit after deciding that the media is allowed to lie.

18. Expansion Plans
The beginning of the fight for the world’s most important resource: water. In Bolivia, privatization makes water unaffordable for many of its citizens and the resulting protest turns violent when the military opens fire.

19. Taking the Right Side
The rise of fascism has links to corporate power. American corporations played a role in Nazi Germany and the holocaust, such as IBM’s punchcard machines that tabulated the victims’ data. Corporate allegiance to profit trumps their allegiance to nationalism.

20. Hostile Takeover
Despotism was often a useful tool for the corporation to secure foreign markets. Corporations once even attempted to overthrow New Deal President Roosevelt and impose a fascist dictatorship in the US.

21. Democracy Ltd.
A coup is no longer necessary for the corporation to dominate governments. Capitalism’s protagonists and players are the new high priests of our day. Industry and government have become intertwined to the extent that it’s hard to tell when one ends and the other begins. But citizens are resisting and protesting their dissent to the centralization of power in corporate hands. The corporation has responded by enacting programs of corporate social responsibility. Are they just a tactic responding to market pressure?

22. Psycho Therapies
The public is starting to fight back and demand accountability from its corporations and an end to abuse. The Kathy Lee Gifford and Walmart scandal brought the issue of sweatshops into the national consciousness, yet they still exist. There is a disconnect between what we do for a living and taking responsibility for the effect it has on our planet. Citizens everywhere are working to bridge the gap and regain democratic control. “One should never underestimate the power of the people.”

23. Prognosis
Victories are being won around the world but are they enough to turn the tide of global corporate dominance?

NB. Personally, I think the film sucked. The corporation I work for does genuine good.

 

[dok]

Anarcho-Syndicalism!

Economic left/Right: -7.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -8.00

Edit: I think some of you would benefit for reading the analysis and FAQ.

 

[skivi]

ME:
Economic Left/Right: -4.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.36

i found many of the questions to be slightly ambiguous.

 

[EastsideZero]

What? hangin' with the Dalai Lama!

Economic Left/Right: -8.13
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.56

 

[Rik]

Edit: I think some of you would benefit for reading the analysis and FAQ.

That's right...
I think some of you would benefit for reading the analysis and FAQ

ie.

Some of the questions are slanted

Most of them are slanted ! Some right-wingers accuse us of a leftward slant. Some left-wingers accuse us of a rightward slant. But it's important to realise that this isn't a survey, and these aren't questions. They're propositions - an altogether different proposition. To question the logic of individual ones that irritate you is to miss the point. Some propositions are extreme, and some are more moderate. That's how we can show you whether you lean towards extremism or moderation on the Compass.

Some of the propositions are intentionally vague. Their purpose is to trigger buzzwords in the mind of the user, measuring feelings and prejudices rather than detailed opinions on policy.

Incidentally, our test is not another internet personality classification tool. The essence of our site is the model for political analysis. The test is simply a demonstration of it.
Duh

So I've compiled the results, 57 so far... and I just need to plot them for the same of pretty pictures. That'll come tonight or tomorrow, or later on when I can be bothered. Good to see a decent amount of responses though, cheers

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

Well having done this test a couple of years ago and gotten a fairly tedious MOR result that put me as a fairly left wing libertarian (pretty close to that Indian dude from Streetfighter 2) I decided to do do it again only answer the questions in what I thought would be the most c**tish of manners. The results were: Economic Left/Right: 4.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 8.72

Funnily enough that made me more right wing than Hitler but still a lot less far-right than Thatcher. Proving once and for all that Margaret Thatcher is a truly evil hag!

 

[Customjimmy]

Right you are! I remember seeing Billy Connolly on Parkinson a couple of years ago and Parky was asking Billy about his roughhousing years. He asked Billy if there was anyone he would like to fight, toe to toe, if given the opportunity. With a straight face and a look that said he had the first punch already thrown he said "Margaret Thatcher". Poll tax be fucked.

As far as the questionaire goes apparently I should quit my job and start aligning my chakras!

 

[the F.H.B]

Economic Left/Right: -7.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -5.79

Great, now farkin will become known as the site of the lefty anarchists...
Oh wait, we already are
I want to see johnnys score...

 

[scblack]

That's right...
I think some of you would benefit for reading the analysis and FAQ

ie.

Some of the questions are slanted

Most of them are slanted ! Some right-wingers accuse us of a leftward slant. Some left-wingers accuse us of a rightward slant. But it's important to realise that this isn't a survey, and these aren't questions. They're propositions - an altogether different proposition. To question the logic of individual ones that irritate you is to miss the point. Some propositions are extreme, and some are more moderate. That's how we can show you whether you lean towards extremism or moderation on the Compass.

Some of the propositions are intentionally vague. Their purpose is to trigger buzzwords in the mind of the user, measuring feelings and prejudices rather than detailed opinions on policy.

Incidentally, our test is not another internet personality classification tool. The essence of our site is the model for political analysis. The test is simply a demonstration of it.
Duh

So I've compiled the results, 57 so far... and I just need to plot them for the same of pretty pictures. That'll come tonight or tomorrow, or later on when I can be bothered. Good to see a decent amount of responses though, cheers

I would accept that, to some degree, IF the questions were biased IN BOTH DIRECTIONS.

The questions in this study are biased ONLY TO THE LEFT WING.

It is slanted toward finding extremism TO THE LEFT. It is NOT extracting extremism alone.

Rik, you can put in BIG LETTERS, but the fact remains, it IS BIASED.

On that basis, I and many others have already dismissed it. Just because it bumps in nicely to your way of thinking does NOT make it a valid model for any political thinking.

I too can use coloured BIG WORDS .

 

[tu plang]

funniest post ever.

hahah two in one morning, love it. seriously though, all you have to do is look at the results, we have the majority of farkin's members who have taken the test sitting next to ghandi. even people who have openly stated they are right wing have sat barely to the upper right, i mean unless you want to answer strongly agree to questions about racisms and abortion.

 

[arpit]

hahah two in one morning, love it. seriously though, all you have to do is look at the results, we have the majority of farkin's members who have taken the test sitting next to ghandi. even people who have openly stated they are right wing have sat barely to the upper right, i mean unless you want to answer strongly agree to questions about racism and abortion.

Hmm.... I think that, perhaps, might have more to do with the audience this site (and perhaps mountain-biking) tends to draw. My results were quite far right wing. Most most of my friends in my college are far, far more right wing than I am, and I know them well enough to know they would have scored far higher in the test than I did too.... and I'm not even in one of the most right wing colleges in Oxford!




Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: 5.50
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 5.28

 

[ned_stp]

Economic Left/Right: -0.63
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: 1.54

fuk knows what that means though.

 

[Rik]

If you guys wanna carry on like that, fair enough, but did you read what I wrote?

the questions mightn't be the best, but this'll still be good for cheap entertainment if nothing else

So I'm not defending the test because it "backs up my views", I'm just saying that reading the creators views might help you understand it.
Would you also consider that what you consider "right wing" could be considered centrist or even left wing by others? It's all relative, and considering it's an "international" test I'm not suprised by the supposed skewing of results.

Or we can throw reasoning out the window and carry on like every other politically-inclined thread and start acting like children slinging mud at each other when others views don't agree with our own.

 

[n plus one]

If you guys wanna carry on like that, fair enough, but did you read what I wrote? So I'm not defending the test because it "backs up my views", I'm just saying that reading the creators views might help you understand it.
Would you also consider that what you consider "right wing" could be considered centrist or even left wing by others? It's all relative, and considering it's an "international" test I'm not suprised by the supposed skewing of results.

Or we can throw reasoning out the window and carry on like every other politically-inclined thread and start acting like children slinging mud at each other when others views don't agree with our own.

Sorry mate, I think you've got the wrong house.....

Don't come round here with your fancy "thinking" and your flash-Harry "reasoned opinion" this ain't the place for it. If you want genuine, informed debate you'd best shuffle off to the pro-union/anti-union thread, now that's what I'd call a constructive forum for expressing informed opinion.....

 

[Phool]

Your political compass
Economic Left/Right: -8.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.00

Lets Hug!

 

[b_S]

it would be good to do this test again in 10 years time. especially for me and some of the other younguns on here.

Is 4 years long enough?

I am cleaning out some of my backups and came accross the results I recorded back then. Here are the numbers to be formatted and made useful (by someone with more spare time than me)
I couldn't delete them without posting this...

Name	Social	Political
Ham	-6.13	-2.67
Rik	-4.25	-6.77
Venciferus	-0.63	-5.69
Rhyno	-4.88	-5.23
gravelclimber	-5.13	-2.31
hayd	-2	-4
Doggy	-5.63	-2.21
Ajay	-1.63	-3.13
GrubNut	-5.38	-6.31
berkyburger	-2.88	-5.95
Disturbed.Rider	-5	-2.21
tu plang	1	1.03
Matt H	0.63	-2.62
Sethius	-5.38	-0.36
Ivan	-6	-4.87
Switch	-3.88	-5.54
demo man	-5.88	-6.05
n plus one	-4.75	-4.56
MasterOfReality	3.5	1.74
Gerry	-6.13	-5.74
dcrofty	-6.5	-5.64
kizza01	-2.75	-1.69
Oddjob	-1.13	-3.74
FR Drew	-5.25	-3.95
scottmeister	-4.5	-1.79
tinto	0.25	-3.18
sammydog	-5.88	-2.13
Daver	1.13	-2.31
fatass	0.88	-0.67
MTB Maniac	-2.88	1.08
Regan of Gong	-0.25	-1.23
noddy	-0.52	5.58
treggs	0	-0.67
NCR600	-8.13	-4.92
bazza	-2.88	-2.31
jaseh	-4.13	-1.23
Joelski2006	-2.25	-0.1
mtb slipknot fan	-3.25	0.82
arpit	5.5	5.28
Pete J	-6	-3.74
TonyG	-0.25	-1.64
alpinestar12	-5.88	-3.54
scblack	3.25	-2.26
tassiehardtail	-2.25	-4.41
Drizz	-1.88	-4.82
DW-1	-5.25	-5.54
dunk	-7.25	-6.67
I-AM-TEH-FASTEST-11	1.13	-1.79
Grip	-6.38	-5.95
chie	-4.5	-6.92
Dumbellina	-6.5	-6.67
888ross	1.13	1.18
LTR	-3.5	-2.46
projectsplat	-5.63	-4.97
dok	-7.38	-8
skivi	-4.63	-6.36
EastsideZero	-8.13	-6.56

 

[Sethius]

I'll play:

2007:
Economic Left/Right: -5.38
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.36

2011:
Economic Left/Right: -4.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -1.03

 

[Kamikazee ideki]

Economic Left/Right: -0.00
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -2.79

Some of the questions were interesting to say the least.

 

[PINT of Stella. mate!]

Where do you stand?

Certainly not on a compass again. Those things really f***ing hurt!