If the average demographic of Lemmy users took a political compass test, what would it be?

Frub@lemm.ee to Asklemmy@lemmy.ml – 23 points –
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I would assume the top answer would be "fuck capitalism" with a sprinkle of "lmao"

That sounds like strong left slightly lib

Capitalism is fucking us all equally so it shouldn’t be a lib idea only but you are probably right.

Nah the lib comes from the sprinkle of lmao

Liberalism is defined by support of capitalism, the two terms can often be used interchangeably.

You're looking at anarchism, communism, democratic socialism if you're opposed to capitalism.

Though experience tells me a lot of the people going "fuck capitalism" just want the capitalists and politicians to be a little less greedy and give some more crumbs to the working class within the imperial core.

I think majority here is left-sided. I personally am right/ conservative (European wise).

However unfortunately, most of the right-side communities are filled with hate and thus, I avoid it.

That makes you left leaning to an American's perspective. The political spectrum over here is farther right, even the left in the US is technically right center.

Europe is surprisingly conservative actually

Its definitely relative what is considered left vs right in Europe, especially since most countries over there have multiple parties (a good thing). But in general the American Left more closely resembles the "general" European right.

Looking up statistics for which countries are considered more democratic or more liberal, USA is always very far down the lists. Even compared to Italy.

What I mean is social. Take Italy for example. There's been a rise in far right parties across europe

Any compas with only two axes is so flawed as to be actively harmful to discourse.

But I'm not commenting on the validity of it

I'm afraid I'm only familiar with the 2-axis political compass: Left/Right and Auth/Lib.

How many axes do you think there should be in an effective political chart, and what aspects of a political position should each one represent?

To be robust, it needs a social axis distinct from the heirarcy / authority axis, a political status-quo-vs-reform axis, and a dedicated economic policy axis. So, at least four.

Do you know of a test that has these axes, or more? I would be very interested to take it if so, and I am inclined to agree with you about the political compass test and others like it - they dont capture the true complexity of most people's political views - I'm all over the place myself

Each axis would give it a new dimension. One axis is just a line, two are a flat square, three would be a cube and adding a fourth one would literally make it 4d, which we cannot perceive with our eyes. It's one of the reasons it's so hard to accurately describe a person's politics using a chart, aside from the other methodological issues.

What about a 3D chart, with the 4th axis being portrayed via the Hue value of the point on the chart? That would make it somewhat readable.

Except an actual compas, of course. They really don't need a third axis in most cases.

Overall it'd probably lean toward the middle of the left side, with no strong leaning on the Authoritarian/Libertarian axis.

Very few people on here that aren't to the left of Blairites or Establishment Democrats. Quite a few Marxist-Leninists, but not a majority. The few right-of-center people here seem to be either Euroskeptics or ancaps who somehow still believe any alternative from the corporate mainstream will be mostly used by ancaps.

Which direction is “none of anyone’s fucking business”?

48.43, 91.07 and 23.666 degrees in the X, Y and Z axes respectively

I think it's not as left leaning as Reddit. I see a lot of disagreement with leftist ideas, more liberal or libertarian ideals are what I see the most. It's been refreshing to see the diversity, Reddit was an echo chamber of pure leftist values and that's not an accurate cross section of discourse and range of ideas.

I didn't think Reddit was (or is) quite aels echoey as that. Lots of left wing views (or what passes for left wing in the States anyway) but plenty of people arguing against it in my experience.

Mostly though ,it was just a very silly place. And all the better for it.

I'm sure that my perspective is a little influenced by the specific subreddits and communities I read, but overall Reddit still had an extreme auth left tone, whereas six years ago it was still primarily libleft, with a lot of classic liberal ideals.

This has also mirrored larger cultural shifts in English speaking countries.

If this comment chain and all the others on that thread are anything to go by, Lemmy’s choice of reverse-appeal-based marketing summoned a very specific (and arguably overwhelming, even when off-topic as its assault-related parent comment suggests) college-lifestyle-inspired demographic that makes me surprised at the outcomes in some places.

I'm not very smart to begin with but this whole comment hurt my brain to read.

A part of it I was trying to say euphemistically because the whole thing is tense, I even had links. I just can't win sometimes it seems.

Multiple groups.

A lot of normal-ish people, probably the majority.

Fairly large tankie instances of hexbear and lemmygrad. Hexbears are insufferable, but lemmygrad users are fine.

Small amount of conservatives. Not a ton, but I think we have critical mass.

The key take away is we actually get along for the most part.

I genuinely don't understand what hexbear is about. There's a bit of everything there and none good lmao

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I'd prefer if Lemmy was a safe haven from politics and ideologies but people just can't help themselves...

That's essentially impossible

Not with such posts and attitude!

The sad fact is you can't really escape politics and ideology since they literally permeate everything. The closest thing you can do is make something as appealing to mainstream audiences and thus as close to the stuff most people agree with, but... Liking the status quo is still a political statement at the end of the day.

Let's say you're talking about a character in a movie who always goes out of their way to help people. That would be palatable to most, it's a very widespread worldview and value. But even then, a segment of people believe that you shouldn't help people if it doesn't get you anything (What's in it for me? Sort of mentality).

In that situation, the person claiming you shouldn't help people for free would rightfully be labeled an asshole, but the point still is that even something as benign as that makes a statement in a conflict between an altruistic ideology (It's good to help people!) Vs an egoistic ideology (I need to get something for my effort)

This is obviously a very simplified version of how deep politics and philosophy affect all interactions, but I hope I managed to get my point across!

Have a nice day, stranger!