Subject: Equality. Humanity. Socialism.
Author:
Posted on: 2019-12-07 19:31:41 UTC
It seems that either I didn't participate last year or that somehow it didn't make it into the spreadsheet (or I just didn't see it). Anyway, from what I recall, I think I've gotten more progressive and rehabilitative. I can't remember any other major differences.
In six days, we get to vote for our entire government - again. We should still have the government from 2015 (Parliament is meant to be elected for 5 year terms), but this is our second election since then, and could lead to our fourth Prime Minister in four years. It's all a bit mad.
Our next government will almost certainly be formed either by the Tories/Conservatives (who will promptly crash us out of our relationship with our nearest and largest trading partner), or by a hodgepodge coalition of the Left and Centre (who will... Manwe only knows, but items on the agenda will be cancelling Brexit in multiple mutually exclusive ways, and holding a referendum for Scotland to leave the UK). Neither option looks like it's going to go particularly well, though I'm vastly in favour of the second. But instead of thinking about that... how about some political compasses?
PolitiScales is the PPC's preferred political compass for the last couple of years. By asking 117 questions (multiple choice, it takes about 15 minutes), it spits out not only your Left/Right and Socially Liberal/Authoritarian position, but also a bunch of other values. It also creates a very snazzy map for you based on your results, along with the motto of the nation of you. This is the record of the PPC's historic results.
Here's my results for this year. Not a lot of change really, and most of it to higher values: I've gone more in for Constructivism and Ecology, and have pushed almost to the max on Regulationism and Internationalism. Scapegrace will also be pleased to know that I've become more revolutionary (probably because my country is going to pot in a handbasket).
My motto remains as Equality - Humanity - Socialism, and my flag is pretty much the same (just a couple of colours changed in the cross). And, I've managed to shake off the shameful Pragmatist badge I picked up last time; hooray!
What I really like to do with these results is plot them onto a map, in what has become known as The Protectors of Plortitics. Rest assured that everything is made ready for the next generation; as soon as I have a few results to work with, I'll get the first map up for your enjoyment...
hS
Can't really recall what it was last time I took this test. But I know I did it a few days ago and results were slightly different. Personally I feel like many of the statements/questions should be revised or at least explained slightly better.
http://www.politiscales.net/en_US/results/?s1=19&s0=57&e0=7&e1=50&c1=21&c0=31&p0=17&p1=52&t0=24&t1=40&b0=40&b1=12&m0=55&m1=10&j1=40&j0=38&femi=43&prag=67
Biggest changes are a step down in Reformation and Essentialism. Beyond that, it's all similar tendancies from last year, although a progression is there. Pragmatism remains the master word too.
Here are the detailed results. And here are las year's results
Beep... beep... beep...
Captain's Log, Stardate 19344.4
Plortitics is a land divided. Ever since the mysterious Event which raised the land once more from the sea, it has been populated by myriad city-states, in constant competition with each other. It would be nice to imagine that the dawn of the Space Age would allow them to set aside their rivalries and come together at last, but as we swing into orbit over the island, it is clear that this has proven a step too far.
No less than five orbital stations vie for our attention. In the far west, the linked wheels named Kaitlyn and GMA are studded with docks, but their heavy fortifications make me uneasy. On the other hand, they seem in a good state of repair - unlike Tomash Orbital, their neighbour to the east, which spews radiation from what seems to be a cracked reactor housing.
Huinesoron Station may be a better choice: it seems the most friendly, maintaining only a simple meteor shield and many docking bays, and has only residual contamination. But it is a small station, and its position over a mid-slope area of land suggests a certain degree of exile. Granz, riding high over a mountain, is more typical; but is the fallout covering the peak below truly unconnected from the shielded station above?
It may be that we would be wiser to land upon the planet itself, in one of the many mountaintop docks. Scapegrace, positioned practically beneath Kaitlyn, is an option, though its extensive fortifications make me nervous. Doctorlit, to its north-east, seems more open, and sports a great many docking bays, but I have to wonder whether its distant position indicates a certain standoffishness.
The main cluster of ports stands beneath Huinesoron Station, and they are a study in contrasts. Delta Juliette on its snowbound mountain peak may be friendly enough, but Four Moons Watching (a curious name) is sunk deep into the rock of the mountain, and seems prepared to see off an invasion. SunAndMoon, though similar in name, is a polar opposite (and not just for its position on the far side of Delta): entirely unshielded, with its docking bays spaced wide. Then there is Helsinki, nestled on the wooded slopes of the mountains, a hidden fastness close to the Centre Pole.
Ultimately, the mass of radiation covering the mountain makes the decision for me: I must look elsewhere.
A little to the north, a cluster of small ports seems a viable prospect. Virtually unshielded, and with no contamination in sight, the trio of Snowblaze, Hieronymus, and tiny Mikelus are almost welcoming. Except... what would drive these ports, two airborne, one floating on the dark sea, to such an extreme location, on the very edge of Plortitics? I fear there is more to them than meets the eye.
The lone mountain rising in the centre of Plortitics' southern coast has promise. It is true that Cicada, atop the grey peak, is the picture of unfriendliness, with its radioactive haze held off from its single port only by massive shielding. But Iximaz to its west seems welcoming enough, if small; larger Elcalion, to the east, sits silently behind its walls, though it otherwise presents a fairly pleasant aspect.
Not so the settlements to its north. Kerowyn, secure on its ridge, defended by irradiated wastelands and accessible only by a single port, is nevertheless the most open of the three: for tiny SomeRandomPersonAccount and OrangeFox lie beneath the sea, the first having no visible access, the second being utterly engulfed by radiation. It would take a hardy ship indeed to approach these purported ports.
And yet, who can blame them? For in the far east of the isle lies the fastness of the Morningstar, Aurora the heir of the War-Queen Alleb. Sunk deep into the magma that underlies the isle, secure behind shields of adamant and the sickly glow of fractured atoms, who knows what strange ships might rise from its twin docking ports?
Not I, and I choose not to find out. Though we are low on fuel, I order the Helmsman to bring the ship about. We will make for friendlier skies, and put the endless feuding of Plortitics behind us.
With no offence intended to any of you radiation-spewing maniacs. ^_~ The position of each city is based on your Left/Right result (Socialism/Capitalism) and your 'Liberal'/Authoritarian result. The height of the land is based on how Constructivist you are, while the height of your dock is based on how Regulationist you are (the idea being that sticking the ports in orbit is the Health&Safety-approved option, while burying yourself underground is the free market at work). Your port is sized based on how much you support Rehabilitation (since it produces a larger free population), and its number of ports (black circles in most case, any black areas on the orbital stations) comes from your Internationalism score. Finally, you get increasing levels of shields if you're more Revolutionary, and increasing radiation levels if you're less into Ecology.
All of the scales are calibrated based on the PPC's results this year, so don't be confused if you're down as low despite being above the 50% mark: literally the only one where the lowest category starts below 50% is Revolutionary. For Regulationism, you're going to be deep underground/water unless you're at 70% or more!
hS
No, this isn’t a complaint, I find this to be very amusing. Huinesoron, how did you know that I’m from Singapore? Singapore is also not visible on the world map!
What this map makes me feel: Interested. : )
I also find it funny that your state/ country is framed as the most friendly territory, and you made the map.
Thanks for making the map! ~SomeRandomPersonAccount
It's not my fault* you've built your tiny dome in the depths of the ocean.
*All right, technically it might be my fault. But in my defence, it was funny. ^_~
As for which dock would be the actual friendliest to visit... there's not much to choose from between Huinesoron and doctorlit, which are both a) medium sized, b) have lots of ports, c) only minimal shields, and d) only mild radiation. If you're happy to accept fewer docks, then the absolute best choice is Snowblaze, who is medium, 2 ports, no shields and no radiation.
hS
I’m not taking any offense to your decision. It’s funny in a way actually.
~SomeRandomPersonAccount
Everything about the cities on the map is determined by your results from the PolitiScales quiz. The size is drawn from your Rehabilitative Justice/Punitive Justice score; the vague justification is that rehabilitation increases your (non-imprisoned) population, but really it's just because I needed something to determine size, and that scale seemed most plausible.
The seaport of SomeRandomPersonAccount is small because you scored 49 on that scale; that falls into the lowest 25% of Boarders, and so (like anyone else who scored below 65% - that would be Hieronymus, Mikelus, and OrangeFox) you get the smallest size of settlement. :)
hS
I actually scored 65.5; how is this smaller than 65?
HG, frantically trying to keep his subjects from running away,
Pilot error?
Seriously, I have no idea why that happened. So just for you, a fully corrected version:
Main map post to be updated in a minute.
hS
Oddly, this is actually very appropriate; one of the things I think we as a society could use more of is nuclear power.
Would it be possible to more clearly tag the cities on the map? It's easy enough for me to locate myself, but it's rather difficult to determine which city is which in the clusters further to the left.
Aurora Morningstar, Hegemon of the Eastern Wasteland, who categorically rejects the unsubstantiated rumors of using interdimensional entities as a power source.
... but given that the captain's log duplicated Helsinki, erased Elcalion, and moved Iximaz clear across a mountain, it pretty obviously wasn't ^_^;
(I've also edited the previous post and fixed the Log.)
I do love it when things from the maps mesh well with reality. ^_^ It may please you to know that the Eastern Wastes have always been a hotbed of power: the vast fortresses of the Age of Cities, the brass tide of the Age of Brass, the anti-mana volcanoes of the Age of Mana, the Badger's anti-mana horde of the Age of Clouds, and now your very own pluranium mines.
It's not like there's even a single factor running through them: the first few were just worldplay, and the anti-mana ones came from the Regulationism scale, not the Ecology one. I guess it's just an inevitability at this point?
hS
Hello from a mountain mostly tall enough to be clear of the radiation! This is a slightly unsettling choice of metaphor, but the space stations are lovely, and the map is enlightening as always.
I really do love these maps- while the X and Y axes are given a certain degree of authority, they manage to fit many-dimensional data into a very understandable format!
Equality · Humanity · Socialism
She sits firmly ensconced in the lowest-leftmost position on the plot (at least so far).
Map is in the works; I'm up to 9 people done, 12 to go. I'm not slow - I'm meticulous.
hS
But I'm strongly opposed.
So, my motto changed again, and the flag is not as boring as last time. I tried to be less indecisive this time, but this test isn’t made for somebody who is always overthinking. In too many cases I would like to qualify my answer with something like "I can imagine circumstances where this would be true, so I cannot absolutely disagree, but it is certainly not applicable to the current situation in my country".
HG
There were several questions, like "it is acceptable that there are rich and poor people", where I couldn't help but read double meanings- on one level, yes, as long as we live in a capitalist society, there will be people with more and people with less. However, on the other hand, the immense wealth inequality in the United States today is a huge problem- we've gone far beyond "more and less" and are now at "all or nothing", which I could read the question as asking me to endorse.
There were nastier ones, too, which I'm copying down as I take the survey: the acceptability of violence in political processes comes up a few times, which gets difficult to answer when there are fascists around. "It is a small group that consciously and secretly controls the world" could either be mostly-true (billionaires) or an incredibly racist dog-whistle. "A good citizen is a patriot" could be read many ways, depending on how you parse "patriot", and "we need to make compromises with the opposition" makes perfect sense until the opposition are authoritarians following a would-be tinpot dictator.
All that to say: Equality, Humanity, Socialism!
(No map as yet - I left my generator on a different computer. Tomorrow.)
Overall, it's interesting to note that the 'lowest' results in a lot of cases were taken by the people with a lot of neutral answers - ie, they're only 'low' because the program can't decide where they sit, so puts them in the middle. There are exceptions, particularly on that final result.
And just for fun: the left-right and progressive-conservative plots for the handful of people who a) have posted this year, and b) have results going back to 2016 or beyond:
(This is the old Political Compass plot. Or rather, it's the lower-left corner of it. ^_~)
hS
Link looks weird, I hope this works?
I've increased a bit in Reformism and dropped in . . . Ecology? I must have done some weird answers to make that happen. But the biggest change is a greater tendency towards rehabilitative justice.
I got pragmatism again, and veganism, which is weird (eating pasta with Parmesan as I type), but they're both greyed out. Incidentally, hS, you mentioned not liking pragmatism last year and this one, but it sounds like a pretty logical outlook to me. What's the problem behind it?
—doctorlit, carb-loading for breakfast
So, here's my results. Compared to last year I seem to have become significantly more internationalist, slightly more communist, and more firmly wishy-washy about revolutions (in that a lot of my answers went from "ehhh" to "yeah, kinda, sometimes" probably).
- Tomash, standing outside the Flower's offices with a picket sign since that feels pretty in-character for me these days
http://www.politiscales.net/en_US/results/?m0=71&s1=5&s0=83&t0=50&t1=19&c1=10&c0=71&femi=67&p0=31&p1=26&b0=60&b1=14&e1=29&e0=29&j0=57 Equality-Humanity-Socialism I'm surprised at my Revolution score, as I've always thought of myself as more reformist. I suppose it depends on what metrics you're using.
Seems about right. I got quite a bit of neutrality, seems that I'm cursed to always see shades of grey
http://www.politiscales.net/en_US/results/?m1=5&m0=71&e0=40&e1=36&s0=57&s1=19&c0=79&femi=38&c1=7&prag=67&p0=21&p1=38&j1=10&j0=57&b0=43&b1=5&t1=45&t0=26
It seems that either I didn't participate last year or that somehow it didn't make it into the spreadsheet (or I just didn't see it). Anyway, from what I recall, I think I've gotten more progressive and rehabilitative. I can't remember any other major differences.
EDIT: Huh, it seems that I misread the label. Hooray for misunderstandings all around? Or something? I don't know. Anyway, I'm probably very close to "Equality, Humanity, Socialism," too. Massive shrug
For space reasons more than anything else.
Looking at your results, your only big change is that you've jumped from 45 to 75% revolutionary; a pretty significant leap! You've retained your Anarchist sticker, but lost your Radical Feminist one (by dropping to a mere 86% on the hidden 'femi' score).
hS
Yeah, I keep second-guessing the questions, so it makes sense that the stickers in particular (which require answering every single relevant question the same way) would vary a bit across years.
Green. Purple. whyyyyyy.
Well done for becoming more revolutionary, Comrade hSki. =]
Think that's about the same as last year. Not really surprised, honestly.
Reasonably-priced love, and a hard-boiled egg!
http://www.politiscales.net/en_US/results/?m0=57&m1=5&t0=7&t1=40&j0=64&b1=10&b0=29&e1=26&e0=43&c0=43&c1=21&s0=76&s1=5&p0=24&p1=31&femi=33&prag=100
I feel like this might end up being the most common set of results based on other responses.
https://www.politiscales.net/en_US/results/?b0=29&b1=10&c1=40&c0=5&m0=26&m1=19&e1=17&e0=21&p0=10&p1=36&t0=5&t1=52&femi=10&reli=67&s1=24&s0=24&j1=17&j0=33
This is the saddest flag I have ever seen. Also, I think I'll try this again, except maybe being a bit more assertive of my answers.
https://www.politiscales.net/en_US/results/?s1=26&s0=40&j0=36&j1=29&e0=19&e1=21&reli=67&m0=29&m1=29&c0=14&femi=14&c1=33&p1=52&p0=14&t1=57&t0=10&b0=40&b1=10
Well, here we go... at least the flag is better.
I am not a politician but a majority of the scores are neutral.
... I can put you on the map when I make it. :)
hS
Name my state or country Question Mark land!
http://www.politiscales.net/en_US/results/?e0=43&e1=21&c1=33&c0=29&femi=38&s1=14&s0=38&b1=14&b0=38&t1=24&t0=19&j1=33&j0=31&m0=24&m1=14&p0=12&p1=14
But my flag doesn’t have a question mark :(
Apparently, I have the highest Revolution, Productivism, Laissez-Faire and Capitalism values out of the answers posted so far (economically center-right, as opposed to everyone else's left or far-left), but I'm heavily Internationalist-Progressive like everyone else. Intriguing.
Well, let's see what I get here. Although before I begin, I must say, this test can be rather irritating sometimes because it can be a little unclear what it's asking, or it gives two statements combined into one and thus commenting on them can be difficult (looking at you, "The categories 'man' and 'woman' are socially constructed categories which ought to be given up".)
http://www.politiscales.net/en_US/results/?b0=69&b1=5&t0=45&t1=33&j0=81&e0=43&e1=36&c0=83&c1=5&p0=45&p1=19&femi=57&m0=83&s0=79
Alright, let's see what we've got here... Alright, Constructivism has increased slightly, not much to say to that. Socialism has dropped a little, which, ah... I'm not sure why, honestly. If anything, I feel like I've become slightly more opposed to capitalism over the last year, so I can't tell why that change has been happening. Rehabilitative and Regulationism appear to be about where they were before. Progressivism is in much the same boat. Ecology... actually seems to have dropped a little. Huh. Not sure where that happened. Internationalism... holy cow that's a shrink what the bunny is wrong with me? And... sighs. Yeah, I suppose Revolution has increased somewhat because of recognition that yes, sometimes certain means must be employed to make change happen, even if I remain convinced that reform is better for everyone if it can be managed.
Now, pardon as I attempt to go figure out what has changed in my brain, and perhaps remedy it if it ought to be reversed.
So, now that I'm actually looking at the results from the previous years, okay, things make more sense! Certain things I had thought changed only slightly (E.G., Progessivism) have actually drastically changed, which... is honestly rather interesting, I think, but also given the current political climate I'm somehow not surprised. I don't feel like going through everything again at the moment, so I'll just say that this is honestly more in line with what I was expecting.
That was fun, even though I didn't know what a lot of those statements meant and had to answer neutral for them.
http://www.politiscales.net/en_US/results/?t0=5&t1=79&p0=60&p1=14&b1=10&b0=69&j1=5&j0=57&s0=55&s1=17&e0=64&e1=14&c1=36&c0=50&femi=24&m0=76&prag=67&vega=67
I've actually changed quite a lot since last year - I'm now much more constructivist than I was, mainly, and my motto has changed (it was "Humanity, Socialism, Justice" last time). There's also a lot more I'm unsure about. And somehow I'm both more revolutionary and more reformist.
http://www.politiscales.net/en_US/results/?b0=69&b1=5&m0=64&m1=5&s1=14&s0=83&femi=48&e0=43&e1=38&j1=12&j0=52&t1=21&t0=55&p0=48&p1=10&c1=21&c0=67&comp=67&prag=67
It feels pretty accurate, I suppose. Things of note: though I do believe capitalism is not ethical or good for our society, and believe that some traits of communism would be beneficial, I don't believe that either system is better for society, and would like to believe that someone smarter than me is working on designing a new, better system. Regarding the market and trading: The market should be regulated to some degree so that rampant abuse of power/resources doesn't happen. But it should stay free enough to the point where people can do what they want to a reasonable extent. Lastly, revolution. There's a lot of good which can come from reforming a system from within, and there is a lot of evidence to support that. However, I am a firm believer in that when wealth and power becomes incredibly concentrated, that reform becomes impossible from within, and needs to be taken by force. There are some things you can't change without revolt. Anyways, an interesting and fun test! I'm going to compare it to last year's results later and see what's changed.
It's saying I need to request access to see it.
I'll have to take the test later, but I've got a sneaking suspicion I've moved farther left as well.
I meant to link the published version, but... didn't. ^_^
Oddly enough, I'm technically down as moving fractionally to the Right. I didn't mention it because a) that's embarrassing, but also b) what the full results show is that I've actually just eroded the middle ground. My Socialism score as such has actually increased (62>64); it's just that half of my 'eh' section has been switched to Capitalism. Goodness knows what caused that, though.
hS