The PPC Posting Board - Latest posts

1°) I guess I'd be somewhere on the left. I think entreprises have responsabilities beyond their bottom line and the idea of mondial regulation for finances, and taxes on transactions seem legit for me and that the state has obligations about its citizens. In the same time, I think social aides shouldn't be a crutch for people to live off the rest of society, unless they cannot reallistically apply for a job.

Now the situation in France... Oh boy. Precedent rigt president was not liked at all by the end of his term, but actual left president managed to make 'better' about this (and give up an eco-tax fairly important because a few... protesters with red caps in a region of the country didn't agree >:().

We've got elections next spring, but he still intend to run for left, despite the fact he 'promised' to not run if the situation was as ducked up as she is actually, meaning that other people at the party want the canddature at left, to the point where other just left the party to prepare their own campaign.

And the right is in the same state because the ex-president, who had 'retired' from political life, is coming for the candidature for the right, leading to another micmac like the one in the left.

Only party going well is far-right, where the daughter of the precedent leader there, who was someone with a murky background at best, has succeeded in selling her... message, when she's as much a racist as dearest daddy. She cannot win second turn of the election, but is almost certain of going there.

I'd vote for the left, provied they change of leader. If not... I'll still vote, if only for not giving their victory to the far right nutjobs vaunting the success of 'Brexit', forgetting these nutjobs jumped off the ship as soon as possible...

Wikipedia* says "some commentators, such as Jagdish Bhagwati, see developed countries [sic] efforts in imposing their own labor or environmental standards as protectionism."

I... kind of raise my eyebrows at that. On the one hand, I kinda get how it could be seen as keeping the little man down, since developed countries may have had more opportunity to come up with technologies and approaches that are more labor- and environment-friendly, where as developing countries may not have the same resources... but on the other hand, if the developing countries of the world can skip ahead to better practices, that sounds like a good idea? Can we maybe help with that?

* or at least someone who edited Wikipedia once

~Neshomeh

Last year, I had -5.63 for Right/Left, and -5.59 For Authoritarain/Liberrtarian.

New scores would be -4.38 for Eco and -5.54 for Social. Not exactly sure why I moved right in Economics like this, but they still need to add neutral answers as an option.

I'm a socialist. For more or less the reasons hS gives: I think it is hypocritical to have this national ideal that the human rights are "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness," and yet stymie all of those. With wealth caps when given the chance - health care costs money (…life?), college costs not money so much as "the rest of your life in debt," (life, and also… happiness?), if you're arrested for nigh-on anything, the difference between liberty and bondage is just how much money you have.

And that doesn't even touch on how this impacts people of color more harshly in all cases. BUT, of course, being an historian, I'm aware the US was founded on those ideals (the difference being that pursuit of happiness was initially listed as private property rights, which included, of course, slices), with the heavy caveat being "if you are a propertied white man." Nonetheless, I think they'd be good things to have if we could get them to work for all people.

…another factor is that the US has been stuck in the Cold War for the past 60-70 years, and it may have doomed the planet, so the sooner we get out of that idiocy, the sooner there's hope for all of us.

The current political situation here, as far as I can tell, is that the Conservative party in our country, in their increasingly radical attempts to put down the left and characterize their opponents as evil monsters of in-American evil, has finally overstepped to the point where they can no longer support their own weight (because most conservatives might support laws against making insurance companies pay for birth control, but they won't support someone who brags about sexual assault; likewise, most conservatives might support immigration restrictions and racial profiling in general, but they won't go for actual Nazis), and fractured heavily. Since they'd become a huge drag on the government's ability to function lately (ie, when they were a majority they blocked the president, when they were a minority they filibustered or threatened to filibuster every time they couldn't get their way, and most recently they decided to defy precedent and law because of sheer orneriness and not wanting to lose the Supreme Court), I'm applauding. Maybe the left can finally have a chance to effect real change now.

Part of your answer is that the questions are often deliberately ambiguous: they want to know not just your answer, but (by way of that answer) what you think the question means.

I actually 'agree'd with that one too (sorry, Scape!); my thought process is that outsourcing and importing can lead to far bigger crashes in domestic industry than it benefits the other countries. A related thought - though one that I admit I didn't have at the time - is that a major reason companies operate overseas is that regulations are weaker there. If your clothing company can manufacture in Bangladesh, they can skimp on both wages and safety for the workers. 'Protectionism' - in the sense of encouraging domestic manufacture rather than trade - seems to me to be (partly) an anti-sweatshop technique.

hS

The protectionism question in the Political Compass always trips me up. I answered "agree" to that one thinking "sure, sometimes we penalize countries who are doing awful things by making it harder for them to sell their stuff here, so yes, sometimes," but reading your post, I'm not entirely certain that's a correct interpretation...?

(And yes, everyone should have access to decent health care, and yes, our military could stand a fair reduction in budget. Even they don't want all the stuff they keep getting, AFAIK. And if we could all just quit with the nukes, I'd feel a lot better. Agree with hS that, until everyone gets on board, getting rid of the military entirely isn't a choice, though.)

~Neshomeh

My outlook on life is that the only real value in any human behavior is in serving our species and our planet. It's everyone's job to support each other, and to ensure the long-lasting nature of the human species and the planet it calls home.

So I have little respect for the political parties, especially the big two in the United States, because their only goals are to be self-sustaining and serve their own interests, to the detriment of average citizens. (I also have no respect for large businesses that think their only purpose is to keep amassing larger amounts of never-used money in their bank accounts, rather than to provide a quality service or product to society.) Hence, I vote based on what an individual candidate seems likely to do for the community and the people who live in it.

The current U.S. presidential election is a difficult one for me. I frankly don't want either big party candidate elected. Trump quite simply is not a leader in any way, and is likely to have any policies he puts forward influenced by his clearly bigoted and prejudiced views. The only positive thing I can see coming out of a Trump presidency is that he's not likely to send U.S. troops to deal with any random conflict that doesn't directly affect our country out of a sense of "peacekeeping," but I'm also quite worried his temper and argumentativeness will get us into another war with a far more dangerous power. Clinton will be a more competent leader, but I also feel, after the years she and her husband have spent in politics, that she's potentially in the pockets of Gan knows how many corporate interests. The couple have also left a trail of bodies behind them from cover-ups—I know some people consider that a nutty conspiracy theory, but frankly, there's just too much evidence for me to dismiss it. So even though I think she would do the job well, there's so much darkness in her past that I don't feel she deserves to be rewarded for her actions with the presidency.

For very personal reasons, I also refuse to vote for anyone in the Libertarian party, because members of that party attempted to run me over while I was walking home from the bus stop one day. (My mom was working as personal secretary to Arizona Secretary of State Jane Hull at the time, and the implied drive-by was meant as a threat to Hull's office.) So I basically have terrible options in this election overall. Green Party? Probably Green Party.

So yeah. I don't really know what to call myself, and I don't particularly care what political label applies. Again, the parties don't matter; people and planet do.

—Fun fact: The first exposure doctorlit had to Tolkien was watching the animated Hobbit film on a VHS tape in Secretary Hull's living room, because I was sick out from school, and had to go to "work" with Mom. He still has trouble watching the scene with Gollum to this day.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1N2H6rRhmn1gxTOfooQnQBYapCHteZ5cgouzeUk3TJnw/edit?usp=sharing

Also, would anyone like to do a cowrite with me? It doesn't have to be this story.

During Ix' flashback, wouldn't she be able to identify a wand, or was it a gun?

Sounds like a very evil story.

I feel rather sick this morning. If I have the energy, I will be happy to read. If not, then we have to postpone. Sorry.

We've just seen Alleb cheerfully declare that she's twice as far right-of-centre as the most right-wing result we've ever seen. People may be inclined to argue and disagree with her, and even try to persuade her she's wrong, but no-one's going to attack her for it, or assume she speaks for everyone. (Heck, look at me and ScapeDownWithCapitalismGrace disagreeing over stuff when we're hanging around on the far left together - it would be rank hypocrisy to say 'you must share everything with other people in your region!' after that!)

hS

Economic Left/Right: -7.5
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -4.51

I actually feel like I understood most of the questions this time! For some questions I wish there was a "sometimes" option, though, or a "yes, on its face, but—".

~Neshomeh

I agree unreservedly with the first point. When it comes to human rights - and I think health is pretty high on everyone's list of those - allowing corporations to free-market their way into charging vast amounts for them is just... wrong, in my view. Which is why I view the current ongoing sale of chunks of the NHS to private corporations with abject horror. A National Health System is one of the best and greatest things ever to come out of the UK, but for decades now it's been whittled away. The Cameron/May governments have just been accelerating that.

The military, though... while I would also call myself a pacifist, I disagree that war is unnecessary. It's unnecessary if everyone agrees it is. If the world consisted solely of North America and Western Europe, then absolutely: throw out the weapons and invest in a dove factory (disclaimer: I have no idea how they build doves). But it doesn't. We have North Korea. We have ISIS. We have Russia, which seems worryingly inclined to revert to conquering swathes of territory (anyone remember the Crimea? It's still Russian, these days, and Ukraine can't do a thing about it).

We don't live in a world where you can scrap the military, both because it's a deterrent against other people acting, and because sometimes the only way to help people outside your borders is to get down there and shoot - or at least threaten into submission - the people who are ruining their country.

Is the US military oversized? Probably! Probably so is ours, actually; I would be happy to see both reduced to some extent. But right now, in this world, they need to exist. (Though if we could get a proper strong UN Peacekeeping Force in play... no? No? Dang.)

hS

I'm 7.38 on the Economic Left/Right, and -1.33 on the Social Libertarian/Authoritarian. I'm not as far down on the Libertarian-ness as I thought I would be; and, apparently, I'm closest to EA U in politics. Interesting.

Here's me on le map.

-Alleb

By which I mean, he needs to accept that the modern left is a post-nationalist, globalist effort that cannot and should not favour economic protectionism; letting drug companies dictate the prices of their medicines is forcing the sick and the dying to negotiate with people who have everything to gain. Without a single buyer like the NHS, drug companies hold all the cards; with a single buyer, the patients can get the care and medicine they need without breaking the bank (or, for instance, being forced to pay hundreds of dollars to hold their baby after giving birth to it what is wrong with you people). That, I think, is what he should be advocating for rather than this proposition.

Additionally, while it's a supremely unpopular position in the US, I would personally like to see massive cuts to the insanely bloated defence budget - but I would counter the bad PR of this with an expansion of veterans' benefits. I'm a pacifist; I do not believe that war is even slightly necessary, and while I have the greatest respect for those who choose to enter military service, militarism and those services have been running roughshod over the political landscape for far, far too long. The United States, with a population somewhere north of three hundred million people, is the only country in which military personnel constitute a voting demographic, and the existence of such an enormous military bothers me considerably. I reiterate that my problem is not with the soldiers, sailors, airmen, and everyone else; my problem is with the scale of their budget and the interventionist hawks who shout from the rooftops that the US military must be deployed anywhere and everywhere someone said a mean thing about America/Americans/McDonalds/Nike/Coca-Cola (delete as appropriate).

I recognise that that's idealistic. That's the thing about idealism, though; it's about aiming for the moon and hitting a star instead.

In my case, a red star. =]

And whatever else you might think of them, Republicans are excellent at marching in lockstep, regardless of whether or not it's in their interest. However, forcing the Republicans to switch gears so drastically is going to take money they might not have and time they definitely don't, so I don't think there's going to be as much of a gridlock as people think.

Put it this way: Trump's presidential campaign is such a lost cause that he might lose Utah to a local independent. This is a good thing. However, WE CANNOT BE COMPLACENT. Complacency is how Brexit happened. Get out the vote. Make people vote for Clinton. Don't let another Nader issue happen again. Don't follow the pattern established by Maine's last two gubernatorial elections. Please. For the sake of the rest of the planet, vote Democrat this year. Mass action doesn't work if the people don't mass, and the easiest way to delay mass action is to appeal to individual disengagement, to convince people that no, their vote does not matter. Your vote matters, your vote counts. Vote for who you want, but please, I implore you to vote for Clinton. Vote for someone who will appoint left-leaning SCOTUS judges. Vote against a posing, grunting dictator who belongs in a banana republic.

Seriously, 2016 has me in a very Left state of mind. It's a sucky year. :(

hS

Death to the capitalist oppressor, &c. My social position has apparently moderated by a tenth of a point, though, so maybe that's indicative of something. =]

If people want to Political Compass themselves up again (we've done it two years running, after all), I could be convinced to make another map/chart of us all.

This year I've apparently swung dramatically left - I'm at -8.0 Economic, whereas I was -6.75 last year and -6.50 the year before. I've also continued my slight shimmy upwards: -5.54 Social, compared to -6.31 and -6.56.

The Political Compass is right here. There's no need to be shy about posting your results. (And yes, there's no neutral option on the questions. As they say in the FAQ, "This makes it too easy for people to duck difficult issues. By forcing people to take a positive or negative stance, the propositions make people really evaluate their feelings. Often people find they wanted to select 'don't know' mainly because they'd never really thought about the idea."

If you took part last year, and want to see how you've changed, the thread is here. And the set from 2014 is around here on the Altchives.

I wonder how many people I can track across the map...

hS

I mean, the whole left-right thing is a mess anyway, and varies wildly between countries. But I suggest you not say you're far-right, because that usually translates as fascist/racist/nationalist, which isn't what you're saying.

The Political Compass site instead uses a 2D spectrum: it has a horizontal left/right line, which is basically 'how much control should the government have over the market'. On that one you do come down as far-right ('entirely free market'), while I perch out on the left ('capitalists don't make people happy').

They also have a vertical social axis, which they run from 'authoritarian' to 'libertarian'; it seems to be 'how much should the government control what people are allowed to do'. On that scale, you're somewhere down at the bottom, again as you might expect.

The interesting point is that most people fall on a straight line from Libertarian Left to Authoritarian Right. The Libertarian Right (and Authoritarian Left) quadrants are usually empty.

So lookit that! You're a special snowflake. ^^

We actually played around with the Political Compass site this time last year - it seems to be an annual thing - and I ended up mapping everyone who responded to the thread. It kind of demonstrates what I just said:



The axes aren't quite the website's 0/0 lines - I was plotting people relative to each other, not to an arbitrary scale - but the spacing is accurate. You're probably swimming somewhere in the south-eastern ocean. Hope you brought a life jacket...

hS

PS:

The great continent of Plortitics is a land divided. Of course. Because they all are.

The main hub of civilisation is the great Central City, where the towns of PoorCynic, Elcalion, Phobos, Iximaz, Hieronymus, James Shields, and World-Jumper have joined together in a metropolis to astound the world. Under the protective aegis of Central City, the villages of Huinesoron, ratbrainbasher, and SeaTurtle prosper. So too do the twin port-towns of DawnFire and eatpraylove, but they do not go uncontested.

The nomads of the Great Desert have begun to band together. Trading ports have sprung up at Seafarer in the south and Sergio Turbo in the north, and there are rumours of a city to rival Central growing out in the wastes, at Desdendelle-Darkotas. Yet relations between the civilised peoples and the nomads are friendly - they are allies against other powers.

The northerly Grand Forest is home to woodsmen of unparalleled skill; all the technology of Central City cannot rout them from their tree-bound fastness. Their hidden refuge of Pippa's Ghost is guarded by the fastnesses of JulyFlame, Irish Samurai, and sonof_heaven176.

And far to the east, explorers in the Towering Mountains have reported two vast fortresses, teeming with warriors. None know their alliegence, but whispered rumours have assigned them names: Dark Brother and Uber Overlord.

And that is all... save, perhaps, for the peoples who live west of the Fabled River. The villages at Artell, Scapegrace, and VixenMage are small and humble... but legends tell of a vast, deserted metropolis buried at Kaitlyn, an ancient power long-since forgotten... at least, forgotten by those east of the river...

~hS

What is, exactly, Anarcho-capitalism? Why is government immoral? Why do you think we can manage without government?

I am right. Very right. As in, take a long walk down to the far end of the political pier, jump off into the murky waters no one seems to know exist, and you should see me, struggling to make sense of the world.

In all seriousness, though, I'm an Anarcho-capitalist. However, since I very much doubt any of my political or social views will gain much traction in my lifetime, I pretty much just lump myself in with the Libertarian party and hope for the best.
As to the why, that can largely be summed up as, "I don't think government is moral, and I think we can manage without it."

As for my opinions on my country's current politics... It's a mess, plain and simple.

And as for who I would support, I don't know Clinton's policies well enough to have a real opinion on her, much less vote for her, Trump needs to be smacked in the face with a trout, and the last candidate to win on a third party ticket was Abraham Lincoln. So, no one. So far as I know it's too late for me to register anyway.