You Can’t Label Me! (UPDATED)
Oct 20th, 2007 by Micah Tillman
Since I spend a lot of time pondering political identity, I decided to get a computer to tell me mine. Here is what it said:
| You are a Social Liberal (75% permissive) and an… Economic Conservative (80% permissive) You are best described as a:Libertarian (80e/75s)
Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid |
What I think is especially interesting is the company it places me in. If you take the test yourself, it provides a third version of the graph with the pictures of famous people at various places in each quadrant. (I would include it from a screen-shot, but I’m afraid of copyright violations. You’ll just have to take the test yourself to see it).
Here’s a description of who’s where:
Bottom right-hand corner is Gandhi, bottom left-hand corner is Stalin, upper left-hand corner is someone I can’t recognize (almost completely obscured by O’Reilly), and upper right-hand corner is the Unabomber.
A Pope (JPII?), John Kerry, Robert Redford, Adam Sandler, and Donald Trump circle the center, counterclockwise, starting at 9 o’clock and ending at 12.
Joining Stalin in the lower left are bin Laden and Vader. Above bin Ladin, straddling the upper and lower halves is Falwell.From left to right in the upper left quadrant is O’Reilly, Reagan, and Bush.
Kerry is in the middle of the graph, though slightly below center. If you follow Kerry to Redford, you are heading to the bottom right-hand corner of the graph and encounter Hillary Clinton, Bono, and Gandhi (who is in the corner, as I said) in that order.
Gorbachev is to Hillary’s left, on the center axis near the bottom of the graph. MLK Jr. is on the right-hand side of the graph, straddling the upper and lower halves.
Working clockwise around the upper right quadrant from MLK Jr. (at 4:30) you have: Adam Sandler (6 o’clock), Trump (9 o’clock), some crazy-looking guy I don’t recognize (at the very top, straddling the economically permissive axis), some founding father-looking person I regrettably do not recognize (12 o’clock) (on whose chest is my icon) and the Unabomber in the top right hand corner.
Notably absent is Hitler.
I’ll have some more to say about why this test is inadequate later, but for now this is long enough.
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[...] Oct 20th, 2007 by Micah Tillman My lovely wife thought it would be amusing to take the test herself and have me put her results up so you can see for yourself why our relationship is . . . interesting . . . for yourself. (see my results below) [...]
I was on ‘The Donald’s’ picture. I see you were up by the Unibomber.
What I think is silly about this test, besides the obvious, is how it feeds into a notion that ones political identity is consistent and whole. The political demands of today may not, and probably will not, be what they are in 20 or 50 years. In other words, the kind of archetypal identity this test pre-supposes is only possible in a world where change and real political struggle is not.
Steve–
Kind of freaky ain’t it?
pdx–
Think so? I’m not so skeptical about identity.
But you’re right that change and internal contradiction (the former often driven by the latter) have to be taken into account to get a fuller understanding of oneself.
I mean to emphasize the over-time aspect that I really only brought up in the second part of that comment. Of course we are a relatively consistent and whole political identity at any given moment, if only in a purely practical sense. The appeal to (archetypical) images is what I’m really commenting on, because it suggests a much more long-term, if not essentialist character to these so-called political identities. These kind of identities, and the ideologies that supposedly constitute them, are not able to interact with history and change.
I suddenly want to be labeled. Here I go again, that longstanding desire to objectify myself. Can’t shake it.
I suspect I will find myself in your quadrant. If so, I will wave to when I get there. *smiles*
I am going to take the test now.
Dang. I’m a Socialist. Even more so than your wife. Who knew?
*waving from another quadrant*
Oh no! *looks shocked*
I might have to bar you from commenting on my site.
Just kidding. ;-)
pdx–
That sounds right to me, but I’m not familiar enough with the theory “archetypal images” to make my reply any more substantive.
What’s the history of the phrase? Anything to do with Jung?
Philosophers do worry about how something unchangeable deals with time and process.
[...] 21st, 2007 by Micah Tillman I promised to say something about why I thought the political identity test was [...]
[...] interactions with the idea of political identity, and pdxstudent’s informed responses (here, here, and here) that there’s something artificially limiting about labeling yourself through the [...]
I landed square on Robert Redford’s forehead. Social liberal; economic moderate. Yeah, sure…. :)
I found the statements inane; I could write a whole paper on what I really thought about each statement. :)
I would like to see that series of papers. You could turn them into a book!
I think the deal is that the more you want the government to stay out of people’s way, the more “liberal” it calls you on social issues and the more “conservative” it calls you on economic issues. It takes “liberal” and “permissive” to be synonymous in social realms, and antithetical in economic realms.
The terms should be synonymous in both (”liberal,” after all, is derived from the same root as “liberty”) but etymology and usage so often diverge.
That was a really cool sounding sentence. Two points for me.
The Founding Father you didn’t recognize was Thomas Jefferson.
Really? *looks ashamed* I thought it might be him, but when I ran a Google Image search, I couldn’t find any portraits that looked like the one in the graph.
I’m honored!
Just speculating on the other two you didn’t recognize, but I think the crazy looking guy is Ted Nugent and the guy obscured by O’Reilly is Winston Churchill. The ideologies would be about right with Nugent being a conservative libertarian and Churchill being a solid down-the-line conservative.
Hmmm… You may be onto something.
But if that’s Churchill, they’re calling him a fascist.
Hey, you’re right. Of course, then it must be Mussolini which explains the military hat which puzzled me when I thought it was Churchill.
Oh! You know what . . . . I wish I had the picture in front of me now, but I think you’re right.
[...] do about political theory, so I can’t give as definite a “Thumbs Up” to this quiz as I did to the “political identity” quiz I took a little while back. SHARETHIS.addEntry({ title: “The Test Says I’m Paul Tillich”, url: [...]
Hurray for me! I’m a socialist! I couldn’t be Paul Tillich on that other stupid test, but at least I get to be a socialist!