Left-wing operation Center for American Progress has an interactive quiz called, "The Progressive Quiz," that evaluates how progressive or conservative you are. Let's see what they think of my answers. According to the quiz I got 102/400, with 400 being a full-blown communist progressive. This makes me "very conservative." Supposedly the average score for Americans is 209.5.
Either this quiz is horribly designed, or is yet another representation of just how clueless and out of touch the activist left is with ordinary Americans. If someone like me qualifies as "very conservative," what does that make Rush Limbaugh? This type of attitude is typical of the fringes on both left and right, the tendency to label even moderate political opponents as far right or far left. When people are ideological extremists themselves, anyone who disagrees with some of their fundamental beliefs is automatically labeled as an extreme political enemy.
I got 212/400. This makes me "progressive," according to a group that espouses ideas and policies which are generally between somewhere between "bad ideas" to "objectionable". The "test" is obviously a recruiting tool, just like the famous "two-axis diamond" test makes nearly everyone a libertarian: "See, you're really one of us because you agree with us on cherry-picked issues we don't really devote a lot of effort into!"
ReplyDeleteContrast "changes in the traditional American family have harmed society" with "there should be stronger regulation of sex and violence in popular culture and on the Internet" - the first is an opinion about culture, the second is an opinion about policy (in relation to culture). Either the quiz is about cultural attitudes or about political views, but trying to combine them will distort the results.
ReplyDelete"The "test" is obviously a recruiting tool, just like the famous "two-axis diamond" test makes nearly everyone a libertarian"
ReplyDeleteYes, I agree, including about the libertarian one. I've seen some decent political quizzes, but those two aren't among them.
"Either the quiz is about cultural attitudes or about political views, but trying to combine them will distort the results. "
True. If you have to interpret it and decide which interpretation to go with, it's not a good question.
120 here.
ReplyDelete