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Ryan.

By Ryan.
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I'm almost in the bottom left corner.

 

 

I think I ended up two to the right and one above the bottom-left quadrant, but as noted, really don't think it's a very good measure. The questions carry too many assumptions about one's interpretation of a particular sophisticated problem or concept, and then compact that into a score of +2 to -2.

 

Here's how silly it is. Let's look at a topic and try to grade it on a +2 to -2 scale, +2 being "strongly support," -2 being "strongly oppose." Except this time it's a little expanded.

 

Q. Satellite nations are exploited by economic superpower nations.

 

That's a quick +2 for any liberal is it not? ... but what if your brand of liberalism doesn't agree with the concept of satellite nations per se, or you feel like non-state actors have superceded state actors in power and global socio-political influence? Then it's not really a question anymore of exploitation of, say, Vietnam by America, or African nations by China, it's an entirely different interpretive framework of the same actions. Extraordinarily monied bodies are global, not domestic, and their influence buys them the means of exploitation, a burden borne by whom - the voting public? Where are the options, and are they informed? Is information available, or suppressed? Accurate, or polemical? Can people who have to fight their governments for harmless facts and who might as well give up when it comes to finding out anything meaningful be held as ethically accountable for the actions of what may be difficult-to-categorize global powers that make nations basically epiphenomena at the same mercy of the exploited nations? In trade, cost of living improvements. In trade, humanity. At fault - how to say?

 

Or, for a dyed in the wool conservative, an easy -2, isn't it! After all, the free market has led to labor outsourcing to those who will accept the lowest wage. Except there are a lot of more nuanced conservative opinions, too, who would note the economic incentives and comparative regulatory schemes of various countries mean that there's not really a "free market" at all, just a more sophisticated global capitalism which rewards those with the most concentrated influence and power by allowing them unfair access to and control of the political process of all nations. Without fairness, the idea of a truly free market is warped, and will in all circumstances favor monopoly - not at all an outcome that free market advocate-thinkers would predict in a truly free market, as people would (at least in neoliberal capitalism's preference utilitarian ethics) value factors both tangible and intangible, exceeding the markedly limited permutations available in a system that is currently effectively monopolized by corporations-personae to the diminution of state actors. So that -2 isn't really very easy to grant after all, as the starting premises beg the question against a different and preferred economic structure.

 

Problems of language, problems of principle, it's an ineffective poll as none of the issues it asks about are really -22 except for the most vacant ones, like astrology. (Who are the people that answer -1 or 1 on astrology? "I mean, yeah, kinda the stars and their alignment with planetary bodies and stuff determines everything, but not, you know, 100%." What?)

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amp_surgeon Newbie

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pcgraphpng.php?ec=-1.38&soc=-1.74

I woulda been dead center if the questions would have had a neutral option, but the closest you can get is agree or disagree. I didn't strongly agree or disagree with any of those. The world isn't that starkly black and white, though there was a time in my life when it seemed that way.

"from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" - How many of you knew this was a quote from Karl Marx? :rolleyes:
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"from each according to his ability, to each according to his need" - How many of you knew this was a quote from Karl Marx?
:rolleyes:

 

Hopefully everybody? ... I mean, if you're going to know one Marxist principle, that's the one. It's the contact high of Marx quotables.

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