Naming the Compass: Liqs, Ulqs, Lurks and Urqs
As you know, we’ve been trying to move away from the political descriptors like “left” and “right” to the Political Compass, which plots your political views on two axes – libertarian/authoritarian as well as left/right.
The problem is that until now there’s been no easy way to describe a position on the grid. But a recent mapping exercise by Unrepentant Old Hippy reminded us of this critical lacuna in blogdom, and we set the Bunker Research Bureau to the task.
A few months ago the BRB introduced the term URQ (short for Upper Right Quadrant), and that seems to have caught on. So tonight we’re going to baptize the other three quadrants, shown above.
Lower Left Quadrant folks (libertarian lefties), where most of the Bunker familly live, will henceforth be referred to as LLQs, pronounced “Licks“.
Upper Left Quadrant Dwellers (authoriarian lefties) are now ULQs, pronounced “Ulks“, like “hulks”.
The URQs, of course, have their name already – sounds like Urks. (Sorta Tolkienesque, no?)
And finally, right wing libertarians become LRQs, or “Lurks“.
Whaddya think? Does it work for you?
Nice. I like being lick.
Such energy and purposefulness all over the graph. Where is the place for we tired fogeys who just like to say no to everybody and then call it an early night?
balb, don’t you think there is something amusing and quintissentially Canadian about how most of the bloggers that took the test battle heroically all day long as if their lives depended on it and then find themselves all squished together in one little corner? No wonder the rest of the world tends to sees us as a tad on the dull side.
“Where is the place for we tired fogeys who just like to say no to everybody and then call it an early night?”
My dear fellow, you’ve found it. Welcome to the Bunker, where a riotous evening is one where we actually can stay awake reading past 10.
As for the squishing in one little corner…I suspect that’s because the grid was being filled in by readers of Unrepentant Old Hippie, whose very sobriquet suggests a Lick-heavy readership.
Whooee! Well, I come out just about dead centre in the LLQ. My party of choice comes out slightly into the URQ, though. Looks like the Greens is closest to the centre by the Compass’s judgment. I was just over to janfromthebruce’s boog where she’s showing that her own position is down and to the left of her party’s spot. Interestingly enough, she’s almost exactly the same distance and direction from the Dippers as I am from the Greenies.
WRT the parties’ positions, it would be interesting to see where the parties draw their supporters from. I’d be interested in knowing if there are a lot of Greens who are as far away from the party in the opposite direction as me; i.e. are there a lot of Greens out past the CPC in the URQ? Are there Dippers who place about where the Lib’s are in the URQ?
JB
What I find strange is how many of the people the world would generally judge to be Good Guys share the Lick Quadrant with us. There aren’t that many heroes anywhere else.
I’d noticed that before and I’m happy to be included in the same quadrant as Gandhi, Mandela and the Dalai Lama. I reckon it depends on who you figger are the good guys, though. Some URQ’s probably like it that their URQ leader, King Steve, is well-positioned in the URQ sector. Interesting how many URQs are currently holding power. http://www.politicalcompass.org/analysis2.
JB
Meanwhile Ayn Rand and Milton Friedman sit glumly, all alone, while we party over here on pizza and shrooms, the Urqs enjoy world domination, and the Ulqs – well, at least they get great uniforms. Pope Benedict, especially.
You haven’t established two axes which are truly orthogonal. Your have an endpoint on each axis which is essentially “individualism”.
If Harper is “authoritarian” enough to lie above the centre of your vertical axis, the state policies of Hitler and Mussolini should place them both to the left on your horizontal axis. They wrote, spoke, and governed in terms of leading the people, not the persons.
As I’ve written here before, you might try the Pournelle Axes (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pournelle_chart), which at least have the benefit of being the outcome of a scholarly journey. You will still enjoy the pleasure of placing “conservatives” in the “fascist” quadrant.
Thanks, IrC. Also, I noticed when doing my analysis of “Harold and Kumar Escape From Guantanamo” that the foliage depicted during scenes ostensibly shot in Alabama were more typical of Louisiana. This anomaly has troubled me greatly.
“…Unrepentant Old Hippie, whose very sobriquet suggests a Lick-heavy readership.”
LOL, that’s a keeper.
I gather you either don’t understand or don’t care that your “compass” really only points in two directions?
It’s more a matter of expressing amusement at your somewhat (forgive me) pedantic comment on an instrument that is intended for amusement, not in depth analysis. Thus my comparison.
I am unamused balbulican.
You put Stalin in the upper left quadrant? I think not. Without question the Great Leader Chairman Mao Zedong himself rightly belongs there. What were you thinking?
And what is that homely little bald man in the lower left quadrant doing there? Mohandas Gandhi is the best you could come up with? Being far to modest to ask this question himself I will presume to ask on his behalf….. why is not the image of our esteemed leader there?
These mistakes have not gone unnoticed in other official places who have made their displeasure known to me and, as I noted, I am not amused.
It is apparent that decadent western living has had a negative effect on your previous education, there was a time that these mistakes would never have happened – and if they had it would have been you bringing them to the attention of the party.
You will present yourself to Max in the bunker re-education facility at 0500 hours tomorrow morning. She has received formal instructions from Zhong Guo as to the appropriate method of correcting errors in your thought process – do not keep her waiting, the consequences of doing so would no doubt be…… unpleasant.
We will speak further of this at the next formal meeting of the collective.
Yours in the Great Struggle
L. Cheung
And I’m happy to be included in the same quadrant as…nobody, at least until today’s photo of That Woman appeared
Me is LRQ.
My upward and leftward drift continues.
Economic – -7.62
Social – -5.13
I wonder why?
Rand believed in a monopoly on the use of force by a limited govt. She was absolutely completely utterly disgusted with Libertarians and especially with anarchists.
Meaghan: That’s true. She missed her own point.
Roy Childs for details.
lrC:
The distortion doesn’t lie in the number of directions the compass points to. It lies in the assumption that everyone can be defined ideologically.
@lrC – First off lrC, referring to the political compass as our anything is incorrect.
Secondly the political compass is a method, and my chosen method, of highlighting how fundamentally useless the terms “right” and “left” are as political descriptors.
Are there different ways: yes
Is there a definitive method: doubtful
Are there better ways: probably, depending on what you are trying to accomplish.
Surely there is something amusing about watching Canadians argue about where they place themselves on a graph bounded by Hitler, Stalin, Rand and Gandhi. Let’s not forget the hot-button election issues were a 5% cut in the arts budget and whether we like the States a little or a lot, and that our notions of below-the-belt, underhanded political rhetoric ran to accusing the other side’s leader of a lack of empathy or poor second language skills. I suspect the rest of the world would put us all almost smack in the middle.
It’s a national strength to be sure, but it is funny, no?
Gandhi wasn’t Canadian? I assumed he was from Hobbema or something.
Yer maybe thinkin’ of Mohandas’s Canajun cousin, Maple Sugar Gandhi.