Accurate political compass of websites, or nah?

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[–]Caesar_was_right 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This is pretty darn accurate, I share the same space as Reddit but very very rarely agree with them.

The issue is that political compass doesn't tell the whole story. I find more often than not that the reason for a belief is far more indicative of an ideology than these coordinates. Unlike left vs right, authoritarian vs libertarian don't necessarily differ in morals, just methods.

Some examples:

Both an authoritarian and a libertarian may agree that abortion is immoral. The authoritarian believes it is the duty of the state to dictate this morality, and the libertarian believes it is the duty of the individual. To someone opposing this belief, there is no difference. If one were to say on Reddit, "abortion is immoral", Reddit will read "I believe exactly as you do not, and therefor have every belief you do not". Which creates the illusion of the hive-mind that is referenced.

Another good example from the other side is shared wealth and shared burdens. An authoritarian believes it is the state's duty to dictate what wealth is to be shared and how it is to be shared, but the libertarian believes it is a moral obligation to disperse wealth. Someone on Voat would see "You believe there should be no private property and therefor are for everything I am against." The difference is that Voat's method of censorship is negative user... review.

[–]Tom_Bombadil 6 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 0 fun7 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think it's a mistake to try to find a political location along narrow set of axis.

The metric should be the communities:

  • Willingness to consider opposing views points based on evidence
  • degree of intellectual flexibility/freedom that the community allows for those who haven't been exposed to new/suppressed facts/info (allowing them to get caught up)
  • Acceptance of new demographics and they're factually based viewpoint (assuming they are supported by facts) as they arrive (this place has changed many times, in many directions (since I've been here, at least) some folks have changed their views quite a bit.

I used to be a Conan-like SJW, but now I'm a Sheera-like SJW, cause I had it chopped off... JK! ;-)

It's interesting to see what the perspectives of various non-lurkers about the site's location; based on this table. It's a pretty cool idea. 👍

We could/should poll this over time and see how the community changes.

Edit: I'm basically proposing a metric of potential openness to intellectual growth. IDK. Feel free to improve our make suggestions on how this could be accomplished.

[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 2 fun5 insightful - 1 fun6 insightful - 2 fun -  (2 children)

Can anyone confirm the Voat, poal, and 8Chan differences? Picking up on authoritarian vs. libertarian is hard sometimes. The rest seems legit.

[–]go1dfish 6 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 1 fun7 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

Voat used to have more libertarians but they've been less active and visible over time as the structure of the site re-inforces the views of the more dominant authoritarians.

In theory Voat's policy is fairly libertarian, but the selection biases of its growth and the dynamics of CCP restrictions and signup gating have molded it into a near mirror image of the worst communities reddit has banned but worse because they have less and less connection to other views and more power to exclude others via CCP.

Ironically Voat democratically excludes democratic or non-authoritarian views.

[–][deleted] 5 insightful - 3 fun5 insightful - 2 fun6 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

8pol had many more shills, and a bunch of agent provocateurs. Poal is more polite voat. The thing is, many of the folks on these sites have economic values that would not traditionally be considered "right wing".

Authoritarian versus Libertarian is easy.

At it's core Authoritarianism believes that you can't have a functional society without the state acting as the arbiter of morality for individuals and corporations. In addition there is a general distrust and dislike of universal suffrage and systems of democracy that give, say; a single mother with 5 kids by different fathers - the same amount of authority over the government as a respectable member of society.

One sentence? A belief in hierarchy and that some morals and values are objectively superior to others.

Libertarians believe no one entity can be trusted with that much power, and we'd be better off in a Darwinian situation where corporations, gangs, and individuals with the most weapons and will to use them compete for control.

One sentence? A disbelief in hierarchy, and that morality and values are subjective.

[–]Theo_Fridall 5 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 0 fun6 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Voat pushes 'rules for whites' to some extent, so I would put them above the authoritarian line, but not that far up.

I'd say the jury is still out on Poal, but also probably too high.

Reddit should be closer to Raddle.

I think saidit is about right for now.

[–]critias 4 insightful - 2 fun4 insightful - 1 fun5 insightful - 2 fun -  (5 children)

Is Voat authoritarian? Can't you say whatever you want? Reddit is authoritarian. Libertarian left isn't possible

[–]newguy[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

Libertarian left is basically hippies

[–]critias 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

Except hippies still push their beliefs on others and are basically communists. They rely on social manipulations to get handouts and their self-righteousness always comes with "saving the planet" at the cost of forced taxation. Which results in big government. That's not very libertarian at all.

[–]newguy[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

Except hippies still push their beliefs on others and are basically communists.

Some are authoritarian hippies. But there's also anti-authoritarian hippies who are truly live-and-let-live. Those I would consider libertarian left. They do exist. They're just not the vocal people on TV so you rarely see them, because they're too busy minding their own business and living their life.

[–]critias 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I'm sure their are but the entire left has been taken over and a libertarian hippy is as rare a duck-billed platypus.

[–]newguy[S] 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

I think you would be surprised if you really looked in to it how many left-libertarians there are

[–]Xeros 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I've never heard of the site GLP, could someone point me to it?

[–]newguy[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

it sucks, it's a propaganda front for tavistock that happens to occasionally have a reasonable article in the noise

[–]go1dfish 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Depends on if you're referring to the users or the policy of the site.

Content-Policy wise, notabug.io should be at the absolute bottom; Voat would be lower as well if this were the case so I suspect this chart is focused on the leanings of the users/content rather than the policy itself.

Political content/leaning wise I've been pretty pleasantly surprised at the variety at nab.

[–]Robin 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (0 children)

https://wikispooks.com/wiki/Political_spectrum

[–]Trucker_Joe 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

The website or the userbase? Voat the site is pretty libertarian when it comes to allowance of speech and content.

[–]Many_Coconut 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

I am not sure what "right/left" means according to this though. Often it is only considered to be an economic viewpoint, rather than about conservatism/progressivism.

[–]newguy[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

Democrat-leaning vs republican-leaning, in US politics