Imagine believing that the political compass - a literal right wing propaganda tool - is not only useful, but unassailable

Edit i was almost a more of a lib than normal. link: https://hexbear.net/comment/4012025

  • Elon_Musk [none/use name]
    ·
    edit-2
    1 year ago

    Imagine not thinking that, while flawed, the political compass is an effective and useful tool in radicalizing people. It very clearly shows the disconnect between the voter and their politicians as well as the nearly non-existent gap between the 2 mainstream US parties.

    • HumanBehaviorByBjork [any, undecided]
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      edit-2
      1 year ago

      i think it works as an object lesson in the meaninglessness of the categories it seeks to promote. "I'm socially liberal and fiscally conservative" makes sense to an apolitical who hasn't considered it much, but finding out that 99% of people who actually take the test hew very closely to Y=X line kind of underscores how broken that kind of model is. Obviously that requires proper framing.

    • BurgerPunk [he/him, comrade/them]
      hexagon
      ·
      1 year ago

      I think it does a lot more to distort and flatten people's political understanding. I think its been a useful propaganda tool for billionaires trying to make "right libertarianism" seem legitimate. Its been useful for keeping people politically illiterate, but confident (why do i need any kind of theory, i have this graph)

      I hadn't really thought about being effective at radicalizing people, because of how much harm it does