Extremely Short Political Test (Only Takes 1 Minute)

[Aielyn]

Well, that test is entirely nonsensical for anyone who actually thinks about things, rather than reacting based on buzzwords. And those who do react in that way will tend towards "liberal" perspectives in both directions (thus, libertarian). Notice that the little blurbs about what each type is, has been worded carefully to use positive words in describing things libertarians agree with, and negative words for those they disagree with. "oppose taxes and bureaucracy"... except, that would be "oppose moderation and stability" to those who see it from the opposite side.

As I said, the test is nonsensical. For one thing, it blurs concepts together. One can be in favour of a national ID system, without being in favour of it being used as a mechanism for control or bureaucracy. One can be against a draft, but also against a purely voluntary military. One can consider the overall tax system to be too high, but also feel that certain groups aren't paying enough tax, and one can consider government spending to be too high, but not want to see any government service cut (this can be achieved by improving efficiency). What's more, a person can be in control of their own retirement money without privatising social security (not to mention that providing a private option, but retaining the public system, can mean that people have even more choices).

The test is also one-sided in its wording. A good test will mix up the answers so that you have to think about them. This test instead puts all "liberal" responses on the "agree" side.

In reality, the test isn't actually a test, it's propaganda. It's a list of libertarian ideals, with a choice of agreeing or disagreeing on each point... and each one is worded to make sure that "agreeing" sounds like a good idea. "Government handouts", "government barriers", "control", they've hit all the key words designed to elicit the right frame of mind.

And for anyone outside of the US, the questions are even worse, since they pose arguments that every other developed country considers non-issues.