I just learned about the Political Compass today, thanks to @freemo. They also had a chart there for the 2020 election that made me feel less insane... Imagine living in a world where Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders are considered centrists. That's the world where I want to be, where perception lines up with reality
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@pants That chart doesnt seem even remotely correct to me.. not even close. It seems to ignore the meaning of the zero line and just uses the old invalid trope suggesting the compass is relative with no 0 point, which makes no sense to me.
@freemo from their website:
"We have analysed speeches, manifestos and, crucially, voting records in the compilation of this chart. As the campaign proceeds, the chart will be amended to reflect policy changes and other relevant developments.
While the volume of correspondence prohibits us from engaging in communications concerning particular placements, all emails are nevertheless carefully read."
It looks like a pretty data-driven approach to me
@pants It does?
Sounds to me like they read through policies and speaches and then just made their own personal judgement call... how does that in any way address their personal biases or allow for a objective measure? They would have to develop very specific criteria for how they tallied "points" to each person for it to be data driven, or at least some sort of objective system. None of what you pasted suggested they did anything of the sort.. it just basically says "We watched a bunch of videos of the guy and read up on their policies before we decided whatever our opinion was on where to place them"
@pants I wouldnt be opposed to that if i had the time for it.. I'm a professional scientist whose plate is already full on more rigorous stuff.
yes but at least then you have an objective measure and know what your measuring against.. they would have created an objective compass of some traits, whatever those traits being they defined up front, and showed rigour and objectivity in how they got there.
Most importantly because their process is dont scientifically and outlines it lets you do exactly that, review the process and determine if you feel it is a valid one, and yes people may determine it is not. But that is a far sight better than just making a personal judgement call and leaving it at that.
@freemo i'd read through their faq. maybe even reach out to them about their methodologies, see what you think about it yourself, and keep an open mind. let me know what conclusions you draw.