Another political spectrum quiz

Here’s mine.

How can this be?  Because the quiz is pointlessly stupid.  It used skin deep proxies for much more complex issues.

Let’s see.

1.  Rate yourself on the scale “I am patriotic”.  How you feel about your country or your perception of what you country is and your support for it are complex issues that are hugely oversimplifies by this statement.  Thus.  “I hate my government” is completely compatible with “I love my neighbors”.
2. I believe a strong military is a good thing.  Again, the proxy of people who like a strong military = conservatives.  But that isn’t the proper measure.  The right measure is, assuming I believe our country is worth defending and our national goals worth pursuing, I also believe that the nation ought to have a military that is competent and strong enough to accomplish those purposes.  But to mindlessly agree in having a strong military without an objective measure of “how strong” is an endorsement of government bloat and waste.
3. Poor people are usually poor because of the choices they make.  Another proxy to identify mean republicans by pointing to a bumper sticker sized philosophy.  Real life is much more complex.  Lots of rich people also make bad choices and do just fine.  Lots of poor people play the lottery, stupid, and some of them win,  WOOHOO!!!  Huge financial gain from making bad choices.
4. I believe that hard work is the key to success.  More of the same.  The real path to success is hard work + plus ambition + capital + intelligence + Moral framework + capital + good luck = success.
5.  I would always support my country, whether it was right or wrong.  Seriously?  Does anyone so mindlessly support their country?   Obviously, some people do.  Every person though has a conscience and they are personally responsible to answer to that conscience.  You might obey a government that tells you to do something wrong, but that doesn’t mean you support them.
6. The enemy of my enemy is my friend.  More stupid bumper sticker philosophy.  The enemy of my enemy has no automatic relationship to me.  They may be my friend, or my bigger enemy or just another irrelevant player. Each enemy and friends needs to be weighed according to their own merits.
7. Military action that defies international law is sometimes justified.  DUH.  Since there is no international law, waiting for it is mindlessly stupid.  There is already a thousand years of good philosophy and theology about just war and none of it has anything to do with international law.
8. People are divided more by class than by nationality.  No.  These are totally different paths of division.  They are not mutually exclusive.  They can be divided by both class AND nationality.  This question is created to see if you listen to the Marxist class warfare theory or the nationalist “yay for us” theory. Neither theory is sufficient to describe the totality of social evolution.
9. The rich aren’t taxed enough.  No measure of how much is enough or who is “the rich”.  So, it’s more mindless dogma for the mouth breather philosophers in the ivory tower.
10. The freer the market, the freer the people.  More Marxist identity babble.  The market IS the people.  The people ARE the market.  You cannot have one without the other.  Oppression on one oppresses the other.
11. All authority should be questioned.  Sure.  But that isn’t an endorsement of anarchy.  Questioning authority can lead to acceptance of authority and the authority position.  Anyone who doesn’t understand the value of making everyone drive on the right side of the road is a moron.
12. An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.  More pointlessly stupid philosophy.  Forgiveness is a much stronger tool for bonding a friendly cooperative society than is retribution.   But for those people who will not conform to cooperation, skip the eye and tooth contributions and go for the jugular.  Not for retribution, but to effect a lasting solution.
13. Abortion, when a woman’s life is not in danger, should always be illegal.  Another proxy for defining political groups, without defining political thought.  I don’t have much to say about this other than it is a 20 year old division of political groups that not many people care about today as a political issue.
14. The most important this for children to learn is to accept discipline.  I can’t imagine the sort of unimaginative parenting that comes up with stuff like this.  Or the application to political thought.  Is raising spoiled brats a political theory or subgroup?   There are so many important things to teach children  and some of your teaching won’t take root.  I don’t think you have the luxury of skipping “potty training” to focus on “accepting discipline”.
15. In criminal justice, punishment should be more important than rehabilitation.  More shallow thinking.  There is no rehabilitation in the criminal justice system.  and the punishment is hopelessly cruel and unfocused.  The point of criminal justice system is neither rehab nor punishment.  It is to create a better society.  Sometimes, the best you can do is separate the criminal from the rest of society so that they are prevented from harming other people.  This is why it is pointlessly stupid to lock people up for white collar crimes.
16. Blah blah blah.  More of the same.  Click.  Star on a pointlessly useless diagram.