The Worker's Flag is Deepest Red

[tree_and_leaf]

You are a Social Liberal (61% permissive) and an... Economic Liberal (6% permissive) You are best described as a: Socialist Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid Also: The OkCupid Dating Persona Test

No surprises, there, I suppose, although given that many American seem to think that 'Socialist' is code for 'Commie', perhaps I should take out a subscription to Marxism Today?

According to the famous people graphic option (apparently not available through the cut-n-paste HTML), however, I seem to be midway between Hillary Clinton and Gorby.

Oh come on people. That's just silly.

"It takes a collective farm to raise a child"?

Comments

Though cowards shake and traitors sneer...

[dolorous-ett.livejournal.com]

... we'll keep the Red Flag flying here!

*joins you in the Socialist corner*

"Just between Hilary Clinton and Gorby"? Well, there's a lot of room in there - I might take a while to find you...

Re: Though cowards shake and traitors sneer...

[tree_and_leaf]

"Just between Hilary Clinton and Gorby"? Well, there's a lot of room in there - I might take a while to find you...

Yes, it's gratifingly crowded!

[aervir.livejournal.com]

The Worker's Flag is Deepest Red...

I'm always tempted to sing this to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree".

And would anyone be so kind as to tell me when Hilary Clinton became a socialist?

[tree_and_leaf]

I'm always tempted to sing this to the tune of "Oh Christmas Tree".

Er... that would be because they have the same tune.

It's the fact that they appear to think Hilary is a socialist which makes me somewhat dubious about the accuracy of the quiz (well, apart from all the other factors - and I don't think it's because they think that Gorbi's policies of Glasnost took him so far the the right that he became a centrist!

Great icon, by the way - very apposite here! (I am grdually beginning to chafe at only having 6! I haven't got six as yet, but - so much potential)

[aervir.livejournal.com]

Er... that would be because they have the same tune.

Oh my gsh, it is exactly the same melody? And I'd always wondered why these two songs sounded so disturbingly similar. Well, I guess, this only proves that I am indeed tone-deaf.

It's the fact that they appear to think Hilary is a socialist which makes me somewhat dubious about the accuracy of the quiz.

Or maybe the fact that they put in Darth Vader among the totalitarian dictators, together with Stalin & Co...

I am grdually beginning to chafe at only having 6!

Heh! I started out with two or three icons in a paid account which I intended to use solely for commenting on ayumie's posts from Tokyo, and I actually bought a paid account only to have more icons...

[aervir.livejournal.com]

Why don't you think she is socialist?

Well, those "vaguely European" programmes you have just cited as examples also got (or still get) support from German politicians who belong to the more conservative parts of the political landscape around here.

And for me, socialism would also involve a greater emphasis on the nationalization, state ownership or at the very least support by state subsidiaries of key industries.

[aervir.livejournal.com]

Well, "conservative" is a really really relative term, you realize (ack, so many words we don't spell the same way), so I can't say just how conservative the German conservatives are by American standards.

Hmmm, the latter probably depends on which issue you are interested in and which German conservative you ask about that particular issue, so it probably varies from case to case. Anyway, it would be rather hard for me to make any general comparisons.

Medical care and energy are key industries, aren't they?

Well, they are, but Hilary Clinton has never demanded that every hospital and every power plant should be taken over and run by the U.S. government, or has she?

And I must admit that I haven't followed the debates about U.S. domestic policies in any attentive fashion recently, so I don't know the details about outsourcing and that mine accident. But as far as I can tell, the left-wing arguments probably call for some kind of state intervention (e.g. through stricter safety laws etc. in the case of the miners) rather than for, say, the nationalization of all mines in the United States.

And from my point of view, a certain measure of state intervention doesn't equal socialism yet. It could rather be classified, for example, as belonging to the peculiar system created in 1950s Germany, called soziale Marktwirtschaft (a social market economy), which was supposed to combine regulatory measures by the goverment with capitalism.

But I'm neither particularly well-versed in economic theory nor in politics...

[tree_and_leaf]

called soziale Marktwirtschaft (a social market economy),

Then there's the British concept of the mixed economy, which was largely destroyed by Thatcher, but was accepted by Macmillan.

Of course, I have heard Tories say that they think the railways should be re-nationalised (though they were against the nationalisation of steel and coal), because it's not a situation where you can have effective competition, and since in effect you will have a monopoly (or a lot of little monopolies) it's better if it's a state monopoly run by people who are, ultimately, accountable to the electorate, than a private monopoly which is ultimately interested in making profits for the shareholders and paying its CEOs big bonuses.

[aervir.livejournal.com]

The mixed economy is another good point for state interventionism that's acceptable for conservatives as well!

[tree_and_leaf]

Well, "conservative" is a really really relative term, you realize (ack, so many words we don't spell the same way), so I can't say just how conservative the German conservatives are by American standards.

I think that's precisely the point: what I found interesting about the test is that it - if it's an accurate depiction of what Americans think about politics - really highlights the difference between European and American politics.

Maybe one can justify labling HC as a (very moderate) socialist; but favouring nationalised medicine is a bad reason for doing so; or to put it another way, it's a way which is garunteed to confuse Europeans, since being pro the NHS or in the case of Germany universal health insurance isn't a mark of being left-wing, it's a mark of being part of the normal political discourse. Hence my amusement at the website I once read which argued that CS Lewis was a socialist because he thought the NHS was a good idea, on the whole.

The other issue is that the website graphic put HC right at the bottom of the socialist column, next to Gorbachev. Now I find it impossible to believe that Hillary is a communist; I can think of lots of people (all from a European context) who are clearly more left-wing than HC and yet are not communists, even a reforming Communist like the good Mikhail.