South Dakota Politics posted a link to a political ideology quiz this morning. I've taken one or two of these in the past, so I thought I'd take it for a spin.
First off, I was a bit frustrated by some of the questions, especially on the first page. It had a lot of "well, not really any of these apply." They were the kind of question where the bias/slant of the questioner was pretty clear, and to answer one way placed you in their camp, but to answer the other way was to place you in a camp that you didn't really agree with either. In other words, the questions were loaded with extremely biased suppositions, or at least that had to be assumed, given the politically correct nature of our society these days.
Example: Our race has many superior qualities, compared with other races. Well, no, not based on race alone. But Western civilization (which is primarily white) is superior to all others. To answer yes paints you as a racist, plus it's incorrect, because no "race" is superior because of their race. But to say no is to ignore the achievements of Western civilization, and like it or not, typically Western civilization is (rightly or wrongly) tied to the white race.
Another example: No one chooses his or her country of birth, so it's foolish to be proud of it. Being able to choose the country of your birth has nothing to do with whether you should be proud of it. Being proud of your country has to do with the merits of your country. I've often said that if there was something better going out there, I'd leave the U.S. in a New York minute--but there isn't. I wasn't born in South Dakota, but I'm proud to live here and to call myself a South Dakotan. Why? Because, though I wasn't born here, I like it MUCH better than the state in which I was born.
Another example: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Often, but not always. And sometimes only in certain situations and for a short duration. Example: Iraq. We helped Iraq in their war against Iran because we saw Iran as the greater threat (especially since they had taken over our embassy and held our people hostage). But they were never truly our "friends."
Page 2 was better, but...
It's a sad reflection on our society that something as basic as drinking water is now a bottled, branded consumer product. It's neither sad nor glad. It's merely the meeting of an economic demand. If there was no demand, do you think companies would waste their time bottling water?
Those with the ability to pay should have the right to higher standards of medical care . They shouldn't have the "right" to it. But there's nothing wrong with them having access to a higher standard of medical care. A "right" is a politically charged word, because though a "right" originally meant something that was inherent to all human beings and unaffected by external forces, it now means that if you determine someone has a "right" to something, then all of society must bend to ensure that every individual has access to this manufactured "right."
Results:
Example: Our race has many superior qualities, compared with other races. Well, no, not based on race alone. But Western civilization (which is primarily white) is superior to all others. To answer yes paints you as a racist, plus it's incorrect, because no "race" is superior because of their race. But to say no is to ignore the achievements of Western civilization, and like it or not, typically Western civilization is (rightly or wrongly) tied to the white race.
Another example: No one chooses his or her country of birth, so it's foolish to be proud of it. Being able to choose the country of your birth has nothing to do with whether you should be proud of it. Being proud of your country has to do with the merits of your country. I've often said that if there was something better going out there, I'd leave the U.S. in a New York minute--but there isn't. I wasn't born in South Dakota, but I'm proud to live here and to call myself a South Dakotan. Why? Because, though I wasn't born here, I like it MUCH better than the state in which I was born.
Another example: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. Often, but not always. And sometimes only in certain situations and for a short duration. Example: Iraq. We helped Iraq in their war against Iran because we saw Iran as the greater threat (especially since they had taken over our embassy and held our people hostage). But they were never truly our "friends."
Page 2 was better, but...
It's a sad reflection on our society that something as basic as drinking water is now a bottled, branded consumer product. It's neither sad nor glad. It's merely the meeting of an economic demand. If there was no demand, do you think companies would waste their time bottling water?
Those with the ability to pay should have the right to higher standards of medical care . They shouldn't have the "right" to it. But there's nothing wrong with them having access to a higher standard of medical care. A "right" is a politically charged word, because though a "right" originally meant something that was inherent to all human beings and unaffected by external forces, it now means that if you determine someone has a "right" to something, then all of society must bend to ensure that every individual has access to this manufactured "right."
Results:
I don't consider this to be completely accurate (perhaps due to it's impossible-to-answer-accurately answers) because I came down significantly to the Left of Margaret Thatcher (actually coming in somewhere around Jacques Chirac), which I doubt since she's one of my most admired leaders (right up there with Reagan) and Chirac I mildly loath.
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