What is your political affiliation?

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Which of these terms would best describe you, politically?

Poll Results

OptionVotes
Social democrat 39
Socialist 18
Nazi/fascist/other extreme rightist 10
I have no political affiliation 8
Some other affiliation (specify) 5
Anarchist 5
Centrist 5
Economically conservative but socially at the left 5
Libertarian 3
Stalinist/Maoist/other extreme leftist 2
Socially conservative but economically at the left 1
Communist 1
Conservative 0


Tuomas, Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:31 (fifteen years ago)

Champagne Socialist.

Juggalo Soldier (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:32 (fifteen years ago)

Centrist and I vote for the SNP.

De Mysteriis Dom Passantino (jim), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:32 (fifteen years ago)

I thought of including green, but since there's a wide array of both left-wing and right-wing greens, I'd say it's a bit too vague a term. If you vote for green in the elections, think of what you'd call yourself besides being green.

Tuomas, Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:33 (fifteen years ago)

Those terms are all too vague.

Juggalo Soldier (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:35 (fifteen years ago)

Sorry.

Tuomas, Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:36 (fifteen years ago)

I don't see how "comedy eco-warrior" is any less vague than "communist but not like Stalin or Mao" tbh.

Juggalo Soldier (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:37 (fifteen years ago)

Sorry, I wasn't aware of such a stance.

Tuomas, Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:38 (fifteen years ago)

Trotskyists ain't down with this shit.

challop matters (King Boy Pato), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:39 (fifteen years ago)

If you're a Trotskyist I think you can vote for "communist".

Tuomas, Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:41 (fifteen years ago)

What the? Lumping it in with "mainstream" Communism?

challop matters (King Boy Pato), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:43 (fifteen years ago)

Don't rise to the revisionist bait, comrade.

Juggalo Soldier (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:45 (fifteen years ago)

These days, I don't think Trotskyist views differ that much from mainstream communism.

Tuomas, Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:45 (fifteen years ago)

PERMANENT REVOLUTION, TUOMAS!!!!11!!

challop matters (King Boy Pato), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:46 (fifteen years ago)

We're not living in the 1930s, comrades.

Tuomas, Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:46 (fifteen years ago)

Trotsky has been rehabilitated long ago.

Tuomas, Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:46 (fifteen years ago)

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/138/328574440_d06e3e5012_o.jpg

Heric E. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:47 (fifteen years ago)

Trotsky has been rehabilitated long ago.

I didn't even know he had a drug problem!

challop matters (King Boy Pato), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:48 (fifteen years ago)

He was addicted to the opium of the masses.

Heric E. (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:49 (fifteen years ago)

Lenin was the one who looked like a drug addict, tbqh.

challop matters (King Boy Pato), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:50 (fifteen years ago)

Anarcho-collectivist. Biggest influences in this regard are Bakunin & Huey P. Newton.

BIG HOOS's wacky crack variety hour (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:51 (fifteen years ago)

You might say 'left libertarian' but Ron Paul & assholes imploring you to GOOGLE BUILDING 7 have pretty much ruined the term libertarian for me.

BIG HOOS's wacky crack variety hour (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:52 (fifteen years ago)

You can't really get away with calling yourself an "anti-statist Maoist" so

BIG HOOS's wacky crack variety hour (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:55 (fifteen years ago)

i voted libertarian coz thats like liberal and liberal is good :)

Michael Philip Philip Philip philip a hoy hoy (country matters), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:56 (fifteen years ago)

You might say 'left libertarian' but Ron Paul & assholes imploring you to GOOGLE BUILDING 7 have pretty much ruined the term libertarian for me.

I think "anarchist" is a fine term for a "left libertarian".

Tuomas, Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:56 (fifteen years ago)

Actually I voted socialist, which will run away with this by like 150 votes to 20

Michael Philip Philip Philip philip a hoy hoy (country matters), Thursday, 23 July 2009 12:58 (fifteen years ago)

I think "anarchist" is a fine term for a "left libertarian".

― Tuomas, Thursday, July 23, 2009 12:56 PM (3 minutes ago) Bookmark

Yeah but I feel inclined to append the "collectivist" to stress the cooperative aspects I'm after rather than the Mountain Man With A Shotgun or Teenager In Combat Boots aspects.

BIG HOOS's wacky crack variety hour (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:04 (fifteen years ago)

I thought of including various strands of anarchism, but the thread would've had too many options. Personally, I'm fine with lumping right-wing anarchists with libertarians.

Tuomas, Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:07 (fifteen years ago)

Eh, I guess my views are broadly socialist, leaning towards social democrat. I clicked the first cos it sounds cooler. I'm not particularly politically engaged or anything, though.

chap, Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:10 (fifteen years ago)

it's hard not being a liberal in america because everyone thinks you are like a dr. morbius or an idealist child

blobfish russian (harbl), Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:12 (fifteen years ago)

Eco-socialist I guess.

Joerg Hi Dere (NickB), Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:13 (fifteen years ago)

Voted social democrat, because I am, but there should really be something in between "social democrat" and "centrist"! Maybe there isn't in Scandinavia?

xposts Yes, basically because I consider myself well to the left (on most issues) of mainstream American liberals, who generally see themselves as left of centre AFAICT.

Sundar, Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:14 (fifteen years ago)

I'm a centrist Democrat in voting pattern; my actual political views probably are best described by something batshit and contradictory like "government-regulated anarchy".

Lisa Simpson = a fictional bitch (HI DERE), Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:24 (fifteen years ago)

Non-affiliated. I read the election promises and decide. Mostly greeny, lefty, but not too far.

StanM, Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:26 (fifteen years ago)

If I had to seriously answer something as nebulous as this I think my nebulous answer would be "working class".

Juggalo Soldier (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:28 (fifteen years ago)

it's hard not being a liberal in america because everyone thinks you are like a dr. morbius or an idealist child

― blobfish russian (harbl), Thursday, July 23, 2009 1:12 PM (20 minutes ago) Bookmark

^^^^^ yes i

BIG HOOS's wacky crack variety hour (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:34 (fifteen years ago)

TBF in most Western countries if you dissent very far from I Heart Capitalist Democracy then you'll either be accused of being a student or a mentalist.

Juggalo Soldier (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:37 (fifteen years ago)

I'm loving the term "champagne socialist" because it describes about 99% of the people with whom I regularly spend time (the other 1% still drink the champagne but have dropped the pretense of being socialists). I'm considering becoming one myself.

la saucisse est une femme? (Euler), Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:41 (fifteen years ago)

Centrist - I vote Democrat and am mostly a serious progressive, but see the value in compromise and am strongly to the right on a few issues.

kingkongvsgodzilla, Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:42 (fifteen years ago)

Personal monarchist w.caesaropapist leanings.

Le présent se dégrade, d'abord en histoire, puis en (Michael White), Thursday, 23 July 2009 13:57 (fifteen years ago)

rapist what now?

Juggalo Soldier (Noodle Vague), Thursday, 23 July 2009 14:01 (fifteen years ago)

I only rape salads...

Le présent se dégrade, d'abord en histoire, puis en (Michael White), Thursday, 23 July 2009 14:05 (fifteen years ago)

I think Tuomas did a good job representing the options. (pats on back)

dowd, Thursday, 23 July 2009 14:06 (fifteen years ago)

I think I am more of a Premium Import Beer Socialist.

she is writing about love (Jenny), Thursday, 23 July 2009 14:09 (fifteen years ago)

Staropramen Socialist.

chap, Thursday, 23 July 2009 14:10 (fifteen years ago)

Budweiser Baathist

Bill Magill, Thursday, 23 July 2009 14:44 (fifteen years ago)

Cocaine and Corona Communist

Bill Magill, Thursday, 23 July 2009 14:45 (fifteen years ago)

what the hell is social democrat anyway. i'm a socialist but i believe in democracy.

ledge, Thursday, 23 July 2009 14:47 (fifteen years ago)

my only political affiliation is to hot babes, cold brews, and the open road

rip dom passantino 3/5/09 never forget (max), Thursday, 23 July 2009 14:47 (fifteen years ago)

"cold beer, warm pussy, and somewhere to take a dump with a door on it"

Code Ten Abbott (country matters), Thursday, 23 July 2009 14:49 (fifteen years ago)

enlightened despotism works good to ime

₪_₪ (Lamp), Thursday, 23 July 2009 18:32 (fifteen years ago)

i am whatever lies between social democrat and centrist

that is called "the creamy filling"

Lisa Simpson = a fictional bitch (HI DERE), Thursday, 23 July 2009 18:33 (fifteen years ago)

You've never heard the term "liberal", Tuomas?

Sundar, Thursday, 23 July 2009 18:46 (fifteen years ago)

(In my ideal world, "liberal" = "centrist" too, but I'm not sure that this reflects reality on this continent.)

Sundar, Thursday, 23 July 2009 18:47 (fifteen years ago)

Yeah, but it has several different (even contradictory) meanings around the world. A typical American liberal would be a centrist in Europe, and the poll is written from an European point of view. In Finnish politics "liberal" usually refers to people who support economical liberalism, and who therefore are right-wing.

(x-post)

Tuomas, Thursday, 23 July 2009 18:51 (fifteen years ago)

ha i bet finnish right wingers are like total teddy bears and into theater and horticulture. or are they monsters?

Philip Nunez, Thursday, 23 July 2009 18:57 (fifteen years ago)

they totally pwnzored the red army

Code Ten Abbott (country matters), Thursday, 23 July 2009 18:59 (fifteen years ago)

So to be clear, should anyone to the right of Al Gore identify as conservative (or libertarian) on this poll?

Sundar, Thursday, 23 July 2009 19:02 (fifteen years ago)

A typical American liberal would be a centrist in Europe

dude

wax onleck, wax affleck (jjjusten), Thursday, 23 July 2009 19:03 (fifteen years ago)

i was going to expand on that, but whats the point really

wax onleck, wax affleck (jjjusten), Thursday, 23 July 2009 19:04 (fifteen years ago)

Social democrat with strong syndicalist and collectivist leanings.

Mornington Crescent (Ed), Thursday, 23 July 2009 19:08 (fifteen years ago)

xpost - that strikes me as reasonably true, actually? (if we take Tuomas to mean sorta western and especially northern Europe)

nabisco, Thursday, 23 July 2009 19:08 (fifteen years ago)

(I think it is too. Just thought it would help to clarify terms.)

Sundar, Thursday, 23 July 2009 19:13 (fifteen years ago)

It's absolutely true but 'liberal' in the US is a portmanteau containing 'leftists' of every stripe, civil libertarians, pacifists, minority rights activists, left-wing feminists, protectionists, labor, environmentalists and their agendas are often different.

Le présent se dégrade, d'abord en histoire, puis en (Michael White), Thursday, 23 July 2009 19:49 (fifteen years ago)

Is a portmanteu like a fine port wine?

Bill Magill, Thursday, 23 July 2009 19:54 (fifteen years ago)

I’m liberal, but to a degree
I want ev’rybody to be free
But if you think that I’ll let Barry Goldwater
Move in next door and marry my daughter
You must think I’m crazy!

^prizes the praise of the media, and the Europeans (will), Thursday, 23 July 2009 19:59 (fifteen years ago)

I wouldn’t let him do it for all the farms in Cuba

^prizes the praise of the media, and the Europeans (will), Thursday, 23 July 2009 19:59 (fifteen years ago)

Drunk Portland liberal

kingfish, Thursday, 23 July 2009 20:03 (fifteen years ago)

^^ should be "Drunken Portland liberal"

I am a left-of-center pedant.

Aimless, Thursday, 23 July 2009 21:32 (fifteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll is closing tomorrow.

System, Tuesday, 28 July 2009 23:01 (fifteen years ago)

Thank You For Your Cooperation.

meisenfek, Wednesday, 29 July 2009 02:04 (fifteen years ago)

i live in the reality-based community.

hat for slashes (get bent), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 02:13 (fifteen years ago)

Social-lite

god, if i can suggest ban that whole damned thread... (PappaWheelie V), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 02:13 (fifteen years ago)

social democrat

what's the difference between 'economically conservative but socially to the left' and 'libertarian'? I guess libertarian is more extreme?

iatee, Wednesday, 29 July 2009 02:16 (fifteen years ago)

Socially conservative but economically at the left

http://www.tvfanatic.com/images/gallery/dennis-duffy.jpg

Clay, Wednesday, 29 July 2009 02:25 (fifteen years ago)

what's the difference between 'economically conservative but socially to the left' and 'libertarian'? I guess libertarian is more extreme?

if certain people i've run across are any indication, it's apparently what the douchiest of douches born post-'65 claim when they don't want to be labeled as Republican (because that's uncool). they tend to pay nominal lip-service to marijuana legalization, maybe even civil unions. but when pressed they pretty much all turn into Glenn Beck-esque racists and xenophobes

^prizes the praise of the media, and the Europeans (will), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 02:27 (fifteen years ago)

^this. they claim to hate government intervention and welfare and taxes even though they love their cheap farm-subsidy food and driving on the interstate highway system.

hat for slashes (get bent), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 02:34 (fifteen years ago)

and they claim to like marketplace competition but they think competition means "creating a monopoly that makes it impossible for other businesses to exist on their own."

hat for slashes (get bent), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 02:35 (fifteen years ago)

no I meant what was the difference, say, if someone had to decide between those two poll options (probably isn't going to be a problem for many ilxors)

iatee, Wednesday, 29 July 2009 02:37 (fifteen years ago)

somewhere between Centrist and Economically conservative but socially at the left - i'm down w/homos and capitalism basically

a narwhal done gored my sister nell (cankles), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 02:46 (fifteen years ago)

(tbf there are probably plenty of real-deal libertarians who actually do know wtf they are talking about, serious about equal rights for gays and lesbians, think the neoconservative agenda is a particular threat to liberty perhaps greater than the ideologically spent ideas of left-liberalism, big fans of john locke, etc.)

^prizes the praise of the media, and the Europeans (will), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 02:56 (fifteen years ago)

xpost to my snotty but mostly otm post earlier

^prizes the praise of the media, and the Europeans (will), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 02:57 (fifteen years ago)

who actually do know wtf they are talking about =/= being right of course

^prizes the praise of the media, and the Europeans (will), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 03:08 (fifteen years ago)

I don't really think I fall into any of these. I'm socially very much to the left but maybe more centrist economically.

ENBB, Wednesday, 29 July 2009 03:22 (fifteen years ago)

hoos is otm re: left-libertarian. that's how i more or less identify myself. (there's a thread about it, which i'm sure ever fully resolved what left libertarianism is but has some interesting stuff in it.)

i also call myself a liberal, in the parlance of manichaean american political discourse, but it's not a word that means a whole lot.

flying squid attack (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 04:22 (fifteen years ago)

(which i'm NOT sure ever fully resolved...)

flying squid attack (tipsy mothra), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 04:22 (fifteen years ago)

write in vote for "no fat chicks"

Lamp, Wednesday, 29 July 2009 04:32 (fifteen years ago)

i always come out as some sort of super-lefty on these internet polls, though i am not when it comes to economic matters (e.g., i have no problem w/ capitalism as long as there are enforceable regulations and i am pro-balanced budgets [except during economic emergencies]). i also think that people should be left alone to do whatever they want as long as they aren't fucking w/ other people. i'd be all for compromise if the other side (the GOP over here) were also for good-faith compromise (which they aren't), which makes me seem more strident that i am naturally inclined to be.

some sick fuck with a bow and arrow killing roos and koalas (Eisbaer), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 05:05 (fifteen years ago)

I guess I am a caviar leftie as we say in France.

J4mi3 H4rl3y (Snowballing), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 05:47 (fifteen years ago)

Kinda feel like there should be a choice or two between Social Democrat and Centrist. I doubt your garden variety Democrat would self-describe as a "social" _______, even though I certainly would.

Your heartbeat soun like sasquatch feet (polyphonic), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 05:50 (fifteen years ago)

Like I said, the options here were chosen from my European point of view, and from that point of view you garden variety democrat is a Centrist.

hoos is otm re: left-libertarian. that's how i more or less identify myself.

Can someone tell me what's the difference between left libertarianism and left-wing anarchism (i.e. mainstream anarchism, as far as I know rightist anarchists have always been a small minority)? Or is it just an American synonym for leftist anarchism that avoids the connotations the word "anarchism" has? Do leftist libertarians trace their thinking back to Bakunin, Kropotkin, Goldman, Rocker, etc, or do they have a theoretical tradition of their own? I'm genuinely interested in this, because among the activists and anarchists in here, "libertarian" is pretty much synonymous with "right-wing anarchist", and I've never heard anyone call themselves "left libertarian".

Tuomas, Wednesday, 29 July 2009 07:05 (fifteen years ago)

Can someone tell me what's the difference between left libertarianism and left-wing anarchism (i.e. mainstream anarchism, as far as I know rightist anarchists have always been a small minority)? Or is it just an American synonym for leftist anarchism that avoids the connotations the word "anarchism" has? Do leftist libertarians trace their thinking back to Bakunin, Kropotkin, Goldman, Rocker, etc, or do they have a theoretical tradition of their own?

The 'left-libertarians' I've known (myself included) trace the ideology precisely as you do here--Bakunin, Kropotkin, Goldman, Rocker. In the US the term "libertarian" has largely been co-opted by right-wing anarchists and the term 'anarchist' has largely been co-opted by perhaps well-meaning but often misguided kids who like to draw black A graffiti everywhere & wear combat boots for a few years before putting down the protest placards and growing out of it.

Speaking for myself, saying "left libertarian" is a way to avoid being scoffed at, which (unfortnately) is surely what would happen in most of this country if I went around in daily life calling myself an anarchist.

BIG HOOS's wacky crack variety hour (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 07:32 (fifteen years ago)

It just sounds like you don't know what you want but you know how to get it.

Mark G, Wednesday, 29 July 2009 07:34 (fifteen years ago)

Appending the 'left' is also a signpost to political people that when I say libertarian I don't mean that kind of libertarian.

BIG HOOS's wacky crack variety hour (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 07:40 (fifteen years ago)

I don't mean to keep hijacking this thread with my fascinating hair-splitting, sorry dudes.

BIG HOOS's wacky crack variety hour (BIG HOOS aka the steendriver), Wednesday, 29 July 2009 07:42 (fifteen years ago)

Automatic thread bump. This poll's results are now in.

System, Wednesday, 29 July 2009 23:01 (fifteen years ago)

Whoa, didn't expect social democrats to win so clearly!

Also, looks like fascists are the third largest political group in ILX, who would've thought?

Tuomas, Thursday, 30 July 2009 07:37 (fifteen years ago)

mods will be mods

iatee, Thursday, 30 July 2009 07:42 (fifteen years ago)

nine years pass...

Me at 17: Liberal
Me at 22: Kennedy liberal
Me at 30: Hopeful anarchist
Me at 42: Cynical anarchist
Me at 53: Leninist
Me now: What the fuck are you looking at?

— Dennis Perrin (@DennisThePerrin) June 21, 2019

a Mets fan who gave up on everything in the mid '80s (Dr Morbius), Wednesday, 3 July 2019 18:38 (five years ago)

Philosophically, I am a socialist. Because the way to socialism is long and hard, I often act as a pragmatic ameliorist.

A is for (Aimless), Wednesday, 3 July 2019 18:43 (five years ago)


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