Triumphrob

And I thought that the Libs were whiney.

paddingtongreen

That seems ill considered. It is true only if the spectrum is a straight line, stretching from left to right, and, I suspect, the neutral point well to the right of center.

There is another axis, at ninety degrees, that runs from democracy to dictatorship. In its simplest form, I see it as a circle with democracy in front, the left and right sides and dictatorship at the back. You can travel from democracy to dictatorship by the left or the right path, but you arrive at the same place by either route. Dictatorship is neither left nor right. It is dictatorship.

If you don't buy my model, and you are interested in verity, you need to also compare the proportions of populations killed by each wing, not just the totals.

Octang Frye

I love you, PG. Let's chuck a chart into the mix.



My chip's on the U.S. Constitution.

Steerpike

Well of course you are right and my comment was a little hasty/naive. There are just as many unreasonable people on the left as there are on the right, worldwide/throughout history. However, in the context of the US, the 'left' hardly exists in the way your statistics and charts portrays it. The current govt. is branded as 'left' for wanting to introduce universal healthcare, and for trying to reign in the bankers who got us into the current mess ...

I think we'll see a few more "Timothy McVeigh"s before we see any "Pol Pot"s in this country!

chartreuse

ISTR one Joseph P Kennedy...

paddingtongreen

I don't have time to look at the diagram yet, but I hoped you would address the number of people killed by the extreme left and right as a proportion of peoples controlled by each of them. I suspect that the Marxist/Bolshevist populations were far larger than those of the Fascistic wing.

anotherlimey

We can't take that seriously without Neverland on the chart.

another bloody yank

Michael Jackson leans towards Fascism, IIRC.

Ridski

Well, if you're going to spend two weeks setting up a national joke, don't expect someone not to show up and tell the punchline.

Ridski

Do you a primary source for that graph, OF? I need it to show just how far away we are from the socialism some neo-con ****tards think we live in.

robin1234

I'm not sure about that chart. I note they have Japan quite far to the right on the Collective Ownership -- Private Ownership axis. As far to the right as the US, in fact. But doesn't Japan have quite a tradition of collective ownership & social responsibility? (They have elements of a national health service, as well as state ownersip of public transport etc..?)

notacrime

Try politicalcompass.org - not quite the same but close.

And you can take the test yourself - here's me: http://www.politicalcompass.org/face...0.62&soc=-5.49

fatbrit

Oh dear

Octang Frye

Commie!

Octang Frye

Sorry, just that.