[Gllug] Re: OT:authoritarian or libertarian

Tethys tet at accucard.com
Thu Sep 12 17:33:22 UTC 2002


>> Oh, they have the survey that claims you're a libertarian almost no
>> matter what answers you put in, doesn't it?
>
>are you sure ??

I'm positive that the questions are heavily biased, and they certainly
seem to mark an uncannily large number of people as being libertarian.

As an example of the questions:

	Many personal fortunes are made by people who simply
	manipulate money and contribute nothing to their society.

There's two questions there. What do you answer if you believe that personal
fortunes are made by simply manipulating money, but disagree that that's a
bad thing?

	We'd be better off if companies simply told the truth,
	rather than spending a fortune on manipulative consumer
	advertising.

With this one, how many people are going to answer "yes, I'm a lemming
that can't think for myself and does whatever advertisers tell me"? It
may well be true of many people, but they don't know it (or won't admit
to it), so the vast majority will agree with that question.

	Schools pay too much attention to the arts and not enough
	towards their real function - equipping the future
	generation to find jobs.

Another dual question. What if you believe that too much attention is
payed to the arts, but disagree that the real function of school is
quipping poeple to find jobs?

	Young people may have some rebellious ideas, but it's normal
	to grow out of them and settle down.

And another. It's virtually impossible to disagree with this one, because
it demonstrably happens, thus it *is* "normal". But is it something you
think is desirable?

	One day, science may be able to cure homosexuality.

Like the others, too ambiguous. Science will almost inevitably find a
way to alter sexuality. But is homosexuality a disease that needs curing
in the first place?

Anyway, like the subject line says, this is wandering off-topic...

Tet

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