How liberal or conservative are you relative to the U.S. voting population?

[Penumbra]

What percent of the voting population of the U.S. are more conservative than you?

I'm socially liberal and economically progressive. Basically, like Bernie Sanders.

I'm left of the average U.S. voting population on most issues.

How did you come to this conclusion?

Mathematics, mostly.

 

[Underhill]

I am for gay rights, against gun control and in favor of single payer health care. Legalization of drugs seems like a good idea. I don't like abortion much but think it should be legal. I'm in favor of protecting religious freedom but half the country has no idea what that means.

I hate the term moderate because most people seem to think that means we haven't made up our mind when in reality I have a whole host of very strong opinions but both parties seem wrong a good portion of the time. I also think both parties are heading off cliffs of our making. We seem to have lost empathy in today's world. Without it, the opposition always looks like the enemy and every compromise is a loss. We have also forgotten how to balance a check book and that is also extremely dangerous.

In short, I think we here in America are screwed.

 

[Kilgore Trout]

I'd say nearly all are more conservative than I am. Also, nearly all are more liberal than I am.

I prefer using my brain over adopting broad, arbitrary ideologies.

 

[Scott C.]

I suppose that since I started this thread, I should have the decency to at least comment.

I see myself as right of center for the U.S. But I'm closer to the mid-point than most of the folks in this forum, as far as I can tell. The majority seem to be much farther left, than I am right. Sometimes it's amazing how left people are. I wonder if lefties are more prone to join forums like this, than are righties?

 

[columbus]

Sometimes it's amazing how left people are. I wonder if lefties are more prone to join forums like this, than are righties?

Perhaps the people you perceive as leftish are the ones whose beliefs are less threatened by facts, logic, and dramatically different world views.
In other words, better able to hold up to reality.

Tom

 

[Scott C.]

Perhaps the people you perceive as leftish are the ones whose beliefs are less threatened by facts, logic, and dramatically different world views.
In other words, better able to hold up to reality.

Tom

Logic and facts support conservatism more frequently than liberalism. The changing of traditional values is more frequently foolish abandonment of the wisdom of the ages, than it is enlightenment and progress. But hey, where liberal ideas make logical and compassionate sense, and where change is truly progress, I'm all in.

And credit to you for an admittedly clever post.

 

[columbus]

But hey, where liberal ideas make logical and compassionate sense, and where change is truly progress, I'm all in.

I'm pretty up front on RF about my views on everything from religion to global politics to sex to @Wirey .

Would you consider me a liberal or a conservative?

I don't mean to put you on the spot, other than to understand why you think what you do about the terms liberal and conservative.*
Tom

* I have made another post in this thread...

 

[columbus]

And credit to you for an admittedly clever post.

And Thank You....
I think
Tom

 

[dust1n]

I suppose that since I started this thread, I should have the decency to at least comment.

I see myself as right of center for the U.S. But I'm closer to the mid-point than most of the folks in this forum, as far as I can tell. The majority seem to be much farther left, than I am right. Sometimes it's amazing how left people are. I wonder if lefties are more prone to join forums like this, than are righties?

I think people using the internet generally tend to be younger, and "the left" tends to be younger.

 

[InfiniteZero]

My journey has been an odd one. I once was an avid and staunch conservative like my family and a full blow Right Wing Authoritarian Follower. Then I fell in love with another guy, was forced to question all of my beliefs, and over the course of two years I drew new conclusions based on what I found. I slipped to Libertarian, then finally to Liberal, then to full on Progressive with Socialist leaning. There are still some of the weirdly conservative views but even they tend to be tempered by extremely progressive ones.

For example, I tend to support the owning by citizens of firearms and the teaching of young kids to use firearms (the local National Rifle Association runs a summer camp for kids as young as six). I approve of demystifying and treating firearms like tools. But that is only because I see gun violence in the US (and discord in civilization, generally) as more a matter of Rich vs Poor. Reducing income inequality, favoring comprehensive mental health treatment, limiting the privilege and power of the rich, and placing more power (social and economic) in the hands of women would likely reduce a lot of social ills.

 

[Shadow Wolf]

My journey has been an odd one. I once was an avid and staunch conservative like my family and a full blow Right Wing Authoritarian Follower.

Mine experience is similar. I never considered myself authortarian, but, in a way, my strong right-winged conservative views were pretty much that because I did fully believe Christian dogma should be the law of the land. I used to be staunchly opposed to gay marriage, welfare recipients needed to get off their lazy asses and work harder, and that sharing public space in a secular nation was a full-on assault against Christianity.
And then I went back to public school for high school, got a job, gained some life experience, met a variety of people, and I realized that I very and utterly wrong.

 

[Gary Sheldrake]

What percent of the voting population of the U.S. are more conservative than you? How did you come to this conclusion?

99.999%. I am a liberal Socialist Democrat.

 

[InfiniteZero]

Mine experience is similar. I never considered myself authortarian, but, in a way, my strong right-winged conservative views were pretty much that because I did fully believe Christian dogma should be the law of the land. I used to be staunchly opposed to gay marriage, welfare recipients needed to get off their lazy asses and work harder, and that sharing public space in a secular nation was a full-on assault against Christianity.And then I went back to public school for high school, got a job, gained some life experience, met a variety of people, and I realized that I very and utterly wrong.

For me it took a life shattering revelation that came with falling in love with a girly guy but your experience is so similar to mine it is scary. All the way down to blaming welfare people for being lazy and avidly reading books by right wing pundits.

 

[Laika]

my political compass usuually comes up somewhere between -7/-7 and -5/-5. So most Americans are more conservative than me in terms of views. though actually in many personal habits I'm pretty conservative, (e.g.non-drinker, not just alcohol but tea/coffee as well, non-smoker, no history of drug use, don't watch TV, etc.). its only when you browse my bookshelf or web history you'd find stuff that's un-American.

 

[Milton Platt]

What percent of the voting population of the U.S. are more conservative than you? How did you come to this conclusion?

I have no way to poll the population against my own political beliefs. But I guess I am far left of Hitler and some distance right of Carl Marx.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I'm far-left. I'm morally and ethically conservative about some things, though, because I'm a Christian.

 

[Sand Dancer]

Fiscally, I am centrist, and socially, I am pretty left.

 

[Deidre]

I took a quiz recently, and I came out sort of left...but leaning towards the middle. I can't imagine anyone is planted firmly in any one political 'dogma,' so to speak. Except perhaps for...Trump.