Everything wrong with the Political Compass

[@HeavenlyEchoVirus]

The first time I took the test, as a non-American in 1st year uni, I thought to myself "this is for Americans trying to decide if they're "liberal/progressive" or "conservative.""

[@Wreniffer]

exactly, like the best way to figure out what you align with is ask people sho identify as something and have already figured it out

[@HeavenlyEchoVirus]

@Wreniffer well the one issue with that is if you're not well educated politically yet, it's very easy to get misled by people who seem knowledgeable but who aren't. Reading widely, with a focus on political theories and history (and history of theory) I think is the best way to go. If you have an inclination about your stance, look to thinkers or political actors clearly linked to what you think your stance might be and investigate. Talking to people in organisations (that aren't really adamant about you joining) about their stances, actions, and organisational work as well--but the key thing here is the affiliation rather than simply someone saying that they are x or y.

[@Wreniffer]

@ that’s definitely true, tbh i am still finding it hard to find an acurate label as i would prefer zero top down so im kinda anarchist but also i love centralising stuff and really a bunch of contradictions i have to sort out lol

[@HeavenlyEchoVirus]

@Wreniffer my advice would be worry less about finding a label, and just focus on exploring theory and history. I think the different theories and cases of workers' democracy (which inevitably involves a balance between worker decision making and having some sort of central cooperation) would be of interest for you. I'd also recommend anyone really ponder and think through what basic political ideas boil down to: what is freedom? What is governance, or authority? What constitutes top down authority--for instance is expertise different than other forms of authority? It's definitely a lot more life-long work than the compass (which of course the appeal of is its quick answer), but more important than simply finding a label.

[@Wreniffer]

@ thats true, ig i just want something that quickly gets the jist of my beliefs across but yeah i love my theory

[@hpoz222]

also incredibly funny that the compass' measure of left vs right is literally just that tweet of (paraphrased) "communism is when the government does stuff and the more stuff the government does the more communister it is"

[@ajohnymous5699]

@danielsmokesmids Sort of, but also not. Generally policing compasses register actions by the state to benefit people wholesale as leftist, which is fairly accurate, but that ignores motivation and when right wingers do similar policies for different reasons. It ignores motivation behind policy, oversimplifying to the policies themselves. Stalin, a leftist revolutionary, leans more towards the center and is hyper authoritarian, even though he would be more accurately found mid left becayse his constitution banned abortions becauss births benefitted the state. That's a very right wing perspective, according to the chart, understandably, but it would be a left wing policy if the state said "comrades in development are comrades, denying their potential autonomy as a general practice is evil." That is different from "women having rights bad."

[@legiondarywarrior39]

​@@danielsmokesmids Communism is stateless. Some schools of thought emphasize a revolutionary front or party that is authoritarian (this word is kind of useless as it implies a lifestyle like Kings when figures like Lenin or Stalin lived relatively modest lives in terms of their material consumption) in nature to defend against invasion or do Imperialism. The end goal is to dissolve this party and give power to the people however most fail, due to collapse such as in Western Europe which then fell to Neo-Liberal reforms destroying them economically. Other Socialist states have moved to a more democratic model but never to a true democracy of the people. Just for clarification Communism and Socialism are two different things and a Communist state was believed to take centuries to reach and of course has never been reached.

[@DrCruel]

@@legiondarywarrior39 The irony is that communism was the government of Russia for centuries. Boyars forced their feudal serfs onto communal farms where they were put to work and not allowed to leave, and where all their production became the property of their masters.. They just used different names for it.

[@Nick-hi9gx]

No, it uses the original left vs right. Because the left v right divide is about economics.

[@Helehache]

​@@ajohnymous5699 Stills being a right or socially conservative view.

[@Kozkayn]

The political compass is Redditor astrology

[@robynsun_love]

All it does is illustrate the depressing poverty of language and shallowness of political discourse in the West - plus it also reifies the thought-terminating dominant cultural framing of diametrically opposed ideologies (and mutually exclusive praxes therein) as wholly fungible, ephemeral, transient yet sacrosanct "oPiNiOnS" that one can try on like fast fashion.

[@Onyxiate]

Which is funny considering one of the ‘propositions’ is about whether astrology is real.

[@joaquinvideo2959]

Stalin gotta be my favorite centrist.

[@nicholascharles9625]

The real radical centrist

[@egezort]

As a Marxist-Leninist who is kinda interested in Soviet history, it really does seem like Stalin was a centrist in his own context. I know it sounds really weird but if you went to the Politburo, there were people to the "left" and to the "right" of Stalin, and he was a balancing figure between them many times.

[@joaquinvideo2959]

@@egezortYes, I know, that's the joke comrade.

[@JalalAsif-ep9ni]

😂

[@kazaddum2448]

I mean he was, to his left you had the various left-communist factions. To his right you had Bukharins faction. Of course this only covers the time up to the great house cleaning. But overall, Stalin was a mediating figure between the various positions in the CPSU and steered a moderate Marxist-Leninist course.

[@stino9635]

Political compass is for people who think they “know politics” but actually don’t. I think the main purpose of the political compass is to say “muh both sides bad” without having to do a political analysis of any kind

[@josephross8753]

I had a stroke reading this.

[@Nick-hi9gx]

Lul, people who think the political compass is bad think they "know politics"... and don't realize it is based on other systems of placing political positions that have been around for more than 40 years. Created by teams of political scientists that 100% know politics better than you do.

[@Helehache]

I think the best thing is being aware that political compasses are arbitrary by nature. It's an oversimplification but that's the motive of its existence. And I doubt the only people using it are centrists or people who likes bothsidism

[@phoenixshade001]

Lots of butthurt political compass glazers in the replies

[@Wreniffer]

the peak of centrism

[@Jordan67145]

One of the funniest things about this test is how one of its propositions is literally just a quote from the Communist Manifesto, so that liberals will recognize it and disagree with it simply because of its origin and not because they actually disagree with the quote itself. It's as you said, this quiz is just vibes with no basis in material reality

[@thegrazingapprentice]

I believe this kinda over thinking is why the democratic party lost so badly. This is giving elitist and the only people who can answer these questions are those who understand every piece of history rather than listening and understanding what in someone’s material life has made them agree to something vs not.

[@SurelyAnArtist]

Hi, I'm a little confused... I personally believe that I'm a liberal (based on the definition that I've always been given) and I definitely don't think like that. Nor do I disagree with it or with communism in general. I'm not tryna be mean I just wanna understand why everyone here and this video describes liberals as pretty pro capitalism even tho I don't really agree with capitalism and I'm a liberal from what I understood my whole life. I just really wanna understand and I apologize for my English it is not my first language. thx a lot❤

[@olegkirovskii2720]

@SurelyAnArtist in the US "liberal" means left/close to communism, while in Europe (especially in Eastern Europe) "liberal" means right as opposed to "old" communist governments. It is all very complicated

[@TysonMika123]

@SurelyAnArtist I tend to refer myself as progressive rather than liberal to avoid confusion.

[@hairymcnipples]

​@SurelyAnArtistyeah, the word "liberal" has multiple definitions. On the left, we tend to use it in a more technical sense rooted in political science. Liberalism in that sense refers to the family of political systems that encompass typically capitalism, representative democracy, and individual (as opposed to collective) rights. Liberalism in this sense is a right wing, often conservative, family of political ideas, rather different to what most people mean when they say liberal. It's why, for example, the mainstream right wing party in Australia is called the "National Liberal Party" while the relatively left wing party is the "Australian Labor Party" (and yes, they use the American spelling for some reason) It's all very confusing and extremely on-brand for the left who I must admit have a tendency towards pedantry (myself included).

[@ChrisSmith-bh2hg]

This is the Myers-Briggs test of politics.

[@paskahaisee420]

more like which spongebob character are you quiz of politics

[@cursedcat6467]

@@paskahaisee420y’know, sometimes you need a “what ninja turtle are you” kind of test.

[@Artistic_Cyborg]

@@cursedcat6467 "donatello!!" "we can't possibly all be donatello its not mathematically possible someone gotta be that stupid rat"

[@Dr.arroway]

Don’t diss myers-Briggs test like that smh

[@spearmintbask]

at least even mbti actually has a basis in jung’s analysis of cognitive functions😂 the political compass is like “tag which friend you are 🤪🤪” for politics😭😭

[@andrewdunn8778]

In Florida public school, I was taught that left=authoritarian and right=libertarian. So fascists are left wing and anarchists are right wing. The political compass, crappy as it is, was vastly vastly better than my initial understanding.

[@aaendi6661]

At least you're school doesn't teach the Wikipedia definition where it labels both anarchists and nazis as both "rightwing" because "they like punk rock and anime titties".

[@aturchomicz821]

@@aaendi6661 Thats not what wikipedia says🤡🤡

[@aaendi6661]

@@aturchomicz821 I made up the quote about punk rock and anime titties, but Wikipedia does claim that both anarchists and nazis are somehow both rightwing because they are both against political correctness.

[@damaas9094]

​@aaendi6661 i love how you had to clarify Wikipedia indeed dosent say "punk rock and anime titties"

[@pman56789]

@@aaendi6661 Why did you make that up?

[@000Dragon50000]

I saw someone put this in a very fitting and concise way: We'll call twitter whatever it is Elon wants it to be called, when he permanently starts using the correct name for his daughter. And not a single moment before.

[@RebekahSolWest]

Oh good reasoning

[@sharkbelly1169]

I'll also start using his preferred name at that time. Til then, he's Immigration Conman Leon Busk.

[@bengallup9321]

Their positioning of historical figures is ridiculously ahistorical, also. Hitler is a "centrist" (shouldn't need explaining why that is laughable) and Gandhi is "extreme left" (supported the caste system)

[@aliceolson7176]

Placing Hitler as a "centist" should be enough to discredit this test as absolute bollocks.

[@Crash_Of_Waves]

Scratch a centrist and a fascist bleeds?

[@Zecteiro]

NO WAY KKKKKKK

[@МаркКострин]

How did he "support caste system" If amidst everything, he's renown for having strong connections with untouchable?

[@buzhichun]

Hope the Algorithm picks up this video, I hate the political compass

[@NiedzwiedzMilo]

+1

[@alexbdagger]

same

[@Sariel_reuploading]

Well, it appeared on my algorithm despite me not knowing the existence of this channel so your hope is working 🥳🥳

[@JackDraak]

@@Sariel_reuploading I had exactly this same experience; I do, however, watch a lot of political / communist content.

[@Wreniffer]

@@JackDraakcommie smh 🤦‍♀️

[@stuartp2006]

10:41 I feel like a lot of this test is based on the "political discourse" in middle class America at the time of writing. The whole thing is an exercise in trying to make libertarianism look more popular, but it fails at even that as everyone kinda falls in a cloud of bottom left to top right anyway.

[@stuartp2006]

BTW, playing Tropico while listening/watching this. I thought it was appropriate.

[@starchythepotato2877]

this makes sense. the political compass may come from the naive middle class which has no class consciousness as well as the political scientists whose academic field is useful for only corporate relations and election campaigns and lack any descriptive capability.

[@Nick-hi9gx]

The first one was created by a team of Germans in the 1920's...

[@KyussTheWalkingWorm]

The political compass was created by a couple of British Labour members who hate Tony Blair, it's the Nolan Chart that exists to promote right-libertarianism.

[@badart3204]

It’s designed to make libertarian left viable when in reality it’s a super niche with very little historical relevance

[@rossophy3703]

about “labor freedom” according to the heritage foundation - it’s actually not quite what we might think when we say that. It is actually about “freedom” from the perspective of those who purchase labor power. For instance, a high minimum wage means low labor freedom. So yeah, there are no redeeming qualities about the economic freedom index. Great video!!!

[@_extrathicc]

Time to make the capitalist class "violence free" I guess

[@msjkramey]

Every time I think that the heritage foundation can't disgust me any more, I learn something new about their bs... I know I should really expect it at this point, but sometimes I'm optimistic about people to a fault

[@Ryanisthere]

ah yes the heritage foundation a foundation that has no political bias or motive to want a low minimum wage/s

[@blackhogarth4049]

Oh. So freedom for the bourgeoise and not us. Okay, then.

[@Midnightmonty97]

poltical compass tests feel like a buzzfeed quiz for liberals

[@HeavenlyEchoVirus]

I now need to make the political compass quadrants hogwarts houses

[@TheWrestlingful]

And buzzfeed wasn't a "quiz for (performative white) liberals" before?

[@wren_.]

I literally just took it in like 15 minutes, all the questions are like “do you believe some races are superior to others” and if you click “no” it puts you in leftlib.

[@jefl3228]

You say the political compass is bad, my uncle says it’s good. Those ideals are both extreme and therefore the same and evil so i will take the morally right position in the center: I’m neutral towards the political compass

[@abarette_]

kek

[@blackhogarth4049]

The harder someone claims to have no biases, the more biased they definitely are.

[@matteorossi1172]

He becomes the embodyment of the bias

[@Tuboflard]

Id trust someone who disagrees with me on literally everything that is honest about their bias more than someone who agrees with me on everything who claims no bias

[@imawakemymindisalive13]

holy shit, I’ve never questioned my own ideology and opinions so much. I believed that North Korea was like TheMostEvilDictatorship™️ because everything and everyone i’ve ever come across has said so. I remember reading a book about a girl who escaped and feeling so sorry for the people that lived there. I never once stopped to think it might all be propaganda because it’s beneficial for capitalists and the bourgeoise to say socialism bad.

[@RachelJade70]

I would caution you a little bit on how much you should "unlearn" about North Korea. As she stated herself, nobody is without bias, and essentially all her sources that counter the claims of western propaganda in this video are pro-Korea propaganda themselves. I think its really important to be skeptical of the things Capitalism teaches about itself, but you should also be skeptical of the teachings going the other way.

[@northuniverse]

I bring my political compass with me on every hike, just in case I get lost.

[@henriquechaves7714]

Came from TecnologiaeClasse (TeClas) from Brazil, it's nice to see authentic Marxist discourse in a North American channel. Solid analysis, much needed in these dire times of worldwide fascist uprising.

[@aaaaaaaaaa190]

Sempre bom ver um camarada por aqui

[@heitorsantoslima9289]

Apesar de ser mais simpático ao anarquismo, também é bom ver um camarada aqui. Subversivos do mundo, uni-vos!

[@hilliard665]

What gets me the most is the fact that we have been thru this capitalism, this hell, and it's admittedly given us great technology; we can take advantage of ALL OF THIS in a shift to communism, we have developed automation that can be used to reduce the work load of all, machines are force multipliers, we are all capable of generating great work life balance for all, we are so close.

[@LyubomirIko]

We are not friends, comrade. For communism we needs to be friends with each other and to value this way more than the material condition. The material condition, the autonomous technology and all this BS is secondary. And partially we are not friend because we are not working for each other, but also it is a ego/psychological thing that is in our nature and there is no way around it.

[@msjkramey]

​@LyubomirIko how is there no way around it?

[@SagaciousCat]

Totally agree with your sentiment, but I'm not convinced that we only have the technology we do because of capitalism. All capitalism cares about optimizing for is profit, not at all the quality of goods. I sometimes wonder how many amazing inventions and discoveries have been stifled simply because they threatened someone's profit motive.

[@user-et3xn2jm1u]

This has been the case for over the past 100 years in industrialized societies, and since nearly the beginning of human existence in most indigenous ones.

[@Wreniffer]

@@SagaciousCatit definitely helped but its a bit like saying without newton we wouldn’t be where we are, ir like marxism couldn’t be a thing without marx, like the first popular white dude to thing of something doesn’t mean it was necessary

[@zeusosecmaat7165]

11:15 Its also not internationaly at all. Germany has a higher tax rate than the US. An US citizen has a whole different number in mind when he hears "more taxes" than a German, swedish etc one

[@bertbaker7067]

If you're on Luigi's jury, Whoever you may be, Remember to vote _NOT GUILTY!_

[@BarackLesnar]

you are allowed to vote with your conscience. jury instructions are not binding, the human heart is

[@bertbaker7067]

@BarackLesnar well said

[@outofideas42]

If you live in new york do not be posting anything that might indicate bias on the matter or you might get caught out for perjury. The USA has the strongest survelience in the world and they will look into everyone on the jury who decides he is not guilty to try and get you for setting him free. Keep quiet forever, and just do what you need to.

[@bertbaker7067]

@@outofideas42 Perjury? Like if someone lied on the questionnaire about bias? With so much news coverage(a lot of which is already pretty biased), idk if finding an unbiased jury is even possible. Juror misconduct is a thing tho. However, it only applies to someone already on the jury, not beforehand.

[@aliceolson7176]

Jury Nullification is one of the best tools we have within our current, broken system which is why they fight so hard against people knowing about it and won't seat any Jurors who do.

[@seekingabsolution1907]

1:23:25 anarchists are in fact aware of this and do their best to institute proper protections from these risks. I'm not much an anarchist myself, though I am hugely sympathetic to their critiques of hierarchy, but they are aware of these problems and do their best to address them. I think not enough ML's and the like, acknowledge that.

[@drog.ndtrax3023]

No they are not aware of it and no they do not protect against it, which is why they rightfully have never had any actual power. When they do have power it's because they cooperated with states/fascists against the communist revolutionary parties. It has happened so god damned many times! People keep giving this fake notion of history, which rests on terrible idealist theory, so much attention in the west. It's not productive.

[@FlameQwert]

MLism is just a political cult, the fact that they can't understand the basic concept that state monopoly on violence creates immediate space for opportunists and counter revolutionaries is proof of it. Who's going to stop them, after all, they're the People's Police, they would neeeevver act in a way counter to communism or the working class.

[@FlameQwert]

​@@drog.ndtrax3023those darned anarchists cooperating with Hitler and giving him massive resources and training to rearm his military - oh what's that? Oh dear. Okay, how about those splitter anarchist blocs that worked with the west to sabotage other anarchist blocs in a famous Split starting in the 60s- oh what's that? Oh no. Oops. I may have gotten the names wrong 🙂

[@thepeopleslibrary8673]

Anarchists failed all their historical attempts. They cant hold power because they don’t understand the Leninist concept of “Imperialism”. However we have new mixed Socialist movements that acquire Anarchist strategies while accepting Lenin’s experience as fundamental.

[@azrael8759]

Her argument against libertarian socialism is: authority will always exist, so the optimal is for the authority to be in the hand of the workers. Libertarian socialism doesn't exist because authority will always exist. Anarchists don't disagree with this, the difference is the disagreement with how this will be achieved and how anarchists perceive "authority". Firstly, Anarchists don't disagree that the workers should hold the power over the bourgeois (anarchism and violence, Malatesta), they only see this organised by workers councils and direct democracy (arguably, Marx also wanted this, read "Marx, theoretician of Anarchism" on libcom) And that's why anarchists don't see socialism as authoritarian, because the lower class it's not alienated from politics and economics. That state shouldn't "work in favour of the workers", the "state" should be controlled by the workers, fuck the bureaucrats. "But perhaps the truth is simply this: our pro-Bolshevik friends take the expression “dictatorship of the proletariat” to mean simply the revolutionary action of the workers in taking possession of the land and the instruments of labor, and trying to build a society and organize a way of life in which there will be no place for a class that exploits and oppresses the producers. Thus construed, the “dictatorship of the proletariat” would be the effective power of all workers trying to bring down capitalist society and would thus turn into Anarchy as soon as resistance from reactionaries would have ceased and no one can any longer seek to compel the masses by violence to obey and work for him. In which case, the discrepancy between us would be nothing more than a question of semantics."

[@BigJohnyKuümshotd]

This is like astrology for politics

[@LucasZawacki]

You were absolutely cooking here, one of the best videos I've ever seen.

[@1HammerHaunt1]

There's a vid on YT called "Stereotypical music across political ideologies", and what it does is uses 4 metrics to describe each ideology: libertarian/authoritarian, capitalist/socialist, nationalist/globalist, traditionalist/progressivist. Imagine a meme music video doing a better job than so-called political experts just by using 4 dimensions instead of 2.

[@aria8928]

put me in the polital cube baybee

[@1HammerHaunt1]

@aria8928 it's more of a hypercube though ;^)

[@Wreniffer]

lmao exactly. firstly if you want somebody’s ideology ask for the actual ideology, but you really need to divide on l”at least economics, politics, social, and so many more like

[@Wreniffer]

tbh nationalist / globalist i feel is parts of other categories, but yk i also am thinking nationalist like patriotic americans and boy do i have alot to say about nationalism, its so silly it replaces the culture and is manufactured by the state as basically propaganda, dont love the culture, love the country that totally makes sense

[@element_119]

This just makes me think of Ellie Rasmussen's "Player Type Alignment Tesseract" video, lol

[@noxteryn]

Any time someone asks you to not think in terms of morality, they are about to justify something extremely immoral.

[@Vadim-p1d]

Morality is a class concept.

[@noxteryn]

@@Vadim-p1d Thank you for proving my point.

[@Vadim-p1d]

@@noxteryn Don't you agree?

[@beansworth5694]

@@Vadim-p1d What do you even mean by that? All concepts could be construed as a "class concept" if they're utilized in a class society, because in that context no deployment of any idea is completely class-neutral. Deconstructing morality in particular as something meaningless beyond its class-character seems like a short-sighted way to declare any and all behaviors, personal internalizations, and policies as inscrutable by any metric other than how it can be perceived as interfacing with the construct of class.

[@Vadim-p1d]

@@beansworth5694 Taking away surplus value is a moral act for capitalists, but immoral for workers. Raising the retirement age is a moral action for capitalists, but it is immoral for workers and employees. Corrupt love is normal for capitalists, but immoral for workers and employees. Acquiring knowledge for money is normal for capitalists, but immoral for workers and employees... Continue?

[@Homemade574]

The question on class and nationality also kinda ignores current anti imperialist struggles where, currently and more openly at least, the national struggle is still more important. Some countries that come to mind are Palestine, Cuba with the blockade and Ireland being partitioned. Ofc they all have class struggles but the national one is more current

[@eggsbox]

congrats on being the 69th comment

[@Philosophocat]

Половина вопросов (утверждений) в тесте так по-дурацки сформулирована, что даже не понятно, что выбрать 🤦🏼‍♀️

[@CORTESCANHOTOS]

Thanks for the video. It's one of the best things I've ever seen. Greetings from a marxist-leninist from Brazil.

[@americaninternationalist1917]

Also, as someone who has engaged international politics in the Arab world: the left right dichotomy doesn't even really make sense outside of the west and nobody uses it in that context. Not to mention that different countries are in different places culturally, so often in the context of Eastern Europe (like the communist party of greece or the communist party of the russian federation) it is normal for the left to be socially conservative and for the centrist anticommunists to be the ones that would be socially "left" in the US.

[@wokecommunist3095]

holy sh*t, that is scary af. This is going to give me nightmares for years. It sounds inhumane and terrifying to live in such an unspeakably evil part of the world as eastern Europe. To me, it's always made sense for Marxists (including Marxist-Leninists) to be woke.

[@aria8928]

agreed that tbh most of europe even is HARD LEFT if we use American politics as the standard. big part of why the compass is goofy.

[@Arabmarxistt]

yeah that's true. I read something about how red army faction members training in Palestinian camps back in the 60s were frustrated because Palestinian communists didn't allow the German men and women to sleep with each other. But this is not applicable to all Arab countries. My home country was very much influenced by French communists so they're both socially and economically leftist mostly.

[@akanechan9421]

You're not internationalist

[@wokecommunist3095]

the thought of socially conservative Communism/social democracy haunts me.

[@S13l_Um3n0]

the things you said about North Korea made me realise how I'm not at all immune to propaganda. I never questioned why everyone says it's fully evil, because "duh, North Korea bad". can somebody recommend any good videos or literature on DPRK?

[@KU84SH33]

Daily life in North Korea - “My Brothers and Sisters in the North” (Full awarded documentary) and Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul

[@muffinfighter3680]

These two videos by Hakim are about North Korea and provide several sources for further research: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ipOrhISJh6xofKcsi=KIMKogXYX34-ozUn kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6unmaSOqqp_oNEsi=lIvJEZJk2acSiriL

[@bengallup9321]

Hakim has several good videos on North Korea. Great channel in general.

[@PC42190]

“Patriots, Traitors and Empires” by Stephen Gowans changed forever my opinion on the DPRK. After that, Hakim’s videos helped me to understand that country and their struggle better

[@randomz5890]

This video was so eye opening. It was clear the political compass was terrible, but the fact that many of its ideas come from the awful heritage foundation actually makes so much sense.

[@Antipaxos_Nadja123]

14:45 in regards to religion either being right-wing or authoritarian, I really don't get it. Religious faith and spirituality are really such individual things that so many people of all backgrounds go on complex journeys all over the place regarding, religion makes some people, look at Desmond Tutu or MLK jr fight for justice, for others, like Mike Johnson or Mitch Mcconnell, it's used to justify oppression

[@starchythepotato2877]

Jesus Christ was the furthest left figure of his time. If he knew what atrocities people would commit in his name, he would have killed himself before he could be martyred.

[@msjkramey]

My best guess is that it's based on religious authority within government. That doesn't have to mean that the government officially endorses a religion. In the US, it's more of a "soft power" thing

[@Antipaxos_Nadja123]

@@msjkramey For the positioning of countries as a whole I see that, state religion is very often associated with authoritarianism, but as a question for individual ideologies then I don't think it makes much sense

[@Wreniffer]

yeah i think religion often can become oppressive as its such an easy thing to happen but like that only applies to very structured religions, like random chill pagans are not going to money launder and kill people like

[@amiehamilton1840]

My thinking is that there is a differentiation between formal religious social structures, ie, the high control religions like Mormonism, and cults, and spirituality, which reflects an individual person's beliefs. Religion as an individual belief system outside of social and government structures is a very new phenomenon.

[@DD-qo1tw]

Thank you so much. I used to have a copypasta I made critiquing the political compass, it's inherent acceptance of liberal ideology and the fractally flawed notion of what I call the"ideology buffet" that's poison to actually understanding material reality. My laptop with that's hard drive died, had no backup, and Microsoft, unknown to me, decided to design it to be unsalvageable even by data recovery experts. That's probably the least valuable thing I lost but you have given me an even more thorough thing to lazily post and spread about. I used to not bother combatting it on memes but honestly I think even then it should be opposed unless the meme is itself attacking the test.

[@jinclay4354]

When I first learnt of Dialectical Materialism I started suspecting that the Political Compass was bullshit. Then I looked for what other people thought of it, and found a video about it which I'm not able to find anymore. Anyway, that person, to say that the Authority-Axis was bullshit, gave the example that "Every principled communist falls into the bottom-left quadrant.". That has stuck with me. Great video, comrade.

[@purplespades9632]

If the political compass tries to put Orwell SOMEWHERE,they would have a hard time with it. Orwell is described as a socialist or anarchist but he goes after them. He doesn't have a problem with the British Empire and couldn't bring himself to hate Hitler. He was also an agent for the British Empire and worked as a colony cop in the British Raj. Orwell just doesn't make any sense.

[@_extrathicc]

He was the median voter

[@Jordan67145]

Honestly, Orwell and his actions start making much more sense when you find out that he was a Trotskyist (I'm just joking Trotskyist friends, we still love you

[@purplespades9632]

@Jordan67145 I guess that kind of makes sense.

[@rrlmusic92]

He worked for the IRD. He was a fed. Pure and simple.

[@Historia.Magistra.Vitae.]

*He was a socialist Leftist. Simple as that.*

[@lolmang4mes801]

For those wondering about the timestamps for the "DPRK vs South Korea" portion (amazing btw) it starts at 1:01:13 and ends roughly at 1:06:03

[@noko4247]

the austrian painter is a centrist according to their model

[@francislav2804]

While I agree with most of your points, the USSR and Soviet block apologism is unbearable. I am polish and my country was given away to the USSR by the west after WWII. What ultimately led to our country being free (yes, the state was insanely oppressive) was people getting organized and forming trade unions. Later the solidarity movement spread to other Soviet countries. I cannot deny that during Soviet rule a lot of good changes happened - elimination of illiteracy, rebuilding of the capital from literal ruins and removing most inequalities in society. Also, many great things stayed after establishing democracy- free education, including university and one of the best healthcare systems in Europe. However, the regime was oppressive and brutal to any form of opposition, especially in the earlier years. In 1981 martial law was established for two years, during which people regularly got beaten up by militia for even carrying printer parts, and all opposition leaders were thrown into prison. I just cannot stand some of the US leftists who assume that if the states hadn't meddled in USSR, then we'd have true socialism by now, while ignoring all the nuances of history and forgetting that the self-interested ruling class can develop everywhere. The demonization goes too far imo, but worship isn't the answer.

[@dev-i3p]

Communists are brutal to any form of opposition because the west is constantly trying to destroy all the gains you admit they made.

[@listenToTheRats979]

I love this vid! Revolutionaryth0t you're good! Really good! I'll be sharing this vid with my wife and my family! Keep up the good work Comrade!

[@323guiltyspark]

You can criticize American imperialism and South Korea without carrying water for North Korea. Plus, is don't think it's a dirty little secret that South Korean democratization is a fairly recent development. Koreans themselves are very well aware that they had been living under a right-wing dictatorial regime up until the 90s. Yoon's attempted self-coup is significant in that it is an extraordinary throwback to how things had been 40 years ago and the Korean people are pushing back against it.

[@Magnesium-BasedLifeform-i9e]

what’s carrying water, gamer? Saying that these people shouldn’t be grinded to dust? That maybe we shouldn’t sanction them to oblivion? What makes you think the countries who criticize north korea have the best interests of its inhabitants in mind?

[@323guiltyspark]

@@Magnesium-BasedLifeform-i9e You asked a couple questions and I'll try to answer them in order: 1) Engaging in whataboutism that paradoxically portrays North Korea as no more authoritarian than South Korea and that it is only extremely authoritarian because it's other people's fault. 2) No. 3) No. 4) I never said they did, but it is also irrelevant to the question as to whether North Korea is authoritarian.

[@dev-i3p]

What crime has North Korea done besides building a society to prevent getting invaded and mass murdered again? You Americans are extremely unreasonable to gaslight a country you still have under military occupation

[@dabigamba]

That county is posed as the most authoritarian and the most non-liberal. The video makes the case by contrasting to in particular us allies to explain how these 'objective' measurement is biased with the imperialist lens. You can indeed understand all things: demonization of the dprk, manufactured bias based on western interest, and that south Korea is also a repressive corporatist patriarchal state that is heavily played by us interests. And also how all this situations only end up benefiting elites. If anything, solidarity should go to peoples in all of Korea.

[@323guiltyspark]

@@dabigamba For sure, this political compass is ass; it was made by libertarians to convince you to be libertarian. When any sample of data is measured, there will always be a point that is the most something, even if it is not at the absolute end of the scale. I doubt there exists a state that is so authoritarian that it could not possible be more authoritarian. Similarly, the inverse does not exist as well. These would just be abstracts. But to say that North Korea does not deserve its spot as an authoritarian state because of capitalism in South Korea ignores scale. In South Korea, we could have this conversation in public, criticizing the economy, the leadership, the very society itself. In North Korea, that is not possible. You cannot say that North and South Korea are in parity when it comes to levels of authoritarianism when one of those states limits basic political discourse on pain of law.

[@hilliard665]

So I work for myself, I'm what is called a sole trader in Australia. I mow lawns and do gardening, I own all my gear (lawn mowers line, trimmers, vehicle etc) Do I own my own means to production?

[@kikotanto2980]

yup, think its called being petit bourgeois

[@hilliard665]

​@@kikotanto2980 Thanks, I just read the Wikipedia page on this and can relate to what James C. Scott was quoted to have written. Cheers for pointing me in the right direction.

[@Vadim-p1d]

Under dictator Stalin, small entrepreneurs were united in Unions: Collective farms (rural areas) and in consumer cooperation, artels. The state provided them with services in the form of equipment and specialists. Some of these unions have developed into powerful industries. And only the Menshevik Khrushchev (after the coup) liquidated these Unions, taking everything into state ownership.

[@Wreniffer]

is it like run through another name or entirely owned by you? if its just you that does mean you own your means of production and you are petit bourgeoisie as people have already said. definitely a subclass alot of leftist disagree about, i would say you are not a worker but you would also have the same interests as the workers most of the time

[@amiehamilton1840]

The category of petit bourgeois is primarily differentiated from workers when their interests are different , ie, they are likely to benefit from lower wages and poorer working conditions through hiring other people and receiving the benefit of their surplus production, or receiving corporate tax benefits. Classical class analysts didn't really consider sole traders, sub-co tractors or people working on platforms like uber. I think this was deliberate, a strategy to confuse people like sole traders who actually have a lot more in common with workers than the capitalist class. Yanis Veroufakis​ has an interesting theory on those who own the tech platforms, and the role they play in role of production. He argues that we are living in a post capitalist society where elements of feudalism have combined with capitalism to make something worse. I'm not 100% convinced, but it's a good start in updating Marxist analysis for contemporary conditions.

[@firstlast-cs6eg]

North Korea is well known to be authoritarian, not because "common sense", but because of lots of evidence to it. NK requires people to bow to images, not crinkle images of etc. their king. Visitors are kept under constant monitor of a "minder" and are forbidden any contact with any NK except for select people approved. NK has a agency where they "recruit" people to do jobs overseas. But the NK government gets most of this money and conditions and pay of the work are terrible, they might also say be required to do bad stuff. Each person has to have a family so that threat to the family keeps them from running away. There is other proof as welll. And while yes SK has had exaggerated to even fabricated horror stories for NK for show ratings, enough people escaping from NK not involved in such shows have given a pretty stark image of a brutally authoritarian government. Also other BS about the abortion stuff etc doesn't change what we do know. As far as SK goes. Yeah, because of extreme capitalism SK is also pretty authoritative. Both things are true. "Oops talking about SK again" bit got old very quickly because, while what you're saying is true, one doesn't change the other. BTW "martial law" doesn't even apply when NK is ruled by a king with absolute authority. I agree with much of what you said in this video except the BS about NK where you pretend that it's only false western propaganda that anyone thinks anything bad about NK's government.

[@ricardo36]

"People bow to images" doesn't the USA require people in schools to do a Pledge to the Flag even if they're not from the USA? sounds like y'all take something from other cultures and make it look bad even tho you do something similar

[@mr.alfredo4177]

@@ricardo36You aren’t punished by the government for not saying the pledge of allegiance. Barely anyone at any of my schools said the pledge. This is a false equivalency

[@dev-i3p]

You actually believe all this stuff? You are really gullible. Most of these claims have never been sourced.

[@firstlast-cs6eg]

@@dev-i3p What claims? You are being too vague.

[@dev-i3p]

@@firstlast-cs6eg The claims you make in your first paragraph

[@necrotoxin7366]

This channel is so underrated you explain things in a way that’s easy to understand without dumbing down the content. 10/10

[@krausmal37]

You had me in the first half. Pretty good stuff about how the political compass was made and is biased. But you lost me in the second half where you say don't trust anything you hear about North Korea unless you've been there. I've heard first hand reports of humanitarians going there and it's not as glamorous as you make it out to be. Also saying everything you hear is a lie is conspiratorial

[@dev-i3p]

You probably haven't heard first hand reports of what is going on in North Korea though.

[@krausmal37]

@@dev-i3p i listend to a report from an aidworker who went there

[@dev-i3p]

@@krausmal37 No one is saying North Korea is glamorous considering it's a third world country under illegal military occupation from the west, so how does this aid worker's anecdotal experience contradict what is *actually* being said?

[@ittixen]

My anarcho-communism after watching this video: +5% communism -5% anarchism

[@AylinIsAwesome]

Both Koreas seem pretty authoritarian from what I can tell?

[@dodec8449]

@@AylinIsAwesome yeah that's the whelp-this-is-a-tankie part of the video. Wasted more than 30 minutes.

[@purplepedantry]

​@@dodec8449 Yeah, I probably should have seen that coming with her opinions on the USSR in the videos about its cartoons and depictions in western media.

[@gluehfunke1547]

North Korea is undeniably terrible when it comes personal freedoms like LGBT rights, abortion, access to information, leaving the country, etc. But is there are world of difference between them and Saudi Arabia or many other counties the west doesn’t fear monger about? And when it come to human rights, what NK did to Otto Warmbier was psychotic, but even in the US, we have recent cases like Lason Butler or John Castillo, where prison inmates were subjected to inhumane conditions and died. Im not condoning the way Revolutionary Thot was framing it, but there is something to the idea that we treat them like this arch enemy Hollywood villain when, in reality, they’re only unusually bad in a select few areas like the travel and internet restrictions. The rest is run of the mill conservative authoritarian crap that is way too common in Asia and Africa.

[@AylinIsAwesome]

@gluehfunke1547 Yeah, I agree

[@purplepedantry]

@gluehfunke1547 Overall, that's a fair point. I might be the only one hearing a little whataboutism, but even if not, it is quite odd yet also touching to hear such words from someone who isn't a literal sympathiser like her :/

[@MarxyMarxAndTheFunkyBunch]

You'd think that the political compass fandom would realise everything wrong with the political compass when a government bails out a private bank or a private airport.

[@darkestlight660]

Bias report here: I am anarcho-communist, I was born and raised in the United States. I am studying at an American University in an effort to achieving a degree in sociology (mini rant: FINALLY, someone else said it- objectiveness is a trap made to hide ideology). Also: yeah, the political compass is trash. I very much disagree with the idea that the state is at all useful as a tool for achieving permanent change. I DO however, agree that you have to address the conditions which gave rise to states before they will collapse. But i find the idea that the STATE is the tool that allows us to end itself feels... contradictory. A state maintains its power through repression, as you mentioned, I have not ever seen evidence that a state will ever collapse under its own weight. I have seen centuries of evidence that states maintain their power through violent means and resist all attempts to collapse its monopoly on violence. The reason I think this is important is because- yeah- in my opinion- states are inherently co-optive. Hierarchies themselves are my problem, not necessarily "power." I dont think there is such a thing as "just hierarchies." So splitting hierarchies into "unjust" and "just" hierarchies feels arbitrary to me. To me, ever relying on a state to achieve change is a crapshoot. All that being said: I think you're right on a lot of stuff. I think you're right that leftists really do need to work more on actual organizing, and less on slightly different end goals. I also think that moving toward freedom means achieving institutions which are not reliant on the state or on capitalists to function. Because- if you're relying on a state- you're relying on capitalists? China has a thriving capitalist trade which contributes to the suppression of workers world wide. This isn't to call it worse than America, its to call out that states themselves are the problem. And more fundamentally, hierarchy. For me (someone with chronic asthma, so- im not as far as I'd like to be) that means organizing with other students. Trying to make food networks, offering a helping hand when someone in my neighborhood needs something, and learning all I can to hopefully offer it to someone who needs or wants the information. I only engage this much, because I think this is one of the best videos with a marxist framework I've seen in forever. Despite criticisms, you've earned my sub.

[@prodigal_southerner]

I don't usually do this, but I'm going to refrain from offering any commentary on the subject of the video until I've finished it. This one is for the algorithm.

[@ufa-tw5hy]

The video was so good, but then it had to devolve into NK apologia. You know... the communist themed monarchy. Yes there is universal sufferage, but what does it matter if you can only vote for the ruling party and nothing else. Yes the state is secular, because religion demands loyalty to things other than the Great Leader. If you disagree with the way the things work you can't even leave. Also they don't even claim to be marxist anymore, but juche so I don't get why anyone would defend them. ...but I guess westerners know everything better and the next thing you will say that the 1956 hungarian revolution was actually a CIA-backed fascist coup. You MUST know better than my own grandparents, they were just parroting american propaganda after all.

[@azrael8759]

The end of the free Hungarian councils was a tragedy for socialism.

[@kazaddum2448]

"Also they don't even claim to be marxist anymore, but juche so I don't get why anyone would defend them." - factually wrong and ignorant regarding anti-imperialism "but I guess westerners know everything better and the next thing you will say that the 1956 hungarian revolution was actually a CIA-backed fascist coup." - it factually was, the west never made any secret out of it. Your grandparents were fascists and deserved it, get fucked.

[@kazaddum2448]

@@azrael8759 What councils? Those of the fascist arrow cross party? xD

[@abarette_]

>what does it matter if you can only vote for the ruling party and nothing else Yeah, modern North Korea truly is as irredeemable as America

[@dev-i3p]

You believe all those unsourced claims about NK? Lmao. They have a strict society because YOUR country has them under military occupation.

[@RachelJade70]

This doesn't have a ton to do with the political compass itself, but the amount of North Korea defending in this is puzzling. I can definitely believe that the compass has NK wrong, but you seem to be heavily implying that "North Korea is authoritarian" and "North Korea is bad" are not true statements? NK fits the exact dictionary definition of authoritarianism, and not being allowed to question the leader of your country is pretty demonstrably dangerous to the well-being of its citizens. And, spending 10 minutes claiming "South Korea is bad too" just isn't a good argument? I'd love to hear your take on this, because while there is a ton of propaganda in Western media, the same is very true for the NK side, and basically all of your examples of "learning how it really is in North Korea" are very transparently propaganda as well. And, I'd ask for a continued conversation on this, but citing PMUIS as a recommended listen really tells me that it wouldn't be a productive conversation. At the end of the day, what is happening in America and South Korea and other right-wing capitalistic countries is atrocious. But what is happening in North Korea is ALSO atrocious, and just because its not Imperialistic doesn't mean its suddenly no big deal. I don't disagree with a lot of your points! But I really fail to see why suddenly North Korea is good actually? And there is a huge citation needed to say that NK works on behalf of its people. Also, you say in the very next section that "states are inherently repressive", with really no mention that NK is one of the strongest states in existence??? Like, the whiplash of watching the libertarian bit right after the large section defending North Korea is crazy. Are none of those points relevant to North Korea??? Its so confusing.

[@lloroshastar6347]

I agree with this comment, and up until that point I thought this was an incredibly well thought out video. Simply reducing it to 'you have to go there to have an opinion', given how heavily researched the rest of the video is, was frankly puzzling. A country that has to threaten to shoot anyone that leaves its borders in order to keep them within it's borders does not even slightly lead me to believe it's not an authoritarian society.

[@dvdly]

Well done. One thing, though: CIA's promotion of abstract expressionism does not render it less free thinking (or more or less anything else) but merely indicates CIA's belief it would be received as an indication of a freer society to the targets of its propaganda. Of course the US actions on the matter was anything but freedom loving.

[@BludPanda]

Great video! Really presents concrete reasons this compass doesn't work, especially economically. My only issue, AS A SOCIALIST, is the defensiveness of North Korea or the rhetoric that the West's understanding of it is the opposite of the truth. When confronted with the question of whether North Korea is authoritarian you spent a large amount of time arguing countries liberals like such as South Korea were authoritarian. Correct, South Korea is one of the worst countries I know of, but how does that make North Korea not authoritarian? I agree with everything you are saying about other countries, I agree that Korea is a result of anti-communist imperialism, but that doesn't make North Korea not authoritarian. Don't get me wrong, it's important knowledge but it feels like dodging the question in this context. Maybe I've misunderstood the point you were trying to convey, but with the setup of trying to correctly categorize countries in a more truthful way, it came off like you were arguing North Korea was not authoritarian and seemed quite defensive of it, pitting it against the rest of the 'bad' countries. If I'm wrong let me know. There's a lot to like about the DPRK, and asserting that everything said about it is pure propaganda isn't far from the truth, but is not the whole truth. North Korea is *definitely* authoritarian despite the freedom and comfort it offers its citizens economically. The "democratic" aspects of society like voting are quite limited and the ruling party [only party] effectively chooses for its people. A one-party state is not a politically free state. There is an almost religious view of the Un family who are effectively monarchs. Socialism is about freedom, and a monarchy, even with economic harm reduction is not true freedom and likely unstable under future global changes. This isn't to say that its a terrible country, it's just not all butterflies and rainbows and that can still be pointed out on the left. This discussion just further shows how the Wests view of both capitalism and socialism are just off in so many ways. You're absolutely right that there is a hypocritical view of liberals on what "authoritarian" means. They see a country with a single, un-elected, permanently leader and say that's authoritarian but then look at the US where elections are decided by the most powerful rich people on the planet and call it a democracy. Truth is, both the US and North Korea are more or less authoritarian, just in vastly different ways. The assumption that because liberals are wrong, the right answer must be the opposite of what they believe is ridiculous. Socialism in North Korea is not the extent of what socialism means or could be, nor should it be conflated. The difference between a monarchy and a democracy is massive. Unfortunately it seems there is very few truly democratic free countries on this planet, and the reasons why are vast and complicated. I don't think a single country on this planet should be considered ideal as a whole, we should think more about the individual aspects of these countries we reason are effective/right.

[@abarette_]

yeah it's really bizarre to take this approach, modern north korea is a monarchy in all but name yes south korea is an illegitimate state, yes it cares about as little if not less for its citizens as north korea does, yes it actively aims to destroy north korea's economic ability and social stability... but North Korea is a monarchy, quite the opposite of public ownership of the state.

[@radishraven9]

Thanks for this comment, i agree and you outlined my ideas better than i would have. I would add thag N korea is not just a monarchy, it is a dictatorship with a cult of personality.

[@antoninapiast5993]

Could you recommend or make a video that explains why North Corea isn’t so bad? I find it hard to believe, but don’t want to jump to conclusions based only on my previous information

[@taylorphillips7030]

I'm gonna jump in here and point out that her point about not being able to travel there means we can't know what it's really like misses that it has been proven that when you do travel to North Korea the DPRK government deliberately hides it's poverty and authoritarianism from visitors. The reality is that North Korea, in its modern form, is remarkably poor due to isolation and economic mismanagement. That isn't evil per se, but what the brutal repression of those who speak up against the government is. There is no free speech or organization against the government, which has been accepted to be evil in the west, and rightfully so. The regime is brutal to its citizens, and it should be shunned, regardless of political affiliation.

[@DeletedSince.2020]

@@taylorphillips7030 Bro gets his news from Radio Free Asia. Everything you've said has come from anonymous sources that Radio Free Asia mysteriously knows. Such a shame North Korea is so remarkably poor that they can mass produce phones for their population. So remarkably poor they can create entire fake cities where fake citizens can live inside of fakely in shelter and warmth, all so they can brainwash tourists from the other side of the world that Kim Jong UN is actually Jesus' second coming. Even though there is literally no material reason for them to think the citizens of foreign countries are in any way important to their conditions. For the love of God, stop being a monkey. You said it yourself, we can't know whats in Real-Korea, is that why you unironically follow Liberal news outlets that claim North Korea has human pulled trains, that Kim Jong un banned copying his haircuts in 2014, only to force every man to wear his haircut in 2016. Have you heard??? Kim claims to have landed a rocket on the Sun!!! Have you heard? Kim Jong Un executed the same military officer TWICE in 6 years? Unbelievable, Insane Juche Necromancy. You liberals are a joke. You believed America when they claimed there were Nukes in Iraq, how did that go? Found no Nukes after eliminating 500k people and established a loyal "democracy" in the region that lasts to this day, sucking the oil out of their soil for decades to come. It is because of people like you, why slave-owners have power.

[@DeletedSince.2020]

Daily life in North Korea - “My Brothers and Sisters in the North” (Full awarded documentary) and Loyal Citizens of Pyongyang in Seoul

[@muffinfighter3680]

These two videos by Hakim are about North Korea and provide several sources for further research: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ipOrhISJh6xofKcsi=KIMKogXYX34-ozUn kzbin.info/www/bejne/e6unmaSOqqp_oNEsi=lIvJEZJk2acSiriL

[@bengallup9321]

Hakim has some good explanations about it, also a great channel generally

[@RebekahSolWest]

I agree that there are no ‘libertarian’ countries; all states are authoritarian by definition. But there’s still a difference between being allowed to, for instance, distribute media that challenges the government, or any form of media or art at all that the ruling party doesn’t agree with, or form a political organization or party, or run for political office even if the party in power doesn’t want you to, etc, and not being allowed to do those things. And I think these freedoms are all important for ensuring that the government actually stays committed to improving the lives of the working classes. Also, thanks for the recommendation of the Szymanski book, I need to read more about this.

[@dovahkitty3916]

this was a really fun video, thanks for taking the time to create it.

[@genericuserhandle2419]

"What actually matters is the material conditions and not ideas" "Uhhhhhhh ackshually DPRK is good because they have a piece of paper saying the economy belongs to the people, please ignore the material conditions."

[@Magnesium-BasedLifeform-i9e]

Does the word “sanctions” mean anything to you? How about the phrase “killed 20% of their population?” Or the fact the norks had a better standard than the south until very recently?

[@mr.alfredo4177]

@@Magnesium-BasedLifeform-i9e”very recently” is bollocks. If North Korea became a democracy like South Korea their country would be in a much better place.

[@abarette_]

@@mr.alfredo4177 ah yes south korea is a democracy, just like how Nigeria defended Patagonia from a zombie invasion in 1356.

[@mr.alfredo4177]

@ South Korea quite literally is a democracy. They just stopped an attempted coup through democracy. North Korea is an autocratic dictatorship.

[@dev-i3p]

DPRK is good because they prevented America from invading and slaughtering them again. Their material conditions would improve more if you LEFT THEIR COUNTRY from the MILITARY OCCUPATION the west has on it.

[@rmt3589]

3:25 Precision vs Accuracy. How close the results are to each other, vs how close they are on average to the target.

[@danielmcdermott3163]

I think you are doing pretty great work. Probably the best new channel I picked up in the last few months.

[@corgiverse9550]

I've been saying this for years. Why am I just now finding you? Also your eye makeup is goals teach me pls

[@corgiverse9550]

I'm a marxist leninist, yet I score -8.5/-3.79 lmao. i thought we're supposed to be authoritarian? xD

[@corgiverse9550]

also an hour into your content and you're already my new girlcrush :3

[@3str4]

ml's aren't actually 'authoritarian' or 'tankies' or whatever the internet zeitgeist McCarthyism comes up with and ideologically more similar in it's views to libertarian communism as compared to non-Marxist (or authoritarian) ideologies

[@corgiverse9550]

@ yeah honestly. But it puts Stalin so far authoritarian.. he was a Leninist too.. so like what’s going on with this quiz lmao. It’s like a glorified MySpace quiz xD

[@_.equilibrium_]

This video is genuinely amazing thank you

[@jokecookie1089]

The Algorhythm lead me here and the algorhythm was right. I never liked the PC but never could put into words why... and now I got a whole new catalogue of reasons. Neat! Also, your make-up absolutely slays, girl.

[@freaki0734]

I think I agree with most of what you are saying, regarding the political compass test in this video, and honestly most of your criticques of western societies too. but honestly your north korea takes make you seem like you shouldn't be listened to. going "muh western mainstream bias" is not any more methodical than "north korea bad" and sometimes (not even that rarely, if you are a believer in democracy that is good news) the mainstream happens to be right. The US is of course far from innocent in the state of north korea but to identify that country as anything less than highly authoritarian is just silly. non authoritarian countries do not have systems to keep people from leaving. and universial suffrage is not quite that relevant a thing when you live in a literal dictatorial monarchy . We do know a fair few things about korea and while people fleeing an authoritarian regime are indeed biased against it the very existence of such a group of people that risk their life is pretty clear evidence that things there are far from alright with authoritarianism as the obvious cause. We do know that you get a literal death penalty for insulting the image of it's "godly" leader. Do you really think that NK is not at the very least as repressive as SK in regards to being positive about the other korea given that fact? Why do you think we know so little about NK? why does the freedom index not list it? wouldn't it be in the interest of NK to publish the relevant data if it revealed how their country is not actually that bad? Where do you think it would be listed? my guess is at least bottom 5. We also very much know how other "socialist" countries that are in the ways their economy is organized similar to NK work or did work like the soviet union or china so gesturing at poor conditions of poorer people in SK while alledging that NK does not very very likely have those in abundance is just silly. Yeah South korea has a ton of problems you know what it doesn't have people trying to flee it getting shot or crazy poverty you can see from space, and in the height of it's citizens, while their dictator is living a life of luxury or it's own internet lest people there find out that their glorious leader is not actually creating better conditions than in other places. The main issue in their placing north korea in the far left-auth corner of that graph is that their fascism/monarchism should lead to them being at least in the center on that axis. I would also like to point out how your example of "police actually being there for the people" literally is them offering to arrest a journalist which is just hillarious

[@dev-i3p]

North Korea developed it's culture to survive the brutal military occupation we still have on Korea. Discussing "authoritarianism" without acknowledging that no country under an illegal military occupation by the west is going to be a western style liberal democracy is disingenuous.

[@Nele_the_egg]

I always saw it more as a kind of buzzfeed what Star Trek character are you personality quiz

[@Tehan123]

11:13 I think the most important thing about this question is, it depends on how taxed they are at the moment, for the answerer! Even if you have the same stance, you might give a different answer based on whether your country had just raised/lowered taxes for the rich, but obviously that doesn't necessarily mean your ideology has changed

[@fremiamagus]

i took the test over 3 times over a decade. I started off just barely one tick north-right and center, second time around i was massively left and down-left multiple ticks to right above gandhi just a few years later, by the last time i was almost off the chart in the bottom left corner. I stopped taking it seriously at that point. something like political alignment should be a 3 dimensional graph with another 3 dimensional graph to go along with it detailing where you fall along morality lines.

[@MorganRhysGibbons]

"soaking" was never a thing, it's literally just made up. I'm an anarchosocialist mormon living in utah, no one has ever heard of, or talked about, something called soaking.

[@theresnoi9792]

Omg this video goes unbelievably insane.

[@mat_max]

not me getting constantly distracted by the cheburashka on the background

[@jblmarbleassociation]

This is an amazing video. Even as a self-proclaimed socialist myself, this taught me things about foreign nations I had no idea about. I hope you continue to make videos and grow. You got a new subscriber in me.

[@coramote7943]

Ticket before this goes viral 👇🏻

[@abarette_]

If it was a good thirty minutes shorter, it might have been

[@gabyfreitas3228]

Oh my, this video is just amazingly built, congrats content creator who I still don't know well.

[@teodorasavoiu4664]

Good to know that astrology is libertarian, and that luck and religion are authoritarian according to the political compass

[@jdcjr50]

Brilliant work! I see people are hungry for this kind of discussion. A strong voice for clarity and justice! I do think 'objectivity' is an indulgence of the ruling class.

[@spencerhall6052]

Political compass: astrology for politics.

[@spencer1980]

I think that's also why there are multiple questions along the same vein. More data helps refine the locus.

[@DerekSpeareDSD]

I was hoping for you to put out a new video! Thank you!

[@lilfilth5622]

It conflates cultural/social ideas with governance. I should be the prototypical tankie extreme top-left type but it will always put me in the bottom-left bc I don’t think the government should regulate ppls gender expression or whatever

[@RapiereGridoro]

Hugs from Brazil Quem mais veio pelo TeClas? dá um oi ai, bora engajar

[@soumfilipe]

Chegamos pelo @teclas

[@RapiereGridoro]

@@soumfilipe 😀

[@iruns1246]

I'm not sure what's particularly wrong about determining political leaning based on vibes. You're making the same mistake economists used to make: thinking people are perfectly rational actors. The fact is, most people act on their political beliefs based on things that aren't rationally ideological. For example: 1. What's socially accepted / popular in their social circles. i.e. the default 2. What's personally most convenient or beneficial 3. Vibe check on the political actors that they know / see

[@TheGnewb]

This is informative and rationally proposed. Humorous where it needs to be and pseudo dramatic where it is relevant. I have taken this poll/questionaire a few times since it was published and deemed it as an amusing time waster that has some underlying ugliness's that were hidden well in the blogosphere like accompanying texts. Your breakdown is spot on. so thanks you.

[@nicholascharles9625]

"Please president Xi send the PLA, my people yearn for freedom." Isnt on the polcom.

[@IGetIntoArgumentsForFun.67]

A testament to how invalid it really is.

[@bored_person]

I love how you completely fail to address the actual reasons why people consider North Korea to be an authoritarian dictatorship, instead deflecting, attacking strawman, and using whataboutisms. Don't think I didn't notice that not once do you bring up any of the actual criticisms against North korea. You could have debunked them directly, but you didn't.

[@dev-i3p]

The reason why people think that are because they are ignorant of Korean history and culture. To dispel that ignorance would take a whole video.

[@bored_person]

@dev-i3p okay, but what about the concentration camps?

[@dev-i3p]

@@bored_person I'm sure prison camps in third world countries are no fun but I don't think North Korea is in a position to abolish prisons.

[@bored_person]

@dev-i3p what about entire families being imprisoned for multiple generations all because of the crimes of one person. Or what about the one party democracy where writing in another candidate can get you declared An enemy of the State. Stop bootlicking.

[@Mousey316]

Excellent job with this video. Keep up the good work!

[@thelettere.1645]

Fast talking left-wing content creators is my favorite movie genre

[@6iaZkMagW7EFs]

Damn, that blue eyeshadow goes hard!

[@dre1426]

Congrats on finally getting the video out!!! I promised on the Patreon to post the recommended readings on the DPRK in the comment section. Hopefully it doesn't get buried lol. Anyway for further reading on the DPRK: A.B Abrams has written a plethora of books on geopolitics and East Asia, and he's particularly knowledgable on the two Koreas since he's actually been to both countries and learned the language. Best part is that he doesn't resort to the usual cliches when writing about the country. He treats them like human beings. To start there's his 2020 book "Immovable Object: North Korea’s 70 Years at War with American Power". This year he also came out with "Surviving The Unipolar Era: North Korea’s 35 Year Standoff with the United States". I should stress that while I have heard amazing things about both of those books I have not read them myself so I cannot elaborate further on their content!!! I have read his book "Atrocity Fabrication And Its Consequences: How Fake News Shapes World Order" though. While it focuses on a bunch of different conflicts and countries: from Cuba, Vietnam, China, Iraq, Libya, Syria, etc. There are two chapters devoted to the DPRK. One chapter focusing on the Korean War, and the other focusing on the modern conflict with the DPRK and the United States (mostly on events from 2000 to the late 2010s). I have to stress that this book is extremely graphic!!!!!!!! The descriptions of the violence inflicted on people all over the world by the United States and allied western militaries are brutal and disturbing. This is not an easy book to simply sit down and read all the way through. However, this history is extremely important to know and be aware of. Here is the internet archive pdf link for it: ia600302.us.archive.org/1/items/abrams-atrocity-fabrications/Abrams_AtrocityFab.pdf Definitely buy it if you can though!!! For something on the lighter side. Ronald Boer's "Socialism in Power: On the History and Theory of Socialist Governance" devotes a chapter to details on the governance of the DPRK. The book is more on the theoretical side of things rather than painting a vivid picture of everyday life, but it's a very rich text with a ton of information on the country! There are also chapters on both the USSR and the People's Republic of China as well. But I found the chapter on the DPRK to be very educational in particular considering how little I knew about the country.

[@the.olive.oil-06]

MLs to me represent the first step way from traditional politics. so okay i've just discovered america is bad... surely the other guys must be the good guys, then ? and then, just as loyal european patriots deny genocides and claim to have 'lifted up' the natives, MLs deny the very real state oppression and descent into fascist state capitalism that so often occurs. having a slip of paper that says your government definitely belongs to the working class does not make that true. move beyond the arbitrary political blocs - we can build a better world with minimal state involvement.

[@MorningStxr-js7fw]

49:20 The constitution of north korea described a state capitalist economy not a socialist one

[@MorningStxr-js7fw]

And you just made a completely irrelevant whataboutism tangent afterwards

[@MorningStxr-js7fw]

and the US government does let you travel to north korea, that is a myth

[@MorningStxr-js7fw]

and the "no opinion at all until you've visited North Korea" completely debunks half of your video since you talked about many different countries

[@jaimay125]

@@MorningStxr-js7fw not to mention a big gripe she had about the compass was that there was no basis for anything yet goes on to cite a website that has the same problems (Numbeo) when talking about crime

[@deathdiedtoday]

ye, that bit of the vid made me pause and go, "wait... wtf?" I don't know if I'm going to watch the rest. Probably? (My criticism of that bit of the vid): And yes, North Korea is basically a fascist dictatorship run by state capitalists. Very, VERY far from being even remotely left-wing as far as governance goes. Also, going off on how the "US" makes stuff up about North Korea sounds very conspiracy-brained. Yes, there is heavy censorship and manufacturing of consent in the US, but at the very least, we have access to independent journalism. If you don't trust the US, trust the many independent journalists that have heavily documented the oppression of the people of North Korea by state capitalists.

[@Respectable_Username]

It's interesting hearing you outline the ideologies expressed by the Political Compass and seeing that that's the way that I was taught that politics works. That was the normal view of politics as expressed in my local news media from a source that most consider centre-left (the Australian ABC). It's only been in more recent years, hearing more socialist thought online through KZbin and in other primarily Discord-based communities, that I can see how oversimplified and blinded by the status quo that presentation of politics is. None of us are immune to the neoliberal propaganda we are raised in!

[@nailz]

I vote for a fully funded field trip of revolutionaryth0t and Hasan Piker to North Korea to discover the truth of the DPRK.

[@aturchomicz821]

Like the American Socialists who went to the Soviet Union in the 1920s??😭😭

[@aliceolson7176]

I'm more than willing to acknowledge that the information I've received about NK is deeply seeped in propaganda, but personally I still wouldn't take the risk. FWIW, I'm pretty against the South Korean government too, but I also don't tend to trust isolationist, hyper nationalist governments of any stripe.

[@aturchomicz821]

@@aliceolson7176 Well that means youre just a liberal then! /sarcasm

[@Zecteiro]

I discovered your channel by a recommendation of the brazilian comrade Zavaski from the TeClas channel, and I'm so glad did. The last time I answered this test I was 15, so I never reliazed how bizarre it really is, even by a liberal pov. It's basically a Buzzfeed test disguised as some sort of science.

[@Philosophocat]

Наконец-то не забыл подписаться ✊🏼🚩

[@Blueman0975]

Да Здравствует Товарищ Ленин

[@logandeeter6151]

This video was actually me learning that Uruguay is actually kinda awesome sounding

[@davew4939]

You hit right away on my problem with it. Yes, I have Anarchist “vibes” but I also know what happened to the Paris Commune, and history overrides vibes when it comes to appropriate use of authority.

[@stevenorrington473]

Hello there. I was once where you are ideologically. I was getting into leftism and was mostly watching people who always had a mountain of excuses for the soviet union and nothing but criticism for everyone else. I Have almost fallen into the rabbit hole that is the authoritarian left before and looking down there I could see denials of history and mountains of excuse for whatever regime should call itself socialist. I ask you to investigate the successes of anarchism. The Zapatistas and Rojava most notably have been going for decades and still exist today. They live without states, and as an Anarchist, I do not need to deny or excuse a long list of atrocities and failures, as they are guilty of none. These societies have committed no genocides and attacked no journalists. I do not need to excuse the actions of any state as being no worse than their western counterparts. Remember that.

[@americancommunist6076]

@@stevenorrington473 hello there, read a book and let someone who recognizes the trends of history go about their day without annoying them with your lack of ideology.

[@IGetIntoArgumentsForFun.67]

Same

[@stevenorrington473]

@@americancommunist6076 I do read books. The conquest of bread is a good one.

[@MykiiMescal]

@@stevenorrington473 the groups controlling west Kurdistan aren’t anarchist and neither are the EZLN also Rojava is definitely an example of the use of authority

[@matejlieskovsky9625]

I feel like the test has one positive side - it popularizes the idea that politics is more complicated than the left-right spectrum (or, even worse, R vs D). For me, it was the impulse that sent me looking for more ideas.

[@adcaptandumvulgus4252]

So in a nutshell basically they're trying to say good thing is bad but bad thing is good do our good thing not that bad thing?

[@IGetIntoArgumentsForFun.67]

Brainrot

[@spencer1980]

How you answer one of these questions could mean a dozen things. How you answer a dozen of these questions generally gives a specific result.