Facebook and Washington Post think we're moderates

[Edwin Sheldon]

Facebook and The Washington Post have added a new application to their website called "The Compass".  The application allows users to take a short political quiz.  The user is provided with a political statement, and the user can choose Strongly Disagree, Disagree, No Opinion/Indifferent, Agree, or Strongly Agree.  So far, so good.

The first bad part is all participants are graded on the overly-simplistic left-moderate-right scale. 

The second bad part is the questions are loaded such that almost any answer you provide makes you a diehard Democrat or a diehard Republican, depending on how you answer.  Some opinions would grant a civil liberty while requiring the government to financially support those receiving the liberty. Because I agreed with the civil liberty but not with funding it with my tax dollars, I ended up answering 'No Opinion/Indifferent' to many of the questions.  As such, they scored me as a moderate! 

The federal government should raise taxes so it can provide more help for people who need it:

Law-abiding citizens should have more access to guns:

Except in rare instances, such as when a woman's life is threatened, abortion should be illegal:

The United States must do more with its military power to fight terrorism around the world:

A same-sex couple should have access to the same marital benefits as those given to heterosexual couples:

The military should be given a timetable to leave Iraq:

The government should increase funding on embryonic stem cell research:

The death penalty should be available for those convicted of heinous crimes:

Affirmative action is still needed and should be used to promote diversity in the workplace and higher education:

Illegal immigrants who have shown they are productive members of society should be given amnesty and receive social services:

[eques]

The false dichotomy between "left" and "right" is so prevalent... and a mistake that's all too easily made.  There was a recent poll on this forum somewhere that had two options, defined in the thread, with a third being "I don't know."  I pointed out that I was a member of neither group as defined, but since I knew I was a member of neither group, I couldn't select "I don't know," either.