The Liberal View of Conservatives

CNSNews.com ^ | February 12, 2003 | Paul Walfield

[Stand Watch Listen]

After years of watching the big network news programs and CNN, it has become clear that news and how we are to perceive any event reported on the news is determined in large part by the bias of the reporter.

Whether done subtly or not so subtly, watching the news has become a new experience for many in a quest to see how the various news outlets handle the same news story and determine what bias, if any, is injected into the product. But I discovered another dimension to this issue while watching the Hannity and Colmes Show on Fox News Channel.

During a February 10 interview with a so-called peace activist, it was apparent that the individual being interviewed spoke one way with conservative Sean Hannity and a decidedly different way when speaking with liberal Alan Colmes.

While that may be expected, it was too much for me to simply dismiss, so I decided to visit Colmes' website to see what he and other liberals were thinking.

A cursory look at Colmes' website shows the expected liberal media bias. For instance, his website included a headline and link to a FoxNews.com news article. The headline on Colmes' website read "NATO War Planning Blocked." However, the headline on the original Fox News article was "Bush Scolds Dissenting NATO Allies, Dismisses Iraqi Overtures."

The story referred to France, Belgium, and Germany voting to prevent NATO from protecting fellow NATO member Turkey from possible attack from Iraq. But according to Colmes, NATO has been blocked from making war.

Colmes' site also includes a prominent link to the Political Compass website, which directs visitors to a test that purports to determine where one stands on the political spectrum: "Right? Left? Moderate? Take the test." So I did. This is where things got really interesting.

After being greeted with the usual "welcome statement," I received a bit of history on how the old standards in determining Left and Right are outmoded. After all, how can one reconcile the Leftist claims of both Stalin and Gandhi? So far, so good.

I then dove into the test, which consists of 61 questions on six pages. I started to read the questions and quickly realized that in order to determine who is "Right" and who is "Left," the author had to have a preconceived personal notion of who was whom.

The first question asked whether globalization should serve humanity or international corporations. For the author, somebody who prizes profit over mankind describes a person's political ideology. It also divorces industry from humanity, ignoring the incalculable contributions of industry to improving billions of lives. Either way, I tend to think the answer to such a question describes ones character.

The next question concerned an individual's devotion to his or her country; also a question I believe goes to character and not necessarily politics.

There was a question about religious tolerance. According to the test, if you are bigoted, you have a tendency to fall into one of the political ideologies being tested.

There are questions about the "fusion" between entertainment and news, and of course, questions regarding corporate greed, and the test taker's opinion of people depending upon their "class background."

There is a question about the right of someone who is physically disabled to reproduce; whether "different sorts of people should keep to their own kind," and whether "A woman's place is in the home."

While there are some questions that may be politically telling, most struck me as more concerned with an individual's character rather than their politics. Whether or not someone is a racist or amoral or believes in the Bible does not determine one's politics, nor does ones willingness to "sometimes spank their children" have much to do with who you vote for.

It was easy to glean the bias of the author by simply answering the questions, but it was more fascinating because it illustrates the animosity of the Left for those on the Right.

This animosity has been ferocious. It always seemed personal and not very well thought out. In fact, the Left, according to a New York Times story, is on a search to find an "angry liberal" to combat Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly and the like.

While it is clearly the Left's intention to fight to regain power in the U.S., it is being pursued with an almost apocalyptic urgency. Now, it is clearer why.

The Left sees the Right as not only bigots, misogynists, haters of art, child beaters, Bible thumpers and just about anything else they disdain; they actually have tests to prove it. Well, not really, but they do have a test that determines what you are based on the prejudices of the author.

The frightening part is that the Left views the Right not just as a political opponent but an impairment to "progress." When confronted with criticism, the site's Frequently Asked Questions section responds with the usual sound bites that, when scrutinized, cannot be upheld.

Also revealing is the author's response to a question regarding cultural bias within the test. The author simply states that yes, there is cultural bias, but the test is intended for civilized people, not the peasants living in "rural China."

So much for the Left's embrace of diversity. It's more aptly described as an embrace of duplicity.

Paul Walfield is a freelance writer who makes his home in California.

Send a Letter to the Editor about this commentary.

[GodBlesBush]

Put CNNFN.COM in your browser and you'll the full extent of liberal biasness. That rag is completely Negative and you'll see at least 5 stories that attack Bush and his policy.

[tom h]

"Colmes' site also includes a prominent link to the Political Compass website, which directs visitors to a test that purports to determine where one stands on the political spectrum."

I recommend that all Freepers take this test, or at least scan the questions. It is revealing to see where these leftists are coming from. And, it shows how they can, by carefully crafting questions, make conservatives out to be basically wretched people. Questionaires like these can easily form opinions in the unaware. And, this is what the left has been doing on college campuses for 30 years. Believe me, I remember what I heard at Stanford back in the 1970s.

[coloradan]

It might serve another purpose as well, that of catching neutrals. If someone who honestly doesn't know what left and right is takes the test, and the questions represent that racists, bigots, and people who kick puppies are "right" then the neutrals will think, "Well, then, I must be left, and therefore I should vote Democrat."

[Outlaw76]

Thank you for posting this, I was appalled by most of the questions.

Whoever came up with this had multiple agendas. Not only were the questions scewed to make you answer like a liberal if you didn't see the 'catch phrase', but many of the questions simply didn't follow logic in any way.

Take for example this question: "Education should involve enabling children to develop their own personality."

The first thing that tipped me off was the word 'enableing'. The next was the utter foolishness of the question itself. Why should education have anything to do with the development of a child's personality?

This is yet another propaganda piece from a twisted mind. It's like asking 'Do you support buying a BMW for a homless man, or just killing them?'

[jmaroneps37]

The Net, # 2 pain in the ash for the rats, behind talk radio and ahead of FOXtv, gets credit for this hit. These big three plus the great conservative books coming out every month, are ripping control of what is /what is not news, away from the rat media. Sneaky rat shiite like this would never come to the fore without the Net.
When the big 3 completely take over the flow of news and kill the rat lie machine, the rat party is done for.

[dark_lord]

To understand the animosity of the Left, just read the Screwtape Letters.

Failure to understand that there is a spiritual dimension to this, and that the Left is being orchestrated to follow a strategy that has developed over centuries, means that one misses the "why" of the whole situation.

[Valin]

The first question asked whether globalization should serve humanity or international corporations. For the author, somebody who prizes profit over mankind describes a person's political ideology. It also divorces industry from humanity, ignoring the incalculable contributions of industry to improving billions of lives. Either way, I tend to think the answer to such a question describes ones character.

When I read this question my first thought was why does "serving" international corporations necessarily mean you aren't in favor of serving humanity(whatever "serving humanity" is suppose to mean).

[Outlaw76]

I thought I would send these folks a letter and let them know how I felt about the survey. Here's my letter and the response:

After taking the test presented on your website I was struck by the incredibly bias that presented by the questions themselves.
Often the questions did not follow a logical path or offered simply too few alternative answers to be useful in any way.
The following question is an example of the perfidy of several of the analogies presented: "Education should involve enabling children to develop their own personality"
Education cannot enable a Childs personality development, they will develop a personality with or without any kind of education. There is no way you can 'enable' that development any more than you can enable a child to breath. The only thing you can do is inhibit development, or direct the development. In both of those options you are attempting to engineer the mind of a child rather than simply letting it grow in the environment.

That is only one of many treacherous questions that involved. Your questionnaire seems designed to lead a person into believing they are more closely aligned to the left. Answer this question and you will see what I mean: "Would you support purchasing a BMW for a homeless man or letting him starve to death"

Of course in that question your first instinct is to choose the BMW, you wouldn't want him to starve after all, but you still haven't fed the homeless man, just given him a vehicle which he may or may not even be able to drive. In that example there is no guarantee that the homeless man will not starve while sitting in his new BWM. Any argument to the contrary involves many Ifs. 'If he sold it' invokes 'if he gave it away for a bottle of whiskey', 'If he got arrested for driving without a licence', etc...

Please review your questions with a critical eye. Please remember that; without profit there would be no corporations, without corporations there would be fewer jobs, without those jobs there would be less revenue, without that revenue there would be no government, without that government there would be no social programs to help support people who come up with questionnaires that make people think that the right is bad and that they might be liberal/leftists.

I came out nearly dead center, if you knew me you would know how far left that is of reality.
Thank you,

Response:
Thanks for the feedback.

Had you viewed our test with a more critical eye, you might have noticed
that it isn't a questionnaire and , indeed, that it doesn't contain a single question.

Our propositions, however, are all biased to provoke particular responses.
This is explained in our FAQs.

David Wayne

[94Revolution]

So in other words provoked responses means to be to the right of center on the graph you would first; have to answer, without thought at all....

Let him starve. I got my BMW already.

I think it is funny how he says that it is not a questionaire and does not include questions. I always equated quiz with asking questions or making you ask yourself a question.

The Quiz pegged me as libertarian but to the left. Which is so far from the truth.

[KC_Conspirator]

I took the test and it was as joke. It has Margaret Thatcher listed as an autoritarian, despite her overwhelming efforts to get the government out of business and privatize former nationalized industries.

[Luna]

Jews surely have to take some of the responsibility for their persecution over the past 2000 years.

This is the question I "liked." That's like saying blacks should have to take some of the responsibility for the racism they were subjected to. I wonder why they didn't put that question on the test. H'm. Why, indeed.

A very stupid test. Nothing but leftist drivel. The feeling I got while reading the questions was that the tester wanted to herd the testees into the leftest corner and make conservatives feel ashamed or embarrassed for expressing conservative beliefs.

[tom h]

Well done, Outlaw76, but I realized a long time ago that debating with a liberal is like debating with a 3-year old because logic doesn't drive them -- pure self-interest does. You're better off clogging their server with automaticaly-generated responses that are 100% hard-core conservative than writing a careful, thoughtful letter.

I'm impressed that they even bothered to respond. Then again, they are British, not American.

[tom h]

I just did the test again, and tried to game it by answering as they would expect "right-wingers" to answer. I was hoping to be 100% authoritarian and conservative -- e.g., in the upper right corner! I actually landed at (x, y) = (7, 7), just about where Maggie Thatcher is noted. So, I'm in good company.

Any of you other Freepers able to come out at (x, y) = (10, 10)?

[tom h]

I did it again! Almost dead-on in the upper-right corner!

Your political compass

Economic Left/Right: 10.00

Authoritarian/Libertarian: 9.08

It's a little hard to game this survey because what we call conservative is not necessarily what the survey considers to be "authoritarian" or "neo-libertarian." But I didn't do too badly. Must be getting soft in my old age ...

Please, please, I hope some Freeper can find a way to do this survey automatically, and jam their server with thousands of (x, y) = (10, 10) survey results, all submitted by females under age 25. That oughta blow a gasket in their computer and their brains!

[Dan from Michigan]

I answered as close as I could, but I had big problems with the wording of a lot of questions. I'm a less government guy, and tried to answer accordingly. The culture questions are tougher especially when there are 2 seperate issues combined, and I agree with one and not the other.

I also know that this is more of a European definition of right/left which is different than USA right/left.

Economic - 6.63
Authority/Libertarian - 0.46 (Tough to call since I'm libertarian outside my house, and conservative in my house)