I took the political orientation test on facebook..then I decided to respond to each question verbally. Here are my responses. http://inhahe.nullshells.org/politics.html
I tried pasting them directly to the journal, but it only showed a fraction of it at the end, so I'm providing a link.

When it comes to right and wrong, which of the following do you think has the greatest impact on your belief system?

• Religion.
• Family and/or friends.
• Laws.
• Self interest.

Wow, what a choice..

Religion - retarded/weak
Family and/or friends - weak/not independent thinking
Laws - weak/square
Self interest - selfish/ignorant

Self interest is the lesser of the four evils, because even compassion is a self interest when your understanding of 'self' goes beyond your own body.

But i'm still not going to put that one.

Professional athletes often demand large salaries, often one hundred or more times that of an average person. Do you think that such large salaries are appropriate?

• Yes.
• No.

I don't think I could do this question justice with a simple yes or a no. It's the same as asking whether capitalism is appropriate. Or the media. Or people's love of sports. All-in-all, I don't think it's appropriate because that money could be better spent for more noble causes, but I wouldn't say 'No.' because there's no point in making an exception to capitalism specifically for the world of sports. And on the other hand, if that money didn't make its way to the athletes, it's not like it /would/ end up in the hands of noble charities--it would just stay in the pockets of average people, people who are a little less happy because they don't get their sports, or perhaps they they don't get their sports with the greatest athletes in the world, which might not make much difference, and also, it all more-or-less "trickles down" anyway.

I used to have an eye pic in my profile, but okcupid deleted it the other day and sent me an e-mail saying more-or-less that if I continue to upload crap pictures they'll delete my account. so i'm putting my eye in my journal.

Have you ever formed an opinion about a stranger in a grocery store, based primarily on the items he or she is buying?

• Yes.

• No.

No, but one time I saw a person with a shopping cart half-full, and EVERYTHING in the shopping cart was red. I wondered if she had some strange psychological...'issue'. My friend says that's typical, but i think he's full of it.

Should the recipient give back an engagement ring if the engagement is broken off?

• Yes.

• No.

• Only if the recipient initiates the break up.

People always break up. So if you give stuff back after you break up it was just an indian gift to begin with. No offense to the native americans. If you give someone a gift, and it represents your love for them, you should mean it. It's theirs. Not just theirs as long as they're yours; they're not just borrowing it.

As a parent, would you consider your own children to be more important than other children?

• Yes.

• No.

What the hell does that mean? Every parent has to put their own children on higher priority.. it's their job to look after them, nobody else's. Every parent loves their kids more than other kids, it's the bond between them. But if someone asked you if you politically thought your children are objectively more important than others, how could you say yes? That would sound selfish. It seems like the answer to this question is yes, except overtly, and it's asking overtly.. well part of the problem is the ambiguity of the word 'important', it depends on the context or something. I'm skipping this question.

If someone states that they are not attracted to people from a particular race, does that make them racist?

• Yes.

• No.

I usually put 'irrelevant' for how I would like someone to answer this question, but in this case I put 'a little important', because of the sheer stupidity of answering "yes."

I'm (usually) not attracted to blonds, does that make me hair-color-ist? I'm not attracted to guys, does that make me sexist? etc. Physical attraction is personal.. it doesn't mean I hate everyone I'm not attracted to. You can't expect me to be want to marry some people from every given race just to be politically correct. Physical attraction is always for a limited number of people with certain physical characteristics, the odds are good that those criteria are such that an entire race could happen to be a mismatch.

Do you consider government taxes (such as income tax) a form of theft?

• Yes

• No

• I'm Not Sure

It's hard to consider taxes as a form of theft when the infrastructure that allows you to have the job you have and make the money you make would not be possible if it weren't for the government, and the government would not be possible if it weren't for taxes. Even if you could make the money somehow, there'd hardly be anything to spend it on. So it's like an agreement. I'll agree to pay you 49% of "my" income if you agree to run society for me.

Which of the following "solutions" do you think would provide the biggest reduction in crime rates?

• More and better trained police

• More and better armed civilians

• More and better implemented social programs

• More severe punishment for convicted criminals

the pertinent question is not what provides the biggest reduction in crime rates, but what's the best solution. (after all, there is a correct, factual answer to this question, so it says more about cognitive ability or social understanding than it does about personality.) the most effective way to discipline your children might be with a taser or a thorny branch, but is that the best way to do it?