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85 Responses to “Libertarian Purity Test”
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79–guess I’m a squishy moderate.
36
I got a 60
You are a medium-core libertarian, probably self-consciously so. Your friends probably encourage you to quit talking about your views so much.
Right on the money. I know my husband thinks I’m crazy.
Got an 85
55 - “You are a medium-core libertarian, probably self-consciously so. Your friends probably encourage you to quit talking about your views so much.”
This sounds about right. My conservative friends think I’m too liberal, and my liberal friends (both of them) think I’m a right-wing extremist.
Some of the Libertarian views are a little extreme for me, but as the lines between Republican and Democrat become more and more blurry, I find myself leaning more toward Libertarian. In fact, I think I would probably be inclined to compromise on some things I am less passionate about in order to see some real reforms that make sense. For example - I’m not in favor of legalizing all drugs, but if I had to compromise on that in order to see them abolish social security and most useless federal agencies, then I would take that as a worthwhile exchange.
Not sure how, but I got 91.
i got the medium score one too. some of the concepts i think are noble yet i don’t know how realistic. for example, how would we as a country/state/locality possibly go about privatizing the police and fire departments, and the roads? how could this be accomplished? i wouldn’t exactly jump at the chance to invest in purchasing a highway. of course, some of the toll booths in atlanta make a pretty penny so maybe it ain’t such a bad idea. good quiz. michelle
101
SO I am the “most” libertarian so far? I find it hard too believe.
I may have scored even higher but some of the questions I thought were skewed and ambiguous. For example I didn’t know if the questions applied to just private enterprise or both private enterprise and government, or if they simply assumed that government woulkd not exist. So I had to approve of some measures protecting against government that would not apply to private business.
99. No surprises.
99… About what I expected.
65 - I would have expected higher. I’m getting soft as I get older I guess.
115. In your face you friggin HIPPIES!
Shee! I got a 101. Who knew?
Ha, got a 160, though it might have been lower if one really argued some of the premises of the questions. For example, you could view school vouchers as an improvement over the system we have today because it injects some consumer choice into the equation. But the money being spent is still taxpayer money and the operating principle is still collectivist, so the “improvement” is marginal to others.
135! Would have got a perfect score, but I still have a soft spot in my heart for the enlisted troops.(but not thier bosses.)
91…
I got a 113, but I can only envision John T getting a perfect score and really meaning it.
I got a perfectly median 73. I always said I was more of an “issuist” than anything. I’m very scattered. Must be all the drugs.
129. And I thought I was being charitable to the statist bastards on a few.
I got a 69.
(Just kidding, I got 35)
46. Seems about right for me.
Lyndon LaRouche for President?
73
Funny, I don’t feel like Chris Farley.
93.
The only time I’ve ever been called a hard-core anything.
87. Sheesh, I’m even self-conscious about my own political philosophy.
119 - didn’t expect to score this high, I have almost soiled myself.
The libertarian fascination for ideological purity will never die. It says an awful lot about the movement… most of it unflattering.
117
undertoad, i have to agree. many of these ideas are good in theory. the practicalities and nuts and bolts are a different issue. someone more wise on the libertarian philosophy can feel free to attempt to change my mind with concrete examples though. otherwise i will have to say that anyone high on the score card lives in never never land. say hi to tink and peter pan for me folks, i hear they make nice playmates. michelle
michelle, peter wants a word with you.
I disagree. I think the value of a libertarian purity test is that it shows us that people who score exceptionally high across the board are perhaps a bit detached from reality. I think the test is more an anarchist purity test, with many people who consider themselves good libertarians falling many points short of a perfect score and not feeling too bad about it.
Holy cow, 106!
Never saw that coming, nosiree.
I’m seriously rethinking what I thought I was thinking and thinking maybe I was thinking something else all along.
Enlightening.
As for who’s detached from reality, I have two things to say.
First, the ever-obnoxious question - Whose reality?
Second, I thought they were questions of what we thought would be ideal, as opposed to questions of what we thought could actually ever happen or be practical. If the latter was the case, my score would fall much much lower.
All depends on perspective, doesn’t it?
Michelle and Undertoad.
Bob Barr has written a column basically stating your concerns, and his thoughts here. http://atlanta.creativeloafing.com/news_flankingaction.html
I got a 147. I don’t believe I’m the most libertarian of all here. When I saw Radley’ score I thought it was 98/100!
kieffer, you are a crack up, that was too funny.
anvil, thank you for the website reference. i look forward to reading it and intend to do so during lunchtime today. gratsi! michelle
46 for me
160.
I was as the end of the test before I realized that I recognized it. Bryan Caplan was my Intermediate Macro prof at George Mason. And I can tell you, he is definitely an Anarcho-Capitalist. When I was in his class I took all the little quizzes he has on his site. My favorite was the Communist Holocaust test. I thought I knew a fair bit about Soviet atrocities, and I found that I didn’t know half of what went on.
http://www.bcaplan.com/cgi/museum1.cgi
undertoad, michelle, et al.:
Any political party or movement will have an ideological extreme. Imagine what we would look like if either of the major parties ran the country without opposition, either from the citizenry or each other.
If I score a 93 on this ‘test’ it means that If I Were King Of The World, then that’s the way my perfect little planet would run. It’s a guidepost, an unreachable star (allusion intentional) if you will. Working towards those ends - knowing full well they’re realistically unattainable in most instances - is my push on the side of the ball that hopefully keeps it from going the wrong way.
I hope my fellow Libertarians are as undeluded as I am.
Is that a gancing outfit? (Peter)
I can’t believe some of the scores I’m seeing here. Anybody who gets more than 90 mathematically has to have answered ‘yes’ to at least one of the utterly insane 5 point questions. (In addition to yes to all the legitimate 1 and hardcore 3 point questions.)
I visit this blog because I respect the intelligence and fairness of libertarians - you aren’t blinded loyalty to either of the major parties. I think I’m going to have to re-think my impressions - some of you might just be crackpots.
If you answered #61 “no”, then you’d have been opposed to the idea of assassinating Hitler.
So are you a libertarian?
The first ever quiz I took to find out whether I was a libertarian or not was the World’s Smallest Political Quiz (WSPQ) Well, as I already considered myself not just libertarian but anarcho-capitalist (I had just finished reading the…
So, if I got a 33 — just theoretically here — would that mean I’m really smart, or really stupid?
64
About what I expected.
andrew, smart and stupid are relative
20.
I’m glad everyone else appears to have a higher score. Do you speak Klingon too?
*Delurk* 65. My issue with the test was the yes/no format. Some questions, like “Should we abolish Social Security?” are yes/no questions. Others, like “Should we privatize sanitation, fire, and other local services?” really deserve a “some of them” answer option. And yes, I do realize that if I’m not willing to privitize ALL my local services, then I’m not ideologically pure and don’t deserve the point, but I’d like a partial point for thinking that it’s sometimes a good idea. I’m trying not to complain, as the test was, in fact, offered to me for free. But I did notice some limitations on it that may inspire a few spirited conversations. And that’s the fun part.
*Relurk*
85
The yes/no made me flinch a few times.
For example: I support a completely socialized agricultural system but not SS in cash. (If the old farts have got a small space to live on and their right to food secured then we don’t have to get the gov so horribly involved.) So, whereas I want the Fed be abolished, I ended up being against the abolishment of SS…
With politics like that I ended up answering pretty much the same percentage per each section.
88.
Previewing the questions, it was clear that a high score required an anti-war anarchist form of libertarianism, so I was amenable to scoring close to, but under 100.
Unfortunately, like Legate Broca, the YES/NO format presented a further impediment. Take Housing Vouchers, as an example. Having managed private residential rentals, the first thing that springs to mind is the inevitable regulation that landlords accept vouchered-applicants, or risk charges of discrimination. So, I could choose YES to reduce my taxes (government confiscation of my earnings), or NO to avoid further government encroachment on my property rights. I chose NO for the same sound libertarian reasons that others voted YES, and got screwed out of a potential 89.
61
You are a medium-core libertarian, probably self-consciously so. Your friends probably encourage you to quit talking about your views so much.
Yeah, that’s me. A libertarian for the real world (the one not populated by super-beings - in which there are many many people who could have a starring role in COPS)
142.
131-159 points: You are nearly a perfect libertarian, with a tiny number of blind spots. Think about them, then take the test over again. On the other hand, if you scored this high, you probably have a good libertarian objection to my suggested libertarian answer.
I don’t think state vouchers would be an improvement over direct state control, since they would eventually bring everything in the private realm under the hand of the state.
I also answered no to “is all government inherently evil/an unnecessary evil” since I think people ought to be able to contract for governance and law. It’s the state to which I’m opposed.
I also answered no to striking down economic regulation as unconstitutional. Some of it clearly is constitutional.
I also answered no to “bombing civilians equivalent to murder”. That depends on the situation, so I can’t answer with a categorical yes.
So yeah, I did have libertarian objections to his supposed libertarian answers.
The test results need a rewrite. I would love to show my girlfriend this test, because I imagine she has more libertarian tendencies than she’d want to admit. But I don’t think she’d be encouraged by a prediction that she will “harden and become pure” over time. I think she might be more attracted to the idea that she’d “grow persuaded that libertarian ideas are workable” over time.
I got a rock.
Actually, I got a 98.
53. I think that test is a little too hardcore. Or maybe I’m not as independent as I thought.
Ideological Purity
Well, in this case Libertarian Purity. Radley Balko, noted Libertarian blogger, scored 98/160 which stikes me as fairly middle of the road though the test site calls this entering “…the heady realm of hard-core libertarianism.” Then I saw in the comm…
The Macho Flash
Bryan Caplan’s “Libertarian Purity Test” has been revived and is making its way around the blogosphere. Don’t miss out on the fun. 160 here. Bring on on the ridicule….
The Macho Flash
Bryan Caplan’s “Libertarian Purity Test” has been revived and is making its way around the blogosphere. Don’t miss out on the fun. 160 out of 160 here. Bring on the ridicule….
I got a 158…pretty “pure” as an anarchist, if not a libertarian.
116. I’m not the radical everyone believes I am!
114
I don’t understand why people are *so* terrified by anarchism. If we ever get to the point where libertarian States are being established, an anarchy will probably also be attempted. It will quickly become apparent whether it is viable or not.
Most fear and loathing of anarchism is knee-jerk. If you want to be an informed minarchist you should read anarcho-capitalisms strongest defense yet, The Myth of National Defense.
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0945466374/lewrockwell/102-3091540-6433760
The Libertarian Purity Test
Seems that bloggers have a strong urge to post their scores for Bryan Caplanâs
Where’s JTK? I’m waiting to see his score.
i got 55,
“You are a medium-core libertarian, probably self-consciously so. Your friends probably encourage you to quit talking about your views so much.”….. shheeeesh, i guess i’m not the good socialist i thought i was…
i got 55,
“You are a medium-core libertarian, probably self-consciously so. Your friends probably encourage you to quit talking about your views so much.”…..
shheeeesh, i guess i’m not the good socialist i thought i was…
whoops
I got a 12.
How on earth can anyone score more than that.
We want JTK. We want JTK. We want JTK…
I scored much lower than I would have imagined. This leads me to believe that the Libertarian position is much closer to anarcho-capitalism than I had thought.
definitely something to think about.
Anarchos to Minarchists: A Brief Taxonomy of Libertarians
There once was a time when the political dividing line ran from Left to Right. Now, weâre all just different flavors of libertarian. From reluctant minarchists to the anarcho-capitalists, libertarians are everywhere. The Internet, especially the blogos…
155.
I don’t make too much of it because many of the questions involve principles and implications far more complex than can be rendered the ways that they were.
But you knew that.
Alastair: ” If we ever get to the point where libertarian States are being established, an anarchy will probably also be attempted. It will quickly become apparent whether it is viable or not.”
That brings to mind something that Robert LeFevre told my father a long time ago:
“In your efforts to reduce government, aim for zero. I guarantee that, if you ever get there and don’t like what you see, you can pick up the nearest telephone and have another government intalled by the very next morning. It’ll be the easiest thing in the world.”
Life is what’s real. Government is for punks who want to cheat.
That wasn’t a libertarian purity test. More like an anarchist purity test. Got a 65 first time through, then did the anarchy thing and got a 152.
How much of a libertarian are you?
I got 132 in the Libertarian Purity Test. Via: Radley…
Anarchos to Minarchists: A Brief Taxonomy of Libertarians
There once was a time when the political dividing line ran from Left to Right. Now, weâre all just different flavors of libertarian. From reluctant minarchists to the anarcho-capitalists, libertarians are everywhere. The Internet, especially the blogos…
98? Radley, you communist! I got a 151.
Anarchos to Minarchists: A Brief Taxonomy of Libertarians
There once was a time when the political dividing line ran from Left to Right. Now, we’re all just different flavors of libertarian. From reluctant minarchists to the anarcho-capitalists, libertarians are everywhere. The Internet, especially the b…
I only scored a 26… huh
this test sorta lost me during part 2 and 3 I think…
a perfect 69! rather fitting
155
I answered No to:
11 - Would destroy private schools.
30 - U.S. military did a good job of going after legitimate targets in Iraq.
50 - Too vague or absolute.
Lynette Warren, whom I personally converted from statism tells me she got a 156.
The Cleanest of Clean
Since Radley Balko, Gene Healy, Jim Henley, Julian Sanchez and Steve over at Modulator have all taken the Libertarian Purity Test, being a dirty little follower, I did as well. My score: 145. I guess that just about makes me…
John, the only person (that comments on here anyway) that I believe scored higer than me AND ANSWERED HONESTLY is you.
Very good show.
Got a 152… and thought I was a statist.
gargagasgasg
blah blah
Latte art and libertarian purity
I had a bit of a slow day at work on Friday so I decided to take a latte art photo. The result now graces the banner of this page, courtesy of code taken from Chad Wilcox’s Quiet Declarations. I plan on eventually switching the weblog over to WordPress…