ATS Poll Results: Some surprising insights in the political ideology visitor poll.

With just over 4,000 responses in a few days, it's clear that the rest of the world doesn't thing the same way as the United States; at least when it comes to politics. Overall, visitors other countries overwhelmingly selected "my views are a combination of all political dogma" and Green Party as the political ideologies that best describes themselves. Conservatives edged out liberals in the US, while anarchists had a surprise strong showing in the land of the habitually polite and Tim Hortons, Canada.

Here are the graphs for the statistically significant groups (click the thumbnail for the full-sized versions:

All countries:



United States



United Kingdom



Canada



Australia





Some interesting insights visitors from other nations gave us:

Germany
A strong anarchist showing with 20% of 49 votes.

New Zealand
With 41 votes, the Green Party ran away with over 60%.

Ireland
From the land that pretty much invented Anarchists as a political movement, only five out of 39 votes picked anarchist with combination and Green party both tied for 27%. Must be the Guinness.

Netherlands
Green party and Anarchist combined to be nearly equal, and almost all of the 31 votes.

Awesome poll!

That being said my mind can't fully wrap around it all.

If I could have guessed I would have been wrong. Time and time again.

Great job putting all this together. I enjoyed participating in this discussion and poll.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Thanks for the thumbnails SO now I can check the results on my phone.



ETA: hmmm... maybe I should move to Canada after all. Well, I'm going to Oregon soon that's pretty close to Canada. Seems like most people are either mixing their political dogmas or anarchists. Cool with this one.

Dont mind the high number of anarchists in the British colonies... It is only because we are such good people we know we would fair well even without the rules

Fascinating, and it's nice to see results from other countries as well. We are indeed a mixed group!

I see the results as fairly balanced, and grouped them as follows:

Conservative/Libertarian/Constitution - 39%

Liberal/Green/Communist - 30%

Mixed - 18%

Anarchist (none, in other words) - 12%

I know some will group differently, but that's how I see it, and that shows a nice mix of viewpoints. That is one thing that makes this a good site; people with different ideas can come her and discuss all sorts of issues, and it's kept civil, because of good moderation. All in all, this shows a reason that ATS is one of THE best places to come for information, and to see how people think about different things.

The most interesting aspect of this poll is the lack of libertarians in the UK, Canada, and Australia, and their strong support for the green party, which is not so strong in the US. But at least the "combination of political dogma" option is strong in all nations.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Great. 29% self-identified as libertarians? How many accounts does Charles Koch operate on ATS these days?

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Do you think this poll is a microcosm of the societies? Or do people with Green views, in the US, less active online than Green users in Europe? It's tempting to think there is a correlation, but given the type of site this is - a conspiracy site - it makes sense that American libertarian/conservative i.e anti-establishment types would predominate. On the other hand, European youth tend towards Green views as countries like Germany, Netherlands, Denmark, Iceland, and to a lesser extent, Italy, Spain, and the UK, convert their economies from "fossil fuel" centric to renewable energies like solar, win and geothermal. In Germany, for example, up to 30% of energy infrastructure is being converted to a 'lateral' energy system where individual buildings create their own electricity via solar panels on the roof, vertical wind turbines on certain areas of wall, and geothermal generators in the basement, with hydrogen battery cells as the storage device. In this ingenious, smart, and mindful system, people can sell the electricity they're not using to a central utility company - which can then sell it back to the grid. So smart.

As I said earlier, I don't think were in a situation to ruminate about the beauty of multiple political perspectives. Usually, I think diversity is great and good, but were in a dangerous ecological situation that threatens life on this planet as we know it. This being the case, I can only abide political view points which recognize the existence of a problem and commit themselves to a course of action which will remedy it.

Yes, this is a horrible situation. Nobody likes it. Many people wont even acknowledge it's existence - whether it be due to a problem in reasoning, a lack of familiarity with scientific concepts like entropy, homeostasis, systems theory, a general lack of feeling and empathy for "others" in the "out-group", conditioning from birth and enforcement by like-minded thinking in the group - essentially a combination of all these factors - prevent people from paying attention and "waking up!" to the severity of the challenge.

And the sickening thing is, were at this juncture, at this late period, because the people with interest in oil - essentially any manufacturer who uses plastics, gasoline, etc, essentially the entire economy - cannot stop themselves. They are literally, and morally, making a decision for everyone else: things wont change in a reasonable period of time because we cannot let ourselves lose our prominence in society. Evil selfishness. Evil because it is destructive of life and those who want to be responsible stewards of it.

Green needs to become a viable option in North American politics. Either that, or the Democrats and Liberals in America and Canada need to adopt a plan - not merely a "silo" - that changes the way we organize our economies.

Yes, I realize what this means. It means people lose jobs. It means people in the short term have to suffer. But think about it. If you find out your sick, and you're told to adhere to a certain diet, and if you don't, you are sure to die within a short-time period, wouldn't you adopt the diet? Wouldn't the long term gain for my life be worth it?

It is unconscionable, and perverse, that anyone could be tilted towards not caring, not giving a damn about the future viability of life; to essentially not care about future humanity. To condemn them to a mad-max like world, but even worse, and on a scale too horrible to effectively conceive. All I know for sure is, it'll destroy civilization and probably end in the extinction of homo sapiens.

This is precisely why a more spiritual awareness is needed to facilitate this change.

originally posted by: ChaoticOrder
The most interesting aspect of this poll is the lack of libertarians in the UK, Canada, and Australia, and their strong support for the green party, which is not so strong in the US. But at least the "combination of political dogma" option is strong in all nations.

The greens party in Australia does pick up some libertarian voters and have several policies along these lines.

I think the general issue is that this poll probably isn't all that accurate on a global scale. Many of the words and definitions used don't necessarily cross country borders so well.

Minor example: in my own country I'm considered a conservative, but Americans call me a leftist.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord
Conspiracy nut or not...I have to wonder how many from 'other lands' willfully intended to 'skew' the results?
How to confuse the foreigners...? Hmmm...
I still don't think the majority of those selecting "Green Party" have the ability to 'think' past - what sounds good.
Yeah - I'd like equal everything for everyone...(but me - as I should get a marginal advantage for suggesting it)...in addition to "Ecological Wisdom"... Yeah - what a farcical notion.
What is ecological wisdom?
Replace fossil fuels (and everything they contribute) with...something/anything else...
Let's see - we've done "Nuclear"...
We're saying "Go Wind Energy" or "Go Solar Energy"...but...who has done any long-term studies on what effects either of these will/may have? Extract energy from the wind/s... Maybe new deserts... Maybe...a lot of new deserts? Maybe more unpredictability in...the winds, climate, storms, droughts, etc...?
Extract energy from the Sun's rays...? Maybe the Earth needs those rays...that...energy... (?)
Who knows...?
"Go Geothermal"... Yeah - We have no idea what effects that may or may not have on Mother Earth...
But - it's ANYTHING BUT fossil fuels... So ...it's Ecological Wisdom...
Whew!

Rant still in my pants...but...exhausted for the moment.

You may return to your regularly scheduled programming...

Oh, yeah - Thanks SO for the insights! Good Poll/Thread/s.

originally posted by: WanDash
I still don't think the majority of those selecting "Green Party" have the ability to 'think' past - what sounds good.

I guess you can be excused if you we're drunk, because your mind felt pretty shallow in your post, so no wonder you see nothing past fossil fuels.

Sorry to say this, but we will have to go green eventually anyway. I find it honorable for people to want to change even if this change means short term problems. Maybe it's the entitlement mindset but when you think about it, some in prior generations sacrificed their lives for the generations after...we should be aiming the same goals.

originally posted by: theMediator

originally posted by: WanDash
I still don't think the majority of those selecting "Green Party" have the ability to 'think' past - what sounds good.

I guess you can be excused if you we're drunk, because your mind felt pretty shallow in your post, so no wonder you see nothing past fossil fuels.

Anything, specifically, you want to discuss?
BTW - Thanks for the excuse.

After Edit: Really don't see anything specific in the addition to your response, either.
Yeah - Utopia sounds great. Wish we all lived there. What option/s do you see? Just - ANYTHING ELSE? I'm kind of thinking that's how we got where we are...

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

The best part about it is the complete and utter diversity of views. Variety is often better.

a reply to: Pinke

Minor example: in my own country I'm considered a conservative, but Americans call me a leftist.

Even in your own country their may be multiple interpretations of conservative or libertarian, that's why I hate politics, no one really fully understands the ideals of any single party, it's more like philosophy and everyone has their own interpretations, and even the leaders of a party don't abide by their own ideals a lot of the time, especially when money is involved.

Having said that though, the poll does a fairly decent job of defining what it means when it says 'green party' (ecological wisdom, economic and social justice) and when it says libertarian (constitutional leanings and strong focus on state rights). You might say that libertarians can be conservative in the sense that they want to go back to the traditional ideals of having more decentralization among the states and more emphasis on the constitution, but really I just think that's what works best and it has nothing to do with personal ideals, I hate religion and don't care about gay marriage.

The term conservative would generally mean someone who tends to hold onto traditional values and ideals, and in America those sorts of people generally gravitate towards the right if I'm not mistaken (I'm not American either) because the republican party is more concerned about maintaining religious values and old traditions (I don't know where you got the leftist thing from). In Australia the liberal party is the more conservative party, but both US republicans and Australian liberals are the less socialist party. Although I very much dislike their religious tendencies I lean more towards the right because it's less socialist.

a reply to: SkepticOverlord



from Bavaria with love

a reply to: SkepticOverlord

Ireland From the land that pretty much invented Anarchists as a political movement, only five out of 39 votes picked anarchist with combination and Green party both tied for 27%. Must be the Guinness.

Excellent poll.
Thanks for mentioning the Irish results.

I expected libertarian to be the highest in canada, guess it just must be where I live.

Nice wrap up to the poll. It's always refreshing to see how others think...to a degree anyways. With the exception of the "Church of Al Gore" acolyte, this poll would make for a easy conversation starter around the card table.

I am wondering if people knew that the results were going to be mapped out by country, if people would have answered differently.