ideology.media

On Intersections; or, the Left

If you’re online at all, or even following the news, you may have picked up on some tension between between the Democratic Party and its younger, more activist Left flank. I’ve seen some confusion about where this tension is coming from. Let’s talk about it.

Super-Models: Hans Eysenck

The two-axis political test is among the most famous and most frequently cited ways to chart political affiliation. I want to talk a little bit about its history, and about the different iterations of this model that I’ve seen before. We’re going to get into their strengths, weaknesses, and creators, starting with one of the most prominent psychologists of the 21st century.

Zeroville

Eagle-eyed viewers may have noticed in my post on the ratings system that, while things can get a score of 0, that is not listed as neutral or unbiased. Instead, I wrote:

Makes no real ideological statements or such mixed statements as to be incoherent

Why?

Is Polarization Bad?

We all know the claims: America is more polarized than it has been in nearly a century. Polarization has been blamed for America’s failure to contain COVID, for our partisan gridlock, for a whole host of problems both local and federal. It certainly sounds bad.

But is it?

The Other Axis

The basic right/left dynamic between progressive and conservative is an obvious measurement, and one that’s easy to track, in broad terms, on an axis from equality to hierarchy. The other axis? That one isn’t working as well for me.

A Wild Rating Appears!

As you may have noticed, many of my early posts have been giving broad overviews of how the ratings will work. This is another version of that. You’re welcome.

Is Representation Ideological?

To my mind, the importance of representation is indisputable. But is it inherently ideological?

What Does the Bias Map Look Like?

I recently posted a look at the first draft of the rating system I will be using. In it, I used a lot of fairly specific terminology. Rest assured, the map will be easy to read even if you don’t know what each of those terms mean. Don’t believe me? Here’s a draft of what it will look like.

A Complicated Dictionary of Political Nonsense

There are a lot of weird, arcane terms in political discourse, including in the rating system I recently published. You don’t need to know what all those terms mean to understand the bias map; this post is merely for the politically curious.

An Idea on Ratings

In my first post, I mention a handful of weaknesses I have found with the most popular Media Bias chart. It would be reasonable to assume, then, that I wouldn’t be posting about it and creating a blog if I didn’t think I had some idea to fix those problems.