Now I often hear it said that atheists have a tendency to be left leaning, and this doesn't surprise me considering how the Republican party has such a significant religious base, it's only natural to react to something like that by aligning oneself on the opposite side of the political spectrum. I can imagine that if the Democratic party were overtly religious and left-wing politics were associated with religious dogma, you would see many more right-wing secularists like myself.
A lot of atheists get very annoyed at the connection drawn between atheism and communism (as do I because I know what the theist's intention is) but if you think about it, it does make sense. Obviously not all atheists are going to be communists, but show me a communist and I'll bet you they're probably an atheist. If you've already explored alternative viewpoints in one area you're likely to have alternative viewpoints in another, such as political or ethical philosophy. So I would expect atheists to be more likely to be socialists, anarchists, or libertarians, as a reaction to the status quo, the centrist majority and religious right.
But on the issue of the secular left, I think Christopher Hitchens (and I think Sam Harris said it to) raises a good point, in that the same people who won't hesitate to point out the injustice and hypocrisy committed by the Christian religious right in our own country, is very reluctant to say anything bad about or recognize the dangers of Islam. The reason being is because they would incidentally be associated with the Bush Administration on the issue of interventionist foreign policy and abuse of civil liberties.
Personally my position has been anti-war and against the practices of the current neocon administration, so I'm not with Hitchens on that. However I see his point about Islam, I notice there is no complaint about criticizing Christianity (except from Christians) but once Islam is criticized you break the multicultural tolerance barrier (a left-liberal phenomenon). And while I'm fully aware of the discrimination Arabs and Muslims have had to face after 9/11, it doesn't change the fact that there is a double standard here, and we can't both hold Christianity to the fire and deny the reality of radical Islam and the dangers of Islam itself as a religion.
I've been struggling with this issue more and more and I'm starting to see it, it almost makes me want to jump on the war wagon when I think about it until I realize that the Christopher Hitchens reason for interventionism (putting a stop to radical Islam) is not the same as the Bush reason (propping up governments and American Imperialism). So this is a dilemma for me, if radical Islam is the question but militarism isn't the answer, than what is?
I would appreciate any further contributions to this subject. In any case, considering the topic I thought we could do the political compass thing, since a poll wouldn't do it justice.
*Here is the test.
These are my stats:
Economic Left/Right: 7.88
Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -6.41
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