Oliver Willis posted about a political compass that rates the quiz taker on a Left/Right axis and Authoritarian/Libertarian axis. The format is that a proposition is stated and one selects from "Strongly Disagree", "Disagree", "Agree", "Strongly Agree". I tried to take it but for a number of questions there was no answer I agreed with because the statement was of the form

You should beat your wife with your hand instead of a stick

• Strongly Disagree
• Disagree
• Agree
• Strongly Agree

The FAQ for the quiz mentions claims that the questions are slanted, but dismisses that complaint by claiming that these are propositions with which one can agree or not. However, as any rhetorician can tell you, you can still package deal even with propositions.

Right off the bat we have

If globalisation is inevitable, it should primarily serve humanity rather than the interests of trans-national corporations.

Some of us believe that this isn't an either-or choice. While these interests are not identical they are not so antithetical that we can't have both. So that package deal here the assumption of the opposition of these interests. Moreover, the word "should" can be used in a normative or descriptive sense. I agree with this descriptively but the normal usage here is normative, i.e. taking positive action to ensure this outcome, which I do not agree with. The next question is similar:

Controlling inflation is more important than controlling unemployment.

Again, it's not clear that we have to chose. I believe that controlling inflation helps create a better economic environment which in turns leads to less unemployment so that controlling inflation reduces unemployment.

Some of the package deals are more explicit, as in

Those with the ability to pay should have the right to higher standards of medical care and education

If you have to pay for something, it's not a right. I believe that if person A wants to sell higher than average medical care to person B, they have the right to do that, but B has no "right" to the care itself. Or we have

The only social responsibility of a company should be to deliver a profit to its shareholders

Since when is delivering profit to shareholders a social responsibility? This is the first place I've seen that assumption. Does a company have any responsibilities that are not social?

In contrast to the package deal questions, we have the inscrutable ones, such as

Restrictions are sometimes necessary in trade

What does this mean? Legal restrictions? Contract terms? Regulations? Is a prohibition on fraud a "restriction" on trade? I think I know what is meant, but that's based on my opinion of the political leanings of the quiz authors, which doesn't seem the best way to decode the meaning.

This quiz may work well for those of Left/Authoritarian leanings but it doesn't work for someone of my political beliefs. I also note that this site gives no credit to the libertarian version of this quiz which has been around since the 1970's.