I've noticed political trends among users of this site, namely a fairly progressive leaning and support of humanist points in the Debate room. This has led me to wonder about other possible similarities. Take age for instance. Obviously this forum will be joined by people from all ages and walks of life, but is there one group represented more than others? Are younger people more likely to join for being more internet-savvy? Are teenagers due to having a lot of free time? What about gender, or even race? It's just a thought of mine.
When I first joined a number of years ago, a lot of the members were in the their late teens. I'm willing to bet the average age has gone up a bit since then, though there are still a lot of people in their late teens around.
I agree. When I joined in 2008 I felt that the community was very young, sometimes uncomfortably young. There were issues, topics, and subjects I wanted to discuss that I felt uncomfortable presenting, thinking about the parent's of these young members looking over their shoulders. The community seems older, on average, now. ETA: I just checked to see if the platform would give a graph by age or age groups and it's not one of the graphs available. I can tell you that over the last 3 months, 29.4% of members are members who prefer not to indicate their gender, 29.2% of members identify as females, and 41.4% of members identify as males.
I've noticed this forum does seem on the whole more liberal and progressive than other forums I've been in. I've seen few conservatives (as people on both sides of the pond would understand the term) here.
I'd agree. I self-identify as an extreme civil libertarian/constitutionalist (which would be classified by most here in the US as conservative), and believe that smaller, less intrusive government at every level is the best path, but I hold traditionally liberal views on social issues like abortion and gay marriage. I think the membership here skews toward what would be the left-wing side of things in the US, but I would expect that from an intelligent, university-educated group.
At the governmental level, I'm tempted to buy into modified Socialist systems. Possibly, a mix between American Federalism (I mean, the division of levels) and Social aspects. I really don't have an educated perspective, more the wonky thought experiments that run in my head. I'd like to become versed, mildly enough, in structures in the future. Civilly, yeah, I'd probably say things that most liberals, known of, would shy from. I'm tempted by libertarian ideas (I'm speaking of the economic side, currently), but I can't reconcile with my harsh views on capitalistic mechanisms.
Funnily, I'm what you might call a left-wing libertarian. Which is a phrase that apparently sounds odd to American ears.
I don't know; I read that Chomsky could be classified as a socialist libertarian. I need to read up on that.
Being totally unencumbered by religious belief makes it a lot easier to be governmentally and fiscally conservative and socially liberal, too.
I use the same label for myself. I find it useful for escaping the trappings of "conservative" and "liberal". I'm an extremely left-wing person if you use the "belief in equality" definition, but I don't have many strong economic views.
I'd add that older people typically have more free time to wander the internet. I'm a younger person myself and with school and such I'm not left with much free time; however, that might just be me. To further elucidate my point: I believe we all know of those Facebook moms that are seemingly never offline. Not that that contributes in any way to the discussion of the average demographic of this site. If I had to wager a guess I'd posit that this is an older site with more people out of their teens than in their teens. I could be completely wrong though. Someone make a survey!
I think forums typically have a peak around 30. EDIT: Also, I think you guys are getting at the idea of a political compass.
I'm 39 and a socialist. Having grown up in socialism, I have a different perspective on it from the typical one you get in the West. I am also a feminist and an agnostic. I'm a doctor by profession, but after some lung clots four years ago, I'm on extended sick leave as I can't really be around hospitals much. So I do consulting and managing from home and I developed a passion for writing, both non-fiction essays (themes are political, feminist, philosophical, medical, psychology, chic-lit etc), short stories and novels. I also do semi-pro photogrpahy. So I spend a lot of time on line, researching, working, maintaining my galleries and what not. I hang out on this forum way too much, because when I'm away I get a lot more writing done, but I'm working on it
I had to Google "Libertarian"...it appears to be a political movement that views Capitalism as too interventionist, so "left-wing libertarian" would appear to be a contradiction in terms - until you look at the history of the movement, when it was equated with Communism!
So your saying those that oppose abortion are less intelligent? That's not exactly a cool remark to make just because someone opposes your views.
Please read that sentence again before you take offense when it should be obvious that none was intended. The key phrase is 'university-educated'. I think that we can agree the those who attend college are as a group more intelligent than those who don't. Universities in the US (with a couple of notable exceptions) are crazed hotbeds of left-wing political thinking, to the point where, all too often, speakers who are brought to campus to express opinions that reflect conservative views are shouted down and not allowed to speak. (The irony of all these socialist children engaging in what is essentially fascist behavior is apparently lost on them.) My guess is that college-educated people are over-represented among the membership here, so I would expect a slant toward the liberal end of political thinking, which, after all, is the question the OP asked.
What is also, frequently, overlooked is that "Fascism" derives from the Latin "Fasces", which was the thick bundle of sticks carried by a lictor, and which symbolised "strength through unity" (a single stick is easily broken, a bundle much less so), which is a pretty socialist concept...
Here's a graph I found concerning individual unique users by time zone over the last week. I was really looking for something more by country, but this is as close as the forum platform will give me. These are just the top. It drops to 1's pretty much after this. Remember that it's by timezone, so the cities mentioned are just example cities in said zone, we don't actually have 160 users in Tashkent itself.
