Explaining Ideological Agreeableness and Alignment

A 2x2 framework comparison

Consider where groups are positioned in a 2-by-2 framework comparing logical/moral consistency and confidence in government pragmatically. As an example take gun prohibition and drug prohibition--extreme policy positions.

If you strongly believe in government’s ability to effect change (high confidence), then you are more likely to support prohibition of guns or drugs assuming you are opposed to guns or drugs. Having severe doubts about government’s ability would likely greatly diminish your support or cause you to oppose the prohibition even if you were very opposed to the “problem/vice” in question.

Moral and logical consistency is more a quality and result than an aspiration in this model. It may very well guide where you fall in the framework, but it is where you fall despite your stated intentions that matters.

Given these two issues as an example, here is the framework I would propose (more correctly, here are the three various ways the framework might be structured):

I am obviously generalizing about various ideologies and where they land within the grid, but the fit seems to be good.

Think about the positioning for each group. How agreeable we find members of other quadrants is driven by the degree to which one dimension or the other resonates with us as well as which positioning fits our mental model. More interestingly how aligned we find two different quadrants, neither of which we are members of, may explain how we view members of each in terms of alliance.

We look upon those near to us as more natural allies which can either cause us to reach out to them to build alliance or more harshly judge them. We look upon those farther from us with more distrust or disgust or both.

Similarly we see the connections between two different groups and build our critiques accordingly.

Libertarians are not in any way allies of tyrants. But from the perspective of progressives or conservatives or both, they may seem to be somewhat aligned.

I certainly waiver between seeing conservatives versus progressives as closer allies depending on the issue at hand (top model versus middle model). In the same sense I am quicker to label one or the other "tyrannical" depending on which dominates at the moment.

Can't say much about those who practice apathy.