Red for conservative, blue for liberal. Click to enlarge.
Floating Sheep looks at Google Maps references to "conservative" and "liberal," and finds Kansas is somehow very, very blue. Questions?
Indeed, it could be easily argued that many 'conservatives' in the western world actually adhere to liberal political philosophy, broadly writ. And we don't even need to start with the debate that what most Americans call liberal would be considered right-of-center in many parts of the world.
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I moved to Kansas and screwed up the whole map.
I wonder if Westboro Baptist Church's internet searches have contributed? They do like to keep tabs on liberal topics.
It seems to be in reference to a key word.
They seem to just talk about liberals alot in Kansas.
Um Google, why are California and New York both red?
LOL. With all that red it makes me wonder how Obama got elected.
I'm changing my search provider!
Very strange findings :
- All France is liberal, except for Paris and its area ? Very strange since the "socialist" party there has won almost all elections for a few years. The city of Paris indeed is liberal (with some Green politicians, and a gay Mayor, and women everywhere), the neighbourhoods though are posh (very conservative) or very tormented (big National Front right wing voting).
In French, the word "liberal" is widely used for a pro-market and big companies policy (tax cuts and such) which is represented by the right or center-right (or center-left after they won the elections and took office). Conservative will be used for socially conservative policies, so many (old) center-right politicians are both "libéral" and "conservateurs" and it does make sense here...
- Why would Ireland be all convervative (which sounds fine considering the politicians there + the influence the Church still has) except for the Connemara ? I thought Father wasn't into politics...
- Lots of liberal dots for Japan, a country where people elected the conservative party for 65 years until this spring when the center-left won (its primer minister already resigned)
I think this is more like where people who talk about liberals are. From what I gather this is come from placemark data. It might just be that liberals in very conservative areas feel isolated and use Google maps to find each other and vice versa.
Plus, many liberals don't use the word liberal. They don't have the same sort of political identity that they're proud of the way conservatives do. Conservatives will describe their business as conservative or conservatively owned as a means of marketing.
In some places (like the Bible belt) saying a certain place is liberal is a coded way of minorities signaling to other minorities that it's a safe place. But I don't know if that's enough to skew the data.
As a proud Jayhawk from Lawrence, Kansas, I can confirm that Lawrence and a few scattered Kansas locations are blue, but they are floating in a sea of Republican-with-a-capital-R, conservative red, and it's polka dotted with "treasures" (attn: sarcasm alert) like Fred Phelps, Scott Roeder, and Tom Willis (end sarcasm). At least for the past couple of decades.
But it *used* to be a very progressive state - downright radical, in fact. There's an amazing documentary (released in 2009, on many top 10 of '09 documentary lists) that illustrates that dichotomy: What's The Matter With Kansas http://whatsthematterwithkansas.com/
Perhaps Google mixed up the crayons? Maybe the person coloring in the map is color blind? Or could it be that people look up stuff that the "opposite" side is saying so they can make up funny signs to protest? http://laughingsquid.com/san-franciscos-answer-to-westboro-baptist-church/
Liberal, Conservative, Teabagger (is that a really a word?), Independent, etc, etc. When people vote they do it alone, and what is said in public may not be how a person votes. I find this map hysterically funny, and wonder whether I, like another here, need to re-evaluate the search engine I use LOL.
That is because there is not a town called Conservative, Kansas, but there is a Liberal!
Ah, boxer, you beat me to the punch. Exactly!
My thoughts exactly, boxer!
Dorothy, I don't think we're in Kansas any more.
i see part of brazil in the blue zone
As a liberal in Kansas, I'm finding more and more of us exist here. I caucused for Obama in sleet and snow. There were had record turnouts that night for the Democratic caucus. We're not totally a lost cause.
Kansas hasn't had a Democrat Senator since 1932.
Google seems to be color blind here. They actually have the map reversed blue for conserv. and red for liberals. Or they are just taking the democratic party and dividing it between more conservative democrats vs more liberal democrats in these areas (not true either) and leaving the repugs out entirely. Washington state (where I am from) is very liberal. They need to redo the map. I like google but someone needs a do over.
I don't get it. Since when does "what you google" determine what party you are?
I'm so confused...