Another national poll has been released revealing the level of wacky delusion that exists among the American public. According to the survey results, 13 percent of voters (including 20 percent of Republicans) believe that President Obama is the Antichrist; 15 percent think the medical and pharmaceutical industries “invent” new diseases to make money; and 37 percent (including 58 percent of Republicans) believe global warming is a hoax. The poll was conducted by Public Policy Polling.
The company said it wanted to assess just how prevalent conspiracy theories are among the general populace, so it asked a series of 20 conspiracy questions to 1,247 registered American voters between March 27-30.
On questions remotely related to politics, the poll found a strict partisan divide.
“Even crazy conspiracy theories are subject to partisan polarization, especially when there are political overtones involved,” said Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling. “But most Americans reject the wackier ideas out there about fake moon landings and shape-shifting lizards.”
With the persistent belief by some Americans throughout President Obama’s first term that he is a Muslim, despite all the evidence to the contrary, most people are familiar with the partisan nature of conspiracy theories.
Some of the other findings in the poll include:
– Thirty-seven percent of voters believe global warming is a hoax, 51 percent do not. Republicans say global warming is a hoax by a 58-25 margin, Democrats disagree 11-77, and Independents are more split at 41-51. Sixty-one percent of people who voted for presidential candidate Mitt Romney believe global warming is a hoax.
– Six percent of voters believe al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden is still alive.
– Twenty-one percent of voters say a UFO crashed in Roswell, N.M., in 1947 and the US government covered it up. More Romney voters (27 percent) than Obama voters (16 percent) believe in a UFO coverup
– Twenty-eight percent of voters believe a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian government, or New World Order. A plurality of Romney voters (38 percent) believe in the New World Order compared to 35 percent who do not.
– Twenty-eight percent of voters believe Iraqi President Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks. Thirty-six percent of Romney voters believe Hussein was involved, 41 percent do not.
– Twenty percent of voters believe there is a link between childhood vaccines and autism, 51 percent do not.
– Seven percent of voters think the moon landing was faked.
– Voters are split 44 percent -45 percent on whether former President George Bush intentionally misled the public about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Seventy-two percent of Democrats think Bush lied about WMDs; Independents agree 48-45; but just 13 percent of Republicans think so.
– Twenty-nine percent of voters believe extraterrestrial aliens exist.
– Fourteen percent of voters say the CIA was instrumental in creating the crack cocaine epidemic in America’s inner cities in the 1980s.
– Nine percent of voters think the government adds fluoride to the water supply for sinister reasons, not just dental health.
– Four percent of voters say they believe that “lizard people” control our societies by gaining political power.
– Fifty-one percent of voters say a larger conspiracy was at work in President John F. Kennedy’s assassination, just 25 percent say Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone.
– Fourteen percent of voters believe in Bigfoot.
– Fifteen percent of voters say the government or the media adds mind-control technology to TV broadcast signals (the so-called Tinfoil Hat crowd).
– Five percent believe that the exhaust seen in the sky behind airplanes is actually chemicals sprayed by the government for sinister reasons.
– Fifteen percent of voters think the medical industry and the pharmaceutical industries “invent” new diseases to make money.
– Just 5 percent of voters believe that musician Paul McCartney actually died in 1966.
– Eleven percent of voters believe the U.S. government allowed 9/11 to happen, 78 percent do not agree.
