Believing in conspiracies can be as all-American as baseball, barbecues, and apple pie – usually when it’s cute to believe some myths like Elvis is alive or Sasquatch (aka Bigfoot) is roaming the Pacific Northwest. But then you wake up one day and see the results of a Scripps-Howard poll (HT: Rocky Mountain News), which says 36% of your fellow countrymen believe it is likely that “federal officials assisted in the 9/11 terrorist attacks or took no action to stop them so the United States could go to war in the Middle East.”
Wow, that’s demoralizing, you say. I wonder how many people surveyed in 1943-1944 believed that FDR staged the Pearl Harbor bombing to take us to war – I’m guessing less than 36 percent.
But then if you dig a little deeper, you see the same sample of 1,010 American adults was asked whether “the federal government is withholding proof of the existence of intelligent life from others planets“: 38% of Americans believe this is likely.
Or that “officials in the federal government were directly responsible for the assassination of President Kennedy“: 40% of Americans believe this is likely.
Unfortunately, the data behind the survey were inaccessible, so I wasn’t able to determine the demographics behind the different conspiracy beliefs. But it sure would be interesting to know. Anyone who wants to start a new random conspiracy theory in my comment section, please go ahead and try to make me and my other readers laugh. We could all use a dose of that medicine.
The poll cites a growing general dissatisfaction and anger with the federal government. But it is a little disturbing at a time of serious war against a serious Islamofascist threat that so many people in this country show such signs of moral confusion. Many of these are the same people that don’t believe we really are at war, I’m sure. How sad.
Less sad but more annoying, I’ve probably just sent an unofficial invitation to the 9/11 conspiracy theorists to flood this post with comments. If that’s you and you feel compelled to respond, I have something you ought to know: (ssshhh… not so loud – click the “More” button for your message) –
Be very careful, because thanks to a special new government technology being tested on this Web site, Karl Rove is watching you right now…. And he knows where you live.
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