Poll: Americans Love Their Conspiracy Theories
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Conspiracy theories have long been a favorite of authors and movie-makers. But, according to new polling, a large percentage of Americans subscribe to some form of conspiracy theories.
Public Policy Polling released a poll Wednesday that looked at what Americans believe and more than one-third of Americans believe that the Obama Administration is secretly trying to take everyone's guns away.
This is led by Republicans, where 62 percent say Obama is trying to take their guns compared to just 14 percent of Democrats who agree.
Twenty-five percent of Americans believe President Obama is trying to stay in office beyond 2017, including 44 percent of Republicans, the poll found. It should be noted, a similar percentage of Democrats believed the same thing about President George W. Bush during his time in office.
More than a quarter of Americans believe that Muslims are trying to implement Sharia Law in American courts, while 55 percent disagree. The partisan breakdown on Sharia Law shows 42 percent of the GOP fear Sharia Law getting into the courts while just 12 percent of Democrats share that sentiment, according to the poll.
The conspiracy theory of "false flag" operations where the government plans and executes terrorist or mass shooting events to blame on others isn't popular with a vast majority of Americans, despite the best effort of websites like infowars.com. Seventy percent say the government doesn't perform those kind of operations.
Seventeen percent of American voters said they believe "a group of world bankers are slowly eliminating paper currency to force most banking online – only to cut the power grid so regular citizens can't access money and are forced into worldwide slavery. One in three Republicans believes the theory while just 10 percent of Democrats agree.
One conspiracy theory that is widely believed is that major sporting events are sometimes rigged by league offices and referees to increase ratings and revenue for the sports, according to the PPP poll. A total of 32 percent support that theory compared to 49 percent who disagree.
