Poll Taps Into America's Paranoia
MIAMI (CBSMiami) – Most of the time, polls simply reflect the horserace between two selected candidates. But the folks at Public Policy Polling decided to have some fun and do a poll about the conspiracy theories that exist today and the results were…enlightening.
According to the PPP poll, 37 percent of voters believe global warming is a hoax while 51 percent do not. Republicans lead the way with nearly 60 percent saying global warming is a hoax compared to 77 percent of Democrats who disagree.
Remember Osama bin Laden? He was killed by an elite team of Navy SEALS during President Barack Obama's first term. Still, six percent of voters believe bin Laden is still alive.
Twenty-eight percent of voters believe there's a "secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually run the world through an authoritarian world government or New World Order." A plurality of Romney voters, 38 percent, supported this theory to 35 percent who don't.
Despite it being repeatedly proven to be a complete fabrication, 28 percent of voters still believe former Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks. Forty-one percent of Romney voters believe he wasn't involved.
Remember the phony study that linked autism and vaccines? It was pulled after it turned out to be a fabrication. Still, 20 percent of voters believe there is a link between childhood vaccines and autism, while 51 percent do not.
The numbers and strange theories were not in short supply in the poll. According to PPP, seven percent of voters think the moon landing was faked. Thirteen percent of voters believe Barack Obama is the anti-Christ, while 13 percent aren't sure yet.
Fourteen percent of voters said the CIA was "instrumental in creating the crack cocaine epidemic in America's inner cities in the 1980's." Speaking of government conspiracies, 51 percent believe there was a larger conspiracy involved in JFK's assassination and just 25 percent said Oswald acted alone.
A full 15 percent said the government and or the media adds mind-controlling technology to TV broadcast signals. Another 15 percent said the medical and pharmaceutical industries invent new diseases to make more money.
If you're old enough to remember the Beatles you'll like this stat from the poll: only five percent of voters believe that Paul McCartney died in 1966.
Finally, this writer's favorite, according to the poll, four percent of voters said they believe "lizard people" control our societies by gaining political power.
No word on whether Jim Morrison of the Doors is still the "Lizard King."
