Conquer Club

2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

\\OFF-TOPIC// conversations about everything that has nothing to do with Conquer Club.

Moderator: Community Team

Forum rules
Please read the Community Guidelines before posting.

2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby saxitoxin on Tue Feb 05, 2013 11:48 am

A Farleigh-Dickinson University poll finds that 2/3 of Americans believe in at least one of four conspiracy theories (below).

The more conspiracy theories a person believes, the fewer current events questions they are likely to answer correctly from a list of 4 questions asked (Who is the Secretary of State?, Has unemployment increased, decreased or stayed the same over the last 12 months?, In what country has the U.S. concentrated the most attacks with unmanned drone aircraft?, What party has the most seats in the U.S. House of Representatives?).

http://publicmind.fdu.edu/2013/outthere/

Image
ImageImage
User avatar
Corporal saxitoxin
 
Posts: 12041
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 1:01 am

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby thegreekdog on Tue Feb 05, 2013 1:50 pm

This is pretty depressing.
Image
User avatar
Sergeant 1st Class thegreekdog
 
Posts: 7245
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 6:55 am
Location: Philadelphia

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby BigBallinStalin on Tue Feb 05, 2013 2:10 pm

thegreekdog wrote:This is pretty depressing.


Probably Not True.

And George Bush don't like Black People. T/F?
User avatar
Major BigBallinStalin
 
Posts: 5151
Joined: Sun Oct 26, 2008 10:23 pm
Location: crying into the dregs of an empty bottle of own-brand scotch on the toilet having a dump in Dagenham

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby Crazyirishman on Tue Feb 05, 2013 3:35 pm

What if I believe in conspiracy theories, but not any of those ones? Do I count?
User avatar
Captain Crazyirishman
 
Posts: 1564
Joined: Sun Jan 04, 2009 8:05 pm
Location: Dongbei China

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby Funkyterrance on Tue Feb 05, 2013 3:37 pm

The third one is Laughable.
Image
User avatar
Colonel Funkyterrance
 
Posts: 2494
Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:52 pm
Location: New Hampshire, USA

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby warmonger1981 on Tue Feb 05, 2013 9:59 pm

Wast Andy Stern president of SEIU one of the most visited people to the White House.if I'm not mistaken SEIU was in charge of the voting machines.it doesn't matter who votes but who counts the votes. Thats what ive heard if its true is another story.
User avatar
Captain warmonger1981
 
Posts: 2554
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:29 pm
Location: ST.PAUL

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby warmonger1981 on Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:04 pm

Jeb Bush was governor of Florida during the recount I think.
User avatar
Captain warmonger1981
 
Posts: 2554
Joined: Tue Mar 25, 2008 7:29 pm
Location: ST.PAUL

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby _sabotage_ on Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:08 pm

the 99% one didn't make the list?
User avatar
Captain _sabotage_
 
Posts: 1250
Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:21 am

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby / on Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:17 pm

Why do several of those percentages add up to a 101% total?
Sergeant 1st Class /
 
Posts: 484
Joined: Sat Dec 22, 2007 2:41 am

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby chang50 on Tue Feb 05, 2013 10:23 pm

/ wrote:Why do several of those percentages add up to a 101% total?


It's part of a conspiracy..
User avatar
Captain chang50
 
Posts: 659
Joined: Thu Sep 04, 2008 4:54 am
Location: pattaya,thailand

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby john9blue on Wed Feb 06, 2013 1:08 am

/ wrote:Why do several of those percentages add up to a 101% total?


and more importantly, why are they all integers??? the plot thickens...
natty_dread wrote:Do ponies have sex?
Army of GOD wrote:the term heterosexual is offensive. I prefer to be called "normal"
(proud member of the Occasionally Wrongly Banned)
User avatar
Captain john9blue
 
Posts: 1268
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:18 pm
Location: FlutterChi-town

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby john9blue on Wed Feb 06, 2013 1:10 am

oh btw, you're dumb if you don't think some conspiracy theories are at least plausible, if not likely.

for example, most americans (over 3/4 at one point) believe that the JFK assassination was a conspiracy rather than a lone gunman
natty_dread wrote:Do ponies have sex?
Army of GOD wrote:the term heterosexual is offensive. I prefer to be called "normal"
(proud member of the Occasionally Wrongly Banned)
User avatar
Captain john9blue
 
Posts: 1268
Joined: Mon Aug 20, 2007 6:18 pm
Location: FlutterChi-town

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby Funkyterrance on Wed Feb 06, 2013 1:24 am

Dumb da-dumb dumb DUMMMMBBB! Isn't that a wonderfully vague word, dumb?
Of course I believe in the multiple gunmen theory, I watched JFK.
Image
User avatar
Colonel Funkyterrance
 
Posts: 2494
Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:52 pm
Location: New Hampshire, USA

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby _sabotage_ on Wed Feb 06, 2013 7:56 am

LBJ killed JFK.
User avatar
Captain _sabotage_
 
Posts: 1250
Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:21 am

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby thegreekdog on Wed Feb 06, 2013 8:19 am

Funkyterrance wrote:Dumb da-dumb dumb DUMMMMBBB! Isn't that a wonderfully vague word, dumb?
Of course I believe in the multiple gunmen theory, I watched JFK.


This reminds me of the utterly disturbing poll that was done when West Wing was on the air. The poll question was whether Martin Sheen (the actor who played the president on the West Wing) would be a better president than whomever the candidates were at the time (Gore and Bush maybe?). A rather large bloc of people voted for Martin Sheen.

In any event, it amazes me how much people take fiction, mostly historic fiction, and use that as the basis of their views of a particular event in history.
Image
User avatar
Sergeant 1st Class thegreekdog
 
Posts: 7245
Joined: Thu Jul 17, 2008 6:55 am
Location: Philadelphia

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby AAFitz on Wed Feb 06, 2013 11:28 am

My only information on the 2004 elections was a documentary with people going around and proving inconsistent results based on actual tallies, and videos of people throwing away ballots which was expressly illegal. Linking that to Bush himself is definitely, impossible....he cant be that dumb, but that election was a disaster.

That one documentary, stripped my faith in this country more than any other Ive ever seen.

The other was watching a video of the owner of the Trade center lease at the time, saying "pull it" and then watching the press gather round to watch the destruction of Building 7 in a classic demo configuration.

I think more realistically, after the previous attempts on the trade center, its possible the buildings were wired as an emergency action plan to prevent the deaths of up to 50000 people, but anyone saying the theory is outright crazy, without actually looking at the information, is no less crazy than a conspiracy theorist, who hasn't looked at all the information.

I have seen crazy conspiracy theorists though. I know someone who believes every single one ever invented as far as I can tell. I think its important to have those people out there vetting any possible conspiracies, but they also give them a bad name, because they are biased to believe them, and have lost any reasonable decision making skills.

I myself have always tried to not form opinions about such things, and keep an open mind about almost everything. Its not easy, because you live in a world of uncertainty, but Ive decided its better than living in a world believing in false things.
I'm Spanking Monkey now....err...I mean I'm a Spanking Monkey now...that shoots milk
Too much. I know.
Sergeant 1st Class AAFitz
 
Posts: 7270
Joined: Sun Sep 17, 2006 9:47 am
Location: On top of the World 2.1

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby saxitoxin on Wed Feb 06, 2013 11:43 am

john9blue wrote:oh btw, you're dumb if you don't think some conspiracy theories are at least plausible, if not likely.

for example, most americans (over 3/4 at one point) believe that the JFK assassination was a conspiracy rather than a lone gunman


J9B has a good point. In fairness, the survey wasn't saying that conspiracy theories are all wrong, just that - in general - people who believe the four conspiracy theories surveyed tend to be poorly informed or easily swayed by dramatic, made-for-internet documentaries with spooky music, scary shadow vignetting effects and slow motion scenes with gravely voiced narration. Low information awareness leads to practical disenfranchisement; practical disenfranchisement leads to feelings of powerlessness which humans ascribe to sinister forces beyond their control instead of admitting their own lower intellectual or cognitive abilities.

But, to J9B's point, the U.S. Congress itself has declared the JFK assassination was probably the result of a conspiracy (http://history-matters.com/archive/cont ... report.htm).
ImageImage
User avatar
Corporal saxitoxin
 
Posts: 12041
Joined: Fri Jun 05, 2009 1:01 am

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby GeneralRisk on Wed Feb 06, 2013 12:09 pm

AAFitz wrote:
The other was watching a video of the owner of the Trade center lease at the time, saying "pull it" and then watching the press gather round to watch the destruction of Building 7 in a classic demo configuration.

I think more realistically, after the previous attempts on the trade center, its possible the buildings were wired as an emergency action plan to prevent the deaths of up to 50000 people, but anyone saying the theory is outright crazy, without actually looking at the information, is no less crazy than a conspiracy theorist, who hasn't looked at all the information.

I have seen crazy conspiracy theorists though. I know someone who believes every single one ever invented as far as I can tell. I think its important to have those people out there vetting any possible conspiracies, but they also give them a bad name, because they are biased to believe them, and have lost any reasonable decision making skills.

I myself have always tried to not form opinions about such things, and keep an open mind about almost everything. Its not easy, because you live in a world of uncertainty, but Ive decided its better than living in a world believing in false things.
show: Fires Have Never Caused Skyscrapers to Collapse
Major GeneralRisk
 
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2010 3:58 pm
Location: Neu-Schwabenland

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby AndyDufresne on Wed Feb 06, 2013 12:14 pm

I am behind every conspiracy theory.

Image


--Andy
User avatar
Corporal 1st Class AndyDufresne
 
Posts: 24919
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:22 pm
Location: A Banana Palm in Zihuatanejo

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby _sabotage_ on Wed Feb 06, 2013 1:15 pm

AAFitz wrote:
The other was watching a video of the owner of the Trade center lease at the time, saying "pull it" and then watching the press gather round to watch the destruction of Building 7 in a classic demo configuration.

I think more realistically, after the previous attempts on the trade center, its possible the buildings were wired as an emergency action plan to prevent the deaths of up to 50000 people, but anyone saying the theory is outright crazy, without actually looking at the information, is no less crazy than a conspiracy theorist, who hasn't looked at all the information.


That's fine, they pre-wired the buildings. This would take weeks, when was it done?

Why have the only 3 videos released, out of 85, at the pentagon not show a plane, but show what appears to be a missile? The hole was too small for a plane and no major plane parts were retrieved.

How did flight 93 disappear into a hole?

Black boxes disintegrated, but a terrorist's passport survived.

Whatever, it doesn't matter, the people are dead either way, but why do we continue to allow wire-tapping, strip away due process, have secret prisons, torture, refuse to submit to war crimes tribunals and basically make ourselves hated internationally and impoverished domestically.

As for conspiracies, this is from last year:

The poll, constructed by Dartmouth government professor Benjamin Valentino and conducted by YouGov from April 26 to May 2, found that fully 63 percent of Republican respondents still believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded in 2003. By contrast, 27 percent of independents and 15 percent of Democrats shared that view.

What you may notice is that people believe what they are told.
User avatar
Captain _sabotage_
 
Posts: 1250
Joined: Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:21 am

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby GeneralRisk on Wed Feb 06, 2013 1:36 pm

_sabotage_ wrote:
AAFitz wrote:
The other was watching a video of the owner of the Trade center lease at the time, saying "pull it" and then watching the press gather round to watch the destruction of Building 7 in a classic demo configuration.

I think more realistically, after the previous attempts on the trade center, its possible the buildings were wired as an emergency action plan to prevent the deaths of up to 50000 people, but anyone saying the theory is outright crazy, without actually looking at the information, is no less crazy than a conspiracy theorist, who hasn't looked at all the information.


That's fine, they pre-wired the buildings. This would take weeks, when was it done?

Why have the only 3 videos released, out of 85, at the pentagon not show a plane, but show what appears to be a missile? The hole was too small for a plane and no major plane parts were retrieved.

How did flight 93 disappear into a hole?

Black boxes disintegrated, but a terrorist's passport survived.

Whatever, it doesn't matter, the people are dead either way, but why do we continue to allow wire-tapping, strip away due process, have secret prisons, torture, refuse to submit to war crimes tribunals and basically make ourselves hated internationally and impoverished domestically.

As for conspiracies, this is from last year:

The poll, constructed by Dartmouth government professor Benjamin Valentino and conducted by YouGov from April 26 to May 2, found that fully 63 percent of Republican respondents still believed that Iraq had weapons of mass destruction when the U.S. invaded in 2003. By contrast, 27 percent of independents and 15 percent of Democrats shared that view.

What you may notice is that people believe what they are told.
Last edited by GeneralRisk on Wed Feb 06, 2013 1:38 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Major GeneralRisk
 
Posts: 762
Joined: Sun Jul 04, 2010 3:58 pm
Location: Neu-Schwabenland

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby AndyDufresne on Wed Feb 06, 2013 1:36 pm

_sabotage_ wrote:What you may notice is that people believe what they are told.

And people will believe the opposite of what they are told.

Conspiracies, smiracies.


--Andy


(P.S. Everyone should meet me for our underground meeting tonight. Its in the up in treehouse.)
User avatar
Corporal 1st Class AndyDufresne
 
Posts: 24919
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:22 pm
Location: A Banana Palm in Zihuatanejo

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby Haggis_McMutton on Wed Feb 06, 2013 2:37 pm

The thing I like best about these outlandish theories is that it's the very same people who complain that the government can't do absolutely anything right that turn around and in the same breath claim the government orchestrated a conspiracy involving thousands of people without any credible evidence outside of grainy youtube videos slipping through the cracks.

Edit:

Highest score: 3063; Highest position: 67;
Winner of {World War II tournament, -team 2010 Skilled Diversity, [FuN||Chewy]-[XII] USA};
8-3-7
User avatar
Major Haggis_McMutton
 
Posts: 403
Joined: Sun Mar 26, 2006 11:32 am

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby Funkyterrance on Wed Feb 06, 2013 3:40 pm

It's fascinating how the race numbers on the "probably true" field flip depending on the prez lol.
Image
User avatar
Colonel Funkyterrance
 
Posts: 2494
Joined: Wed Jan 19, 2011 10:52 pm
Location: New Hampshire, USA

Re: 2/3 of Americans Believe in Conspiracy Theories

Postby AndyDufresne on Wed Feb 06, 2013 3:45 pm

Haggis_McMutton wrote:The thing I like best about these outlandish theories is that it's the very same people who complain that the government can't do absolutely anything right that turn around and in the same breath claim the government orchestrated a conspiracy involving thousands of people without any credible evidence outside of grainy youtube videos slipping through the cracks.


Haggis, it is all ruse. The ineptitude is a ruse! Didn't you know?! Quick, lets hie to my (and by my, I mean Tom Cruise's) bunker.

Image


--Andy
User avatar
Corporal 1st Class AndyDufresne
 
Posts: 24919
Joined: Fri Mar 03, 2006 8:22 pm
Location: A Banana Palm in Zihuatanejo

Next

Return to Practical Explanation about Next Life,

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users