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SKEPTOID BLOG:

Conspiracy Palooza

by Stephen Propatier

April 10, 2013

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Donate I always find conspiracy theories to be the most interesting aspect of the information age. The thought processfascinatesme. I also love to see how conspiracy thinking breeds conspiracy thinking. There was a national telephone survey questioning 1247 registered USvoters on 20 of the "Most Famous" conspiracytheories The response was, lets say, entertaining.

In no particular order.
  1. 13% President Barack Obama is the "Anti-Christ"

  2. 14% 1980's Crack Cocaine epidemic was created by the CIA.

  3. 30% believe aliens visit us.

  4. 21% of voters say a UFO crashed in Roswell, NM in 1947 and the US government covered it up.

  5. 28% of voters believe secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian world government, or New World Order.

  6. Voters are split 44%-45% on whether Bush intentionally misled about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

  7. 9% of voters think the government adds fluoride to our water supply for sinister reasons (not just dental health)

  8. 4% of voters say they believe “lizard people” control our societies by gaining political power.

  9. 51% of voters say a larger conspiracy was at work in the JFK assassination, just 25% say Oswald acted alone

  10. 14% of voters believe in Bigfoot.

  11. 15% of voters say the government or the media adds mind-controlling technology to TV broadcast signals

  12. 5% believe exhaust seen in the sky behind airplanes is actually chemicals sprayed by the government for sinister reasons

  13. 15% of voters think the medical industry and the pharmaceutical industry “invent” new diseases to make money.

  14. Just 5% of voters believe that Paul McCartney actually died in 1966.

  15. 6% of voters believe Osama bin Laden is still alive.

  16. 28% of voters believe Saddam Hussein was involved in the 9/11 attacks.

  17. 7% of voters think the moon landing was faked

  18. 20% of voters believe there is a link between childhood vaccines and autism.

  19. 37% of voters believe global warming is a hoax.

  20. 11% of voters believe the US government allowed 9/11 to happen.

To be generous this is a small number of people and may not be representative of the US as a whole. MY TAKE ON THE FINDINGS
  1. President Obama been pretty ineffective as the Anti-Christ, I mean a whole first term and no nuclear holocaust. I guess you also have to believe in Christ to be concerned about the anti-Christ.

  2. Crack epidemic Sure why not? I mean allgovernmentagencies love it when their funding is stolen by competingdepartments...DEA?

  3. Aliens? Possible but I think it is nothing more than human arrogance that makes us believe that we would be interesting toadvancedcultures.

  4. Roswell. I wassurprisedonly 21% given 30% in #3

  5. Power Elite? What are they waiting for?

  6. Bush...All of the evidence points to only one solution. He was a evil genius that played us all. That is why he disbanded the constitution claimed martial law and replaced the IRS with Haliburton. Oh Wait,that'sright, we stopped him just in time, the democrats are now just covering for him.

  7. Dental health is a serious issue, this fallacy causes serious harm.

  8. All hail our reptilian overlords.

  9. JFK for the love of god let it go. The US government cannot keep a semen stained dress secret, never mind something real.

  10. #3 is more compelling than thisfairy-tail.

  11. TV Mind control. All power to the Hypnotoad.

  12. Chemical contrails? Because smokestacks are too easy?

  13. Change this to the CAM crowd and I am on board.

  14. Poor Paul, apparently evil never dies because good is dumb.

  15. Bin Laden. See 14

  16. Saddam and 9/11? He was just as involved as anyone else. He watched it on TV.

  17. Sorry to say that this lie has outlived Neil Armstrong.

  18. Vaccines...This conspiracy in my opinion is a well funded, systematic, and dangerous fallacy that should to be mocked ridiculed and marginalized.

  19. See 18

  20. Yes the US government allowed 9/11..... because of intelligence failures,incompetenceand underestimating the ingenuity of the enemy. NOTintentionally.

Yes this is a little snarky butridiculousnessdeserves ridicule.

Here's the good news.37% of voters believe global warming is a hoax, 51% do not.20% of voters believe there is a link between childhood vaccines and autism, 51% do not.11% of voters believe the US government allowed 9/11 to happen, 78% do not agree.

So maybe critical thinking and science do have some effect. If you are skeptic keep your chin up. Keep on plugging for critical thinking and skepticism.Hopefullywe are having an effect.

by Stephen Propatier

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