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Wednesday 3 April 2013

What Americans Believe


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Sermon and Deeds of the Antichrist: Luca Signorelli (c. 1450-1523), 1499-1502, fresco, width 700 cm (Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto)


20% of Republican voters believe that President Obama is the Anti-Christ, compared to 13% of independents and 6% of Democrats who agree.



 

Sermon and Deeds of the Antichrist (detail): Luca Signorelli (c. 1450-1523), 1499-1502, fresco (Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto)



28% of voters believe that a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian world government, or New World Order. 34% of Republicans and 35% of independents believe in the New World Order threat compared to 15% of Democrats.





Sermon and Deeds of the Antichrist (detail): Luca Signorelli (c. 1450-1523), 1499-1502, fresco (Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto)


29% of voters believe aliens exist and 21% believe a UFO crashed at Roswell in 1947.



Apocalypse: Luca Signorelli (c. 1450-1523), 1499-1502, fresco, width 455 cm (Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto)


6% of voters think Osama bin Laden is still alive.





Apocalypse (detail): Luca Signorelli (c. 1450-1523), 1499-1502, fresco (Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto)



58% of Republican voters agree that global warming is a conspiracy, while 77% of Democrats disagree.



 

Apocalypse (detail): Luca Signorelli (c. 1450-1523), 1499-1502, fresco (Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto)


5% of voters believe that Paul McCartney died and was secretly replaced in the Beatles in 1966.





The Damned (detail): Luca Signorelli (c. 1450-1523), 1499-1502, fresco (Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto)


4% of voters believe shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining power.




The Damned (detail): Luca Signorelli (c. 1450-1523), 1499-1502, fresco (Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto)


7% of voters think the moon landing was fake.





The Damned (detail): Luca Signorelli (c. 1450-1523), 1499-1502, fresco (Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto)


14% of voters believe the CIA was instrumental in distributing crack cocaine into America’s inner cities in the 1980s.
 
 

   
The Damned (detail): Luca Signorelli (c. 1450-1523), 1499-1502, fresco (Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto)


9% of voters believe the government adds fluoride to America's water supply, not for dental health reasons, but for other, more sinister reasons.



 
Empedocles: Luca Signorelli (c. 1450-1523), 1499-1502, fresco, width 190 cm (Chapel of San Brizio, Duomo, Orvieto)

Data from a poll of 1,247 registered American voters surveyed 27-30 March 2013, released 2 April 2013 by Public Policy Polling (Raleigh, North Carolina)

("The margin of error for the overall sample is +/-2.8%. This poll was not paid for or authorized by any campaign or political organization. PPP surveys are conducted through automated telephone interviews.")

9 comments:

STEPHEN RATCLIFFE said...

Tom,

Thanks for these views of Luca Signorelli -- no wonder things are in such a mess (time to head for the hills, or set sail).

4.3

light coming into fog against invisible
ridge, song sparrow calling from branch
in foreground, wave sounding in channel

“mastery” of things at hand,
as if the way appears

in speech, time of position,
view repeated looking

silver of sunlight reflected in channel,
grey line of fog against green of ridge


Hazen said...

Behind these crazy beliefs lie the even-crazier foundational delusions: that dead people can rise from the grave; that human beings can be born of virgins; that hallucinations called angels and deities can whisper eternal truth into the ears of prophets sitting in caves; and the insistent belief that in this immense universe some invisible, distant, off-planet Blake-ian Nobodaddy chooses this fly-speck of an earth to torment with divine love—while numbering the hairs on your head. A belief in miracles supplants any truth you might discover on your own. These are the fundamental atrocities. If you believe these things, you’ll believe anything. You’re fair game for the predatory bankers with their E-Z Loans; for the lawyers who grin and tell you the law is about Justice (it’s about Power); for the smarmy pols who insist the enemy is that man over there, and you must go kill him before he comes over here. You’re a target for all the technocrats who work for the rich and who turn life into a numbers racket, and tell you with a thin-lipped smile that whatever it is you need, you can’t have it, and don’t deserve it because they’ve got to maximize revenues.

vazambam (Vassilis Zambaras) said...

Americans? Aren’t they those earthly beings who believe in such unearthly happenings?
Rock on!

TC said...

Well, for the sake of expediency I had to leave out some further stats, in particular those showing that the number of "our fellow citizens" who subscribe to the view that Saddam Hussein possessed WMDs and would have used them is exceeded only by the number who believe the 9/11 attacks can be put down to him.

He sounds, given all those putative capabilities, to have been quite a clever fellow indeed, in the rosy light of retrospect -- judging that is by the view of "our fellow Americans". But wait, why have I resorted to the pluperfect? He's still alive, yeah?

Signorelli would have understood all this.

A suitable soundtrack perhaps, the "Here come de Judge" chorale in this masterwork of the Underworld that awaits us all (at the end of Google's long workday, that is):

Giuseppe Verdi: Dies Irae, from Requiem

shuffaloff said...

It was ever thus -- welcome home . . .

TC said...

It's always almost as though one had never been away...

awyn said...

Interesting, the number of people surveyed who could neither answer Yes or No to the "Do you believe or not in" this or that 'conspiracy theory'? The ones who expressed doubt, unconvinced of either its truth or falsehood. The ones who answered: "Not sure". As in, still trying to figure it out. As in, convince me it's so (or not so). Observation: The "Not Sure" contingent appears to be increasing, vis-a-vis trust in what one's being told (insert venue) is actually true or not. A bad thing (if you're the one spinning questionable tales); a good thing (if the comatose are finally awakening). The "Not Sure" answer always provided in these surveys because strictly Yes or No answers don't accurately reflect the "Yes, but..." or "No, but" or "That depends on what you mean by X ..." factor. Interesting questions, though! Thanks!

TC said...

Annie, sometimes it seems everywhere we step there's a gray area spilling out in front of us like swampy quicksand soup -- and no matter what we do, we are going to be putting our foot (if not actually sinking) in it.

TC said...

Well, truth check, the genius of the house legitimately points out that "there should be some things there is NOT a gray area about.

"Like whether or not Paul McCartney died in 1966...

"He DID dye his hair, though."

The grey matter meets the gray area somewhere near the roots, in other words.