Take the JFK assassination. This is the most popular theory
in the survey,
with 51 percent of the country believing a conspiracy larger than Lee Harvey
Oswald was behind the killing and just 25 percent saying he acted alone. (The
other 24 percent aren't sure.) That sounds pretty overwhelming, but 10 years
ago an ABC News poll showed many more Americans -- 70 percent -- blaming a
conspiracy for the president's death. Similarly, PPP
shows 11 percent of the country believing the U.S.
government knowingly permitted the 9/11 attacks to happen, with 11 percent
unsure. In 2006, by contrast, a nationwide Scripps Howard survey had 36 percent
of the people polled believing it either "very" or
"somewhat" likely that U.S. leaders either allowed 9/11 to happen or
actively plotted the assaults.
Comparing polls is a tricky business, and it's possible that
the different numbers just reflect different methodologies. People might, for
example, be less inclined to embrace JFK and 9/11 theories when they are proposed
alongside such obvious kook-bait questions as "Do you believe Paul
McCartney actually died in a car crash in 1966 and was secretly replaced by a
lookalike so The Beatles could continue?" and "Do you believe that
shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and
gaining power to manipulate our societies?"*
But it's also possible that these changes reflect a greater
distance from the events being discussed. The number of JFK conspiracy
believers was even higher in 1983 -- 80 percent, according to ABC -- so we may
be seeing a steady decline in those theories' popularity as the assassination
recedes into the past. And the anger that led many people to blame 9/11 on Washington
may have cooled somewhat since George W. Bush left office. I'm going to go out
on a limb and predict that in 2023, there will be far fewer birthers, because
there will be far fewer people who care whether ex-President Obama was
qualified to hold office
Obligatory advertisement: Preorder my book The
United States of Paranoia today!
(* In case you're
curious: The Paul-is-dead theory is reportedly embraced by 5 percent of the
population -- far less, no doubt, than believed it in 1968, though you might
expect all those mediocre solo albums to make the theory more popular rather
than less. The Icke/Slitheen thesis about reptilian overlords was endorsed by 4
percent of the country. I figure a bunch of those "yes" answers were
only trolling, but some of the "no" answers surely came from people
who just DIDN'T WANT THE LIZARD MEN TO
KNOW THEY WERE ONTO THEM, so let's call it a wash.)
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