Conspiracy Nation
For semi-idealists like myself who hope rational people make well-reasoned decisions at the ballot box this is disturbing:
Nearly two-thirds of Americans believe the federal government had warnings about 9/11 but decided to ignore them, a national survey found.
And that’s not the only conspiracy theory with a huge number of true believers in the United States.
The poll found that more than one out of three Americans believe Washington is concealing the truth about UFOs and the Kennedy assassination - and most everyone is sure the rise in gas prices is one vast oil-industry conspiracy.
Sixty-two percent of those polled thought it was “very likely” or “somewhat likely” that federal officials turned a blind eye to specific warnings of the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Only 30 percent said the 9/11 theory was “not likely,” according to the Scripps Howard/Ohio University poll.
The findings followed a 2006 poll by the same researchers, who found that 36 percent of Americans believe federal government officials “either assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action” because they wanted “to go to war in the Middle East.”
The story also says young people are more inclined to buy conspiracy theories. I don’t have time to find the demographic data, but I think the U.S. is in the midst of a youth bulge. If that’s the case then that might explain some of these poll numbers.
“‘Blame U.S for 9/11′ Idiots in Majority”
I should like to see the wording of the questions. After all, President Bush _did_ get a memo stating that bin Laden was determined to attack the United States, and Bush _did_ ignore that warning. So a properly worded question would have me join the ranks of conspiracy theorists, I guess.