If you were at all in doubt about the intelligence of some of your neighbors here in the good ole U.S., the following is certainly not going to cheer you in that view. And I won't even use the evidence of the TV show "Are you smarter than a fifth grader?" to bolster my case.
Rather, I will use a recent survey by Public Policy Polling, a recognized general topic pollster, who recently tested the water on people's beliefs in various conspiracies. Now, I recognize that there are always going to be groups of wingnuts who will go to their great reward believing in their favorite conspiracy. But when you get above 10% of the public, you are beyond fringe groups.
Among the more depressing findings are: 20% still believe childhood vaccinations lead to autism, 15% belong to the "tinfoil hat crowd" - believing the government adds mind control to TV signals, 14% believe in Bigfoot and 13% are convinced that Obama is the anti-Christ. This is NOT encouraging.
On the bright side, we are currently running only 7% believing the moon landing was faked. Progress!
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