How many Americans still believe in global conspiracy theories, UFO landings and the notion that President Barack Obama is the Antichrist? More than you might think.
A new poll conducted by liberal-leaning automated polling firm Public Policy Polling (PPP) reveals that a significant number of Americans continue to believe in Bigfoot, a global totalitarian conspiracy and the idea that the government is using the television to secretly control citizens' minds, among other things.
The PPP noticed a partisan pattern to the survey, which sampled 1,247 registered American voters and has a margin of error of 2.8 percent. The results were released April 2. (See the full results.)
“Even crazy conspiracy theories are subject to partisan polarization, especially when there are political overtones involved,” Dean Debnam, president of Public Policy Polling, said in a press release.
While it might seem logical that politics would play into hot-button issues, such as global warming or the war on terror, PPP found political patterns were at play on a large number of subjects.
For instance, 20 percent of Republicans said they believed Obama is the Antichrist, while only 6 percent of Democrats agree. Meanwhile, 34 percent of Republicans and 35 percent of Independents said they believed in the New World Order threat -- an alleged elitist totalitarian plot to create an authoritarian world government -- as compared to 15 percent of Democrats.
A significant percentage of Americans also reported believing in aliens, a government cover-up of UFOs and the notion that Lee Harvey Oswald was part of a conspiracy. In addition, 4 percent believe "shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate our societies," while 7 percent are "not sure" if this is true or not.
The PPP poll results come on the heels of an unrelated survey conducted by the Pew Research Center, that found nearly half of American Christians think Jesus Christ will "definitely" (27 percent) or "probably" (20 percent) return to Earth in the next four decades.
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