“44 percent (!!) of Republicans believe that Bill Gates is plotting to use a mass COVID-19 vaccination campaign as a pretext to implant microchips in billions of people and monitor their movements.”
This is incredibly dumb. There’s no need for a super-duper-top-secret-sci-fi implant to monitor your movements. Pretty much everyone has a cell phone.
So if a vaccination is developed, does this mean that all the people dumb enough to believe that idea will get the disease? This sounds like one of those rare cases where God and Darwin are in complete agreement.
they polled 1600 random people ON THE INTERNET. Any check of any comment section of any page will tell you the nutjobs are the ones that respond the most (I realize the irony of my statement here… but doesn’t make it untrue).
There are nutjob conspiracy theorists on both sides. That just happens to be the nutjob conspiracy du jour for the way far right, the ones storming governors’ mansions yelling “give us our freedom.”
There are too many idiots that believe stuff like this, but 44% is not representative of the truth. The more accurate reading of the data would be “75% of the nutjobs that believe this garbage also happen to watch Fox News”
Truthsayer, I don’t see what you say as being incompatible with these people amounting to 44% of the Republican Party. If you are a Republican now, you have to be a Trump supporter, and if you are a Trump supporter, you have to be very careful about what you watch (lest you either die from rage or learn the truth) and you have to believe what you watch. Otherwise will you not think what you need to think to support Trump.
I am not a Trump supporter but I am a registered Republican. I believe polls show a percentage in the high 80’s of Republicans support Trump. I think a significant percentage of his supporters would have preferred a different nominee in 2016, but say they support him because they don’t want to give aid and comfort to Democrats. Many of the others are probably not deep political thinkers but just like the way fights with Democrats and the mainstream media. As for me, I don’t disagree with much of what he’s actually done (though I am probably forgetting some things). I do disagree with quite a bit of what he’s said and how he’s said it.
I have to believe that whoever the GOP nominates in 2024 will be better than Trump. I really can’t see them being much worse.
No fool like an old fool?
If Trump wins this year, are you ready for his moronic older son in 24?
The pastor of the largest church in my town (Assemblies of God) preached a “sermon” on this. I was asked to listen to it by a friend who wanted to know what I thought, so I tried.
The pastor began by assuring us that everything that he said was true, and could be corroborated by the internet. He then began, “the wealthiest man in the history of the world, George Soros,” at which point I was absolutely certain it was going to be filled with accuracies. I made it for about 5 minutes of his 60 minute message.
The sad part is that his congregation has eaten it up, and been more than happy to share it with the hungry masses on Facebook.
15 years ago, I was teaching high school social studies in the South Bronx. I recall reading an article about polling that showed a disturbingly high percentage of people believed George W. Bush was behind the 9/11 attacks. So I asked my students what they thought and about 1/3 said they believed it. I asked why and one girl just yelled out “Because I hate him!!!” Then she kind of looked embarrassed and said “I guess that’s not a good reason to believe that.” I agreed it wasn’t a good reason, but I told them it was an honest one.
There are conspiracy theorists on both ends of the political spectrum. The right wing complement to 9/11 Truthers were the Birthers. What is supposed to happen is that responsible leaders and politicians discourage people from believing nonsense. If that 44% figure is accurate, I think it demonstrates what happens when a president encourages rather than discourages conspiracy theories. But I am not willing to accept that figure, because as we all know the alien lizard people manipulate poll results all the time!!!
Actually, I am skeptical of all online polling. In this case they say the respondents were selected from the “opt-in panel” so as to be representative. But how those selections were weighted can have a huge effect on the outcomes. It need not be because alien lizard people are trying to manipulate results for them to be less than accurate. On the other hand, they maybe be completely accurate. Hopefully, if a vaccine becomes available later this year and Trump encourages people to be vaccinated that 44% decide to be vaccinated despite their Bill Gates misgivings. Of course, I also hope the fact that Trump might encourage vaccinations doesn’t discourage those on the left.
OK, 44% of Republicans believe conspiracy theory nonsense. Now, how many Republicans are there, and how many Democrats or at least non-Republicans?
Equally scary – 19% of Democrats also believe that!
We’re doomed, I tells ya.
The “Rosie O’Donnell Wing” is still out there. They’re not as numerous and don’t get as much pub nowadays.
Going back to how demented my old bunch has become, the recently nominated Republican senatorial candidate in Oregon is a Q Anoner. No shit.
The last few times I went to GOP thingies with all the dittoheads and tea partiers holding forth, I was totally “What the fuck am I doing here?”. Feeling kind of like as the man once said, “Natty dread.. inna Babylon”.
We don’t live in a democracy. we live in a republic
Yes, I hear people say this, but it makes no sense because a republic is just one form of democracy, called representative democracy. There are other forms as well, but pretty much every modern free state is a representative democracy.
It would be a correct statement to say, “The United States is not a direct democracy, but a representative democracy (aka constitutional republic – an exact synonym).”
Some of the individual states are almost direct democracies. I guess you would call them semi-direct, in that elected leaders can be recalled by a direct vote. No such procedure exists for the USA at large. While the people of Wisconsin can recall their governor if unhappy with his performance, there is no procedure which allows the people of the USA to directly recall their president.
About twenty states can recall the governor, who is elected by direct popular vote. Some of them have specific requirements, like the governor committing a felony, but in about a dozen states there is no limitation to the people’s ability to remove their leader. (For example, no reason need be given for the recall election to be held.) In at least two states, any elected official may be recalled. Yes, decisions are made by the people’s representative, but if the people disagree, they can find somebody else who will do their bidding without having to wait for the next election cycle. That comes about as close to a direct democracy as the modern world has seen outside of Switzerland.
Gray Davis knows of what you speak.
Libertarians obviously don’t believe this yet we will still most likely vote Republican as the lesser of two evils.
See my comment above…
Why settle for a lesser evil – Vote Cthulhu!
“Libertarian”. Don’t make me laugh. Just another way the people who control the big money of America tricks people into voting for its agenda. What billionaire, what huge corporation, does not want more “liberty” to do what is good for it?
Can’t fix stupid…
Tanner says: “There is no cure for stupid”.
Well, I suppose there is no way to raise a person’s IQ. And there is no way to teach someone who refuses to learn because they have decided that a closed mind is a badge of courage. But I hope to god there is a way to educate the ignorant whose minds are NOT welded shut from the inside.
Because if not, and outlets like Fox News and Rush Limbaugh and ION News and so on keep doing what they’re doing, the end result looks like Civil War 2 or World War 3.
Disunion.