Chamblee54

The polling industry seems to have excess capacity during non election years. An outfit called Public Policy Polling kept the troops busy with a study about conspiracies. Various news reports report the more sensational results to the public. This is a slow news day, and this study should get a lot of attention. PPP will be kept in the public eye, and politicians planning campaigns will be reminded of the existence of PPP.
Here is what the pdf says about methadology. “PPP surveyed 1,247 registered American voters from March 27 to 30. The margin of error for the overall sample is +/-2.8%. This poll was not paid for or authorized by any campaign or political organization. PPP surveys are conducted through automated telephone interviews.
There are twenty opinion questions. There may, or may not, be a reason they were presented in this order. With one exception, these questions begin with “Do”, and end with “or not?”. There are three possible answers… Do, Do Not, Not Sure. While not specified in the study, it is presumed that this was facilitated by pushing one, two, or three on the telephone. It is not indicated whether this was conducted on cell phones, or on land lines. It was not indicated if the voice conducting the survey was male, female, or an automated voice devoid of gender, and accent.
Q1 Do you believe global warming is a hoax, or not?
Q2 Do you believe Osama bin Laden is still alive, or not?
Q3 Do you believe a UFO crashed at Roswell, New Mexico, in 1947, and the US government covered it up, or not?
Q4 Do you believe that a secretive power elite with a globalist agenda is conspiring to eventually rule the world through an authoritarian world government, or New World Order, or not?
Q5 Do you believe Saddam Hussein was involved in the September 11th, 2001, attacks on America, or not?
Q6 Do you believe there is a link between childhood vaccines and autism, or not?
Q7 Do you believe the moon landing was faked, or not?
Q8 Do you believe President Barack Obama is the anti-Christ, or not?
Q9 Do you believe the Bush administration intentionally misled the public about the possibility of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to promote the Iraq War, or not?
Q10 Do you believe aliens exist, or not?
Q11 Do you believe the CIA was instrumental in distributing crack cocaine into America’s inner cities in the 1980s, or not?
Q12 Do you believe the government adds fluoride to our water supply, not for dental health reasons, but for other, more sinister reasons, or not?
Q13 Do you believe that shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate our societies, or not?
Q14 Do you believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing President Kennedy, or was there some larger conspiracy at work?
Q15 Do you believe in Bigfoot or Sasquatch, or not?
Q16 Do you believe media or the government adds secret mind-controlling technology to television broadcast signals, or not?
Q17 Do you believe that the exhaust seen in the sky behind airplanes is actually chemicals sprayed by the government for sinister reasons, or not?
Q18 Do you believe that the pharmaceutical industry is in league with the medical industry to “invent” new diseases in order to make money, or not?
Q19 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, or not?
Q20 Do you believe the United States government knowingly allowed the attacks on September 11th, 2001, to happen, or not?
The exception to the Do-Do Not pattern is question 14. Alternative answers were available for this one question. Q14 Do you believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in killing President Kennedy, or was there some larger conspiracy at work? Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone ~ There was some larger conspiracy at work ~ Not sure. Only 26% of the 18-29 age group feels there was a conspiracy. The other age groups all answered over 50%, when asked if there was a conspiracy.
The study had six demographic questions at the end. It is not known if there were sample quotas for these groups, or what screening questions were used. Respondents were not asked about family income, or level of education.
Q21 In the last presidential election, did you vote for Barack Obama or Mitt Romney?
Q22 Would you describe yourself as very liberal, somewhat liberal, moderate, somewhat conservative, or very conservative?
Q23 If you are a woman, press 1. If a man, press 2.
Q24 If you are a Democrat, press 1. If a Republican, press 2. If you are an independent or identify with another party, press 3.
Q25 If you are Hispanic, press 1. If white, press 2. If African-American, press 3. If other, press 4.
Q26 If you are 18 to 29 years old, press 1. If 30 to 45, press 2. If 46 to 65, press 3. If you are older than 65, press 4.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.