The plot thickens!
In the spirit of diversity, this blog is not about the current political circus or about Muslim extremists. No. No. Its about the 10 most widely believed conspiracy theories in America….and, because of common sense, I am an authority on all of them. I did not pull these conspiracy theories out of thin air. It is much more scientific than that. These were done by credible organizations. In fact, three polls were taken to determine this list. The first was the Public Policy Polling survey done in 2013 with 1,247 respondents. The second was conducted by the SSRS of Media in 2015 with 1,018 respondents. The last was done in 2015 by Fairleigh Dickinson University with 814 respondents.
Did you know that millions (4%) of Americans believe our government is being run by lizard people? (Lately, I am inclined to believe this one!) It gets better. Let us leave this world and enter the Time Zone of conspiracy theories. (If I could only play the theme music from Rod Sterling’s 60s TV show Time Zone, this blog would be complete!) Here they are:
37% Believe global warming is a hoax.
My conservative friends will be shocked to know that I believe in global warming. I also believe in global cooling. Planet Earth is a fickle female and changes her appearance all the time. Did you know that the Sahara desert was at one time a tropical forest? Did you know that glaciers covered the United States as far south as central Minnesota? Thus the 10,000 lakes. There weren’t any internal combustion engines to create those climatic changes.
So why is it that the people of the United States are continually being blamed for global warming? When was the last time you saw a black smoking smokestack on any industrial building? I can remember when I did. It was in 1964 when our family was taking a vacation and going to the New York World’s Fair. We passed by Gary, Indiana and I actually saw black smoke billowing from a smokestack on a steel producing facility. Americans have been required to have catalytic converters on our cars for decades. We have stopped the use of fluorocarbons that could destroy the ozone layer. We are not to blame for fluctuations in the climate. So who is?
Do you remember when George (Dubya) Bush attended the famous Kyoto environment summit during his last year as president? He was castigated for not signing the treaty. The reason he did not sign the treaty is that the world’s largest polluters, India and China, refused to sign the treaty. Economic advantage India and China, decidedly an economic disadvantage for the US.
I do believe that man has a part in climate change. But, and this is a big but, the environmentalists need to target the countries that are actually doing the majority of the polluting…..and that isn’t us.
29% Believe the CIA tested LSD on Americans
Oddly enough, I think the CIA has fessed up to giving LSD to soldiers and civilians to determine the actual effects. This is old news. Mind altering in the hands of the government. You’ve got to love it.
25% Believe that Bush knew that 9/11 would occur
Knowing that something is going to occur and how it is going to occur are two different things. From all indications, there wasn’t anyone in the security agencies that had a clue about what was going to happen. There is one exception. A female FBI agent in Minneapolis questioned why men of Arab origin were taking commercial flying lessons in Minnesota and were only concerned about take-offs and not bothering to learn about landings. She was pooh-poohed when she brought this to the attention of her superiors. Her suspicion died in Minnesota.
Now think of this. Suppose Bush knew about the 9/11 plot, but not when it would occur. How would you, as POTUS, be the first president to order the shooting down of four commercial airliners loaded with American citizens. I am glad I did not have to make that decision.
21% think a UFO crashed in Minnesota in 1947
I have never heard of this conspiracy until this list was provided. Really? UFO crashing in Minnesota? Don’t they mean New Mexico? That would, however, explain Jesse Ventura’s existence. (Jesse was in the movie, Alien. It is all coming together now!) Well, if this really happened, the spaceship would have buried itself and become the City of St. Paul.
44% think Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq
I don’t believe Bush lied, I think he was the victim of bad intelligence. Specifically, bad intelligence from a British agent. Now I want to be perfectly clear about WMD’s. Everyone erroneously assumes that a facility that manufactures WMD’s needs to be the size of a GM auto plant. Nothing can be further from the truth. A 10,000 square foot building can make all the rockets/missiles that you need. A semi-trailer is large enough to produce enough toxin to destroy the Earth’s population multiple times. Admittedly, a nuclear weapon does not take a whole lot of space, but creating the radioactive material for the bomb would require some space. But…..this plutonium or uranium or pre-made nuclear warheads could be purchased. What happened to all those Russian missiles and their nuclear stockpiles after the fall of the USSR?
Before the second Iraqi War, I read a small page 15 blurb in my local newspaper that said, “According to Mossad, a convoy of vehicles capable of manufacturing WMD’s has left Iraq and crossed the Syrian border.” I find this interesting for three reasons. Firstly, the intelligence was gathered by the Israelis. Secondly, it was the first time I can remember that the Israelis actually recognized the existence of Mossad. They have always denied its existence. Thirdly, Assad of Syria has since used toxins and gasses to kill his own people. Where did he get it? I am guessing he got it when Saddam Hussein sent it across the border.
Let’s be honest. There were many people and countries that wanted Iraq invaded for their own selfish reasons. Well placed, credible intelligence could have easily be placed for the POTUS to make the decisions he ultimately made. I do not believe he deliberately lied.
36% believe Obama lied about his background
I am amazed that number isn’t double. I can produce my birth certificate in 30 minutes. How long did it take to get his? (His has many inconsistencies. Mine does not.) I can produce my college transcript in less than an hour. Why is it that people that went to the same college as Obama, Columbia University, do not remember him? I am a Methodist by religion. What is his religion? Anyone? Anyone? Yeah, that’s what I thought.
23% believe Bush committed voter fraud in 2004
Fraud? Well, he was running against the current Secretary of State, John Kerry. Kerry is one of the few people I know that received two Purple Hearts in about 20 minutes. Kerry also stringently pushed to have absentee ballots disallowed in the State of Florida. Could that possibly be because there are a dozen military bases in Florida and many of those people were deployed? 85% of the military vote conservative. Could that possibly have something to do with it. Voter fraud or sore losers. Hard to say on this conspiracy. Poor Dubya can’t get a break. He is the subject of 3 out of the 10 conspiracy theories.
29% think aliens exist
I believe this because I saw a UFO when I was in high school in the 60s. The 60s were a time when, if you had the cajoles to admit you saw a UFO, people looked at you out of the corner of their eye and were thinking about which institution would be most suitable for your future.
When we were seniors, our social studies teacher asked how many students thought they had seen a UFO? Out of 25 students, over half raised their hands. It was the first admission by many of my classmates that they had seen unexplained celestial objects. Some of their stories were amazing!
Our sun is a star. Look in the sky and see how many ‘suns’ there really are and then think of all the ones that are too distant to see. Each of these ‘suns’ can support planets, just as our sun is supporting our solar system. We are talking millions of possible planets. It isn’t difficult to imagine some form of life on at least a few of them.
29% think the NEW WORLD ORDER is real
Is this the one planet, one government mumbo jumbo? If it is….I don’t care, but apparently 29% of the respondents do. It must be something from a video game.
51% think the JFK assassination was a conspiracy
Here again, I have to weigh in on the side of the slim majority. Personally, I believe JFK was killed by the Castros, the Mafia, or, when I asked my father who he thought killed JFK, he answered without hesitation he thought that LBJ (CIA) was responsible. That is a strong accusation coming from a life-long Democrat.
I was a sophomore when the assassination occurred. I do not believe Lee Oswald acted alone, even though he was a Marine sharpshooter (expert). Here is my experience. That same fall, I shot my first deer. That deer was less than 100 feet away, running perpendicular to my firing position. The deer was running about 10 miles per hour. I had a tough time placing two shots into that large animal. I have shot expert with every weapon I qualified within the military. Now about Oswald. He supposedly made two head shots on a perpendicular target travelling over 20 miles per hour at a range over 100 yards with a cheap Italian rifle. My rifles were better. Those shots were not impossible, but darn close to improbable. There have been theories that another shooter was in the storm sewer directly facing the oncoming presidential limousine. A much, much easier shot. A much, much more probable shot. One shooter could be psychopathic. Two shooters would be a conspiracy. I have always believed that Lee Harvey Oswald was the scapegoat in the JFK assassination. He, and his killer, Jack Ruby, were both too easily and conveniently dispatched. Ruby was conveniently suffering from terminal cancer and died shortly after killing Oswald. My one hope is that I learn who really killed Kennedy before I leave planet Earth.
But don’t fear readers. There are other conspiracies. 14% of Americans believe Bigfoot is real. 7% think the moon landing was faked. As mentioned, 4% believe the government is being run by ‘lizard people.’ Wow. The real tragedy about these last three conspiracies? These people actually vote. OMG! I almost forgot. 100% of conservative blog writers believe that Louisiana is America’s swampland, not America’s wetland. In the interest of truth, please change your highway signs accordingly.