Greg Laden's Blog

Hmmm, 35% of NJ Conservatives think that Obama is the anti-Christ .... remind me of the % of American democrats who thought Bush/Cheney were behind 9/11?

I know .... thats not crazy, thats just "asking questions".

Posted by: Mike H | September 17, 2009 4:42 PM

Hmmm, 35% of NJ Conservatives think that Obama is the anti-Christ .... remind me of the % of American democrats who thought Bush/Cheney were behind 9/11?

Far, far less than 35%. Even if the numbers were comparable, the anti-Christ is an imaginary boogeyman. Thinking Bush/Cheney was behind 9/11 is silly, but it's not in the same ballpark of silliness.

Posted by: José | September 17, 2009 5:32 PM

People form conspiracy theories about many events: reasons are complicated, but often they are unable to accept the fact that monumental, history-changing events can be caused by every-day, run-of-the-mill, people. Add in a little over-heated hatred of a political party, a man, and outright stupidity, and you have the folks who think Bush/Cheney et.al. were behind the events of September 11, 2001. Heck, people still believe similar things about Pearl Harbor.

But

* there was an attack on September 11, 2001, and millions of americans saw much of the coverage of the rest of that day, and the following days. The majority of them are not among the folks buying the conspiracy
* as others have noted, polls have typically asked (essentially) "do you think the bush administration ignored information about the attack before it happened?" wording of these polls (especially the rasmussen polls) hasn't been the best, and interpretations are dodgy. the 35% number, to which I believe the resident troll is hinting, is from that rasmussen poll, and doesn't relate to whether people believe bush was behind the attacks, but whether he had prior knowledge of it. if that is the poll he's referencing, it also showed that 39% of Democrats said Bush didn't have prior knowledge
* i have no idea for the resistance from the government, but there was resistance from high levels to an investigation surrounding the event and the months prior to it. for folks who buy into conspiracies, there is evidence of a coverup (I don't think it is, just to be clear)

Since the September 11 attacks did happen, and there was confusion, and there was the all-to-successful barrage by the administration to link Iraq to it, I don't find it surprising that the conspiracy folks jumped all over it: it actually happened, and they are trying to find an explanation - even if they are chasing a foolish rainbow. I find it distressing they're still clinging to it.

On the other hand, since there really has never been any real evidence that a christ figure ever existed (and even if someone so identified did exist, there is no evidence he/she was a god personified), believing such, and thinking there could be an anti-christ, is stupidity on an entirely different level.

Posted by: dean | September 17, 2009 5:59 PM

I don't think the conspiracy theories of 9/11 are silly given that Operation Northwoods was seriously considered.

They wouldn't need anything on the scale of 9/11 to do the job, and they definately wouldn't have linked everything to an intermediate terrorist group that had no involvement with Iraq. So, the idea that Bush/Cheney were behind 9/11 is still silly.

Posted by: José | September 17, 2009 7:38 PM

The numbers go way down when people are asked whether they think the federal government directly took down the towers, but I haven't seen any of those polls that also break out the results by political persuasion.

There are also accusations being made following the 9/11 terrorist attack. One of these is: People in the federal government either assisted in the 9/11 attacks or took no action to stop the attacks because they wanted the [sic] United States to go to war in the Middle East.

Very likely 16%
Somewhat likely 20%
Not likely 59%
Don't know 5%

Very Likely breakdown:

Dem 22.6%
GOP 4.9%
Inde 16.7

Somewhat likely breakdown:

Dem 28.2%
GOP 12.6%
Inde 15.2%

This means that, according to the Scripps poll, about half of Democrats, about a third of Independents and nearly a fifth of Republicans said it was "likely" that “federal officials either participated in the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon or took no action to stop them” in order to go to war.

http://realclearpolitics.blogs.time.com/2009/08/14/truther-denial/

Bur we should cut them some slack … after all they are on our side.

Posted by: Mike H | September 17, 2009 8:58 PM

For comparison's sake, the question in the poll quoted above was, "Do you think Barack Obama is the Anti-Christ?"

http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/PPP_Release_NJ_916.pdf

Posted by: Stephanie Z | September 17, 2009 9:20 PM

@Mike H: Are your math skills really that bad? Or are you just hoping people don't do more than skim it and take you at your word?

Posted by: Rev Matt | September 18, 2009 11:54 AM