My earlier post which showed that large numbers of people around the world are skeptical about the "official" story regarding the perpetrators of 9/11 really needs an American baseline as a comparison. I have posted data from a Zogby poll as well as a Pew survey of American Muslims. Note that I selected only some of the fields; if the N's were too low or I found the category uninteresting I left it out (what's uninteresting? Don't care if you participate in Little League).
| Question: "There are three main schools of thought regarding the 9/11 attacks. The first theory is the official story, and maintains that 19 Arab fundamentalists executed a surprise attack which caught US intelligence and military forces off guard. The second theory known as Let It Happen argues that certain elements in the US government knew the attacks were coming but consciously let them proceed for various political, military and economic motives; and the third theory Made It Happen contends that certain US government elements actively planned or assisted some aspects of the attacks. Based upon your knowledge of 9/11 events and their aftermath, which theory are you more likely to agree with?" | ||||
| Official Story | Let it Happen | Made it happen | Not Sure | |
| All Amerians | 63.6 | 26.4 | 4.6 | 5.4 |
| 18-29 | 33.3 | 62.5 | 1 | 3.1 |
| 30-49 | 62 | 24.2 | 8.1 | 5.7 |
| 50-64 | 72.7 | 20.5 | 2.8 | 3.9 |
| 65+ | 67.1 | 19.5 | 3.8 | 29.1 |
| High School | 48.8 | 35.7 | 9.6 | 5.9 |
| Some College | 61.8 | 28.2 | 3.6 | 6.3 |
| At least College | 72.1 | 21.1 | 3 | 3.8 |
| White | 71.1 | 22.9 | 2.7 | 3.4 |
| Hispanic | 27.6 | 42.9 | 16.6 | 12.9 |
| African American | 43.1 | 36.9 | 6.9 | 13.1 |
| Progressive | 53.3 | 35.8 | 1.7 | 9.2 |
| Liberal | 53.4 | 34.4 | 5 | 7.2 |
| Moderate | 63.4 | 27 | 5.7 | 3.9 |
| Conservative | 69.9 | 22.3 | 4.1 | 3.7 |
| Very Conservative | 81.8 | 5.9 | 1.1 | 11.3 |
| Catholic | 58.7 | 33.3 | 4.7 | 3.3 |
| Protestant | 69.3 | 20.2 | 4.5 | 6 |
| Jewish | 82.6 | 15.6 | 1.9 | |
| Other/None | 54.1 | 34.9 | 5.5 | 5.5 |
| Born Again | 68.1 | 20 | 6 | 3.2 |
| Church more once a week | 71.7 | 18.4 | 4.1 | 5.8 |
| Church once a week | 64.3 | 20.6 | 7.8 | 7.3 |
| Church 1-2 per month | 60.6 | 30.5 | 4.8 | 4.1 |
| Church on Holidays | 78.8 | 19.1 | 2.1 | |
| Church Rarely | 55.8 | 34.1 | 3.6 | 6.5 |
| Church Never | 55.6 | 42.1 | 1 | 1.2 |
| Married | 70.4 | 19.6 | 4 | 6 |
| Single | 40.4 | 48.4 | 7.5 | 3.8 |
| Male | 69.2 | 22 | 4.4 | 4.4 |
| Female | 58.1 | 30.7 | 4.8 | 6.4 |
| Democrat | 51.4 | 36.3 | 6.3 | 6 |
| Republican | 75 | 15.5 | 3.7 | 5.9 |
| Independent | 65.5 | 27.1 | 3.4 | 3.9 |
| < $25 K | 45 | 34.3 | 15.1 | 5.7 |
| $25 - $35 K | 46.6 | 46.5 | 1.8 | 5.1 |
| $35 - $50 K | 66.6 | 24.2 | 4 | 5.3 |
| $50 - $75 K | 67.8 | 26.9 | 4.5 | 9 |
| $75 - $100 K | 72.3 | 16.8 | 6.5 | 4.5 |
| > $100 K | 74.9 | 19.2 | 1 | 5 |
| Q: "Who was responsible for 9/11?" | ||||
| Groups of Arabs | Don't believe Arabs responsible | Don't know/Refused | ||
| All US Muslims | 40 | 28 | 32 | |
| 18-29 | 38 | 38 | 24 | |
| 30-39 | 37 | 30 | 33 | |
| 40-54 | 45 | 24 | 31 | |
| 55+ | 49 | 16 | 35 | |
| College grad | 55 | 24 | 22 | |
| Some college | 43 | 30 | 27 | |
| HS or less | 34 | 30 | 36 | |
| High religious commitment | 29 | 46 | 25 | |
| Low religious commitment | 38 | 24 | 38 | |
| Low religious commitment | 53 | 22 | 25 | |
| Muslims in France | 48 | 46 | 6 | |
| Muslims in Germany | 35 | 44 | 21 | |
| Spain | 33 | 35 | 32 | |
| Great Britain | 17 | 56 | 27 | |
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The groups supporting the official story by 69% or more were:
Republicans, conservative / very conservative, married people, men, college grads, 50-64 years old, those earning more than $75 k/ year, Protestants, and people who go to church on holidays. That's a pretty cohesive group, a stereotype of the country-club Republicans.
Except that the highest support of all for the official view is among Jews. I'd say that "accepts the official view" is your anti-populist view. Even left wing Jews are anti-populists, since populism is so closely tied with anti-Semitism and scapegoating.
Low support (less than 56%) for the official view came from Hispanics, blacks, young people, poor people, single, non-religious, progressives, liberals, and Democrats.
The religious pattern is confused, but nominal holiday Christians were the most supportive of the official view.
(The numbers 69 and 56 were chosen because they gave the clearest picture. A harmless tweak, I'd say).
Low support (less than 56%) for the official view came from Hispanics, blacks, young people, poor people, single, non-religious, progressives, liberals, and Democrats: i.e. people who are accustomed to being officially lied to.
In this instance it seems likely that the official story, tempered by a large helping of unacknowledged incompetence, is close to the truth. Yet learned scepticism strongly affects its reception. How damaging is that!?
Clearly a case of Americans thinking Americans are the most important people on the globe. Most people do not know / care about this issue.
And thus we are surprised when people display lack of knowledge of an area that we should have known would occur.
One does wonder how US demographics of 9/11 skepticism would have changed if Gore or Clinton would have been president at the time.
Danny hit the nail on the head and I think John has his causality backwards. Generally those most empowered are most attached to official explanations, those least empowered are the most skeptical.
I'd like to see a similar survey for Pearl Harbor, although I doubt one was conducted at the time.
Two things:
1) What's up with that major peak among Hispanics and "Made it happen"?
2) It seems (if you look at age, education and income) that the dumber you are the more likely you are to believe in the Truther version of events.
chris y: as soon as you imposed your own belief of what is true on the data, you began doing an entirely different experiment.