Belief in conspiracies largely depends on political identity(i.e. conspiracy theories GOPers believe
... An Economist/YouGov lists a number of screw-ball theories that Trump voters believe. The most incredible is that 46% of Trumpeteers think that Hillary Clinton is involved in a pedophilia ring, managed out of a pizza parlor in D.C!!
https://today.yougov.com/news/2016/12/27/belief-conspiracies-largely-depends-political-iden/
One of the most notorious internet rumors of the 2016 presidential campaign, that there was a pedophile ring in the Clinton campaign, with code words embedded in the hacked emails of Clinton campaign manager John Podesta, is seen as probably or definitely true by more than a third of American adults. The poll was conducted after an armed North Carolina man tried to self-investigate the claim by going to the District of Columbia pizza restaurant that was alleged to be the center of the ring earlier this month and found nothing. But even afterwards only 29% are sure the allegation is definitely not true.
... [font size="+1"]However,[/font] this poll also indicates that 50% of Clinton voters think that "Russia tampered with vote tallies to help Trump". This is obvious bullshit. Yes, Russia hacked the DNC emails, and released selected emails to WikiLeaks, all to hurt Clinton but 'tampered with vote tallies'? I'm a Clinton voter and I think I have a pretty good idea of how other Clinton voters think. And I don't think very many Democrats think this. I wouldn't even guess how many would think this... maybe 5%, maximum: 10%?
Buckeye_Democrat
(14,853 posts)and there's very little difference between Democrats and Republicans on the non-political ones, such as belief in Bigfoot.
http://www.publicpolicypolling.com/pdf/2011/PPP_Release_National_ConspiracyTheories_040213.pdf
If Al Gore strongly argued against the existence of Bigfoot for whatever reason, I'd expect more Republicans to suddenly believe the opposite! Good grief, I can't count how many times I saw the comment sections of articles about climate change filled with deniers who brought up Al Gore! As if he was responsible for the science!
Uggwearingdad
(78 posts)"46% of Trumpeteers think that Hillary Clinton is involved in a pedophilia ring.."
Per the cited poll 24% of all Democrats believe the stupidity....we are in need of a serious reboot.
Hortensis
(58,785 posts)as part of taking a political position. I'm equally sure that some believe implicitly and that others only enjoy pretending to believe. I see this all the time here in the South. How many of each the question, but most know they're pushing lies, although with great virtue since they know they're the righteous ones opposing the evils of liberalism.
In the end they all vote the same way for the same reasons (again, overwhelmingly in automatic opposition to Democrats/liberals--nothing at all to do with Democratic politicians "not talking to" them), though, so it doesn't matter if some are crazy and others are just behaving despicably.
We now know that most American conservatives have effectively become extremists who are easily lead into trouble by their enemies. Bless the relatively few who have not. America needs them badly.