13% of Americans Believe President Obama Is the Anti-Christ

Matt Berman

Are you part of the 4%? The 4% of Americans who believe that shape-shifting reptilian people control our world by taking on human form and gaining political power to manipulate our societies? If you're not, you may be a touch aghast by the (still low) number. But according to a new poll from Public Policy Polling, the conspiracy theorists are strong among us.

In a survey of 1,247 registered American voters from March 27-30 (conducted through automated telephone interviews), Public Policy Polling (PPP) found some choice nuggets about the things that we do and do not believe. Some highlights from the survey (pdf):

  • Did we ever really land on the moon? 7% of those surveyed thought Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin took not one giant leap.

  • Is Osama Bin Laden still out there? Well, the vast majority of respondents here thought not. But 11% aren't quite sure.

  • Was the CIA "instrumental" in dealing crack cocaine into America's inner-cities in the 1980s? 14% of respondents say yes.

  • Does the media or government add "secret mind-controlling techonology" to television broadcasts? 15% of those surveyed think Brian Williams and the rest are up to something more nefarious than the just delivering the nightly news.

PPP didn't just stop with the more outlandish beliefs, however. The survey also covered some political conspiracy theories that are a bit more in the mainstream:

  • Do you believe the Bush administration intentionally misled the U.S. about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq to promote the war? 44% or respondents said yes, 45% said no.

  • Do you believe Saddam Hussein was involved in 9/11? 28% of respondents thought he was, while 51% thought he was not.

  • Did Lee Harvey Oswald act alone in the assasination of John F. Kennedy? Only 25% of those surveyed thought he acted alone. 51% thought there was a larger conspiracy.

  • Is global warming is a hoax? 37% of respondents think it is, 51% think it is not.

  • And, of course: 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?" Suprisingly, 28% of those surveyed thought yes. This includes a plurality (38%) of people who voted for Mitt Romney in 2012.