Public Policy Polling’s recent poll on conspiracy theories mostly showed up on my Facebook feed as “Four percent of Americans believe lizardmen are running the Earth”.

(of note, an additional 7% of Americans are “not sure” whether lizardmen are running the Earth or not.)

The lesson from all three of the cases in this post seems clear. When we’re talking about very unpopular beliefs, polls can only give a weak signal. Any possible source of noise – jokesters, cognitive biases, or deliberate misbehavior – can easily overwhelm the signal. Therefore, polls that rely on detecting very weak signals should be taken with a grain of salt.

[–] jaybone@lemmy.zip 1 points 8 months ago (1 children)

I am one of the 7%

[–] Justas@sh.itjust.works 1 points 8 months ago

Oh come on, they'd do a better job than the current mess.

[–] rockerface@lemm.ee 9 points 8 months ago (1 children)

The copium levels in here are very high. Also, a lot of people are right wing because communism and socialism associate with Soviets around here, so not the best memories.

[–] fluxion@lemmy.world 13 points 8 months ago

Amazing how a little political rebranding is enough to have people inadvertently vote authoritarian fascists right back into office to rat fuck the world all over again.

[–] hanrahan@slrpnk.net 15 points 8 months ago

That's a surprisingly low number.

[–] 7rokhym@lemmy.ca 9 points 8 months ago

Bad for ~~Ukraine~~ the planet, humanity, and possibly the entire universe

[–] arakhis_@feddit.org 1 points 8 months ago

would love this seriously discussed in r/convoservative