A new poll carried out in the United States by the Public Religion Research Institute (PRRI) has found that 15% of Americans believe that society is controlled by Satan-worshipping child abusers.
The poll is the latest insight into the bizarre world of conspiracy theories, in particular those theories promoted by QAnon, a diverse group of conspiracy theorists who believe that secret societies and Satanists control he US. Most QAnon supporters back Donald Trump and believe that he was destined to defeat these alleged secret societies.
The term QAnon comes from a false belief that there are secret service agents with 'Q-clearance' that have access to these societies, and who have broken cover to reveal the evil truth. The conspiracy originated on internet message boards such as 4chan and 8kun but has filtered into more ''mainstream'' news outlets.
The PRRI surveyed 5,149 over 18s in the US on a range of beliefs, such as the existence of the QAnon conspiracy.
It found that 15% of Americans believe that their country is controlled by a 'group of Satan-worshipping paedophiles' and that 'true patriots' may have to resort to violence to take the country back.
QAnon is easily America's fastest-growing religion, a new @PRRIpoll poll finds.
— Khaled Diab (@DiabolicalIdea) May 27, 2021
A whopping 15% of Americans believe that their country is controlled by a "group of Satan-worshipping paedophiles" and that "true patriots" may have to resort to violence.https://t.co/T5wXn6Gqsr pic.twitter.com/HxKwvYqjZI
Worryingly, this was believed by almost 1 in 4 Republican voters, while only 8% of Democrats believed in such a conspiracy. The survey also found that those who consumed far-right news and Fox News were far more likely to believe the conspiracy than those who watched other media.
The poll also found that 9% of Americans believed that the Covid-19 vaccine "contains a surveillance microchip that is the sign of the beast in biblical prophecy". The same statement was seen as correct by a whopping 39% of QAnon supporters.
These conspiracies have absolutely no evidence backing them up.
While it may be found humorous that so many Americans, literally tens of millions of people, believe in these conspiracy theories, the fact that as many as 15% think violence is acceptable against a mythical and non-existent foe is extremely worrying. In January, as the new president Joe Biden took office, thousands of far-right Donald Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol in protest. Several people died in the incident, and it was characterised as an attempted coup by the ousted president. Among the crowd carrying out the attack was a large amount waving QAnon flags and banners and even more spouting beliefs aligned with the conspiracy. This shows just how dangerous such beliefs are to the well-being of the nation.
[Based on reporting by: IFL Science]
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