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OTTAWA — The Earth is flat. We’ve been secretly contacted by clever beings from different planets. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin didn’t land on the moon in 1969. They could sound like weird statements, however a brand new ballot suggests a large variety of Canadians imagine in these and different conspiracy theories.
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About 5% of us are flat-earthers, the ballot suggests, whereas 11% say they suppose the lunar landings have been a hoax. And a 3rd of respondents say they suppose proof that aliens have been involved with our planet is being hidden from the general public.
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Polling agency Leger surveyed 1,529 Canadian adults and 1,011 Individuals between Nov. 24 and 26, asking about their beliefs in a number of well-liked conspiracy theories. The ballot can’t be assigned a margin of error as a result of on-line surveys should not thought of really random samples.
In all, 79% of Canadians and 84% of Individuals surveyed reported believing in at the least one in all a listing of conspiracy theories talked about within the ballot. In each international locations, conservative-leaning voters have been extra more likely to imagine in conspiracies.
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Simply over 1 / 4 of American respondents say they imagine world warming doesn’t exist, in comparison with 16% of Canadians.
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The preferred, amongst Canadians and Individuals alike, was the notion that the mainstream media is manipulating the data it disseminates. Fifty-five per cent of Canadian respondents and 67% of American ones say they imagine that to be the case, whereas one other 10% of Canadian survey individuals mentioned they don’t know.
In second place was the long-standing principle that John F. Kennedy’s assassination was a cover-up. Kennedy was shot whereas using in a convertible in his motorcade on Nov. 22, 1963, in Dallas. Lee Harvey Oswald was arrested the identical day, although he claimed he was not accountable. Oswald was shot and killed two days later within the Dallas police station.
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Greater than a 3rd of Canadian respondents and simply shy of half of Individuals reported they don’t imagine the official account of the previous president’s loss of life.
Whereas the ballot didn’t current different theories, lots of the well-liked conspiracies about Kennedy’s assassination contain his vice-president Lyndon B. Johnson, the CIA, the Mafia and different international locations together with Cuba and Russia.
A few third of respondents from each international locations say they suppose the automobile crash that killed Princess Diana in Paris in August 1997 was an assassination, slightly than an accident.
The identical variety of Canadians — 34% — mentioned they imagine scientists and governments are withholding a recognized remedy for most cancers.
Thirty-two per cent of Canadians and 51% of Individuals surveyed imagine COVID-19 was created as a organic weapon in a lab.
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U.S. intelligence officers launched a report in June that rejected some factors raised by those that argue COVID-19 leaked from a Chinese language lab, stating that American spy businesses are divided over how the pandemic started.
That report mentioned 4 intelligence businesses nonetheless imagine the virus was transferred from animals to people, whereas two businesses — the Power Division and the FBI — imagine the virus leaked from a lab. The CIA has not made an evaluation.
The June report was met with anger from Republicans, a few of whom argued on the time {that a} lab leak was the one possibility that made sense. The ballot suggests 70% of Republican voters imagine within the lab-leak principle.
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Republicans have been additionally extra more likely to report they imagine the federal government is hiding the reality concerning the harmfulness of vaccines, a conspiracy that had help from 63% of GOP voters and 49% of Individuals general.
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These tendencies have been mirrored within the Canadian knowledge, too: A 3rd of these polled imagine governments are mendacity about vaccines, however that quantity jumps to 45% of conservative-leaning voters.
The survey outcomes additionally advised that among the many 4 main political events in Canada, Tory voters paved the way in believing in each one of many conspiracies offered within the ballot apart from one: Half of Bloc Quebecois voters are unconvinced by the official account of JFK’s assassination.
There was additionally much less of a discrepancy amongst voting intentions when it got here to survey respondents who mentioned they imagine that proof of alien contact is being hidden from the general public. The survey additionally suggests the assumption that mainstream media manipulates info is robust throughout the political spectrum, with these desiring to vote Conservative at 69%, Liberal at 37%, the NDP at 47% and the Bloc at 44%.
1 / 4 of Conservative supporters surveyed say they suppose the 2020 U.S. election was rigged and stolen from Donald Trump. That’s eight factors above the Canadian common of 17%, however nicely shy of the 57% of Republicans who suppose the identical.
A regional breakdown suggests Albertans are most probably to imagine there’s a secret world elite working to determine a world authorities, at 44%, and that feminism is a method to allow ladies to manage society, at 19%.
The feminism-control principle was virtually twice as well-liked amongst Canadian males than ladies.
— With information from The Related Press
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