Title : I'm skeptical of this CNN headline: "Half of the US believes a deadly conspiracy theory."
link : I'm skeptical of this CNN headline: "Half of the US believes a deadly conspiracy theory."
I'm skeptical of this CNN headline: "Half of the US believes a deadly conspiracy theory."
This is labeled "Analysis by Harry Enten." Now, let's get a close look. I'll put to the side for now the question what makes a theory deadly. You don't die just from believing something. Presumably, people who believe something might do something that could kill themselves or others.
Let's see what this theory is:
The two most monumental events of the last year in the US were the election of Joe Biden to the presidency and the introduction of Covid-19 vaccines. Yet there are those who falsely believe Biden won only because of fraud or that they shouldn't get a vaccine.
Oh. It's 2 theories. Don't tell me Enten is going to add the percentages together to get to "more than half"!
Having either belief is dangerous -- for either the health of society or the health of the republic.
It's "deadly" to think the election result wasn't legit? How many people died from believing there was Russian collusion in the 2016 election? Trusting the reported results of the election is like getting immunity from a deadly disease? That's histrionics. Deadly histrionics. Just kidding. It's annoying, bullshit histrionics.
But back to the math. Enten, are you going to add these 2 percentages together?!
Take a look at the most recent Monmouth University poll, one of the few to ask about both people's vaccine status and how they view the 2020 election result. Not having received a vaccine was a minority position, at 34%, at the time of the poll in mid-June.
Is he assuming that the condition of not having been vaccinated is exactly the same thing as believing some conspiracy theory about vaccinations? What about all the people who think they're immune because they had the disease? What about the people who are just putting it off or afraid of needles or disorganized and lazy? What about the people who feel lucky or who are trusting other people to take precautions? There are lots of ways not to be vaccinated without believing in a conspiracy theory.
Thinking Biden won only because of fraud was a minority position at 32%. But that third of the electorate for both positions is not the same third. About 36% of adults who falsely think Biden won only because of fraud have, in fact, received a dose of the Covid-19 vaccine. This means that when you do the math, only about half (51%) of adults had received a vaccine dose and think Biden won the election fair and square. A slightly lower 45% haven't received a vaccine dose or think Biden didn't win fair and square. (An additional 4% have gotten a dose and aren't sure if Biden won legitimately.) It turns out that we're not just a 50-50 country when it comes to elections -- we're a 50-50 country when it comes to belief in science and truth about this election. This isn't to say that believing a conspiracy theory about the election and not having gotten a dose of the vaccine aren't correlated. They are. The Monmouth poll showed that 64% of people who falsely think that Biden won because of voter fraud also have not received a vaccine dose. Indeed, a lot of this breaks into partisan camps. Most Democrats in this poll (and others) have either received a vaccine dose (83%) or think Biden won fair and square (90%). Likewise, a lot of Republicans haven't gotten a vaccine dose (40% in this poll and closer to 50% in other polls) or believe Biden won due to voter fraud (57%).
Well, I'm certainly relieved that Entin didn't just add the percentages together. But — speaking of deadly — I nearly died trying to read that paragraph.
Thus articles I'm skeptical of this CNN headline: "Half of the US believes a deadly conspiracy theory."
You now read the article I'm skeptical of this CNN headline: "Half of the US believes a deadly conspiracy theory." with the link address https://usainnew.blogspot.com/2021/07/im-skeptical-of-this-cnn-headline-half.html
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