New scientific poll (Oct 17-20, 2017): 33% believe in lone-nut theory. 61% believe in conspiracy

[Andric Perez]

A poll on the question had not been conducted in a long time, as far as I know. Now SurveyMonkey has released a new one. 

The poll is rich in responses by sub-groups (men, women, white, black, hispanic, etc.)

See it in fivethirtyeight.com: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/the-one-thing-in-politics-most-americans-believe-in-jfk-conspiracies/

Edited October 24, 2017 by Andric Perez

[David Andrews]

Interesting how the numbers only approach parity among college graduates.  I wonder if the old explanations for that still hold water, or grads just hope to hell that they do.

[Sandy Larsen]

Interesting that a lot more Independents suspect conspiracy (70%) compared to Republicans (60%) and Democrats (61%). What could explain that?

 

[Kirk Gallaway]

I'm not sure I find that as unlikely, they probably see themselves as being more independent thinkers.I'm not sure how much independent voters overlap with the "undecided voters" that can't make up their mind until the last days of the Presidential elections. Who can figure out what those people are thinking?

About Dave's comment about the numbers reaching parity among the well educated. Sandy, I thought you made a really good observation about that   a few days ago about a respected,well educated friend or acquaintance of yours who was a LN. that i wanted to comment on at the time.

I think the future journalists, academics, historians, the more educated, people who run for political office , the people in broadcast media, who shape public opinion in the future will increasingly be more inclined to be LNer's. I think  the only thing that can disturb this trend is a major break in the case, and if this new release of documents doesn't produce  that, there will be another small spike up in the LNer numbers.

Just my observation, I'd be curious to hear anyone else.

[Lawrence Schnapf]

apparently Five Thirty Eight missed alot of college-educated voters during this poll just like they did during the 2016 presidential election.  

[Sandy Larsen]

On 10/25/2017 at 12:20 AM, Kirk Gallaway said:

About Dave's comment about the numbers reaching parity among the well educated. Sandy, I thought you made a really good observation about that   a few days ago about a respected,well educated friend or acquaintance of yours who was a LN. that i wanted to comment on at the time.

Kirk,

I think that, for many, a college degree is a license to be opinionated about issues they have no business being opinionated about. A college education is supposed to open people's minds, but IMO does the opposite in too many cases. (I do believe, on the other hand, that those who go on to earn post graduate degrees do become more open minded. Maybe because they come to realize they aren't as smart as they thought they were.)

I agree with you, that the trend will be for the public to move further to the LN side. On the other hand, I believe there will always be exceptional thinkers who side with the CTers. I also believe that it's only a matter of time before influential ones speak out.