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From: Stig_Agermose@online.pol.dk (Stig Agermose)
Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 08:10:21 +0200
Fwd Date: Wed, 30 Jul 1997 09:23:50 -0400
Subject: Washington Post Paranoia Poll (UFOs Etc.)

UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM



New facts and hot stats from the social sciences

By Richard Morin

Sunday, July 27, 1997; Page C05

The Washington Post=20


My Editor Is a Space Alien and Other Paranoid Thoughts



It's those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer. And this hot season, the
emphasis is definitely on crazy.

Many of us have been staring wide-eyed for weeks at those Pathfinder
photographs from the surface of Mars. But a new Washington Post survey
suggests that one out of six American adults -- an estimated 27 million
people -- suspect those photos may be fakes and doubt that the
spacecraft really landed on the Red Planet. Half of these doubters go
even further. They say they're convinced that the whole Mars mission
was an elaborate fraud. Oh, my.

And talk about out-of-town summer guests. Half of those surveyed accept
the possibility that intelligent aliens from outer space have visited
Earth -- and one in four say aliens might be living among us now. Three
percent told Post poll takers they think they may have actually met an
alien.

Well, of course you have. But whatever; Americans might be forgiven
even this deep-space flight of fancy. After all, we've already been
inundated this summer with the hoopla and hokum surrounding the 50th
anniversary of the purported Roswell UFO landing, as well as the
release of mega-hyped movies with extra-terrestrial themes such as "Men
in Black" and "Contact."=20

While all this spacey talk may just be silly summer fun, other recent
polls offer a more sinister and sobering look at some of our most
persistent national fears.

Half of those interviewed in a survey by Scripps Howard newspapers said
it was at least "somewhat likely" that federal officials were "directly
responsible for the assassination of President Kennedy." Four in 10
also suspect that the U.S. Navy shot down TWA Flight 800 off the coast
of Long Island last year.

Likewise, unpublished data collected in a recent survey conducted in
the 13 Southern states by the Institute for Research in the Social
Sciences at the University of North Carolina found that one out of five
blacks believe that it was "absolutely" or "probably" true that AIDS
and HIV "are being used as a plot to deliberately kill African
Americans."

Why are so many of us so suspicious? Well, sometimes the government is
out to get you. After all, President Clinton did just apologize for the
Tuskegee syphilis experiment. And remember how unsuspecting servicemen
were used as guinea pigs in early atomic bomb tests to assess the
effects of radiation?

Experts also say the news and entertainment media fan our paranoia.
Seven of Hollywood's top-ten grossing films last year included
decidedly anti-government themes. On TV, the hit show "The X-Files"
dishes up both government conspiracies and space aliens.=20



ARE SPACE ALIENS FLYING THOSE BLACK HELICOPTERS?


Percentage of Americans who believe there's "at least a chance" that:


Intelligent aliens from outer space                    50%
"have visited the Earth sometime=20
in the past."=20

Aliens from outer space are "living                   25%
here on Earth right now."

The Pathfinder never landed on Mars               17%
and the "photos are fakes."



Percentage who say it is either "very" or "somewhat" likely that:


President Franklin Roosevelt failed                    42%
to warn U.S. Forces that the=20
Japanese were going attack Pearl
Harbor because he wanted America
to get into a war with Japan.

The FBI "deliberately set" the fires                     40%
that destroyed the Branch Davidian
compound in Waco.

The U.S. Navy shot down TWA Flight                39%
800 "either by accident or on=20
purpose."



Percentage of African Americans living in the South who say it's
"absolutely" or "probably" true that:


The government "deliberately makes                  46%
sure that drugs are easily available=20
in poor black neighborhoods in order=20
to harm black people."

HIV and AIDS are being used "as a                     20%
plot to deliberately kill African=20
Americans."


SOURCES: Surveys sponsored by The Washington Post, Scripps Howard
Newspapers, University of North Carolina Center for the Study of the
American South

You can reach The Unconventional Wiz at:=20
morinr@clark.net =20

=A9Copyright 1997 The Washington Post Company



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