Only 42% of Republicans believe that President Obama was born in the United States.

[Kpt._Rob]

All fifteen of them? Are you kidding me? See this is the problem I have, is that rational people like the majority of the Escapist's clientele (Liberal AND Conservative) believe they are in the majority, perhaps that is true in other countries, but not here in America. Here's another statistic, this from Sam Harris' book Letter to a Christian Nation, 44% of the American populace believes that the rapture will be coming in their lifetimes.

People, you should be scared. These two statistics are terrifying, and the reason they are terrifying is that they speak to the insanity that has begun to consume America. Think about the ramifications of almost half of Americans believing that the world will come to an end in their lifetimes, not only that, but that this end will be glorious and is something to be desired. That statistic alone should explain why it is so hard to pass environmental legislation here in America. And the fact that 58% of Republicans believe this birther conspiracy theory should scare the hell out of you too.

This is a genuine intelectual crisis. We need to open our eyes, because a sizable portion of our countrymen believe things that are absurd, things that are dangerous.

Right, you're going to trust a statistic from a book written by a man who said that his goal was

...to demolish the intellectual and moral pretensions of Christianity in its most committed forms.

and a statistic from a comedian that has no backing. Do you see no flaw in this logic?

In addition, what about the Cold War? People thought that the bomb would be launched any day and send the world into MAD. Shit wasn't so bad then. The only difference between this and the MAD fear is that this is religion-based. Oh, wait. Wouldn't Christians back during the Cold War have thought that MAD would be the equivalent of rapture?

The Bible states that the world shall next be cleansed by fire. I think that people would have made the comparison between nukes and fire.

Your argument is fallacious. Every religious person believes that the world is horrible enough for Rapture to come. They have for thousands of years. That's just the way they work. We've been fine for thousands of years with people believing that. No irreparable harm has come from it; if anything, good has come from it.

To continue my example of the Cold War, a lot of traditional values were shattered during that time and shortly thereafter. The hippy era, beatniks, etc. changed the face of American culture for the better. This is not new. This is not an "intellectual crisis." If people want to believe that the end of the world is coming, fine.

I don't see people rioting in the streets screaming that the end is nigh. When I do, your argument will have some measure of validity.

Oh. By the way. How many Americans are actually members of a party? Not nearly so many as you might think. Guess how many Americans identify themselves as Republicans? Less than 25% (Source [http://voices.washingtonpost.com/thefix/parsing-the-polls/21-percent.html]). Therefore, roughly 12.5% of Americans believe this "Obama is not natural-born" nonsense. Not a big deal, seriously.

But you'll admit, the idea of a nuclear holocaust IS different from a genuine rapture, because a genuine rapture means that every person of faith is raptured away, needless to say, a Nuclear attack would have to be of proportions to pull this off, so massive they can not be imagined, and could not be accomplished with the amount of nuclear weapons in existence.

That aside, the point remains, that people believing the rapture will be coming is harmful, because it discourages people from taking care of the earth. If you accept that the earth is going to end anyways, then it would be rediculous to take care of it, that would be counterproductive. But we have no reason to believe that the earth will be ending, we need to take care of it for future generations, but we can't do that because we are blocked by people who believe that taking care of it isn't worth the effort.

 

[dalek sec]

Hell at this point I'm ready for them to cry out that Obama is a cylon since they seem to scrapping the bottom of the barrel at this point.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

They didn't ask me.

I thought he was born in Hawaii or something. Maybe not the continental USA, but it still counts.

Anyway, I doubt they honestly wanted to know how many Republicans know where the President was born. It's all about making the other side look stupid and ignoring the fact that those human beings over there are every bit as "good" as your side. Bah.

Stupid people are universal. They're not exclusive to any one political party. Except the Klan. They bought the monopoly rights to stupid a long time ago.

 

[dubious_wolf]

So a MINORITY of the republican party makes every other republican stupid? right... kind of like how muslim extremists make the muslim religion evil.

 

[Jsnoopy]

Wow, when Republicans have opinions, why is it ok to bash us?

Because that is such an incredibly stupid thing to have an opinion on. How many scientists do you know have believe that gravity isn't real? If the rumor had any truth to it, I'm sure Republicans would have used it during the fucking campaign, not 6 months after in a desperate attempt to console their hopefully dieing party.

There was a issue about it, it was just never touched by the Liberal media and the issue died.

Maybe there was a damn good reason why the issue was never brought up by the "liberal media." Though I am getting tired of hearing of conservatives complain about the liberal media never fairly reporting a story, which is complete bullshit. The way people like Bill O'Reily ***** about it, you'd think there was some "vast, left wing conspiracy" going on in the media.

 

[HardRockSamurai]

Really? I mean, they have the announcement of his birth on a newspaper! Do you really need anymore evidence?

Thanks a lot FOX News, for once again, giving Republicans another way to sound completely stupid.

NOTE: I have nothing against Republicans in general, just stupidity.

 

[Flying-Emu]

As a conservative, I can safely say that statistic is pretty dead wrong. All of my conservative friends all believe he was born in the US.

But all of your conservative friends are not a representative segment of the American population, here in Oklahoma conservatives who aren't birthers are in the minority. You can't assume that just because your conservative friends aren't stupid, don't mean that there aren't a lot of conservatives that aren't in other areas of the country, and in various levels of economic stratification.

But Oklahoman conservatives are a representative segment?

Since photobucket is being lame, look at this Paint [http://s642.photobucket.com/albums/uu144/flying-emu/?action=view&current=BibleBelt.jpg] of a US map. See that circled area? That's the Bible Belt. Known for being ultra conservative.

 

[lacktheknack]

<watches in dismay at republican-bashing>

<wonders if republican-bashing will fall out of fashion>

 

[MorteSphere]

That just goes to show you republicans.

 

[RTK1576]

As a conservative, I can safely say that statistic is pretty dead wrong. All of my conservative friends all believe he was born in the US.

You really can't claim "that statistic is wrong" by saying that none of your friends believe it. That's like saying "none of my friends like rap music, so rap music must be unpopular." You don't have to like rap music, but you can't make broad claims from a limited sample. A good poll gets a broad demographic. It's smart to look at the sampling process behind a poll. That's how you judge its validity.

On a side note, I do appreciate the conservatives who reject the Birthers (well, to a point). Dislike a guy for his politics. That's fair game. Just don't be stupid about it.

Final note: my guess why Obama isn't doing more to end this meme (as if anything he did would satisfy them)? The same reason why he helps keep Limbaugh and other rabid right-wing pundits in the limelight. When the public face of your opposition is bigotry, intolerance, paranoia and (in the Birthers case) insanity, you really don't have to do much work to villify them. If the Republicans want to come back politically, they have to police their own and put up some respectible opposition, not the crazy/angry side you see these days.

 

[Kpt._Rob]

As a conservative, I can safely say that statistic is pretty dead wrong. All of my conservative friends all believe he was born in the US.

But all of your conservative friends are not a representative segment of the American population, here in Oklahoma conservatives who aren't birthers are in the minority. You can't assume that just because your conservative friends aren't stupid, don't mean that there aren't a lot of conservatives that aren't in other areas of the country, and in various levels of economic stratification.

But Oklahoman conservatives are a representative segment?

Since photobucket is being lame, look at this Paint [http://s642.photobucket.com/albums/uu144/flying-emu/?action=view&current=BibleBelt.jpg] of a US map. See that circled area? That's the Bible Belt. Known for being ultra conservative.

Yes, the point I was making is that his friends aren't a representative segment, Oklahoma isn't either, but if the poll is to believed, then all of the segments added together create the statistic.

And for those who think the statistic sounds fishy, consider that the Swiftboat conspiracy theory made people think that George Bush, a man who never even fought in the war, had more valor than John Kerry, a genuine war hero, and political historians consider it one of the major contributing factors to Bush's victory over Kerry. I'm not trying to start a debate over Swiftboat, what I'm pointing out is that it is not unrealistic to say that the statistic of people who believe the birther theory could be this high.

 

[OriginalError]

snipity snip snip

You're right; they don't think about the consequences of their actions! I mean, having Nancy Pelosi as VP? Uggggghhhh

Actually, if this (admittedly far fetched) theory was true, Nancy Pelosi would not be VP. The sitting president would be rendered ineligible and a special election would be held in order to fill the vacancies of President and Vice President. In the interim, the position would either go down the chain of command (Bringing Nancy Pelosi directly to the Presidential position) or the house and senate would be forced to temporarily appoint a replacement.

That being said, it would absolutely destroy the average person's faith in the Representative Democracy system (if it wasn't already) and would literally tear the United States asunder.

Not that you lousy Brits wouldn't love to see that,
//J.

 

[dubious_wolf]

Oh geez. Yeah. And the religious radicals think he's the anti-Christ.

All fifteen of them.

All fifteen of them? Are you kidding me? See this is the problem I have, is that rational people like the majority of the Escapist's clientele (Liberal AND Conservative) believe they are in the majority, perhaps that is true in other countries, but not here in America. Here's another statistic, this from Sam Harris' book Letter to a Christian Nation, 44% of the American populace believes that the rapture will be coming in their lifetimes.
This is a genuine intellectual crisis. We need to open our eyes, because a sizable portion of our countrymen believe things that are absurd, things that are dangerous.

I'm sorry but the people are frighteningly stupid because they believe in the rapture is just well wrong... People will always have and need religion, some people will be able to be good wholesome people without it (I being an example) but for the most part we as a race need some form of rules and moral standards in order to live in a society... now most religions have predicted the "end of the world" as a way to either give its believers reassurance or to further enforce the "you must be a good person theme" because lets face it without consequences most people would do whatever they felt like...

lets get somethings straight I don't really agree with any of President Barack's policies, I think that he was born in the USA, and I am a republican.

 

[MicrosoftPaysMe]

wtf im pretty sure u need to show ur birth certificate to run for president

 

[Daedalus1942]

Heh, of course they do. If you ask me, it's the whole black thing that inspires it. Did you know John MaCain was born in Panama?

Yeah, but it was on an airbase so by their retarded logic, he was born on American soil -.-

 

[dnnydllr]

And 40% of democrats believe that the world trade centers were never destroyed or some bullshit story like that. Hypothesis: forty to fifty percent of Americans, no matter what party affiliation, lack a little something called logic.

 

[MiracleOfSound]

AW shucks, and there I wuz thankin' that his ol' countreh of owrigin wuz Africuh