"Poll: 29% Think Armed Rebellion Might Soon Be Necessary"

[james_davis_nicoll]

Three in 10 registered American voters believe an armed rebellion might be necessary in the next few years, according to the results of a staggering poll released Wednesday by Fairleigh Dickinson University’s PublicMind.

Comments

[onyxlynx]

It begins to occur to me that someone could make a lot of money making and selling designer tinfoil hats.

[mishalak]

I had a similar idea years ago... Oh. Wait. Brilliant idea. Homeopathic anti-tracking water. Surround your phone in our patent pending sealed thingy and never worry about government tracking again.

[mishalak]

I would hope that I would have the sense to give the sane answer, but on the wrong day of the week I might semi-frivolously agree due to the the weasel word "might". I think this poll was worded carefully to make sure they would get a big big shocking number.

Also note that 18% Democrats are thinking armed rebellion "might be necessary". I suspect the fearful Dems are afraid of something different than the Republicans. Possibly watching too much "Democracy Now" and thinking the fascists will have control in a military coup or something any day now.

Oh and there is another TPM headline "Polls Plummet For Senators Who Voted No On Gun Background Checks". http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2013/04/poll-backlash-senators-background-checks.php Just sayin'.

[(Anonymous)]

Those same %29 likely consider Obama one of "those people."

[(Anonymous)]

Yes. One of those people. Because if you do not love him and want to make out with Obama care, gun control and beyonce you are racist. I do think he is one of those people, one of those people that should never have been elected or reelected.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

I'll just link to this here.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

And this one.

[metahacker.livejournal.com]

Wow. Haven't read that in a LONG time. And now it seems strangely prophetic.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

It was accurate at the time, it has never failed to be accurate since. 30% of the USA is batshit nuts and will vote for "Satan, who wants you personally dead" as long as he has an R beside his name.

[nathan helfinstine (from livejournal.com)]

I would appreciate the honesty that Satan would bring to the political discourse. He's not going to waste our time claiming that the laws he proposes are "to save the children" and all that nonsense.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

So all that "Father of Lies" stuff is just Jehovite propaganda? :D

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

See, there's the thing. Either he's not lying about being Satan and wanting evil laws for evil and thus you get an honest politician, or he IS lying and will be a great president who is good for everyone. It's win-win!

[thesaucernews.livejournal.com]

Satan believes in the literal truth of the vengeful Old Testament God, and rejects the oppression of big government bureaucracy (vis a vis the aforementioned OTG.) You might even consider him the ultimate small business entrepreneur.

Also some are aware of Satan's keen business acumen and knowledge of contract law. He's quite likely to be a strict Constitutionalist.

And finally, he'd have no qualms at all with an aggressive nation-building policy in the Middle East.

Really, if you think about it, Satan's a better candidate than anyone the Republicans have actually fielded.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Note, though, even that essay has a throwaway joke about the revolution coming at the end. It's obviously not meant seriously; it's a gag left over from the days when yelling about revolution was a thing on the left.

But I wonder how many of these people now grumbling about armed rebellion really mean it, and how many are saying it because it's what people like them are expected to say.

[thesaucernews.livejournal.com]

Well, there's revolution in theory, and revolution in practice. Revolution in theory makes for effective political campaigning. Revolution in practice looks a lot like the Boston bombing. Let these revolutionaries cry havoc from their armchairs all they like... that's where most of them will stay.

[mmcirvin.livejournal.com]

Another interesting thing is that we now have a number of examples of substantially successful largely nonviolent revolutions (or, at least, revolutions in which the most violent tactics weren't the ones that worked in the end). That ought to affect the thinking of potential revolutionaries.

There was pretty clearly an effect on the Occupy people, though whether that accomplished much is open to question.

[thesaucernews.livejournal.com]

It ought to, and I hope it does.

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

My favorite conspiracy theory videos on YouTube lately have been the ones proving Obama is a lizardman shapeshifter.

[zibblsnrt.livejournal.com]

To be fair, 29% of Americans think everything.

[mmegaera.livejournal.com]

Good. Maybe they'll go have it somewhere else.

[cmattg.livejournal.com]

Democrats might believe we need a revolution against Those People and Republicans might think we need a rebellion against Those People, but you can take it to the bank they're not talking about the same Those People.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Obama is in office till the start of 2017: how many democrats think that we'll need a revolution before then? Sure, some in the dedicated "they're exactly the same" crowd, but I don't think they're a really large share of the democratic vote.

(I wonder if anyone did a similar poll after the 2005 inauguration)

[twoeleven.livejournal.com]

According to the survey, 18% of Democrats expect to need revolution "in the next few years". But I wouldn't take the survey too seriously.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Yes, and only 31% of republicans _disagree_... but as you say, it's all how you frame the question.

[seth ellis (from livejournal.com)]

Obligatory link to the crazification factor (http://kfmonkey.blogspot.com/2005/10/lunch-discussions-145-crazification.html).

The eternal problem with these kinds of polls is, how many people genuinely think armed rebellion might become necessary, and how many just like saying it? Some proportion of that 29% didn't put any more thought into it than "sounds like a cool video game, ha ha!"

Another non-LJer got dinged for it a few threads ago, so I thought I'd just point out that people without LJ accounts can't make real links in LJ comments. I do know how to HTML, honest.

[dewline.livejournal.com]

...yeah. Crazification Factor always to be allowed for.

Explains Harper up here.

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

Oh GOD!!!!!!!

*ahem*

sorry

[dewline.livejournal.com]

John Rogers' math too close to the mark?

[agoodwinsmith.livejournal.com]

I knew it. LJ ate my overwrought comment yesterday. Phoo. Suffice it to say that I just loath Harper from top to bottom, and that he would make the Anti Christ blench.

I'm having difficulty recapturing the mathematical contortions I went through, so I am just going to wave my hands, & shout: HARPER - ARRRGH.

[mindstalk.livejournal.com]

metahacker's lizard people link suggests there's a "will bullshit pollsters" factor as well.

[bwross.livejournal.com]

And the more outrageous the question, the more tempting it becomes.

There's also the pedantic factor... many fluorides are very dangerous (eg HF, FOOF).

[agent-mimi.livejournal.com]

And the 27% of the vote Jack Wu received when he ran for office. He's a member of Westboro Baptist who ran for school board in Topeka.

[houseboatonstyx.livejournal.com]

The eternal problem with these kinds of polls is, how many people genuinely think armed rebellion might become necessary, and how many just like saying it?

Or have other reasons for mocking the poll.

http://slatestarcodex.com/2013/04/12/noisy-poll-results-and-reptilian-muslim-climatologists-from-mars/

Here's a good analysis of non-serious answers on another poll.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Heh. Love this bit: (a friend on Facebook pointed out that 5% of Obama voters claimed to believe that Obama was the Anti-Christ, which seems to be another piece of evidence in favor of a Lizardman’s Constant of 4-5%. On the other hand, I do enjoy picturing someone standing in a voting booth, thinking to themselves “Well, on the one hand, Obama is the Anti-Christ. On the other, do I really want four years of Romney?”)

[londonkds.livejournal.com]

Or they think God is evil and the Antichrist is wholly justified.

[bruce munro (from livejournal.com)]

Satanists for Obama!

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

The survey response probably is due to the crazy, but it doesn't strike me as inherently crazy as an opinion.

There's an existential threat. (Climate change, or, rather, the effects of climate change on agriculture. There's _another_ existential threat, the effects of pesticides and herbicides on pollinators leading to another way for agriculture to fail.)

There's a bunch of politicians actively working to prevent anything being done about the existential threats.

It's really not difficult to imagine either a famine, brought on by one or the other or both existential threats, or the response to the famine being "let the market set food prices!"

Were such a point in time to occur, it's very hard to argue that armed rebellion, revolution if you win, wouldn't be an appropriate response.

I could wish that many people were that worried about the food supply.

[pperiwinkle.livejournal.com]

I'm a pretty decent gardener, in a typical year I bring bunches of tomatoes, peppers, herbs, and greens into work to share. So, it's not unusual for people to ask me for gardening advice. What I have noticed in the last 2 to 3 years is that there are a fair number of people looking into self-sufficiency, and that a lot of them believe there is going to be some sort of collapse that will require them to be able to grow their own food for survival.

The reasons for the collapse vary, and some take it more seriously than others, but they want to be prepared to grow their own food. One is going almost full bore survivalist. He's not quite ready to dig a bunker, but he's moving towards acquiring land in a less densely populated area.

[graydon saunders (from livejournal.com)]

Post-roman infrastructure in any particular place kept going until they couldn't make the large numbers of clay pots needed for the Roman-style food storage system. Then the urban population crashed.

A six week interruption in gasoline and diesel deliveries would do more or less the same thing. There's no inherent need or reason for that to happen but Late Capitalism does stuff like that, and once there's political paralysis fixing the stupidity doesn't happen fast enough. Lots of partial examples; Katrina and New Orleans, the refusal to fund Irene cleanup, the general state of roads in the US.

I can see why people are worried.

[neowolf2.livejournal.com]

The word "might" leaves a lot of room. There are plenty of things that "might" happen, even though they have very low probability.