A survey commissioned by Canada’s government has determined that nearly a quarter of Canadians “exhibit relatively high conspiratorial thinking,” according to True North.
Impact Canada polled 1,872 Canadians and found that while 42% of Canadians trust the government to be truthful, more than half (58%) are less trusting of federal institutions and rely more on news from social media, family, and friends.
Furthermore, while 35% of Canadians are “high social media trusting,” 23% were found to be altogether “non-trusting” and exhibit “high conspiratorial thinking”.
The study concluded that social engineering, rather than more regulation, would best combat “misinformation”.
“Relying solely on traditional top-down approaches that aim to regulate content are insufficient at limiting the immediate dangers of misinformation,” the study claimed.
“Innovative policy-making tools such as behavioural science can help provide immediate and long term solutions to misinformation.”
The survey suggests that Canadians are more trusting of government than their southern neighbors.
According to a New York Times/Siena poll last year, most Americans believe the government serves elites, not the people, and that mainstream media are a threat to democracy.
Of the 792 registered voters surveyed between October 9-12, 68% believe “the government mainly works to benefit powerful elites,” while 22% believe it “mainly works to benefit ordinary people.”
Furthermore, most Americans believe government itself is a threat to democracy.
71% of Americans believe democracy is facing a threat, which respondents felt could best be summarized by “The government” or “government corruption” or “non-specific politicians/leaders”.
Most Americans (66%), in fact, believe the federal government is a threat to democracy, evenly split between those who believe it is a “major threat” and those who believe it is a “minor threat”.
Ill will towards the federal government has become a growing theme throughout several recent polls.
In August, a national survey found that nearly 8 in 10 Americans believe the United States has a two-tiered justice system, with politicians and members of the D.C. elite treated differently than ordinary Americans.
Also in August, a Rasmussen report revealed that 53% of American voters agree with former adviser to President Trump Roger Stone’s quote that there is “a group of politicized thugs at the top of the FBI who are using the FBI . . . as Joe Biden‘s personal Gestapo.” The number was up from 46% in December 2021.
The friction between the American people and the federal government becomes even more sober considering that over one quarter of Americans feel it might “soon be necessary to take up arms” against the federal government according to a University of Chicago poll.
The poll of 1,000 Americans found that 28% of Americans, 37% of whom have guns in their homes, feel “it may be necessary at some point soon for citizens to take up arms against the government.”
In addition, most Americans feel the government is “corrupt and rigged against everyday people like me,” including 73% of Republicans and 51% of Democrats. “Overall, two-thirds of Republican and Independent voters agree that the government is ‘corrupt and rigged’ against them, while Democrats are evenly split,” revealed the survey.
