Ross: Our culture wars may be based on a vastly inflated perception

There is a tidal wave of culture change washing over America – you can ask anybody and they’ll tell you. The country is filling up with foreigners and sexual minorities, … you can hardly find a white English-speaking person any more.

I think we’ve all heard those complaints.

And so YouGov America, which conducts opinion polls, asked a sampling of Americans to guess what proportion of the population belonged to various categories.

For example – what proportion of households are rich – as in, they make over a $500,000 a year? The median guess was that 19% of households make over 500K.

What percentage of the population are transgender? The median guess was 12%.

What proportion are Muslim? Median guess was 20%.

Native American? Also 20%.

And then YouGov compared the guesses to the actual numbers.

And for each one of the categories I mentioned – households making over 500K, transgender, Muslim, Native American – each group is at 1% in real life!

Let’s try some other categories. Proportion of Americans who are gay or lesbian? The survey said 24%. Actual number: 3%.

Atheists – the survey said 28%. Actual number: 3%.

Here’s one – vegetarians! We’ve all seen how many meat impersonators are in the grocery stores. That’s probably why Americans believe that 25% of the country is vegetarian. But the actual number is 5%.

And we don’t just OVERESTIMATE the truth – sometimes we UNDERESTIMATE the truth.

Like the number of Americans who are Christian. The survey sample guessed 57% of us are Christian. The actual number is 70%.

IF this is true, it means the tidal wave of culture change is more like a ripple.

By the way it also turns out we’re smarter than we think – when asked to guess how many Americans have read at least one book in the past year, the survey sample guessed only 50%. The actual number is 77%. And we’re also thinner than we think — the survey sample guessed 56% of Americans are obese, when it’s actually only 42%. Gold star, America!

Now, you can challenge all these numbers; I am trusting YouGov to be telling the truth. And if they are it means our culture wars are based on a vastly inflated perception of the alleged threat.

I would also observe that there is one glaring omission in this study. It failed to ask the most important question facing America right now, which is: How many Americans are currently involved in a conspiracy? My guess would be 100% – but I have a feeling the real number is much higher.

Of course, if you’ve been red-pilled, you know that already.

Listen to Seattle’s Morning News with Dave Ross and Colleen O’Brien weekday mornings from 5 – 9 a.m. on KIRO Newsradio, 97.3 FM. Subscribe to the podcast here.

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