WASHINGTON — With the infamous “Doomsday Clock” only 90 seconds away from midnight, polls continue to show that an overwhelming number of Americans distrust the federal government to save them in a global emergency. Those misgivings are unlikely to fade after the release of an unnerving report saying President Joe Biden’s memory “was significantly limited.”
“At trial, Mr. Biden would likely present himself to a jury, as he did during our interview of him, as a sympathetic, well-meaning, elderly man with a poor memory,” according to special counsel Robert Hur’s new report.
The stunning claims surely add fuel to the fire that the United States, and possibly the rest of the world, is not prepared to handle a threat which could wipe out civilization. One such survey from BonusFinder.com found that a staggering 71 percent of Americans distrust the government’s ability to support the population during a doomsday scenario.
Climate change ranked as the top doomsday scenario with 56 percent of participants believing severe weather events and extreme temperatures will end the world. Natural disasters (47%) and disease (37%) are among the top concerns as likely causes of a global catastrophe, with social media (17%) playing a significant role in motivating individuals to begin their doomsday preparations.
According to the May 2023 poll of 6,200 Americans, respondents in Arizona had the highest levels of distrust in the federal government’s ability to prevent a doomsday event (82%). Respondents in Kansas (78%), Alabama (77%), Pennsylvania (77%), and Oregon (76%) rounded out the top five states displaying the most distrust.
Are government leaders too old for the job?
With the new report detailing Mr. Biden’s allegedly failing memory, another question grows even louder: Does American politics have an age problem? Researchers in Sweden say the United States is in danger of alienating younger adults who see their elected officials getting older and older every year.
Despite making up half of the world’s population, people under the age of 30 lack government representation from people of their own generation. The 2023 study found only two percent of people under 30 have a seat in a legislative assembly. A team at the University of Gothenburg suggested that underrepresentation of young people, especially in America, may cause democracy to suffer.
“According to a September 2022 poll by CBS News, 47 percent responded that politics would improve if there were more younger people in politics. Another survey in the USA indicated that 9 out of 10 Americans feel that 75 should be the maximum age for serving as President,” says political scientist Aksel Sundström, in a university release.
More people believe in ghosts than elected officials!
So, just how bad are the polls for those in political office right now? It turns out that even in the United Kingdom, not many people are putting their faith in government.
In fact, a 2022 survey found that more people believe in ghosts than trust their elected leaders. The poll of nearly 1,000 people in the U.K., commissioned by SpiritShack Ltd, found that 50 percent believe in the existence of ghosts. Meanwhile, just one in five say they have faith in the government.
Researchers also found that more people believe in spirits (50%) than they do in “Big Brother” — the belief that the government has everything you do under constant surveillance (38%). It also turns out that more than twice as many people believe in ghosts than trust in the media.
According to the survey, the only supernatural phenomena people believe in more are déjà vu and aliens. Three in five respondents believe in both of these topics. One in 20 add they’ve actually seen or interacted with a UFO.
Even the government admits they’re not ready for some threats
Speaking of UFOs, over seven percent of the BonusFinder.com survey believe doomsday will come at the hands of an alien invasion. Unfortunately for all of us humans, the government itself admits we’d likely be doomed if there was an attack from space.
The U.S. Department of Defense released this damning conclusion after reviewing a recent report on widespread incidents of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) — better known by the public as UFOs.
The Department of Defense’s Office of Inspector General (DoD OIG) says that, whether these unexplained sightings are alien spaceships or man-made human aircraft, the U.S. government doesn’t have a clear plan to deal with the potential threat in the skies right now. Inspector General Robert P. Storch says, currently, there is no coordinated method to handle these UAP sightings.
Think of it as if multiple people were trying to solve a puzzle, but everyone is using different methods without talking to each other – it’s confusing and inefficient. Now, add in the possibility that some of the officials in charge of solving that problem may be dealing with the cognitive issues tied to old age. Will the Doomsday Clock tick forward in 2024? Time will tell.
The Doomsday Clock is another way of keeping people scared so they’ll want more government.
As far as people being “too old” that’s an individual matter, but one safeguard would be to have a high turnover in the bureaucracy. Maybe a return to the spoils system.
“This is a concern because cynicism can make it harder for people to make sense of political information, leading to apathy, disengagement, or even a turn towards fringe parties and antidemocratic forms of participation.”
lol so in other words, cynicism threatens to disrupt the status quo and we can’t have that.