My grandmother believed the 1969 moon landing was a hoax.
“You believe this?” Grandma said when she saw me watching the TV news of Neil Armstrong taking man’s first steps on the moon.
“Yes,” I replied.
“People can’t fly up to heaven,” Grandma announced. “God would destroy them.
“This was done in Hollywood,” she continued, “like the films you watch. Like Indians killing cowboys.”
I knew better than to argue with Grandma about such things. She had seen Cossacks cut the heads off people in her native Poland. She had witnessed government pogroms where Jews were rounded up and killed, or conscripted into the army, which I gather was even worse than being killed.
Brothers of my grandfather, her husband, had been forced to drink lye by their mother to make them medically unfit for military duty. Grandpa, I was told, witnessed this and chose instead to leave his family and country to come to America. I was always proud of him for that.
Oddly, I recently read that about 6% of all Americans agree that the moon landing was a hoax filmed on a movie studio lot. Eleven percent of millennials share Grandma’s view.
I was also stunned to discover online that 16% of Americans believe in the “evil eye.” My grandmother was also a believer and even pointed out a woman to me once who had this powerful ability. By simply looking at you with the evil eye someone could curse you forever. I am amazed no Avenger has ever been given this power.
It’s fascinating what Americans believe, or refuse to believe in.
Nearly one-half of all Americans believe in ghosts and demons.
One in three Americans believe in UFOs and 45% believe in ancient aliens, which may explain the success of the History Channel’s series on the subject. I prefer watching the Swamp People myself. Talk about strange things that really exist.
One in four Americans believe God has a role in who wins the Super Bowl.
Twelve million Americans believe lizard people secretly run the United States.
I don’t expect you to believe me. Seventy-six percent of Republicans believe major news organizations simply make stuff up.
More than 41% of Americans believe dinosaurs and humans roamed the earth at the same time. About 25% believe the sun revolves around the earth. One out of every two people doubts the Big Bang Theory of creation.
It’s funny what people believe in; or refuse to believe.
Despite all these statistics, many people still don’t understand why so many Americans refuse to wear face masks and are amazed to discover that a significant percentage of our population believes COVID-19 is a hoax.
I have a friend who believes the COVID death toll is inflated. According to one poll, 33% of Americans believe auto fatalities, homicides, suicides and random corpses are used to pad the virus statistics.
Many of them believe this because President Trump has said as much, and they trust him.
More people believe in Trump, the GEICO lizard and Tom Selleck’s pitch about reverse mortgages than in science. Just guessing because when famous scientists try to promote face masks and social distancing, millions of people seem to think they are lying. No self-respecting auto insurance company would use a real scientist to promote its products.
A close friend recently died of COVID and I was going to write about him. I realized it wouldn’t matter.
All this news about dead people is depressing. People are tired of hearing about it. And they know what’s true and what isn’t without any help from the fake news media.
So, I wrote about Grandma and the evil eye hoping it would lift your spirits. She wouldn’t have believed all this stuff about a killer virus either. As for people suddenly dropping dead, well that’s why the evil eye was originally invented.
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