Shock headline makes shock poll even more shocking: Nazis are (apparently) everywhere

The poll, conducted after a full week of media coverage of Charlottesville and the aftermath, was sponsored and funded by the Washington Post and ABC News, but it was the headline and tweet added by The Hill that really spiced things up and convinced a lot of people on social media that the number of Nazis in the United States is in the double digits.

NEW POLL: American support for neo-Nazi views nearly double digits https://t.co/7FwXO3J1fV pic.twitter.com/ps5iiRfn4u

— The Hill (@thehill) August 21, 2017

Wow, that really is high. Support for neo-Nazi views near the double-digits?

Another example of "the Trump-effect".

— Grey_Obelisk (@Grey_Obelisk) August 21, 2017

https://twitter.com/Alex_Perdue56/status/899776464819761152

Support increasing for Nazism and authoritarianism. Trump didn't create these people, but he's towing them into deeper water. https://t.co/SPrM9veofD

— Jared Yates Sexton (@JYSexton) August 21, 2017

And water is wet…Charlottesville was not a wake up call to many of us who have BEEN living under this Amerikkka for years ?? https://t.co/7UXYWQABBo

— Tee Mo (@teemo2006) August 21, 2017

Fringe movement my ass. 9% of America is 29M people. We have to be organized and we have to be careful people. #FightWhiteSupremacy https://t.co/tVLhMqT2cb

— Nathan Taft (@Nathantaft) August 21, 2017

https://twitter.com/UnderCoverLeft/status/899777070624059396

This is why liberals must take antifa seriously. https://t.co/O8EHTzP0Jb

— the chads (@chad_black_) August 21, 2017

https://twitter.com/ShaneLongshadow/status/899778332014727168

Nazism does not need to be a majority to cause real harm. Double digits is enough for a major party to pay attention. https://t.co/2N9JlIvADQ

— ? דיבוק מן החיצונים ? (@willoftzeentch) August 22, 2017

Yeah, about that … we have some questions, especially after an NPR/PBS/Marist poll conducted the week before found that 4 percent of American adults “mostly agree” with the white supremacy movement, and that number (thought still uncomfortably high) was pretty evenly spread among Democrats, Republicans, and Independents.

And speaking of Independents, of those responding to the Washington Post/ABC News poll, 42 percent of those responding said they considered themselves Independents, 33 percent were Democrats, and only 22 percent were Republicans. That’s … odd.

And for what it’s worth — we’re not the polling experts here — the question asked in this new poll wasn’t, “Do you hold Nazi beliefs?” Rather, it was, “Do you yourself think it’s acceptable or unacceptable to hold neo-Nazi or white supremacist views?” Who knows how many of those polled took that to mean it’s OK to be a neo-Nazi, and how many interpreted it as being free to hold a viewpoint, no matter how heinous?

That’s not true. 9% said it was “acceptable” to hold those views, not that they held those views themselves.

83% said it was unacceptable. https://t.co/XryxykYXGs

— Mighty Yena (@hyenagirl64) August 21, 2017

Too late to reword the question and the sensational headline, huh?

Pray tell, what is a "neo-Nazi view"? Admiring Thomas Jefferson? https://t.co/7FEJS4qMJ7

— BlackMinorcaPullets (@MinorcaPullets) August 21, 2017

We’d give numbers of those who said it was acceptable to hold communist views/support the antifa movement, but no one asked this time around.

Alternative headline:

American support for neo-Nazi views is in the single digits. https://t.co/kpD2FyTXCZ

— Pam (@lemoneyes) August 21, 2017

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Related:

Poll shows pretty even party spread among those who ‘mostly agree’ with white supremacists; Antifa who? https://t.co/VyX5VcAf0i

— Twitchy Team (@TwitchyTeam) August 16, 2017