More than one-third of Americans believe Israel is committing genocide, poll shows

Propaganda is a powerful tool.

way down at the bottom here::

opt in polling from web based "interview". So, probably. nobody even remotely tech savy (aka has an ad blocker) ever participated. but anyhow... here's what pew research has to say about the effects of interview mode:

Where differences occurred, they were especially large on three broad types of questions: Items that asked the respondent to assess the quality of their family and social life produced differences of 18 and 14 percentage points, respectively, with those interviewed on the phone reporting higher levels of satisfaction than those who completed the survey on the Web.

Questions about societal discrimination against several different groups also produced large differences, with telephone respondents more apt than Web respondents to say that gays and lesbians, Hispanics and blacks face a lot of discrimination. However, there was no significant mode difference in responses to the question of whether women face a lot of discrimination.

Web respondents were far more likely than those interviewed on the phone to give various political figures a “very unfavorable” rating, a tendency that was concentrated among members of the opposite party of each figure rated.

Statistically significant mode effects also were observed on several other questions. Telephone respondents were more likely than those interviewed on the Web to say they often talked with their neighbors, to rate their communities as an “excellent” place to live and to rate their own health as “excellent.” Web respondents were more likely than phone respondents to report being unable to afford food or needed medical care at some point in the past twelve months.

ultimately, the legitimacy of the poll would depend on where they solicited their subjects in the poll. You're likely to get a far different answer with advertisements on Truth Social than you would with advertisements on, lets say, a palistinian-american subreddit. but that wasn't addressed in the report, so. we'll never really know.

Pretty easy now to see how Nazi Germany got away with it.

I wonder how many people in that poll could locate Gaza on a map with no names.

My parents are in the other two thirds

no, most of us just know what a genocide actually is

"It's just a sparkling massacre"

So at least 1/3 have brain damage.

Holy shit brah are you a detective

How are Americans this brainwashed?

This isn't limited to the US. What are Israeli citizens doing? Personally i think the US should just stay the fuck out of it and take back whatever stuff we can that we gave them. Cut off support and actively denounce, but they won't.

Propaganda. An abysmal education system. Failing social structures. Corrupt media. Networks of the wealthy using their influence to push society in the direction they desire.

Actually 1/3 said it is genocide, 1/3 said it isn't, and 1/3 said they didn't know. Also, only1/3 of Americans saying this is a genocide isn't great, but it does represent a huge shift in opinion in a short time. Both our political parties support Israel, our news media doesn't cover Palestinians very sympathetically, and our education system tells a very favorable version of Israel's founding (most Americans don't even learn about the Nakba). I don't think criticism of Israel has ever been this mainstream (at least in my lifetime).

Average Us public have no clue what is going on in their own country, it is actually amazing there 1/3 know at least there is a genocide taking place.

Murdering people at a music festival and taking hostages might have an effect on public perception.

Well, did my family join Hamas and then force me to stay to die as a martyr inside a building that Israel just told us they were going to bomb?

I think I'd be fine with the US not calling that genocide. If they did I hope they'd at least blame the actually responsible party.

this is depressing.

I'm not going to comment on whether or not Hamas' attack was genocidal, because even if they meant it to be, I just don't they have the capability. but like... Israel is bombing fucking hospitals and refugee camps inside the strip. That's not how you go about "avoiding civilian casualties".

the only side worth supporting here are the civilians caught in the middle.

Depressing. Mainstream media is such a cancer.

But the news keeps telling me life is improving for the average American. The News.

this is not the issue that is going to really hurt Biden

That's not my reading of the poll:

35% say it is, 36% say it isn’t, with 29% undecided.
Almost half of those surveyed aged 18-29, 49%, say Israel is committing genocide, with 24% disagreeing and 27% uncertain.
The figures are broadly similar for registered Democrats, who believe 49%-21% in the genocide characterization, while 30% are undecided.

Half of all young people and half of all Democrats believe it's a genocide, with more undecided than disbelieving. Those numbers are not likely to get better as the IDF kills more Palestinians.

Biden's not likely to pick up republican votes based on this issue, but he is quite likely to drive down youth and democrat turn out by being out of touch with his base.

I think that shows that this is not the issue that is going to really hurt Biden.

How so?

No, unfortunately, this issue is now actually going to hurt Biden. Opinions are shifting much more rapidly than expected, but unless it's overwhelming, he's in a no-win scenario. The best hope at this point is that opinion continues to change rapidly, and Biden follows suit. But even that's only damage control. Too many are against Israel's genocide to ignore, and too many are pro-Israel's genocide to ignore. Either way he's going to lose votes.

It’s basically a three way split. 1/3rd yes, 1/3rd no, 1/3rd undecided.

Consider how out-of-touch vast swathes of Americans are on foreign affairs, or even on domestic affairs, and it's pretty reasonable IMO. I suspect a major chunk of the people answering this don't even know that anything significant has changed in the past few months and this "genocide/not-genocide" answer is just based on their vague general knowledge of the usual Israel/Palestine interaction.

Frankly, I think 1/3 answering "genocide" sounds positive to me. That's enough to perhaps make some politicians think "maybe I can't wholeheartedly throw complete support behind Israel and not have to worry about it having an electoral impact this time."

I'm guessing there are people who know it's a genocide, support it because it's a genocide, but won't call it a genocide for various reasons.

Some of them may even be Republicans. The ones I've seen mostly scream accusations and abuse if you say that Democrats shouldn't be supporting genocide.

I saw that Freudian slip, good job 👍

The realisation in that "Oh!" is just 👩‍🍳^{‍👌❤️}

LMAO

35% say it is, 36% say it isn’t, with 29% undecided.

Seems the headline makes it seem that way, but in reality we seem to be having a close race

TBF that includes republicans.

What makes you think that? Just because you believe it is genocide (and I believe it is genocide) doesn't mean the majority of Americans do.

Like it or not, a lot of Americans, especially a lot of the devoutly Christian ones, are big supporters of Israel.

Why do you think pro-Israel politicians keep getting elected? They don't make a secret about their stance on Israel. Some of them even brag about it.

1,659 is a fine sample size?