Quote Originally Posted by tequila View Post
Ridiculous beliefs do not only spread because of "lack of proof" - they spread because they justify, confirm, or feed preexisting prejudices. For instance:

Growing Number of Americans Say Obama is a Muslim
There's little doubt the forces you cite are a part of the problem. Yet, from the article you linked come these items:
"When asked how they learned about Obama's religion in an open-ended question, 60% of those who say Obama is a Muslim cite the media. Among specific media sources, television (at 16%) is mentioned most frequently..."
So. Prejudice, etc. or sloppy and pathetic media? The reporting on the topic has not been incisive, to say the least...
About one-in-ten (11%) of those who say Obama is a Muslim say they learned of this through Obama's own words and behavior.
Proving yet again that the infamous 'Ten percent' are always with us...

Probably far more pertinent and indicative of not preexisting predjudices but of how insidious ideology and politics can be:
Beliefs about Obama's religion are closely linked to political judgments about him. Those who say he is a Muslim overwhelmingly disapprove of his job performance, while a majority of those who think he is a Christian approve of the job Obama is doing. Those who are unsure about Obama's religion are about evenly divided in their views of his performance.
Thus one could wonder just how many of those surveyed actually believe him to be a Muslim and how many say they do just for grins -- or other reasons to include both the prejudice you cite and the politics of the moment...