U.S. politics continue to be a chaotic subject, and a new poll finds the majority of Americans are rapidly losing faith in their country’s leaders. From the ousting of the Speaker of the House to the mounting controversies engulfing the current president and his predecessor, over seven in 10 people say there’s no one they trust to save them from an end-of-the-world event. Such problems only push the so-called “Doomsday Clock” to tick closer to end times.
Established in 1947 by a group of atomic scientists, including the revered Albert Einstein, the Doomsday Clock serves as a barometer for humanity’s proximity to global annihilation.
It is a metaphorical measure of humanity’s vulnerability to cataclysmic events, such as nuclear war, climate change, pandemics, or asteroid impacts. The closer the clock’s hands are to midnight, the closer we presumably are to a doomsday scenario.
According to a survey of 6,200 Americans conducted by BonusFinder.com, 71.2 percent of Americans say they have no faith in the U.S. government to save them or prevent a doomsday event. Even more unnerving, many respondents believe Doomsday could come within the next year.
Over half the poll (55.8%) think Doomsday will come in the form of a climate change-related catastrophe, while a third believe another virus will sweep the globe and a quarter of respondents fear the start of World War III.
Another seven percent are betting on an alien invasion, while the same number believe 2024 will finally be the year zombies walk the Earth.
When it comes to the lack of faith in the U.S. government, researchers found that this growing distrust appears to be a bipartisan issue. Researchers found that a staggering 82 percent of respondents in the swing state of Arizona don’t trust the government to protect them from Doomsday. Moreover, 43 percent of these Americans have stored up supplies for a potential disaster.
Following Arizona, the top five states with the least amount of trust in the government include Kansas (78%), Alabama (78%), Pennsylvania (77%), and Oregon (76%).
