Americans fear US government corruption and cyber-terrorism more than terrorism, according to a new survey from Chapman University. (Photo by Flickr user Florian F. via Creative Commons license)
Americans are more afraid of U.S. government corruption than they are of potential terrorist attacks.
According to a Chapman University survey, 58 percent of people say they were either afraid or very afraid of corruption on the part of government officials, while 44.4 percent report fearing man-made disasters such as a terrorist attack.
Government corruption tops a list of 88 potential fears and anxieties that 1,541 people from across the country were asked about.
Almost half of Americans say they fear cyber terrorism and having their online information tracked by the government and corporations.
The survey broke fear down into 10 major domains, including categories such as crime, personal anxieties and technology, as well as man-made and natural disasters.
The other top 10 fears include corporate tracking of personal information, terror attacks, bio-warfare, identity theft, running out of money and credit card fraud.
Ultimately people seem to be more afraid of disasters created by man than those nature dishes out.
The most-feared natural disasters are pandemics, rather than hurricanes or earthquakes, and when it comes to personal anxieties, fear of reptiles tops the list. Global warming is the main environmental concern and when it comes to daily life, death is what people fear the most.
Other fears include war, heights, insects, loneliness and the dark.
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The Obama administration keeps secrets from the American people and even from Congress. The secret Obamacare implementation, the secret Iran nuclear deal, the secret trade deals, the secret spying on Americans and foreign governments, it’s no wonder that Americans fear the government, fear of the unknown. The transparency promised by the Obama administration is just another big lie.
Of this list…….not much to be afraid of. Better to be planning or at the very least thinking about your recourse to imagined or real events, but don’t dwell on it.
Increasing debt limits is like increasing your credit card limits. We are living on borrowed money. Wars don’t spur economy. The intrinsic wealth of the US is getting eroded, no doubt about it. We can run but not hide forever.
I wish the data were more specific. Degrees of fear are one thing, but I am more interested in things such as likelihood of occurrence and potential severity to my life. Personally, I do not fear terrorists. I do fear greatly that my country may be attacked by terrorists. Corruption of government officials unfortunately is rampant to the point that to describe someone as a politician means they lie. I worry that people will be so fooled by the lies that they vote for politicians that will not do as they say, but still get reelected anyway. Obama is the best example of this I have seen, but Bill and Hillary are right up there. Remember, you get to keep your doctor and your insurance coverage! Bill claimed to have balanced the budget instead of the congress. Never mind that he submitted higher budgets and congress trimmed it down. Of course she knew she should use the official mail servers for official business. You only do that if you intend to hide something and maintain plausible deniability. Delete or modify any email that incriminates you was Hillary’s purpose. The Justice Department will not prosecute an Obama appointee without Obama approval. They stick together ya know! Obama knows whatever sticks to her will stick to his legacy.
The problem of ethnic criminality is high in Europe,where it is active. Obama`s presidency attract many black people to the government services and promoted businesses. The “crony” capitalism accusations arealways actual and are strengthened today.This worries people.
I’m afraid of heights. No, I am terrified of heights. What the government does, or terrorists do, do not scare me in the least, but heights scare the pants off me.
I realize most of the comments here have substantially nothing to do with the topic being presented and are simple diatribes against the current President, but may undoubtedly be more indicative of the reduced level of education America has undergone over the last 30 or 40 years or so. But has anyone actually looked at the grouping of categories that this Born-Again Christian college has assembled for their survey? If you are afraid of government corruption, are you also afraid of immigration issues or gun control? However, the three issues are grouped under the same categorical heading. By creating Domains of Fear that are horizontally co-related but not necessarily corresponding it seems to have severely hampered the associations that in some instances seem viable. For many of these group selections the associations seem disparate at best. Hopefully, however, the fear of government corruption is a reflection and byproduct of the 2008 crisis that is still with us but goes on unanswered and unaddressed. Hopefully, the failure by the government to go after anyone for those criminal transgressions is reflected (even if it is confusingly so) in the survey by the survey participants’ fear of corruption by government officials and the settling recognition that the U.S. government has been bought by the criminals that finance the writing of the law.