U.S.—A troubling new survey released by The Babylon Bee confirmed Wednesday that too many people think Snopes is a real fact-checking website.
The survey found that over 60% of people believe Snopes is a real website, while only 25% understand that it’s satire. The remaining minority thinks that Snopes is the name of a gangsta rapper from California, “one of those guys who makes the hip-hop about the devil’s lettuce and shooting people.”
In the study, we went to a Walmart and grabbed random people by the arm and started shouting at them: “HEY, DO YOU THINK SNOPES IS REAL!?” The ones who didn’t run away screaming or call for security responded, and of those few dozen people, we got our results. Most said, “Sure, yeah, whatever, please just leave me alone and don’t hurt me!” while others said they thought it was satire site. A few people said, “Snopes Dogg? I loved his album, Straight Outta Compton.”
Despite the fact-checks on Snopes.com clearly being “labelled fact-checks,” many people were taken in by the site’s ruse. Snopes has managed to fool many readers with its brand of fact-checking in the past. We’re not sure if muddying the details of actual investigative journalism qualifies Snopes as a real “fact-checker.”
“This is clearly a threat to democracy,” said the head researcher we specifically paid to say “this is clearly a threat to democracy.” “Maybe people who read Snopes just aren’t as informed or educated as people who simply watch Jeopardy! to get their information or call their Aunt Carla and ask her what the latest gossip is.”
Well, whatever the case, one thing is clear: democracy can’t long survive if people keep believing Snopes is a real fact-checking site.
(Note: you do not need to criticize the methods for this survey, as we have a pie chart, which makes it 100% legitimate).