What Americans Fear

I couldn't help but notice that, during some of the political debates of late, the undercurrent of anger across America. It seems were all angry about pretty much everything, but I think it goes beyond anger. I think we're scared.

Every time I see a new poll about what Americans are most concerned about, it goes back to some pretty basic fears. Each poll seems to have the same topics and, though the order of importance in those polls may change, it seems that we are all, to one degree or another, are all afraid of the same things.

The website AYTM has just posted the results of a recent poll and, in it, they asked Americans what they fear the most. Here are the top answers:

4. Roughly 43.9%. of Americans that we will have a financial meltdown. There are tons of people selling books about this very subject and the TV commercials touting those books are pretty scary. It's almost hard to keep in mind that they're just trying to sell books, not ward off a coming disaster.

3. 44.7% say they fear another terror attack, a major one at that, will strike the United States. I hate to be a doomsayer, but I'd say the odds of that happening are actually pretty strong.

2. Donald Trump being elected the next president, 45.2%. I take stats like that with a grain of salt. In the course of taking a survey, one can't tell the political leanings of the respondents. It could be that some people have concerns about the prospect of a Trump presidency, but fear? I suspect some party posing is connected with that figure. It's also worth noting that a Hillary Clinton presidency made the list at number 8. Again, how many of that number were Republicans?

1. Another mass shooting in a school or public place, 51.1%. Of all the subjects on the list, this one is a scary thought. It's interesting to note that, at the time this poll was taken there had been a mass shooting and, as you know, we had one in Michigan just a couple of days ago. It's hard to go to any public place and not think about it just a little bit.

Some of the other fears mentioned in the poll were:

Aliens taking over the earth, a major meteor strike and robots taking over the world.

Find out more about what Americans are feeling and talking about at AYTM