A poll released on Thursday by the Public Religion Research Institute shows that more than one in five Republicans subscribe to the insane conspiracy theory that the U.S. government, the American media, and global financial institutions are run by Satan-worshipping pedophiles.

The poll was highlighted by CNN in a segment on Friday featuring an interview with a woman who claimed, “There’s a lot of people in Hollywood and a lot of people in well, in Washington, D.C. who are in horrible child trafficking – sex trafficking – amongst our youth.”

Fifteen percent of Americans overall share this view, including 23% of Republicans, 12% of independents, and 7% of Democrats.

This belief, of course, is central to the QAnon conspiracy theory. According to one version of it, former President Donald Trump was working to stop a major international child sex trafficking ring.

There are other jarring takeaways from the poll, which also asked respondents about another key element of the QAnon conspiracy theory, namely whether there’s “a storm coming soon that will sweep away the elites in power and restore the rightful leaders.” The poll also asked whether it may be necessary for “true American patriots” to resort to violence to save the country. In both of these cases, 28% of Republicans agreed with these sentiments.

Among those who said they trust far-right news sources like Newsmax and One America News Network, 40% said they believe that the government, media, and financial institutions are run by the aforementioned pedophilic Satan-worshippers.

Though released Thursday, the survey was conducted in March among 5,149 adults in all 50 states. The poll’s margin of error is +/- 1.5 percentage points.

Watch above via CNN.

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