It’s a rather sad survey, though it might not be entirely surprising: Millennials and Generation Z members know very little about communism. Given how they’ve voted, especially during the Democratic primaries (i.e. Feel The Bern), I’m sure it’s not too shocking, though it goes a bit further. It’s almost depressing. The Victims Of Communism Memorial Foundation did a poll about Millennial attitudes for far left using YouGov and found that one-third of them believe George W. Bush killed more people than Joseph Stalin. I would say it could be due to an overdose of MSNBC viewing, but that network doesn’t rally have an audience, especially when compared to Fox News and CNN. Seventy-five percent don’t know that communist governments have murdered more than 100 million people.
Almost 60 percent of Generation Z (Americans aged 16-20) falsely believes that Adolf Hitler killed more people that Stalin. They’re not alone. YouGov/VOC found that 68 percent of all Americans felt the same way. Still, a majority of Millennial (55 percent) feels that communism is still a problem. That's good, though it pales in comparison to their peers; 80 percent of Baby Boomers and 91 percent of elderly Americans have stronger opinions about communism being a pernicious force in our sociopolitical world.
With our economy in a state of torpor under President Obama, more young Americans are still living with their parents, their degree in social justice warrior studies isn’t yielding them six-figure salaried jobs, and they have mountains of debt to pay off for obtaining that degree in safe space sciences. Well, of course, you flock to a self-described democratic socialist from Vermont, with a heavy Brooklyn accent that advocates free stuff.
That’s certainly exacerbated these findings. Four in ten want a complete change in our economy to make sure the rich pay their fair share in taxes; 53 percent of Millennials think our current economy works against them; they’re not familiar, nor do they agree, with the ideas of Milton Friedman (Gen Z: 55 percent; Millennials: 58 percent); 45 percent of Generation Z members would vote for a socialist; and 1 in 5 would vast a ballot for a communist. Oh, and, of course, both Millennials and Generation Z agreed more with Sanders’ free stuff agenda (both scored 71 percent compared to Friedman).
Executive Director of VOC Marion Smith said, “One of the concerns the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation has had since its establishment is that an emerging generation of Americans have little understanding of the collectivist system and its dark history.”
Now, certainly young Americans need to understand the detrimental impact communism has on a society, but support for such oppressive economic systems seems to evaporate once these kids finds jobs. In fact, once an American begins making more the $40,000 a year, support for income redistribution drops precipitously. Also, younger millennials seem to be trending more right-of-center. In 2012, 57 percent of self-identified 18-year-old voters backed Mitt Romney over Obama. The same went for 19-year-olds (59 percent) and 20-year-olds (54 percent).
So, there is hope that we can end the Millennial/Generation Z’s tryst with far left politics, with more job opportunities and educations programs from VOC that shows the catastrophe that occurs when these government run out of money, which always happens. If they thought debt and no job was bad, how about no electricity, no food, no medicine, no emergency services—a complete societal collapse from this dalliance with the left wing. I wonder if there’s a country where all of this is happening right now after promising people free stuff. Oh wait; that would be Venezuela, where things are so bad due to their experiment with 21st Century Socialism that a scraped knee could mean death thanks for shortages of about pretty much everything.