UH OH: Disturbing number of young Americans favor communism, poll finds

According to a poll commissioned by the Washington, D.C. area nonprofit Victims of Communism, 70 percent of Millennials say they are likely to vote for a socialist while one in three view communism favorably. 

The same poll also reported that 27 percent of people believe President Donald Trump is the biggest threat to world peace. The survey placed the U.S. president over North Korea dictator Kim Jong Un, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Chinese President Xi Jinping, and Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro. 

According to YouGov, 36 percent of millennials say they approve of communism. That percentage is up almost 10 percent from 2018. 

While most college students today are not technically “millennials,” since Pew Research identifies members of that generation as those who were between the ages of 23 and 38 in 2019, more than one-third of the millennial generation is college-educated, the most ever for a single generation, according to City Lab. 

The majority of students in college today are considered Generation Z, or those who fall between the ages of 7 and 22. 

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The report also included other jarring statistics, including how 22 percent of millennials believe “society would be better if all private property was abolished.” In addition, 45 percent of Generation Z and millennials agree that “all higher education should be free.”

The Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation Executive Director Marion Smith describes this shift as the “historical amnesia” about the dangers of communism and socialism. In a statement, Smith said, “When we don’t educate our youngest generations about the historical truth of 100 million victims murdered at the hands of communist regimes over the past century, we shouldn’t be surprised at their willingness to embrace Marxist ideas.”

In 2017, Campus Reform covered a story in which a poll had similar findings: that “more millennials would prefer to live under a socialist regime than a capitalist one, though only about one-third of respondents were able to successfully define the term “socialism.”

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Joseph Eklach, University of Florida Turning Point USA vice president, reacted to this poll in a statement to Campus Reform.

“Our generation doesn’t appreciate freedom because they take it for granted living in the USA. They’re in a privileged position only first world nations afford that allows them to advocate for equality. Our colleges fail to teach our generation of the failures of socialism and the successes of capitalism,” Eklach said. 

Campus Reform reached out to the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation for comment but did not hear back in time for publication. 

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