Bush Is Worse Than Stalin? Millennials Say US President Killed More People Than Communist Leader

One-third of American millennials think former President George W. Bush was responsible for more deaths than Soviet Leader Joseph Stalin.

This reveal, along with the fact that more than one in five U.S. millennials would be open to backing a communist candidate, was uncovered by a recent survey commissioned by the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation and carried out by YouGov. Millennials have surpassed Baby Boomers as the largest living generation in the U.S.

The survey, released Monday, polled 2,300 Americans of all ages about their attitudes towards communism, socialism and the American economic system in general. The majority of Americans remain against socialism and communism. Sixty-seven percent believe rich people don’t pay “their fair share” and fifty two percent believe America’s economic system works against them.

Yet the survey found millennials are generally more sympathetic towards communism. While fifty seven percent of respondents overall had a “very unfavorable” view of communism, 38 percent of millennials felt the same way. Nearly 20 percent said of millennials they were likely to vote for a communist, while barely 50 percent said they were likely to vote for a capitalist.

Millennials also had a more favorable view of communist leaders than the average American. Twenty-five percent view Soviet revolutionary leader Vladimir Lenin positively, 34 percent were favorable to German socialist Karl Marx and 37 percent were favorable to Argentinian revolutionary Che Guevara, a Communist leader in the Cuban Revolution.

But perhaps most surprising was millennials' feelings about Bush and Stalin, as the latter — a renowned Communist — is credited with ordering up to tens of millions of deaths during his 29-year run as the chief political figure of the Soviet Union.

Overall, younger generations were less favorable to capitalism and less receptive to Milton Friedman’s capitalist ideals when polled against Bernie Sanders, Karl Marx and the Bible.

It was not immediately clear what the survey's margin of error was.