Leftism Greatest Historical Killer

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Author, Speaker, Instructor, Radio Host


According to the World Health Organization, heart disease and stroke combined for 15 million deaths in 2015 (5 million die from stroke, and 10 million die from various forms of heart disease).  Chronic obstructive pulmonary disease claimed 3.2 million lives in 2015, while lung cancer (along with trachea and bronchus cancers) caused 1.7 million deaths. Diabetes killed 1.6 million people in 2015, up from less than 1 million in 2000. Deaths due to dementias more than doubled between 2000 and 2015, making it the 7th leading cause of global deaths in 2015.

Lower respiratory infections remained the most deadly communicable disease, causing 3.2 million deaths worldwide in 2015. The death rate from diarrhoeal diseases almost halved between 2000 and 2015, but still caused 1.4 million deaths in 2015. Similarly, tuberculosis killed fewer people during the same period, but is still among the top 10 causes with a death toll of 1.4 million. HIV/AIDS is no longer among the world’s top 10 causes of death, having killed 1.1 million people in 2015 compared with 1.5 million in 2000.

Road injuries killed 1.3 million people in 2015, about three-quarters (76%) of whom were men and boys.

The CDC states that Worldwide, tobacco use causes nearly 6 million deaths per year, and current trends show that tobacco use will cause more than 8 million deaths annually by 2030.

Leftism is deadlier than all of those causes of death.

In the Twentieth Century the following leftist ideologies killed. . .

● 40-70 million killed. China under Chairman Mao. Single Party Socialism. 1958-61 “The Great Leap Forward”.
● 20 million killed. USSR under Joseph “socialism in one country” Stalin. 1936-52 “The Great Purge”.
● 40 million killed. USSR under all other leaders.
● 4 million killed. Cambodia under Pol Pot. Communist. 1975-79.

● 1.6 million murdered; 4 million killed in hard labor. North Korea under Kim Il Sung. Independent socialist State.
● 1.15 million killed. Yugoslavia under Josip ” socialist federation President” Tito. 1945-65.
● 1 million total killed. Ethiopia under Menghistu. Communist. 1975-1978 “The Red Terror.”
● 1 million killed. Indonesia under Suharto. Communist. 1966.
● 1 million killed from genocide; this does not include war casualties. Afghanistan under Brezhnev. Communist. 1979 – 1981.
● 800,000 killed. Rwanda under Jean Kambanda. 1994. Socialist.

● Fascism*: 28 million

Grand total: Potentially, over 168 million people have died due to leftism.  Note, this number does not include deaths as a result of socialist programs in Europe, or the deaths by the regimes in Cuba and Venezuela, or past regimes in El Salvador or Nicaragua.

* Fascism, while called "rightwing", is actually a form of socialism that controls the means of production through heavy regulations, and is actually a form of leftism.

Communist Regime numbers retrieved from https://rickkelo.liberty.me/socialism-mass-murder

Think about the death toll by leftism the next time the Democrats tell you that they have your best interest at heart, or the next time a snowflake tells you they think socialism is a good thing.

According to polls, the majority of millennials say they would prefer to live in a socialist, communist or fascist nation rather than a capitalistic one.

In the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation’s “Annual Report on U.S. Attitudes Toward Socialism,” 58 percent of the up-and-coming generation opted for one of the three systems, compared to 42 percent who said they were in favor of capitalism.

The problem is, the younger generation does not truly understand what socialism is.

How is it that 1 in 5 millennials think Joseph Stalin was a “hero.”

The Daily Signal says media outlets like the New York Times are partially to blame.

Young people have had little personal experience with the half-century battle between Soviet tyranny and American freedom.

Apologies and even wistful nostalgia for the high tide of communist revolution are being peddled in the pages of mainstream liberal outlets like The New York Times. 

>>> The New York Times Continues Its Tradition of Whitewashing Communism 

The Times has shockingly featured a section called “Red Century,” which is all about the 100-year anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution in Russia and its aftermath. 

While the section has editorials about the evils of communism, it also features numerous pieces that actually celebrate or make excuses for it. 

It has run a puff piece on Vladimir Lenin being an environmentalist, praised the sex life of women behind the Iron Curtain, and published flattering profiles of Communist Party organizers, among numerous other absurdities. 

While it’s certainly reasonable to have a discussion of communism’s legacy, it’s jarring to see so many favorable columns devoted to the primary geopolitical existential threat to the United States in the 20th century. 

As John O’Sullivan noted in National Review, the whole tenor of the section treats communism like “a noble experiment conducted in less than ideal conditions.” 

One has to ask: Would the Times have had a similar section with glowing pieces about fascism at 100 years? 

Of course not, and for good reason. 

But this is part of a larger cultural normalization of a destructive creed that lay dormant but was never entirely extinguished in the last few decades. 

And now its back in vogue. 

It’s no wonder that so many millennials have a fanciful view of the ideology that took more lives than any other creed in human history, that destroyed civilizations, and nearly plunged the world into darkness.

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