[OC] Communism vs fascism: which would Britons pick?
September 16, 2024
[OC] Communism vs fascism: which would Britons pick?
Posted by mattsmithetc
25 comments
In January 1939, the British Institute of Public Opinion posed the question: if you HAD to choose between communism and fascism, which would you choose?
85 years later, we have asked the same question at YouGov. As of 2024, 39% of Britons say communism, 10% fascism, while 51% say “don’t know”.
The 1939 study didn’t offer a “don’t know” option, but if we exclude those who gave that answer from our study, we find similar results – in 1939 the public backed communism over fascism by 74% to 26%, while today that stands at 80% to 20%.
The vast majority (85%) who did make a choice between the two said that their pick was the lesser of two evils, rather than because they think it is a good system.
Nevertheless, there are sizeable minorities among some voting groups who do think one of the systems is good. This is particularly the case among the Greens, of whom 19% believe communism to be a good system. By contrast, only 2% of Reform UK voters and 1% of Tory voters believe fascism is a good system.
Interesting how just about no one (other than Reform voters) would choose Fascism over Communism at least.
Though I suppose a lot of the don’t know voters perhaps have an answer and simply are ashamed to voice it.
Seems like roo many “I don’t knows” to hold any statistical relevance.
The only difference between those two are economic policies. They are both authoritarian hellscapes who their neighbors hate.
They’re both dictatorships so why does it matter?
Do the majority of people understand what Communism and Facism are? I feel like the goalposts for both are changing all the time. I see groups labeled as Communist or Far-right who are clearly not.
I wonder how much of that is britian’s history of fighting facism. I Dont think it would be innacurate to say that even today, the second world war is kind of the bedrock of british culture. If we had instead spent 6 years fighting the soviets, I wonder how different this would be.
We never really got emotionally invested in the cold war like the yanks did, so I’d also love to see how it looks over there
Interesting, considering vastly more have died under Communism then Fascism.
I want to meet the green voters that preferred fascism and the reform voters that preferred communism.
How many people know how Marx and Engels defined communism ? ( a stateless , moneyless , classless society )
‘if you HAD to choose’ and idk qualifies as an answer đź‘Ť
In a way it’s a pretty interesting thought experiment. I’m not a fan of either, but I do know which one I’d likely pick.
If you pick communism, you’ll get fascism anyway lol
Guess people thought Fascism = Nazis and Communism = some ideology that has some good and bad sides but never really works.
Of course the lesser evil would be Communism in that case.
Overall, Communism killed more people than Fascism, but those things mostly happened far away from the UK, while Nazis literally bombed London. So the result is not surprising.
Both are a totalitarian mess. How about putting those two on one side and an actual alternative- freedom on the other?
Does Communist mean something like USSR, or China, or Vietnam – from which era? Or being governed by the Communist Party of Britain? There are probably a few different actual-historical or hypothetical-modern fascist governments from which to choose. What you read into the question might affect your choice.
I am glad that the majority is not picking any of those
You have to remember the “Red Scare” failed in the UK. The post war government implemented universal free healthcare and nationalized multiple key industries as part of a socialist economic program. It was popular enough that even when the Conservatives took over, they kept most of the economy in the same way, until Margaret Thatcher’s era when she made her party more rigidly in favor of free markets and privatizations.
Makes sense. Certain fascists tried to take over the UK not too long ago. A foreign communist power has never attempted to do so.
If you asked those same people to define communism and fascism, I’m sure they would struggle.
Communism doesn’t always have to go bad, although it often does, fascism however…
Okay couple of questions.
1. Did they explain to the people the definition of fascism and give examples of fascism through history.
2. Did they explain to the people the definition of communism improvide examples of communism?
Because how anybody can choose fascism is beyond me. Unless they have been taught from vansittat and smithers school anti-communist movement in the UK and are drilled into their head that communism is worse than fascism or that communism is just a more extreme form of fascism.
Interesting that even British conservatives prefer communism over fascism. But now that I think about it. They’ve seen the evils of fascism and it hit close to home.
When you set the bar on the floor it’s easy to step over it lmao
It’s sad how much people explain away the tens of millions of people who died under communism with Stalin and Mao. Literally an order of magnitude worse than Hitler. All three are bad, but it’s not equal by a long shot when you count the numbers
25 comments
In January 1939, the British Institute of Public Opinion posed the question: if you HAD to choose between communism and fascism, which would you choose?
85 years later, we have asked the same question at YouGov. As of 2024, 39% of Britons say communism, 10% fascism, while 51% say “don’t know”.
The 1939 study didn’t offer a “don’t know” option, but if we exclude those who gave that answer from our study, we find similar results – in 1939 the public backed communism over fascism by 74% to 26%, while today that stands at 80% to 20%.
The vast majority (85%) who did make a choice between the two said that their pick was the lesser of two evils, rather than because they think it is a good system.
Nevertheless, there are sizeable minorities among some voting groups who do think one of the systems is good. This is particularly the case among the Greens, of whom 19% believe communism to be a good system. By contrast, only 2% of Reform UK voters and 1% of Tory voters believe fascism is a good system.
Source: [https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/50352-communism-vs-fascism-which-would-britons-choose](https://yougov.co.uk/politics/articles/50352-communism-vs-fascism-which-would-britons-choose)
Tool: Datawrapper
Interesting how just about no one (other than Reform voters) would choose Fascism over Communism at least.
Though I suppose a lot of the don’t know voters perhaps have an answer and simply are ashamed to voice it.
Seems like roo many “I don’t knows” to hold any statistical relevance.
The only difference between those two are economic policies. They are both authoritarian hellscapes who their neighbors hate.
They’re both dictatorships so why does it matter?
Do the majority of people understand what Communism and Facism are? I feel like the goalposts for both are changing all the time. I see groups labeled as Communist or Far-right who are clearly not.
I wonder how much of that is britian’s history of fighting facism. I Dont think it would be innacurate to say that even today, the second world war is kind of the bedrock of british culture. If we had instead spent 6 years fighting the soviets, I wonder how different this would be.
We never really got emotionally invested in the cold war like the yanks did, so I’d also love to see how it looks over there
Interesting, considering vastly more have died under Communism then Fascism.
I want to meet the green voters that preferred fascism and the reform voters that preferred communism.
How many people know how Marx and Engels defined communism ? ( a stateless , moneyless , classless society )
‘if you HAD to choose’ and idk qualifies as an answer đź‘Ť
In a way it’s a pretty interesting thought experiment. I’m not a fan of either, but I do know which one I’d likely pick.
If you pick communism, you’ll get fascism anyway lol
Guess people thought Fascism = Nazis and Communism = some ideology that has some good and bad sides but never really works.
Of course the lesser evil would be Communism in that case.
Overall, Communism killed more people than Fascism, but those things mostly happened far away from the UK, while Nazis literally bombed London. So the result is not surprising.
Both are a totalitarian mess. How about putting those two on one side and an actual alternative- freedom on the other?
Does Communist mean something like USSR, or China, or Vietnam – from which era? Or being governed by the Communist Party of Britain? There are probably a few different actual-historical or hypothetical-modern fascist governments from which to choose. What you read into the question might affect your choice.
I am glad that the majority is not picking any of those
You have to remember the “Red Scare” failed in the UK. The post war government implemented universal free healthcare and nationalized multiple key industries as part of a socialist economic program. It was popular enough that even when the Conservatives took over, they kept most of the economy in the same way, until Margaret Thatcher’s era when she made her party more rigidly in favor of free markets and privatizations.
Makes sense. Certain fascists tried to take over the UK not too long ago. A foreign communist power has never attempted to do so.
If you asked those same people to define communism and fascism, I’m sure they would struggle.
Communism doesn’t always have to go bad, although it often does, fascism however…
Okay couple of questions.
1. Did they explain to the people the definition of fascism and give examples of fascism through history.
2. Did they explain to the people the definition of communism improvide examples of communism?
Because how anybody can choose fascism is beyond me. Unless they have been taught from vansittat and smithers school anti-communist movement in the UK and are drilled into their head that communism is worse than fascism or that communism is just a more extreme form of fascism.
Interesting that even British conservatives prefer communism over fascism. But now that I think about it. They’ve seen the evils of fascism and it hit close to home.
When you set the bar on the floor it’s easy to step over it lmao
It’s sad how much people explain away the tens of millions of people who died under communism with Stalin and Mao. Literally an order of magnitude worse than Hitler. All three are bad, but it’s not equal by a long shot when you count the numbers