Students Love Socialism, Can't Explain What It Is

Chris Menahan
InformationLiberation
Jul. 17, 2017

A new video out of Washington DC shows a diverse swath of young millennials love the idea of "socialism," even if they can't explain what it is.

From Campus Reform:

While it’s clear that young people increasingly view socialism in a positive light, it’s also clear that many of them are uneducated about what it entails, or the impact it’s had throughout history.

The same poll found many millennials are unfamiliar with historical figures often associated with socialism, such as Che Guevara, Joseph Stalin, and Karl Marx.

Wanting to see what millennials in D.C. thought of socialism, Campus Reform headed to Washington, D.C. to ask students two simple questions: “Do you like socialism?” and “What is socialism?”

It quickly became clear that while most of the people we spoke with held an idyllic view of socialism, most had little idea of what it actually is.

One student said of socialism, “I think people throw that word around to try and scare you, but if helping people is socialism, than I’m for it.”

While they can't explain what it is, they understand the basics: taking from the "privileged" to give to the "underprivileged."

They're not thinking about history or the long term implications of stealing from the people who create everything to give to people who create next to nothing, they just see producers have stuff they want, and they want to steal it for themselves.

Sitting down and explaining the history of socialism to most of these people is not going to change their mind.

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