College students love socialism, just look at how Bernie Sanders captivated the youth vote during the Democrat Primaries. However, if you were to ask them to define it, you might not be able to get a straight answer.
Campus Reform visited Washington D.C to ask college students “Do you like socialism?” and then asked “What is socialism?” Many students expressed favor for socialism, though when they were asked what it was, had trouble articulating an answer. If these kids can’t even define socialism, you can hardly expect them to recall the tens of millions who have been slaughtered under socialist and Marxist regimes throughout the 20th century. Hopefully they get a chance to take Econ 101 next semester.
Via Campus Reform:
Last year, a poll was released showing 53 percent of Americans under age 35 are dissatisfied with our nation’s current economic system and think socialism would be good for the country.
“I guess just, you know, getting rid of that wealth gap in the United States?” Tweet This
The same poll found that 45 percent of young Americans would be willing to support an openly socialist Presidential candidate.
The findings of this poll coincide with the rise of Senator Bernie Sanders, an avowed “Democratic Socialist” from Vermont who received millions of votes in the 2016 Democratic Primary, many of them from millennials.
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.
