1) A brief reminder re:the current freakout over X % of millenials being open to "communism/socialism":You are talking about people who have grown up in a world, *literally two generations deep*, where any policy that could help working people has been decried as "socialism"
2) To the pedants who smugly assume "if we just taught these kids civics, they'd know how bad socialism is and embrace the current model", there's an excellent chance you'd instead get the result "Oh, thanks, now with a civics education we see you've been FUCKING LYING TO US."
3) My excellent civics education taught me that Thomas Jefferson thought inherited wealth was one of the greatest threats to America, a 90% top tax rate built modern America, and the first Gilded Age was a stupid goddam thing to let happen AGAIN.
4) The assumption a nebulously defined "civics education" will automatically make people be enthusiastic about Amazon employees pissing in jars, Walmart paying its employees sub-living wages, and GoFunMe being de facto national health insurance is ADORABLE.
5) Yes, yes, if only the youngs had an excellent civics education, like the generations overwhelmingly supporting the Constitution shredding moron in the Oval Office currently puking out billions in farm subsidies to pay for his trade war, boy that was classroom time well spent.
6) Basically, if you came of age before the mid-80's YOU (and me) have mental models very poorly equipped to deal with the world AS IS -- a worldwide oligarchy now beginning to organize nationalist/authoritarian forces to protect its gains.
7) Our, my generation and older, freedom-loving capitalism vs. evil communism to save the world models are like the Marvel movies, the Avengers vs. Thanos, with zero relevance to how the world is actually working NOW.
8) And equally drowned in nostalgia and pointless nitpickery, might I add.
FIN) In short, the kids are alright, we are in the process of a massive political and social disjunction accelerated by technology, just like in the early 1900's (boy THAT ended well), and we all need to internalize the words of the great William Goldman: "Nobody knows anything."
