Australian millennials love socialism and it's all the fault of the education system, according to a new study conducted by a conservative think tank.
A survey conducted by YouGov of 1,003 Australian millennials on behalf of the right-leaning Centre for Independent Studies (CIS) found that 58% of Australian millennials view socialism favourably, with just 18% viewing it unfavourably.
The findings are presented in a paper by the organisation with a not-at-all-subtle front cover.
The report's authors, Tom Switzer and Charles Jacobs, wrote that millennials born from 1980 to 1996, "have never truly seen the effects of socialism" because they only became politically aware "after socialism's long reign of terror".
"The oldest were aged just nine when the Berlin Wall fell," they wrote.
A majority of respondents to the survey (59%) believe capitalism has failed and say that the government should play a bigger role in regulating the economy. Two-thirds of millennials believe Australian workers are worse off now than they were 40 years ago.
A total of 63% of university-educated millennials view socialism favourably, compared to 52% of TAFE-educated millennials, according to the research. CIS suggested that millennials are "far more likely to be exposed to socialism at university" and that this was a damning indictment on the school system.
"In most constituencies, history is a non-compulsory subject in later years of high school and thus students are not educated on the failed implementations of socialism throughout the 20th century," report authors Tom Switzer and Charles Jacobs said.
And the fact university-educated millennials were more in favour of socialism raised questions about how socialism was being presented in universities, they said.
Then there were these charts ranking knowledge of 20th century historical figures – which CIS said that showed millennials were just ignorant of history.
"Hitler’s iconic moustache, swastika and Nazi salute are some of the most recognisable images in the world," the report authors said. "The horrors of places like Auschwitz are forever engrained in our minds as examples of humanity at its cruellest.
"By contrast, how many would be familiar with the hundreds of Soviet gulags – the slave labour camps into which up to 50 million people were incarcerated – and which operated for decades?"
The YouGov findings in Australia were similar to that found in the US and the UK, with millennials favouring socialism to capitalism, but socialism is viewed much more favourably in Australia than the US (43%) and the UK (38%).
Naturally, this poll has Australia's conservative media spooked. News Corp columnists Miranda Devine and Andrew Bolt described the poll as "disturbing" and "ominous".
