Young People and Socialism: Maybe There’s Still Hope!

I’m recently home from Jekyll Island with loads of great new ideas for future Tuttle Twins projects—we’ve got so much great content coming out this year and I can’t wait to start sharing it with everyone! Less cool are the loads of bug bites I came home with—I swear they’re multiplying!

In spite of the oppressive humidity and biting creepy-crawlers, it was a great trip, and I’m grateful to the folks at the Mises Institute for bringing our team out for it. It’s always so refreshing to spend time with like-minded people.

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about how easy it is to get kind of bogged-down with all the bad news, corruption, anger, and fear that seems to accompany pretty much every area of life right now, but I was reminded over the weekend that all isn’t lost, and that there can be good found in nearly any situation if we simply determine to look for it.

A great example of this was the hit piece a couple of weeks ago by Current Affairs magazine (if you missed it, you can read about it here) where a socialist writer tried to bash on our brand but ended up generating record sales for us when we decided to offer a massive discount for those who referenced the article at checkout.

(Coupon code: CURRENTAFFAIRS for half off our combo set if you haven’t taken advantage yet 😉

Sometimes, bad can be turned almost instantly to good. I’ve become a pretty big believer in monetizing the hate that some groups like to throw our way. Of course not all bad news can be monetized, but a lot of bad news can be turned into a teaching opportunity.

For a couple of years now we’ve been following the growing trend among young people toward socialism. We often reference polls that have shown millennials overwhelmingly supporting socialism—a trend which seems to just increase every year. But I came across this article the other day, and it made me see things from a little different perspective:

In an article written last month for the New York Times, 29-year-old Sarah Leonard suggested that millennials are turning to socialism in droves. The reason, she opined, is that capitalism has let them down:

“Across Europe and the United States, millennials are worse off than their parents were and are too poor to start new families. In the United States, they are loaded with college debt (or far less likely to be employed without a college degree) and are engaged in precarious and non-unionized labor. Also the earth is melting.”

To advance her point, Leonard goes on to say that a recent Harvard survey found about a third of the U.S. population says it supports socialism. Nowhere is this support more apparent than in a recent YouTube clip from Campus Reform.

The video shows a number of interviews conducted with students in the D.C. area. When asked if they support socialism, students agreed overwhelmingly.

Okay, so none of that is surprising—it’s pretty much what we already know. Young people hate capitalism and favor socialism. But here’s the part that gives me hope:

The video gets more interesting, however, when students are asked to define the political ideology which they support.

Reporter: “How would you define socialism?”

Student: “Um, it’s definitely more of an open-form of government, and it feels like a lot more accessible to a lot more people. And that’s kind of how I see it, like, being more accessible and more, kind of like equal ground. Yeah.”

Reporter: “What does that mean necessarily though?”

Student: “To be quite honest, I don’t know!”

Now, this article is from 2017, so I’m not saying it’s the most up-to-date hot take on the mind of college students or recent college grads, but I also feel pretty confident assuming that professors and celebrities haven’t suddenly started telling the truth about socialism.

So what does it mean?

Well, I’m inclined to think that a lot of this pro-socialist thinking in young people is coming from a total lack of education on what socialism even is. Of course young, idealistic adults just starting out into the world would see a government that is “more accessible to the people” and “more equal” as a good thing! They want to support virtuous and good things—they want to make the world a better place—and the way socialism has been presented to them appears to be exactly what they’re looking for!

Enter: The Tuttle Twins.

This story really makes me feel so recommitted and excited about what we are doing! We’ve now sold 1.4 MILLION books! That means that thousands and thousands of families are learning the truth about liberty, freedom, and prosperity at bedtime, and around homeschool tables, or during family read-alouds. We are on track to seriously influence the rising generation!

I woke up yesterday to find that Newsweek had run a story on the new Tuttle Twins cartoon we are working on with the Harmon Bros. and VidAngel Studios:

Some of the folks behind The Chosen, one of Hollywood’s earliest “equity” crowdfunded shows, will distribute an animated series based on The Tuttle Twins, a group of children’s books that promote capitalism and free markets and decry socialism, Newsweek learned on Tuesday.The best-selling 11 books include titles like The Tuttle Twins Learn About the Law, a simplified version of French political economist Frederic Bastiat’s work, The Law; The Tuttle Twins and the Creature From Jekyll Island, about a “powerful creature” stealing their grandparent’s money; and The Tuttle Twins and the Road to Surfdom, about how central planning (like government bureaucrats’ insistence on a new road to the beach) can ruin lives.

The Tuttle Twins “teaches our kids why America has succeeded, what the principles of freedom are and how they can stand up for those principles,” said Daniel Harmon, who will direct the TV show. The books have sold 1.4 million copies thus far.

“Hollywood won’t touch a show like this; too many truth bombs, not enough F bombs,” an actor playing a teacher says in a Tuttle Twins humorous promotional video that explains equity crowdfunding and the intent of the show to prospective investors. The video, embedded in this story, compares Tuttle Twins to animated shows like Phineas and Ferb, The Magic School Bus and The Simpsons.

I’m still cracking up at “… too many truth bombs, not enough F bombs,” but guys—this show is going to be ridiculously good! We are still needing all the help we can get to get this project funded and out there for families to enjoy. Please click this link (and spread the word to your friends!) to learn how you can invest in this awesome project!

I feel hopeful. Even in spite of all the bad things happening in the world, and even in spite of the feeling I sometimes get that the “bad guys” are winning, I feel hopeful.

Up to this point, I think we’ve been losing the culture war. The minds of our kids have been polluted by Marxist indoctrinators in classrooms and on campuses across America. A lot of parents were just too busy building businesses and raising their families to realize what was happening—but we know now. We have seen the world they want us to live in, and we are going to fight against it, and we know that the fight starts in our own homes as we teach our children the truths that will inoculate them against Marxism in all of its ugly forms and prepare them to craft a peaceful, free, and prosperous world.

And so I feel hopeful because I know we can do it. Each day we ship over four thousand books to families who want to change the world—we’re making a difference and it’s starting to show!

— Connor