These results from a recent Pew Survey are precisely why I am so often amused when atheists point to the lower percentage of religious belief among the young compared to the elderly as a sign of anything but the inexperience and ignorance of youth. While it is true that a few of the idiot teens of today will be the influential decision makers of tomorrow, they are as unlikely to retain their political, religious, and philosophical attitudes as they are to retain their hairstyles and drinking habits.
There is, after all, something that will happen to these 18-29 cretins. It is called experience of the real world. The opinions of maleducated ignoramuses who have been purposefully sheltered from not only real economics, real decision making, real independence, and real work, but from the benefit of the experience of the best minds in human history as well, are no more relevant than the opinions of the millions of hamsters kept as pets in America’s households.
Of course the 18-29 crowd is pro-progressive and uncertain about whether socialism is to be preferred to capitalism. They’ve been indoctrinated by anti-capitalist progressives for between 12 and 18 years without ever being forced to knowingly confront the consequences of progressive politics and socialist economics. But their opinion about capitalism is no more significant than their opinion about gravity or the universal principle of entropy; as Greece is learning, you can vote for all the progressive politics you want but eventually the market forces you deny will swamp you in the end.
It’s not just the youth who are fools, though. The general dichotomy between the dislike for militias and the support for state and civil rights underlines what everyone here already knows. Most people are idiots.