People with brains have been perplexed over millennial support for Bernie Sanders. The man is an avowed socialist — he is hawking socialism on the campaign trail as if it’s something to be proud of — and instead of making people run screaming for the hills, it’s getting millennials excited. Don’t they know what socialism causes? Don’t they know that socialism destroys societies? Well… no, they don’t, thanks to the sub-par liberal education they’ve been subjected to, with professors more concerned about indoctrinating students with their liberal agenda than they are about educating them. So no, millennials don’t know that socialism will destroy the United States and the freedoms we enjoy. But funnily enough, once they move out of their parents’ houses, get jobs, and start having to pay for their own health insurance, millennials start singing a very different tune about socialism. Emily Ekins from the Cato Institute writes:

The expanded social welfare state Sanders thinks the United States should adopt requires everyday people to pay considerably more in taxes. Yet millennials become averse to social welfare spending if they foot the bill. As they reach the threshold of earning $40,000 to $60,000 a year, the majority of millennials come to oppose income redistribution, including raising taxes to increase financial assistance to the poor.

Similarly, a Reason-Rupe poll found that while millennials still on their parents’ health-insurance policies supported the idea of paying higher premiums to help cover the uninsured (57 percent), support flipped among millennials paying for their own health insurance with 59 percent opposed to higher premiums.

When tax rates are not explicit, millennials say they’d prefer larger government offering more services (54 percent) to smaller government offering fewer services (43 percent). However when larger government offering more services is described as requiring high taxes, support flips and 57 percent of millennials opt for smaller government with fewer services and low taxes, while 41 percent prefer large government.

If you dumb it down, and don’t think about how these programs will be paid for, Sanders’ socialism appeal makes sense. He’s promising millennials a bunch of “free” stuff. Free college! Free health care! Free internet! Free food! Free EVERYTHING! It sounds nice, of course. Who wants to deal with the hassle of figuring out a health care plan, or paying a deductible? Imagine if you could go to school and get a college degree without ever having to pay tuition. No decades of back-breaking student loans. Man, it sure sounds nice. Who can blame millennials for liking the idea? Add in a childhood with participation trophies and the virtues of “fairness” drilled into their heads, and the idea that people would have to struggle to survive while working a job they find meaningful is horrifying to them. Millennials grew up with adults — their parents, their teachers, their mentors, everyone — telling them that they should do what they love, and that if they go to college, they will be successful. Imagine their shock when they get into the real world and it sucks. They actually have to work hard! They don’t get handed their dream job right away! They aren’t changing the world by age 25! All the adults in their lives lied to them, and they feel betrayed.

And along comes Bernie Sanders, toting a solution. Socialism! Free stuff! Yay!

So sure, it makes sense that millennials would fall for the socialism trick. But it doesn’t say much good about them when they want all these free goodies, and then run in horror when they realize that they actually have to pay for it. Yes, it’s reality, and at least we can say that millennials don’t live completely in the fantasy-land that the 60s radicals who drilled liberal indoctrination into their head have tried to say is real. We know that the aging liberals refuse to live in the real world and continue on their destructive path no matter how much evidence shows that it’s all a horrible idea. So millennials aren’t as bad as the 60s liberal baby boomers who have destroyed the country. Congratulations, sort of.

On the other hand, this is also a sign of the utter lack of responsibility and accountability that millennials seem to be infested with. They want the free stuff, but they don’t want the responsibility of paying for it. Come on, millennials — grow up, already! Put on your big boy pants and be adults. There’s a quote that’s often attributed (falsely) to Winston Churchill. It goes, “If you’re not a liberal when you’re 25, you have no heart. If you’re not a conservative by the time you’re 35, you have no brain.” Millennials may be irritating, but it seems that this quote rings true still. There’s hope for millennials to get it together yet. The only question is, will they ruin the country before they figure it out?