The hosts of Fox & Friends railed against actor Mark Ruffalo Tuesday morning after he declared "capitalism is killing us," with the show's first guest mocking Ruffalo for being a millionaire and accusing him of misinforming millennials about socialism.
Fox & Friends co-host Ainsley Earhardt questioned conservative author Carol Roth on "why is socialism resonating with millennials?" using Ruffalo's Sunday tweet as evidence Hollywood is conspiring to force socialism on the youth of the United States. Roth suggested, "if you hate capitalism, you hate freedom" and went on to say young Americans, particularly millennials, are simply ignorant of history and economics, which has prompted recent polls showing a vast majority of millennials support socialist practices.
"Millennials have it so good that they don't even understand history," Roth, who frequently makes provocative statements on Fox News, said Tuesday morning.
Fox & Friends guest: Millennials are attracted to socialism because "they don't even understand history" and "everything is on demand." pic.twitter.com/oJxsi2YYMi
— Bobby Lewis (@revrrlewis) December 3, 2019
"Everything is on-demand, they don't have to worry about their needs so they focus on their wants. And they think that there's just a lot of misinformation, because there is cronyism, because there is government intervention, people think that something like health care is capitalism when it's really not," she added.
Roth specifically cited LASIK surgery and elective surgery, "those are [products of] free market capitalism and those prices have gone down. She then added, "unfortunately, people don't have the economic background to understand the difference."
Roth and Earhardt focused their criticism on Ruffalo and accused him of hypocrisy by saying he is "railing against the very system that made him a millionaire" and describing him as having an estimated $30 million net worth. Several images shown in the Fox News segment placed him next to campaign signs for Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders.
"It's time for an economic revolution. Capitalism today is failing us, killing us, and robbing from our children's future," Ruffalo tweeted with a link to a Time Magazine article about "How America's Elites Lost Their Grip."
"This is just completely ridiculous, capitalism has benefited so many people, it has lifted billions of people out of extreme poverty worldwide," Roth responded, claiming poverty rates have decreased from about half the world's population to 10 percent since the 1970s.
Earhardt cited an October Gallup poll of U.S. adults which found 60 percent of Americans have a positive view of capitalism, versus 39 percent who say the same about socialism. The same survey found 35 percent of Americans view socialism in a negative way, but the poll did not address that tens of millions of Americans currently benefit from so-called "socialist" programs including Social Security and Medicare.
"Unfortunately there are too many people spreading this horrible message," Roth replied. "The problem is, that right now in this country we don't have a pure free market system, we have too much government intervention, too much cronyism, and that gets people confused about what capitalism is."
Roth has frequently appeared on Fox & Friends to complain about millennials or other so-called "leftist" issues. In June, Roth said "men are afraid" of dating because "ultra-feminist" women have ruined the chivalry and elegance of courtship from past generations.
