"He wants to dismantle what he calls the 'aberrant' concepts of social justice and economic equality and make the nation’s core principles capitalism, the free market, a limited state and individualism. 'We are at war,' Mr. Milei
said at a right-wing festival last year, and added: 'We are fighting a cultural struggle, an ideological battle, a war for the survival of our freedom.' At political rallies and international summits, in public policies and a deluge of social media posts, Mr. Milei has relentlessly sought to infuse Argentina with his libertarian ideals. And turn it into a model for the world. A nation where people are loath to eat alone or drink a cup of mate, the national infusion, without sharing with the person next to them is embracing a leader whose fundamental message is that people should fend for themselves.
'He is trying to break our DNA,' Juan Grabois, an opposition lawmaker, said of Mr. Milei. 'To destroy the communal identity of our people.'... Laziness to Mr. Milei is a vice stemming from years of left-leaning governments that turned society to indolence by giving citizens generous benefits...."
From
"Javier Milei Wants to Rewire the Argentine Mind/Argentina’s right-wing president has tamed the country’s runaway inflation. Now he wants to transform its values" (NYT)(gift link, because there's a lot going on over there).
And here he is in his superhero costume:
పోస్ట్లు
99 కామెంట్లు:
We need that guy here.
What if he's right?
There is a difference between someone choosing to share a meal or a cup of mate and having a government that chooses for you. I understand a politician who wants to create opportunity rather than dependency, I don't understand the ones who prefer it the other way around. Is it for power? Because they think most people are too stupid or inept to achieve anything on their own?
The man is brave enough to stand up to the International Socialist Left. His critics are the ones who need to answer for being absolutely 100% wrong about what his policies would bring. Same as they are in predicting Trump's failures. None of the predicted disaster ever came true.
That is unless you count Trump's enemies that have been felled by the predicted disasters that did not topple Trump.
And as ever, the Left seeks to confuse voluntary generosity with state mandated redistribution. You can be both determined to fend for yourself (i.e. pay your own way) and also want to buy your friend a beer. The two are not in conflict.
What is in conflict is voluntary (i.e. free) behavior versus the power of the state to coerce behavior.
These are not difficult concepts. Only the incredibly stupid or the intentionally deceptive with fail to make the distinction.
We're told Milei is "a bookish professor... focused on economic theory." And: "In preparation for Davos, he read 16 books, said Lilia Lemoine, a cosplayer who sewed his superhero outfit and is now a lawmaker. In his speech, he cited 24 people, from Moses to Adam Smith."
No. He wants to remove corrupt leftism.
Freedom is "rightwing"
Leftism is corrupt theocratic leftism.
I'm kind of surprised that the New Yorker or Atlantic have not run a long-form thumbsicker exploring the link between radical right wing populists and crazy male hair-dos. There are at least two definite data points that are obvious.
Both Milie and Trump are quite blunt as well, with the southerner being slightly more direct about Leftists.
Prosperous and economically free Argentinians will be far better able to share their mate (whatever that might be) and their meals with friends. This fellow just wants to keep extracting money from those who actually produce value.
As Glenn would say, faster, please.
"...'To destroy the communal identity ....."so says the f*ckin commie opposition.
The real reason they're upset is that finally someone with a libertarian/conservative set of ideas is taking them on using their own tactics with some of the same ruthlessness, and is simultaneously showing that he's right - and that their ideas are the apparent cause of Argentina's disastrous recent economic past. And the people are noticing what happens when they use their head for voting.
The core element was to balance the budget and end central bank monetary printing. If you credibly take out the Argentine state and its inflationary deficits you eliminate the bulk of inflation. That's what Milei did despite huge opposition from congress, provinces, unions, media etc. Argentina's economy has been inflationary since the late 1940s (with the notable exception of the convertibility regime in the1990s). The reduction to "mainstream" levels will take time. Deregulation, dismantling of unions, a level corporate playing field, competition, open trade.
The NYT article fails to look at the bigger picture. Argentina still lacks a credible monetary regime that is accepted as a long-term anchor. The current system is subject to daily speculation and impacted by Milei's poll numbers and central bank reserve purchases. The country still lacks market access and the political event risk is still considerable (in fairness also given the toxic legacy of huge dollar liabilities). The excellent export performance of energy and agro and billions of long-term investment in mining do little for the social mood today.
In an ideal world Milei would send a well-crafted central bank law to congress and establish the framework for peso floating and inflation-targeting -- what other LatAm countries have been doing for decades now. They have successfully removed monetary policy from politics.
" You can be both determined to fend for yourself (i.e. pay your own way) and also want to buy your friend a beer. The two are not in conflict."
It's the same obvious logic for why in a plane you put on your own oxygen mask first before helping someone else. The left has to deny the simplest obvious truths on a daily basis to sustain their objections to everything that works.
"This fellow just wants to keep extracting money from those who actually produce value."
And who would those people be, Old and Slow?
"The country still lacks market access and the political event risk is still considerable"
The primary political event risk is Argentina's next election.
he wants to transform its values - Is the NYTs a fan of forever Peronism?
Liberals assume their "values" are some how a baseline from which no one can deviate. It's such and empty platitude. Notice who and who doesn't use it. Here the NYTs. Obama LOVES to preach about some empty values "all" Americans possess. Currently, the Pope makes you want to puke with this bullshit.
The left uses empty moralizing. Trump doesn't do that. He doesn't preach about values. He speaks about RESULTS. Strength. Winning. Law and Order... etc....
In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king. He might be mad, but he's not as mad as everyone before him.
I've found in Canada that socialism destroys the very community it purports to embrace.
People show their community spirit by supporting government policies that provide extensive services. Because they support government providing these services, they stop providing them themselves--all forms of volunteerism, including simply being a good neighbor, stop. Then they vote for politicians who promise to make the rich "pay their fair share"; i.e., promise to make someone else pay for the social programs that they support.
Because the people define their decency by their policy choices rather than by their behavior, they are free in their personal lives to be lazy, selfish, and narcissistic.
Milei is trying to preserve the DNA, Grabois is trying to break it.
Hey Lil Skurvy why the hell would a conservative propose a new Central Bank?
Nevermind! You still can't answer for your side, democrats and the NYT, being wrong about every prediction they made regarding Argentina since Milei started running. 100% failure rate for leftist predictions. It's almost like you guys can't pull your head out of your ass long enough to acknowledge the actual world around you.
Lucha Libre!
Hello Rustygrommet, I think you may have misinterpreted my post. By this fellow, I meant Juan Grabois, the guy lamenting Milei's reforms. The people who created value are obviously the successful capitalists and productive workers.
Progressives against change. You only see that when the corruption is fully matured.
There are things to criticize in Millei -- he bought into Misean libertarianism and that isn't good -- but Argentina needs to have its DNA broken and be rewired. It's been a country with two left-wing parties for a very long time, and that takes its toll.
Lil' Woofie Cries Wolf
I had a neighbor (RIP David) who insisted Jesus was a socialist. He used the phrase "my brother's keeper" as his evidence. I reminded him Jesus did NOT respond, "No I'm not my brother's keeper. That's why we pay taxes.".
JAORE said...He used the phrase "my brother's keeper" as his evidence
I'm unfamiliar with this bible passage. The only "brother's keeper" phrase I know is Cain's response when God asks him where Abel is. "Am I my brother's keeper?" Cain, of course, had murdered Abel and was trying to avoid accountability.
The media never mentions leftwing anything.
Leftwing communism/Socialism destroy everything they touch.
So, no answer?
True, Peachy. By the Media's telling over a third of EU voters are now "Far Right" and of course a majority of USA is as well. But they have yet to find any "Far Left" candidates on the Continent or here.
"without sharing with the person next to them is embracing a leader whose fundamental message is that people should fend for themselves"
Apparently, the speaker is unwilling or unable to see the difference between voluntarily sharing and coerced sharing. The unspoken part in the current fascination with government run socialism is how many NSPs (non-sharing players) start to weasel their way to power to do the coercing and the determination of who gets and who doesn't get shared to.
Lil' woofie: If you have something in particular to express regarding my 9:15 -- have at it
What the socialist leaders are really saying is "I'm the person that should decide the sharing." But are they angels and do you trust them? No.
Distributed sharing - distributed power - is the only way to prevent the NSPs from imposing their ideas of who is deserving and who isn't. Otherwise, you think the wrong thought or say the wrong word: "No sharing with you!"
"Laziness to Mr. Milei is a vice stemming from years of left-leaning governments that turned society to indolence by giving citizens generous benefits...."
BINGO !!!
So, the NYT dreamed up a bunch of lies about someone and published them? Good to know. Thanks for keeping an eye on them. Be sure to let us know if they do it again tomorrow, and Wednesday, and Thursday, and ...
Oh, say. Was there anything in there about Somalis? Do they have Somalis in Argentina? Do they need some of ours?
The left is authoritarian. The right is libertarian. The center is conservative. The left-right nexus is leftist. Principles matter. #HateLovesAbortion
We don't need the Democrats' "comprehensive immigration reform." What we do need is the complete cessation of all forms of welfare. So, so many problems will self-correct.
"Communal" in lefty speak = loyal cult-like adherence to all leftist diktats.
I didn't read that crap. Just wondering why all your predictions about Argentina have been wrong. Probably no good answer to that.
The only problem with Argentina is that it is filled with Argentinians. I love what Milei is attempting to do but I am fairly certain he will fail. If he wants an attempt at success, he needs to eliminate the central bank of Argentina and make either the euro or the dollar the currency. I would also say he needs to eliminate borrowing by the government itself and put it on pay as you go financing.
I think either Milei loses the next election or he gets assassinated.
According to Polls - https://www.as-coa.org/articles/approval-tracker-argentinas-president-javier-milei - 61 percent of Argentinians disapprove of him. When broken down by sex - Women disapproval is at 79 percent!
As you would expect, Milei's biggest fans are among the well-to-do. For those making over 500K a year, he has a 55 percent approval. He under water with everyone else.
So women and the poor reject Milei. This sounds like a ringing endorsement of his policies to me. These are the two groups who should not be allowed to vote.
Its amazing he got elected. He's an incredible weirdo on a personal level. And in religious terms he has oddball beliefs out ofstep with a mostly Catholic Country. He reminds me of Glenn Beck, who has blubbbered on air "I want to serve Jews", and has asked for Honorary Israeli Citizenship. Milei is somewhat similar. His closest advisor is a Rabbi and has often considered converting to Judaism.
Its no wonder he and Trump are close friends.
Answer is what is always has been free markets with Christian values. Duh. False dichotomy.
Unleash the People... and our Posterity.
Leftism is universal cancer. It kills.
Economically Milei is trying to ring inflation out of the economy and get more economic activity. Which is good. But like most losertarians he doesn't seem to give a damn about the human cost of his economic policies.
Milei is big on "Free Trade" and Immigration. All which will result in the rich getting richer and poor getting poorer.
“… and make the nation’s core principles capitalism, the free market, a limited state and individualism.” In other words, Make Argentina Great Again. No wonder the lefties are pissed!
⬆ Milei has only allowed the peso to move a bit. A strong peso that helps the comfortable classes to buy imports and travel abroad is fundamental to his popularity with them.
"Laziness to Mr. Milei is a vice stemming from years of left-leaning governments that turned society to indolence by giving citizens generous benefits...."
Further proof, as if it wasn't already abundantly available, that progressivism always, as in every time, except never, ends up rewarding vice and punishing virtue.
RCOCEAN II said...He under water with everyone else.
He's doing poorly among people who just want free stuff, but well among the people who create jobs?
“But like most losertarians he doesn't seem to give a damn about the human cost of his economic policies.”
No, he understands (and often reminds his audiences) that free market capitalism is the greatest source of prosperity to the largest number of people. It’s the leftists who pretend to care about the poor but inevitably create more poverty.
MJB Wolf: "the link between radical right wing populists and crazy male hair-dos"
The study was inconclusive. One major contrary data point: Biden used to be known as Herr Plugs. Another one: John Edwards. CC, JSM
Sharing a communal identity is not the same thing as being ruled by communists. The Left has never understood the difference, and never will.
If Milei is such a brilliant economist, why did the U.S. have to bail him out to the tune of $20 billion so he wouldn't lose elections back in October?
Looks like Milei got a hold of Mayor Beetlejuice's covid clean-up costume.
4/18/26, 11:03 AM
OAS.
Thank you for the clarity.(thumbs up emoji here)
Freder.
It was a short term loan. He paid it back. Do try and pay attention.
Oh, and btw inflation in Argentina is only 30.5%.
Maguire and JAORE: Perhaps the guy was confusing "brother's keeper" with "who is my neighbor?", the question JC answered with the Good Samaritan parable. Notably in that parable, the priest and Levite - the leaders of the institutions that are supposed to take care of the unfortunate - pass by on the other side of the road. The despised Samaritan pays from his own pocket to take care of the highway-robbery victim.
So I'd call JC definitely not a socialist. Maybe a communitarian, for some definitions of communitarianism. CC, JSM
It was a short term loan. He paid it back. Do try and pay attention.
So what if it was only short term? He still needed the U.S. to bail him out. And I don't remember it being debated in congress.
I wonder if Orban would have fared better if Trump had thrown Hungary a few tens of billions of dollars rather than send Vance over there to campaign for Orban.
Yeah I guess 79 percent of women and 61 percent of all Argentinians don't like him, and therefore "Want free stuff".
Yeah.
DNA of hyperinflation, government overreach, and paramilitaries
The podcaster/author, Michael Malice, often notes that the corporate media frames stories not in a terms of True/False or even Right/Wrong, but thru a lens of Us/Them. This article repeatedly codes Milei and anyone who speaks in his support as, right-wing while critics are labeled as sociologists, researchers, writers.
NYT writers frequently employ this tool in order to signal to its readership who they are supposed to hate.
progs don't mind transforming values, in fact its their bag,
"Its no wonder he and Trump are close friends."
4/20/26, 10:46 AM
Ai: Javier Milei does not speak fluent English and typically conducts his official speeches and interviews in Spanish.
Pagina 12, one of the most left wing publications is full of former Montoneros like Juan Gelman, who were kind of indifferent to the corruption of the Kirshners
the hyperinflation was due to superfluous ministries that do make work, that don't improve the lives of the average Argentine
He's singing to the tune of “Libiamo, ne’ lieti calici” from the opening party scene of La traviata. It's a drinking song, very much in a communal and convivial setting, in which Alfredo is wooing Violetta in the presence of the assembled party-goers. Pretty much the last song one would want to use if the objective is 'To destroy the communal identity of our people,' which is what Miele is being accused of.
“But like most losertarians he doesn't seem to give a damn about the human cost of his economic policies.”
You can steal as much as you want if you just pretend to be Robin Hood.
There is nothing stopping progressives from getting together on their own and pooling their resources in order to redistribute them to the needy, in whatever fashion they think best exemplifies the social justice they support, is there?
Or is progressive DNA predicated on confiscating the property of the unwilling, in order to advance prog causes?
“So what if it was only short term? He still needed the U.S. to bail him out.”
It wasn’t even a loan, it was a currency swap. Speculators were trying to drive down the peso below its true value. The US saw that and bought low, sold high and made money on the deal. Only an idiot would call that a bailout.
Robbing Hood. Black Leverage Matters.
"When Javier Milei took office in December 2023, Argentina was facing an annual inflation rate of over 200%, with monthly inflation peaking at 25.5% that same month, according to data from the National Institute of Statistics and Censuses (INDEC). This was characterized as the highest in the world at the time, leading to a state of near-hyperinflation.
Al Jazeera
Al Jazeera
+3
Annual Rate: The annual inflation rate for 2023 was approximately 211.4%.
Monthly Rate (Dec 2023): Monthly inflation spiked to 25.5% immediately upon his inauguration following a significant currency devaluation.
Immediate Context: Milei inherited a severely strained economy, which he described as facing potential hyperinflation.
Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit
Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit
+4
Since taking office, the Milei administration has focused on reducing this rate through significant fiscal austerity measures.
Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit
Friedrich-Naumann-Stiftung für die Freiheit
+1" Google AI
It is projected at 14.5 percent for 2026.
Imagine trying to live with 200 percent inflation. Not a whole lot of mate to be shared when that is going on.
Your DNA sucks, Senor Grabois. It needs to be broken and stomped into the dust.
Freder - like a typical loyal leftist - has bad information.
Jaore--not surprisingly, your socialist friend David (RIP) was both a Biblical and economic illiterate. As tim maguire points out, "I am not my brother's keeper" was Cain's attempt to dodge responsibility for murdering Abel, not an exhortation by Jesus.
The Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) indicates that Jesus was not an economic illiterate, understood how markets work for good, and was obviously not a socialist. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matthew%2025%3A14-30&version=ESV
The left assume Socialism is good because they think it lets them off the hook for personal charity.
Leftists also refuse to accept reality woven into the theft that socialism often offers corrupt politicians - corruption found in Tim Walz's MN and Gavin's CA.
Miley is not fighting the poor, he is fighting the rich and powerful.
If generous benefits are accompanied by hyperinflation, are they really generous?
A nation where people are loath to eat alone or drink a cup of mate, the national infusion, without sharing with the person next to them is embracing a leader whose fundamental message is that people can be trusted to share with the person next to them.
Thats just crazy talk what could happen next
People "stealing" money per losertarians:
1) Government contractors
2) Anyone getting a check from the Government
3) People who work for government contractors.
4) Subcontractors paid by Prime Govt contractors
5) Colleges/Hospitals receiving money from Patients or student who are reimbursed by the Government.
6) People who use roads without paying a toll
7) People who are reimbursed for bank failures.
8) landlords with tenants who get a Government check or recieve section 8.
Marxists think anyone who makes a profit is stealing the surplus value of production. Makes about as much sense as Losertarians.
More Losertarianism:
1) Not stealing = Rent seekers. Free Market monopolies charging what they want. Loan sharks.
2) Stealing = People directly or indirectly recieving tax money.
Perhaps he regards the "social justice" and "equality" as interpreted by American academia as being impositions on Argentine culture.
Who should decide how much is charged?
Teach a man to fish, and he’ll be able to feed himself on his own. Give a man a fish from the public coffers, and you’ll have a comfortable life doling out other people’s fish in return for votes/sinecure.
Should renting out your assets be illegal?
Is it for power? Because they think most people are too stupid or inept to achieve anything on their own?
Yes and yes.
Oh, and btw inflation in Argentina is only 30.5%.
Oh, and btw what was it before Milei started implementing his policies?
He founded the excluded workers oarty that endorsed kirschnef who uses such 'democratic' tactics as buying up the ink of regime opponents
Freder Frederson said...
It was a short term loan. He paid it back. Do try and pay attention.
So what if it was only short term? He still needed the U.S. to bail him out. And I don't remember it being debated in congress."
Did you miss the part where the money was paid back? Since it wasn't a matter of raising revenue why would congress get involved?
Did you miss the part where the money was paid back? Since it wasn't a matter of raising revenue why would congress get involved?
Never engage in a battle of wits with an unarmed man…
Inconceivable
rehajm
Wise words.
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