Javier Milei’s language threatens to become a norm in a part of Argentine society. The president throws toads and snakes under any circumstance, but he has a special grudge against word professionals. The journalists They have become an obsession. They are, for the most part, a legion of “liars“, “slanderers“, “insulters“, “extortioners“, “thieves, “corrupt” and “ensobrados (who receive dirty money)“. The verba of the leader of the extreme right is surpassed day by day. But there is a background and a conviction: in this technological present, under the empire of social networks, X in particular, and the empire of fake newsFor Milei, traditional media have no reason for political or cultural centrality, at least as long as he remains in power and with more than acceptable levels of popularity despite the rigors of adjustment and economic recession.
According to the anarcho-capitalist, Thanks to cell phones and X” microphone criminals Today they see that their victims have not only managed to free themselves, but also have a great capacity to respond.” For the “pseudojournalists”, according to the television presenter, “the time has come to have to put up with (endure) the change (the reaction). by having lied, slandered, insulted and even committed crimes of extortion”. The president’s followers and the digital militias feel permission to permanently insult those who barely contradicted an opinion or doubted his optimism. “Their caste privilege ended that they have had for so long and that they have exercised with so much violence.” The far-right demands unconditional surrender. “Accept that the world has changed for the better and your monopoly on speech is over. It’s time for you the shortest (work) honestly. It was time for them to compete fairly. Yes, now they are going to make less money, but that is normal in a free market.”
About to complete a year in the Executive, he spends hours every day monitoring what is said or not said about him and his management, his dogs, whom he calls “children”, and his sister and powerful general secretary of the Presidency. , Karina Milei. And that observance leads him to the permanent retort when he detects an ironic comment. “Milei made clear that his enmity is with an entire profession”said Jorge Fontevecchia, director of the newspaper ‘Perfil’. The diatribes are mixed with “pugilistic references and appeals to blows that seem reminiscent of childhood traumas.” For Fontevecchia, “there is clearly a very strong paranoid fixation with journalism” in Milei. “Just like when he wanted Editorial Perfil to go bankrupt, the president rejoices, there is no dismay, but joy that journalists earn less.” Weeks ago, the anarcho-capitalist lost a legal battle with Fontevecchia. The Federal Chamber of the city of Buenos Aires rejected an appeal presented by the president’s lawyer, considering that it is not possible to close a lawsuit for “insults” that had been presented by the director of that newspaper.
Reactions
“Someone has to finally tell Milei to stop insulting people. A president of a country does not insult fellow citizens. That is violent and very dangerous,” said the well-known radio journalist Marcelo Longobardi in one of his editorials. “I want to know why no one talks about this. I find it unacceptable. I’m not willing to get used to that, in exchange for lowering inflation, they hurt me all day long“. Ernesto Tenembaum wrote a biography of Milei and has a popular morning radio program, “And now who can help us.” His interventions are systematically criticized on social networks. “Beyond alarming me, because It worries me, the question is how far are they going to go with this nonsense.”
According to the consulting firm Indaga-RSO, six out of 10 interviewees consider that there is verbal violence on the part of the president, while a similar average recognizes that there is a growing irritability in society that can become a serious problem.
From the palace to the street
Milei’s virtual attacks coincide with other converging episodes. On the one hand, the unprecedented witch hunt of a series of well-known writers whom Vice President Victoria Villarruel, and then the entire defamatory arsenal in X, accused of promoting “pedophilia” without even reading their books. At the same time, a shock group has been created, “The Forces of Heaven”, ready to become, according to its declared purposes, the “armed arm” of the president. After its public presentation, during an event with clear fascist aesthetics, the promoters of the “praetorian guard” clarified that they will only intervene on social networks and that the “armed arm” is one who holds a telephone. The clarification only clouded the purposes.
The jargon of Milei and the declared aspirations of the Forces of Heaven begin to have their violent emulations on the public scene. Last week, a woman smashed a pensioner’s head in with a golf club in the spa town of Pinamar because she was resting under some trees in an exclusive club of which she was not a member. “Negra installment”, He yelled at her as he charged at her. This Monday, in the charming Palermo neighborhood of the city of Buenos Aires, a man began to insult a group of young people who were circulating with a Palestinian flag. “I’m rich and you guys are fucking niggers“he shouted. People who were sitting on some of the terraces drinking coffee witnessed the scene in shock when he demanded that the protesters leave “his neighborhood.” When a police officer took action on the matter, the aggressor He boasted that “rich people don’t go to prison.”
