Versión Español
Spanish.— It is undeniable that, at one point, socialist ideas were at their peak in the West. It is said that Lenin even had a term for people who defended the model of centralized planning in liberal democracies: the famous “useful idiots” who eroded a system of freedom while promoting a liberty-crushing system, interpreting it through the lens of utopian fantasies.
During the Soviet “heyday” (for the ruling dictatorship, as there was nothing good for the people), socialists made significant investments in cultural infiltration in Western countries. Probably, given the model’s dismal results, these Gramscian operations might have been the most effective part of the “dictatorship of the proletariat,” which never managed to evolve into the classless society promised by Marx and Engels.
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Of course, when the Berlin Wall fell and the Soviet Union collapsed, the reality became evident to the world: workers in capitalist countries were much more productive and free than their socialist counterparts, and the standard of living offered by market economies could never be matched by the Politburo. For anyone who still doubted, there were always the “Jurassic Parks” like Cuba or North Korea to serve as comparisons, as well as the new attempts at “21st-century socialism,” which repeated all the miseries of the 20th-century version.
With all odds against them in today’s discussions, Javier Milei argues that socialism’s failures have led its advocates to resort to all kinds of tricks to dominate public debate, as they cannot compete in a fair game or in a discussion held on “level ground.”
In one segment of the interview with Lex Friedman on his podcast, Milei warned that many ideologically driven journalists who speak of freedom of expression actually aim to censor voices critical of the left and woke ideology.
“They can’t stand competition. If they had to go head-to-head in a fair debate of ideas, they would lose. Because they’ve been a failure politically, economically, socially, culturally—and let’s not forget that these murderers, called socialists, killed 150 million human beings,” he warned.
For the Argentine president, left-wing advocates “can’t compete on equal terms,” so they demand censorship on social media to prevent the truth from being told. “When you tell socialists the truth, they cry and claim it’s hate speech. It’s not hate speech; it’s that they’re useless and have ruined the planet,” Milei remarked.
“They want to censor ideas they don’t like,” emphasized the Argentine president.
In this context, regarding the debate about freedom and social media, the libertarian once again praised Elon Musk’s decision to buy Twitter, turning it into X, one of the most important platforms for free speech in today’s global discussions.
Here’s my conversation with Javier Milei (@JMilei), President of Argentina 🇦🇷.
I’m posting it in both English (overdubbed) & Spanish (with subtitles) here on X and everywhere else.
See comment thread for Spanish version and links. The Spanish version has me speaking Spanish 🔥… pic.twitter.com/zCazJbhFsA
— Lex Fridman (@lexfridman) November 19, 2024
