Elon Musk on Tuesday shared a tirade from Argentina’s hard-right populist President-elect Javier Milei attacking social justice as being the ultimate form of injustice.
The clip of the dog-cloning, chainsaw-wielding libertarian was posted on X by Milei Explains, an account that shares clips of Milei’s interviews and speeches with English subtitles. Without comment, the world’s richest man then decided to share the video—in which Milei stresses the vital importance of freedom over equality—with his 165 million followers.
The clip, which is introduced as being on the subject of “equality before the law,” appears to come from a TV interview between Milei and Argentine political commentator Jorge Asís.
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“First of all, there is a phrase from Milton Friedman that I think is sublime in the context of this topic: ‘A society that puts equality before freedom will get neither. A society that puts freedom before equality will get a high degree of both,’” Milei begins, according to the subtitles.
“Even John Stuart Mill pointed this out: A society that obsesses with equality sooner or later becomes a society of looters and falls apart,” he continues. “That is the story of Argentina.”
Milei, who has described abortion as murder and has expressed opposition to equal marriage, adds: “Therefore, the point is that social justice is unjust. There is nothing more unjust than social justice. Because what is the greatest achievement of liberalism? Liberalism’s greatest achievement is ‘equality before the law.’ This is to say, the law is the same for everyone.”
He contrasts that equality with “the ideas of social justice,” which Milei claims to mean “the redistribution of income” and using “the ‘Repressive State Apparatus’ so you can take from the successful to distribute it capriciously according to the wishes of whomever is in power.”
Musk has previously promoted Milei content on X. In September, two months before Milei’s shock election win, Tucker Carlson interviewed Milei in Buenos Aires as part of the former Fox News host’s new venture on Musk’s platform. “Very interesting talk that goes far beyond Argentina in subjects discussed,” Musk wrote in a post promoting the interview.
On Tuesday, Milei himself apparently took notice of the Tesla’s boss’ interest. Replying to Musk’s post promoting his rant, Milei wrote: “We need to talk, Elon…”
