Populist leader alleged to have ‘copied word for word’ a monologue by TV show’s fictional president Jed Bartlet

Populist leader alleged to have ‘copied word for word’ a monologue by TV show’s fictional president Jed Bartlet

Argentina’s rightwing populist president, Javier Milei, has been accused of plagiarising a chunk of his recent speech to the United Nations general assembly from the political drama The West Wing.

“It seems like fiction, but it isn’t,” the left-leaning Buenos Aires newspaper Página 12 reported on Friday, claiming Milei had “copied, word for word, a monologue” by the television show’s fictional president, Josiah “Jed” Bartlet.

Suspicions over Milei’s address surfaced this week when the political columnist Carlos Pagni flagged the “extraordinary” similarities between part of the president’s speech and words uttered by Martin Sheen’s Bartlet 21 years earlier. “Didn’t anyone else notice?” Pagni wrote in the newspaper La Nación, before transcribing the words of both men.

  • Letsdothis@lemmy.worldEnglish
    421·
    3 months ago

    Yall… “libertarian” isn’t necessarily right or left.

    It is important to notice that political labels mean different things in different parts of the world and at different points of time.

    In contemporary US politics libertarian is usually used to describe a set of political values that advocate liberal social policies with conservative economic policies. This means they don’t fit neatly on a left/right spectrum because they (mostly) align with Democrats on social issues and Republicans on economic issues.

    Libertarians can be seen as left of the right and right of the left.

    • spector@lemmy.caEnglish
      12·
      3 months ago

      So which is this guy? A more left or right libertarian?

      Libertarian in the US tends to mean more right leaning. The left social issues they support tend to be rather superficial self serving issues like decriminalization.

      • Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
        9·
        3 months ago

        He’s exactly what we think. Criticizes international bodies, aligns with Trump, Bolsonaro, and Netanyahu. He silences critics and uses force against unions.

      • DragonTypeWyvernEnglish
        43·
        3 months ago

        That’s inaccurate, there’s no such thing as a right wing libertarian, just a fascist who wants corporations to absorb the state instead.

        • Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
          81·
          3 months ago

          Yeah, we’re saying the same thing. I’ve never met a libertarian that wasn’t in favor of Corporate Feudalism.

                • Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  32·
                  3 months ago

                  Yup that reads like they let a libertarian write it. But none of those individual freedoms mean a damn when they go after the government protecting them. Ergo, they are either supporters of Corporate Feudalism or useful idiots for the would-be Aristocracy.

                  • DragonTypeWyvernEnglish
                    11·
                    3 months ago

                    Guess you couldn’t quite understand the part where it started as a branch of socialism, huh

              • Letsdothis@lemmy.worldEnglish
                18·
                3 months ago

                But… there are libertarians, this is an objective fact… Some folks are so extremely left that any other political opinion is to the right of them. You may need to come back a little towards the center.

                Edit: In contemporary US politics libertarian is usually used to describe a set of political values that advocate liberal social policies with conservative economic policies. This means they don’t fit neatly on a left/right spectrum because they (mostly) align with Democrats on social issues and Republicans on economic issues.

                • Maggoty@lemmy.worldEnglish
                  21·
                  3 months ago

                  Okay? I think you missed what was going on there. I agree there are libertarians, I do not agree that they have any meaningful participation in the left. Their ideas about small (or no) government completely invalidate everything they say about social issues. The corporations will set and enforce the rules if we don’t have a government capable of doing so.

          • Blazingtransfem98@discuss.onlineEnglish
            81·
            3 months ago

            He doesn’t consider himself a right-wing extremist, yet he hangs out on Truth social, and admitted to it himself. That tells us all we need to know about what kind of person he is. Most people who aren’t rather far right wing don’t hang out on truth social, a platform by conservatives, for conservatives.