At the World Economic Forum in Davos last week, Argentina’s libertarian president Javier Milei made waves with a fiery speech condemning what he calls the “woke ideology mental virus” that, in his view, is threatening to destroy the Western world. He described it as “the great epidemic of our time that must be cured” and “the cancer we need to get rid of.”
According to Milei, the core values of Western civilization—freedom of speech, religion, and respect for life—are what allowed the Industrial Revolution to lift “90 percent of the world’s population from poverty.” However, he believes that woke ideology is the deadly force that could undo all of this progress.
Milei argues that woke ideology has infiltrated critical institutions worldwide, from political parties and governments in leading Western countries to universities, the media, and even NGOs. He warns that this movement threatens to derail the progress needed for a new golden age. “Western civilization—and even the human species—will not be able to return to the path of progress unless we break these ideological chains,” he declared.
On the topic of gender ideology, Milei didn’t hold back, labeling the left’s radical policies as damaging. He criticized those pushing for the idea that gender is based on self-perception, and pointed to cases like a male inmate who claimed to be a woman and sexually assaulted female prisoners. Milei used a disturbing example of a same-sex couple in Georgia who were convicted of abusing and selling their adopted boys to a pedophile ring. “They are pedophiles,” he said bluntly, calling the promotion of gender ideology “child abuse” in its extreme forms.
The Argentine president also took aim at gender-transition treatments for children, calling them harmful and irreversible. He denounced hormone treatments and body modifications for minors, especially when done against the wishes of their families. “Healthy children are irreversibly harmed by hormone treatments and mutilation,” Milei warned, adding that these individuals might spend their entire lives dealing with the psychological aftermath. He said the full effects of these practices are just beginning to emerge, but no one dares to talk about them.
A staunch supporter of Israel, Milei expressed optimism about his own country’s future but voiced deep concern for the West, particularly in light of what he sees as the growing influence of cultural Marxism. “Believe me, the scandalous experiments conducted in the name of this criminal ideology will be condemned and compared with those committed during the darkest periods of our history,” he predicted.
On immigration, Milei made a case for the positive impact of migration in building nations like the US and Argentina. However, he warned that today’s immigration policies are flawed, risking the collapse of the West. He described this as a form of “reverse colonization,” comparing it to “a collective suicide.” He criticized Western nations for opening their borders to people who, in his view, are not the right kind of migrants. These migrants, he said, are responsible for violence and unrest in Europe. “When someone questions these situations, they are immediately labeled as racists, xenophobes, or even Nazis,” he concluded.
