“Leftism Is a Mental Problem,” Says Argentina’s Conservative President Javier Milei
“At one point, I thought being on the left was a mental problem,” Argentina’s conservative president, Javier Milei, told reporters. A former professor trained in the school of Austrian economics, Milei pointed to the data, saying the empirical evidence is overwhelming, that it has never worked anywhere, and that its supporters refuse to accept that reality. Since clinging to false beliefs despite overwhelming evidence is the textbook definition of delusion, he concluded, “Therefore, I thought it was a mental problem.”
“They are enemies of numbers,” He said, like a true economist. “They hate numbers. I don’t know if lefties hate bathing more than numbers.”
The numbers President Milei is referring to are the large number of countries that have been communist at some point in history, including Soviet satellite states, totaling about 50. Today, only five remain: China, Cuba, Laos, North Korea, and Vietnam. Another interesting number is zero, the number of countries that have returned to communism after escaping from it.
“They are very violent. And since they have no way or arguments to answer, they go for physical violence,” explained Milei. “Leftists always, let’s say, resort to physical violence and all kinds of violent manifestations because they are unable to refute the arguments.”
Here, Milei is hitting on two important points. First, he argues that leftists cannot refute the empirical evidence that communism does not work. Second, he points to a historical record of violence, suppression, arbitrary arrest, torture, and execution.
The total number of people killed by communist regimes, including deaths caused by resource mismanagement and regime-imposed famines, varies. However, one of the most widely cited works is The Black Book of Communism, published by Harvard University Press and authored by European scholars drawing on newly opened Soviet archives. The authors estimate that communism’s death toll ranges from 85 to 100 million. They break this down as up to 25 million in the former Soviet Union, 65 million in China, and 1.7 million in Cambodia, with additional deaths across Vietnam, North Korea, Eastern Europe, Africa, and Latin America.