Argentinian Swifties & ARMY team up against far-right presidential candidate, John Oliver weighs in
BTS and Taylor Swift fans give Javier Milei and his running mate an earful https://t.co/uG0ZjmznI3
- The Guardian (@guardian) October 26, 2023
Argentinian Swifties and ARMY have teamed up and organized internationally to raise awareness on presidential and vice-presidential candidates for the Libertarian party Javier Milei and Victoria Villaruel’s dangerous far-right ideology, urging people not to vote for them on November 19th’s ballotage against Peronist party’s candidate and current Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa. On the latest episode of Last Week Tonight, John Oliver samples a few of Milei's antics.
Mientras Macri decía ayer en un canal de tele que "a Mieli no lo conocemos" en el programa de John Oliver en HBO hablaban sobre Milei y decían esto. pic.twitter.com/MM3kPz8SZ5
- Tomás ⭐⭐⭐ (@TomiOlava) October 30, 2023
As is now apparently expected in this godforsaken planet, far-right parties are plaguing and have governed several countries all around the world. Argentina is no exception, and on November 19th, it could head towards the same path as United States with Donald Trump (whom Javier Milei idolizes, and is similarly unhinged when public speaking, perhaps even more), or Brazil with Jair Bolsonaro (whose son visited Argentina in support of Javier Milei’s candidacy this past October 22th, when the results defined that he would go up against Sergio Massa in ballotage).
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Una publicación compartida de El Destape Radio (@eldestaperadio)
I’m sure I don’t have to explain to ONTD how terrible these far-right parties are, especially since they all seem to follow the same handbook. The Libertarian party in Argentina has expressed negationism of its military dictatorship, homophobia, various samples of misogyny, and is generally perceived as an incel-run party that puts earned and hard-fought for rights at stake.
In the middle of the sheer insanity that the country has been in the past month (even more so than usual), Peronist Swifties (or generally anti-Milei Swifties, as to some this is a “vote for the lesser evil” choice, but I can elaborate on that later) have dug up tweets in which Javier Milei talks shit about Taylor Swift and her fans, calling them "fucking progressives". Keeping Miss Americana fresh in their memory, feminists of Argentina have run a micro-activism online campaign using the scene in which Taylor Swift fights her dad about speaking out Marsha Blackburn, as a parallel to Javier Milei and his party, since much of the issues Taylor lists on that scene are ones that Argentina would face if the Libertarian party were to win.
Milei se metió hasta con Taylor Swift! Realmente no les quedó nadie más para ofender! @TayUpdatesARG @taylornation13 @tayswiftmex_2 @taylorswiftes_ pic.twitter.com/i1X4Vt0baf
- Emilia 🇦🇷 (@emilis_emilis) October 25, 2023
Swifties then made a united-front public announcement calling against voting for Javier Milei, especially directed to Swifties but seen by everyone, trying to appeal to fans’ support of Taylor by highlighting that Taylor would never support Javier Milei, if she wasn’t willing to support Marsha Blackburn. Javier Milei is increasingly dangerous, as he is an irascible misogynist who goes violent at the slightest contradiction faced by a journalist, and whose proposals include replacing Argentina’s (extremely devalued) currency for the US dollar, shutting down the Central Bank, and has toyed with the idea of installing a free market of organs and even children. He is also arguably unstable in some form or another, as evidenced by his interview on October 27th, and by the fact that he has cloned his dead dog and uses a medium to speak to him, amongst an endless list of unhinged characteristics that make him a very scary candidate.
A pocos días del primer recital de @taylorswift13 en Argentina, como fandom nos vemos en la necesidad de hablar sobre las próximas elecciones argentinas y el futuro del país.
Como dijo Taylor: tenemos la necesidad de estar en el lado correcto de la historia. #SwiftiesAgainstLLA pic.twitter.com/pDMONpqU1n
- Swifties Contra LLA (@swiftAgainstLLA) October 26, 2023
Whilst all this was happening, ARG ARMY was going on a journey on its own. This time they targeted vice-presidential candidate Victoria Villaruel’s old tweets in which she told discriminatory jokes against BTS and its members. Alejandro Kim, Korean-Argentinean lawyer, Peronist party member and former vice-president of the Korean-Argentinian chamber of commerce, spoke out against Villaruel’s resurfaced tweets, saying “Congratulations! You’ve combined xenophobia, racism and ignorance in 200 characters!”. ARMYs were outraged, reaching out to international ARMY accounts in order to raise awareness on the Libertarian party in Argentina, as an attempt to hurt their public image, and it seems to have worked. International ARMY has started noticing and calling attention to the issue, and ARMY (and pretty much half the country, really) hopes this public shaming can manage to hurt Milei’s ego, which is so fragile already.
Yo sé que se te van los días reuniéndote con genocidas, pero BTS mueve medio punto del PBI de Corea del Sur. Si Jimin y el pelo rosa no te caen bien podés probar con Seokjin, que está haciendo la colimba. Felicidades! Fusionaste xenofobia, racismo e ignorancia en 200 caracteres. https://t.co/pwFroGBGAZ
- Alejandro Kim (@alekim_ok) October 25, 2023
Colaboro: pic.twitter.com/E5YkauTMSD
- Gaby (@Gabycatalan93) October 26, 2023
The Libertarian candidates seem to have had a lot of opinions on many popstars and tweeted about them freely, including Harry Styles and Tini (Argentinian popstar who, ironically, is in favour of Javier Milei teaming up with 3rd-place loser Patricia Bullrich, from the party Juntos Por El Cambio), so really, who knows which fandom will be incensed next?
OP’s Note: I debated on whether or not to post this, decided to do it. I think it’s always interesting to have the conversation on ONTD about how the far-right is spreading like an epidemic lately, and about fandoms using their power for good, especially since these are mostly women-led fandoms going up against a mainly male-misogynist-inclined political party. On the other hand, the situation is dire and I am running on peak anxiety right now, and I know there are nuances that are always discussed on this community about Taylor as a person, and her political inclinations. If you did find this interesting and/or compelling, all I can ask is that you try to raise awareness with online interactions if you run into this. It’s gonna be a close race, and there’s still a long way to go until November 19th. A lot is at stake. Any effort, however small, from whichever fandom, is greatly appreciated.
Sources: One, Two, Three, Four, Five, Six, Seven, Eight, Nine, Ten, Eleven, Twelve, Thirteen.