Agustín Laje
{{Sources exist|date=June 2024}}
{{short description|Argentine writer and political scientist (born 1989)}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Agustín Laje
| image = Agustín Laje in 2025.jpg
| birth_name = Agustín Laje Arrigoni
| birth_date = {{Birth date and age|1989|01|16}}
| birth_place = Córdoba, Argentina
| death_date =
| death_place =
| education = {{plainlist|
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| occupation = {{hlist|Writer|political scientist|lecturer}}
}}
Agustín Laje Arrigoni (born 16 January 1989) is an Argentine conservative writer, political commentator and lecturer. He is the founder and president of the conservative think-tank Fundación Libre.{{cite web|url=https://onthinktanks.org/think-tank/fundacion-libre-centro-de-estudios-libertad-y-responsabilidad/|title=Fundación LIBRE – Centro de Estudios Libertad y Responsabilidad|publisher=On Think Tanks}}
Early life and education
He began his systems engineering career at the {{Ill|Instituto Universitario Aeronáutico|es|Instituto Universitario Aeronáutico}}. While studying there, he published his first work, Los mitos setentistas: Mentiras fundamentales sobre la década del 70.{{cite web|url=https://www.lanueva.com/nota/2011-7-13-9-0-0-presentan-el-libro-los-mitos-setentistas|title=Presentan el libro "Los mitos setentistas"|access-date=December 2, 2023|website=lanueva.com}} This book allowed him to obtain a scholarship to study counterterrorism at the William J. Perry Center for Hemispheric Defense Studies at the National Defense University, in Washington D.C., an institution of the United States Department of Defense.{{cite web|url=https://www.williamjperrycenter.org/content/about-perry-center|title=About The Perry Center|publisher=William J. Perry Center}} When he returned to Argentina in 2011, he abandoned his engineering career.{{cite web|url=https://www.primeralinea.mx/2020/03/06/que-esconde-el-paro-de-mujeres-en-mexico-el-feminismo-aprovecha-astutamente-la-violencia-agustin-laje/|title=¿Qué esconde el paro de mujeres en México?… 'El feminismo aprovecha astutamente la violencia': Agustín Laje|access-date=December 2, 2023|website=primeralinea.mx}} He holds a Licentiate Degree on Politics Sciences by Universidad de Cordoba and a master's degree in Philosophy by Universidad de Navarra, Spain.
Career
In 2013, Laje published Cuando el relato es una farsa: la respuesta al relato kirchnerista with the writer Nicolás Márquez, where he criticizes Kirchnerism's position on the last dictatorship in Argentina. The book was rejected by local human rights organizations and organizations supporting trials for crimes against humanity, which repudiated it and managed to cancel its presentation in Bahía Blanca.{{cite web|url=https://www.andaragencia.org/suspenden-la-presentacion-de-un-libro-por-repudio-de-la-comunidad|title=Suspenden la presentación de un libro por repudio de la comunidad |access-date=December 2, 2023|website=andaragencia.org}}
In 2016, also together with Márquez, they published El libro negro de la nueva izquierda: Ideología de género o subversión cultural. In it they criticize third-wave feminism and what they call "gender ideology", elements that they consider tools of Cultural Marxism. One of the controversies that this book generated arose from stating that a feminist current supposedly supported the pedophile activist movement. For this reason the actress and host Malena Pichot interviewed Laje on a radio program, generating a debate that went viral on social networks. Laje also participated in a debate with the presenter Patricia del Río, on the Peruvian radio station RPP.
The presentation of the book within the framework of the 44th edition of the Book Fair in 2018 provoked rejection from human rights organizations, social and political organizations, which expressed themselves through "songs and slogans referring to denialism, hatred and discrimination that these authors promote".{{cite web|url=https://www.anred.org/2018/05/14/escrache-en-la-feria-del-libro-un-freno-a-la-derecha/|title=Escrache en la Feria del Libro: un freno a la derecha|publisher=ANRed - Agencia de Noticias Redacción}}
Political positions
Laje calls himself a paleolibertarian, minarchist and anti-feminist. He is a strong opponent of abortion even in cases of rape, and opposes euthanasia, making him a pro-life activist. His ideas have been considered ultra-conservative and far-right by different media outlets.{{cite web|url=https://ojo-publico.com/2336/argentina-los-lideres-que-buscan-frenar-avance-de-derechos|title=Ultraconservadores y negacionistas intentan frenar la ampliación de derechos en Argentina|access-date=2023-12-01|last=Ziegler|first=Gloria|website=Ojo Público}} On numerous occasions, Laje has been called sexist, transphobic and homophobic, but according to him, "he hates no one".{{cite web|url=https://codiceinformativo.com/2019/06/protestan-en-queretaro-contra-agustin-laje-por-promover-homofobia-transfobia-y-misoginia/|title=Protestan en Querétaro contra Agustín Laje por promover homofobia, transfobia y misoginia|access-date=2023-12-01|date=2019-06-22|website=Códice Informativo}}
Laje defines gender ideology as a set of anti-scientific ideas that, for authoritarian political purposes, uproots its nature from human sexuality and tends to explain it exclusively from culture. Thus, our sexual reality, as men or women, would be a mere social construction, nullifying our natural determinations.{{cite web|url=https://listindiario.com/la-republica/2019/08/19/578785/laje-los-defensores-de-ideologia-genero-en-rd-trataron-de-aniquilarme|title=Laje: Los defensores de ideología género en RD trataron de aniquilarme|date=19 August 2019 |access-date=December 2, 2023}}
Publications
= Books =
- {{cite book|last=Laje|first=Agustín|author-mask=1|date=2011|title=Los mitos setentistas: mentiras fundamentales sobre la década del 70|trans-title=Seventies myths: Fundamental Lies About The 70s|language=es|publisher=Edición de autor|isbn=9789872664305}}
- {{cite book|last=Laje|first=Agustín|author-mask=1|date=2013|title=Cuando el relato es una farsa: la respuesta al relato kirchnerista|trans-title=When the Story Is a Farce: The Response to The Kirchnerist Story|language=es|publisher=Ediciones Contra Cultural|isbn=9789872982300}}
- {{cite book|last=Laje|first=Agustín|author-mask=1|date=2016|title=El libro negro de la nueva izquierda: ideología de género o subversión cultural|trans-title=The Black Book of the New Left: Gender Ideology or Cultural Subversion|language=es|publisher=Grupo Unión|isbn=9789873677533}}
- {{cite book|last=Laje|first=Agustín|author-mask=1|date=2022|title=La batalla cultural: Reflexiones críticas para una Nueva Derecha|trans-title=The Cultural Battle: Critical Reflections for a New Right|language=es|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-1400235995}}
- {{cite book|last=Laje|first=Agustín|author-mask=1|date=2023|title=Generación idiota: Una crítica al adolescentrismo|trans-title=Idiot Generation: A Critique of Adolescentism|language=es|publisher=HarperCollins|isbn=978-1400238569}}
References
{{reflist}}
External links
{{wikiquote|Agustín Laje Arrigoni}}
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Category:Argentine political scientists
Category:Argentine male writers
Category:Argentine anti-abortion activists
Category:Argentine anti-communists
Category:Argentine people of Italian descent
Category:People from Córdoba, Argentina
Category:Male critics of feminism
Category:Argentine conspiracy theorists
Category:Argentine Roman Catholics
Category:Right-wing politics in Argentina