The pro-Milei cartoon that indoctrinates young Argentinians

State subsidies are the worst. Socialism is a system that ruins countries and must be eradicated. Why is university useless or what are the dangers of single-parent families? These are some of the topics addressed by Tuttle Twins, the flagship cartoon in the new program schedule of the public children's television channel, Paka Paka, seen by millions of Argentine households.

Its protagonists are Emily and Ethan Tuttle, twins who travel through time with their Cuban grandmother and meet liberal economists such as Adam Smith, Ludwig von Mises, and Milton Friedman. The recurring villain is played by Karl Marx, and the Argentine president, the anarcho-capitalist Javier Milei, makes a cameo appearance.

"This series, which has three seasons, is financed and produced by the Libertas Foundation, based in Ohio and whose mission is the international dissemination of the ideas of extreme economic liberalism, hostile to the State and ultraconservative at the social level," explains the conservative daily La Nacion.

During his campaign, Javier Milei had strongly criticized the supposed "indoctrination" of Argentine children by the Peronist movement then in power, through schools, but also through this same television channel, Paka Paka. "And this now, is not indoctrination?" asks El Economista in its headline.

“Despite the promise of a new program without ideological overtones and which puts 'values ​​at the center' [according to a government press release], the episodes explicitly address arguments which are at the heart of the 'cultural battle' being waged by the government,” regrets La Nacion in another article.

An editorial in the progressive daily Pagina 12 is unequivocal:

“We are planning an unprecedented indoctrination of children and adolescents, through images that demonize any trace of solidarity, of sensitivity towards the suffering of others and remove all value from public education.”

Several education experts have also voiced their criticism, such as Cecilia Veleda, a doctor of educational sciences, who was interviewed by La Nación : “We cannot hold children hostage in the midst of ideological disputes between adults. These are the president's personal obsessions, translated into erroneous content filled with lies, discrimination, and attacks, and which are in no way related to the school curriculum.”

Communications researcher Martin Becerra makes another argument, again in La Nación : “This content is imported [from the United States], created for a reality different from ours. It does not reflect our culture, our history, or our present. It is dogmatic content, which, even in the United States, has been criticized for its sectarianism and aggressiveness.”

The president's entourage was quick to defend the Tuttle Twins . One of his main publicists, Daniel Parisini, posted this message on his social media, which was reprinted by the news site Ambito Financiero : “If the indoctrination is right-wing, then it's not indoctrination. Because our ideologies are not equivalent. Teaching socialism is not the same as teaching liberalism. […] One defends reality, the other a fantasy. Teaching one is good, teaching the other is bad.”

In a context where Javier Milei's government is cutting state budgets more and more every day, the amount that this cartoon cost Argentina has not been disclosed.