Teenage Libertarian Leads Brazil’s Largest Protest in Decades

 

Kim KataguiriSince several decades of military rule ended in 1984, Brazil mostly has been led by a series of left-wing presidents. The South American nation’s current leader, Dilma Rousseff, has been regularly rocked by scandals and a stubbornly moribund economy. The previous president, Lula, had a similar experience, since it’s basically impossible for big government to collude with big business and not create corruption and stagnation.

As Rousseff continues borrowing and building for the upcoming Rio Olympics, many Brazilians have had enough. But instead of advocating a purer form of leftism or a return to authoritarianism, the young are demanding a far more radical approach: freedom. It isn’t cigar-smoking businessmen or stodgy think tanks advocating free markets and free minds, but a funny, tech-savvy teenager named Kim Kataguiri.

The March 15 demonstration was the largest Sao Paulo had seen in more than three decades, since 1984 protests demanding democratic elections after a long dictatorship.

But more surprising than the crowd of more than 200,000, according to the Datafolha polling and statistics agency, was the fact it was being led by Kataguiri, a skinny, 19-year-old college dropout, and other young Brazilian activists inspired by libertarianism and conservative free-market ideals.

The grandson of Japanese immigrants, Kataguiri is a social media star whose quirky videos skewer Rousseff and the ruling party’s social welfare policies. His ascent as a protest figure has been rapid. Two years ago, when protests erupted across Brazil over corruption and poor public services, Kataguiri was a high schooler who avoided the unrest.

Today, he is the public face of the Free Brazil Movement, a growing force that is more focused than the 2013 unrest that expressed a wide range of middle-class anger. Brazil’s new wave of protests are seen as a right-leaning movement clearly channeled against Rousseff and her Workers’ Party.

Calling a movement “right-leaning” in Brazil can conjure ugly images of the 20-year junta that ruled the country from 1964 to 1984. But Kataguiri and his friends advocate a drastic departure from the top-down governance demonstrated by both sides of the political divide.

The teenage libertarian is a big fan of Ludwig Von Mises, Russell Kirk, and Milton Friedman, but he isn’t locked in some student government hall with other bow-tied economics nerds. Instead he posts satirical videos to YouTube mocking Brazil’s president, Fidel Castro, and other lefty icons. A popular late-night comedian noticed his work and invited him to create sketches for his television program.

Though it’s unlikely that South America’s largest country will turn into a libertarian paradise overnight, Kataguiri, et al., are causing big problems for Brasilia’s far-left president. Saõ Paulo political scientist Carlos Melo said, “much of the population has lost faith in regards to the future and her ability to govern. These groups are making her look more vulnerable.”

Published in Economics
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  1. Mike H Inactive
    Mike H
    @MikeH

    simply

    • #1
  2. Hartmann von Aue Member
    Hartmann von Aue
    @HartmannvonAue

    And the kid’s wearing a Brooklyn Brewing t-shirt. That’s pretty discerning taste, there, son.

    • #2
  3. user_348375 Member
    user_348375
    @

    Since when is a 19 year old a “kid?”  I was in Viet Nam at that age.  Couldn’t buy alcohol, but could kill bad guys.  I’ve about had it with the continuous advancement of the age where one becomes an adult.  This guy is merely a young and vibrant man calling out his Communist government.

    • #3
  4. Douglas Inactive
    Douglas
    @Douglas

    It’s Brazil. They’ll tolerate him if he can’t muster the numbers. If he can, well, accidents happen. He has no money, power, or influence to protect him.

    • #4
  5. Ricochet Inactive
    Ricochet
    @WardRobles

    Great find! I had my own libertarian awakening about the same age in 1980, reading and listening to William F. Buckley and Milton Friedman. I told my public high school AP history teacher, whom I thought was learned and wise, all about it. He said that libertarians are just anarchists.

    • #5
  6. user_428379 Coolidge
    user_428379
    @AlSparks

    Tom Riehl:Since when is a 19 year old a “kid?” I was in Viet Nam at that age.

    It depends on the 19 year old.  Did Kim Kataguiri join the military?  Did he go to war?  He’s a college dropout that’s gained some celebrity.

    When I was 19, I didn’t really feel like an adult, and looking back, I really wasn’t except legally.

    I don’t have a problem calling him a kid.  And more power to him.  He won’t stay one.

    • #6
  7. Ricochet Member
    Ricochet
    @MattBalzer

    Al Sparks:

    Tom Riehl:Since when is a 19 year old a “kid?” I was in Viet Nam at that age.

    It depends on the 19 year old. Did Kim Kataguiri join the military? Did he go to war? He’s a college dropout that’s gained some celebrity.

    When I was 19, I didn’t really feel like an adult, and looking back, I really wasn’t except legally.

    I don’t have a problem calling him a kid. And more power to him. He won’t stay one.

    I tend to find that “kid” is often used as a catch-all term for anyone younger than the speaker, at least for my parents and other older relatives. It has nothing to do with maturity or anything other than the fact that they are younger than the speaker. It was strange when I’m talking to my grandparents and they’re referring to “kids” in their sixties, but nothing derogatory is meant by it.

    I’m even catching myself doing it every so often, although the range of people who I can call kids in that context is considerably more limited.

    • #7
  8. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    Matt Balzer:I tend to find that “kid” is often used as a catch-all term for anyone younger than the speaker, at least for my parents and other older relatives. It has nothing to do with maturity or anything other than the fact that they are younger than the speaker. It was strange when I’m talking to my grandparents and they’re referring to “kids” in their sixties, but nothing derogatory is meant by it.

    I’m even catching myself doing it every so often, although the range of people who I can call kids in that context is considerably more limited.

    A very long time a go, I read one of the MASH books that was set in Maine. (I’m being too lazy to look up the title, but believe it was MASH Goes to Maine.) When “Spearchucker” Jones came, “Hawkeye” cautioned him on the order of:

    Don’t get upset if they call you “boy” around here. That isn’t about race; they call everyone that until they reach seventy-two, and then they call the person “young fellow.”

    • #8
  9. Tommy De Seno Member
    Tommy De Seno
    @TommyDeSeno

    Brooklyn Lager! Great beer! This fellow understands the power of symbolism. I’m on his side just for the brew.

    • #9
  10. MarciN Member
    MarciN
    @MarciN

    Arahant:

    Matt Balzer:I tend to find that “kid” is often used as a catch-all term for anyone younger than the speaker, at least for my parents and other older relatives. It has nothing to do with maturity or anything other than the fact that they are younger than the speaker. It was strange when I’m talking to my grandparents and they’re referring to “kids” in their sixties, but nothing derogatory is meant by it.

    I’m even catching myself doing it every so often, although the range of people who I can call kids in that context is considerably more limited.

    A very long time a go, I read one of the MASH books that was set in Maine. (I’m being too lazy to look up the title, but believe it was MASH Goes to Maine.) When “Spearchucker” Jones came, “Hawkeye” cautioned him on the order of:

    Don’t get upset if they call you “boy” around here. That isn’t about race; they call everyone that until they reach seventy-two, and then they call the person “young fellow.”

    MASH goes to Maine.  Interesting.

    • #10
  11. Ricochet Member
    Ricochet
    @OldBathos

    It is a testament to the thoroughness of the left’s long march through our education system and media that we don’t have American variants of this kid. The Youth hates PC even as they are intellectually possessed by it. Heroes like Steve Jobs are every other cutting edge technological or cultural leader is an entrepreneur not a Marxist guerilla. Maybe it’s just a matter of somebody making a crack large enough for the dam to break. The leftist delusion is more vulnerable than ever.

    • #11
  12. Arahant Member
    Arahant
    @Arahant

    MarciN:MASH goes to Maine. Interesting.

    Now you done made me look up the real thing. My memory isn’t bad considering I only read it once a few years after it was first written.

    • #12
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