De los márgenes al mainstream. Agustín Laje y la "batalla cultural" de las derechas radicalizadas

In recent years, radical right-wingers have positioned themselves as unavoidable political actors in Latin America, both in terms of mobilization and cultural political activism as well as at the electoral level. In Argentina case, the social transformations on which the irruption of Javier Milei - the economist who triumphed in the 2023 presidential elections- is based are not limited to the decline of traditional parties or to the long-standing economic crisis, but involve deeper socio-cultural processes, not unrelated to the global, but with specific national modulations. One of the dimensions to be considered in relation to the rise of the radicalized right is the creation of a space for the production, circulation and dissemination of ideas, discourses, practices and interactions that configure a mass cultural device that promotes a "cultural battle" against progressivism, which is key to think about the forms of contemporary political subjectivation. The Argentine political scientist Agustin Laje has positioned himself in recent years as one of the main intellectual references in the right-wing field in Argentina in particular and Latin America in general, from a career that can be thought of as having started from the margins and derived in the mainstream through books and digital content. This article approaches the cultural scene of the radicalized right in Argentina through the case of Laje, his texts, his cultural initiatives and the agents that mediate his productions and allow his followers to access and connect with them. Through the analysis of his books and interventions, participant observations in his events, in-depth interviews to editors, mediators and consumers of his productions, we study how Laje combines traditional and emergent strategies of public intervention, where the publication of books and intellectual positioning materialize a program of "cultural battle" of the radicalized right in Argentina.