WORLD WORLDWIDE ITALY SICILIA News Journal Update -(en) Sicilia Libertaria 4/2023: Italy in power. Fascism of yesterday and today - Emanuele Amodio (ca, de, it, pt, tr) [machine translation]

 The government of the half-socks, after those of the best, does not seem to make

a difference in terms of economics and work with its predecessor, even if to be
honest a change is felt with regard to the ill-called civil rights: after decades
of being in governments and governments , the right takes off its mask, emerges
from the sewers, and shows that it is an authoritarian government copy and paste
of the twenty years. Certainly it is not a question of re-proposing historical
fascism in its entirety, even if at times the temptation exists, see the not
exactly shrewd use of certain speeches by Mussolini. I am referring to
ideological fascism, which seems to be meeting new forms, adapted to the times;
even if founded, as always, on authoritarian personality structures, as the
Frankfurt sociologists pointed out (a problem that certainly also affects the
so-called left). To identify an ideology, it is necessary to pay attention both
to the contents and to the methods for putting it into practice. In the present
case, the fascist propensity for violence against opponents and authoritarian
coercion as a method of gaining power is sufficiently known. However, the current
context does not allow for easy coups, and so the "democratic" one is used: power
is won with elections, not necessarily fraudulent, to then gradually erode the
conquests of freedom obtained with less authoritarian previous systems. Thus
systems that can be defined as "authoritarian democracies" also emerge in Europe,
an evident oxymoron, except considering that the problem lies not only in the
adjective, but also in the noun (see Churchill's definition, on "democracy as the
worst system of government ...").

As for the socio-cultural contents of this ideological fascism, it is not
necessary to go much further than our contemporary Italietta. On what he thinks
of women, the "I am a woman, mother and Christian" of the president Meloni (in
the male) is valid. This triple characterization points to a classic
representation of traditional Italy: the woman as a Christian mother,
self-abnegated and sacrificed; even if, in fact, it acquires a positive meaning
only if she is opposed to the other traditional figure of the woman: the whore
(but it is up to Berlusconi to put her on stage, even if we soon expect a law
that rehabilitates brothels). As for the construction of otherness, which
underlies the positivity of the new powerful tricolors, it is necessary to
identify internal enemies and external enemies and, if one cannot find them, it
is necessary to invent them. Thus, for external enemies, emigrants are very good,
even if one must be careful to distinguish: one thing are the emigrants who came
from the east, white and with blue eyes; another, those from Africa, in various
shades of black. For the avoidance of doubt, this is not an interpretation;
Meloni himself said it: "In Venezuela there are millions of people who are dying
of hunger. They are Christians, they are often of Italian origin. I say: do we
need immigrants? Let's take them to Venezuela" (2018). The family, then, must be
absolutely natural, as if families existed in nature with lots of in-laws and
Christian marriage. The assumption is so ridiculous that it would not be worth
insisting on, were it not for the fact that according to this principle rights
are repressed and denied. So no marriages between women or men, much less having
children or having them done. And so going...

The controversies of recent days on these issues show provocatively ostentatious
postures, so much so that it is interpreted by many that it is a way to divert
attention: weapons of mass distraction. They can certainly have this effect, but
it seems to me that these are attitudes expressed with pride, fully believed. In
fact, I wonder if it's ideology or culture. The question is legitimate if the
difference is clarified well: by culture we mean the ways of living and thinking
of a social group that historically forms a community, even in the broadest forms
of regional or national organization. This cultural formation works largely
automatically, thanks to the naturalization process. By ideology, on the other
hand, we mean a set of ideas, consciously produced, to maintain or change a
specific culture. Any political project always presupposes an ideology and there
is a struggle to transform it into culture, for hegemonic purposes; or repress to
prevent changes (depending on which side you're on). From this derive, for
example, the interventions of the right on the family and on the school, on the
sexual behavior of citizens, the censorship of books and so on. Trying to curb
change and maintain or impose their vision of the world, in Italy as in Poland or
in Trump's America.

Differentiating culture from ideology also leads to wondering how far Italian
culture, both popular and in certain "cultured" areas, is distant from the
contents of that fascist ideology we have mentioned. Certainly, those who voted
for Meloni or Salvini largely share their vision of the world and are not
necessarily, as some say, alienated or deceived, evidently also including those
voters who, in one way or another, do not identify with the distinct notion of
gender beyond biological sex. From this also arises the suspicion that we are not
dealing with a minority and that also a good part of the rest of the population,
including those who voted for PD or Cinque Stelle, more or less explicitly shares
that vision. We'll see how long the new PD secretary will last, in a particularly
male-dominated party, as she is not only a feminist but also a lesbian, proud of
it. But in the meantime, I invite my readers to ask their neighbors what they
think about the fact that two men can marry and, moreover, have children from a
woman who is paid to do so! Or, for those who work in the school, ask your
pupils, intelligently though and not as a test to get a good grade! The sharp
increase in homophobic bullying in Italian schools, historically invisible by the
so-called educators, does not give hope for very progressive answers (I realized
that in Trump's last rally, participation was massively youthful).

And if we are dealing with culture, then the problem, for those who think
differently, is doubly political: strictly speaking, fighting against this
government and any other that intends to repress the freedom to be as one wishes
(without evidently harming the freedom of others) ; and, in a broader sense,
dedicating oneself to permanent actions of formation and unveiling of hidden
plots or the dangers of the digital world; above all to propose alternative
solutions to those that capitalism imposes on us, from the possibility of
organizing ourselves to manage energy or water on our own, to the creation of
alternative educational spaces for boys and girls. Everyone must decide which
side to stand on and fight, to see their own ideology transformed into culture.
And this obviously applies to the whole libertarian area... and the Milan
demonstration of same-parent families demonstrates that many people are willing
to get back into the game and fight to produce a truly equal society.

Emmanuel Amodio

https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
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