A black wind is blowing in Italy and in the entire Western world,
upsetting balances and killing hopes. It is not just about refugeesfleeing war or poverty, hoping for a supportive West, moved by the image
they have made of it, the result of manipulative propaganda that
presented it as "democratic" and sensitive to the pain of others. Other
subjects, this time internal and Italian, also feel in danger due to the
rise to power of the new fascism, and not that in previous times things
went much better, but some progress had been made thanks to the protest
and libertarian movements that from the sixties onwards built liberated
spaces and awareness, both among women, eternal subalterns, and among
gender diversity.
Times are changing fast, if even Michele Serra, a few nights ago on
Piazza Pulita on Sette, commenting on the so-called woke culture, a
contemptuous term coined by US Trump supporters to define the ideas of
those who fight for human rights, declared that perhaps they have
exaggerated a bit with this claim of respect and protection of the
rights of "minorities". On the other hand, once he assumed the throne,
Trump did not take long to explain his program to expel several million
immigrants from the United States (we will see who will go to pick fruit
and cultivate the land in California or Texas) and control sexual
diversity: in his investiture speech he said very clearly that in
"America there are only two genders, man and woman"; not saying, but
implying, that for the others there is no space and rights. And since in
the case of migrants, the raids and forced repatriations to their
countries of origin have already begun (and if they don't accept them,
they threaten 25% duties, as they just did with Colombia), one wonders
when the raids for the different sexual groups will begin. And since
they will mostly be North Americans, all that will be left for them to
do is "mark" them on the forehead or force them to wear some rainbow
ribbon on their chest; although an electronic anklet might work better
or lock them up in reservations far from the cities to avoid
contamination by the virus of difference (in fact, the idea that it is a
disease, evidently contagious, is still strong!). If anyone thinks I am
exaggerating, I should point out that even before Trump won, a law was
being drafted in Texas to monitor and control the movements of pregnant
women, to prevent them from traveling to neighboring states to have an
abortion.
Certainly in Italy the situation seems to be different, even if it seems
to me that we are already well ahead on that discriminatory path, as the
success of Vannacci's book and the five hundred thousand votes that
brought him to the European Parliament clearly demonstrate: we start by
saying that they are not normal and then we end up considering them
dangerous and repressing them (Putin and Lukashenko teach us). In the
meantime, the marches in black shirts and outstretched arms are already
not surprising, even in progressive Bologna, while the police turn a
blind eye when the new fascists resort to violence against homosexuals
and any other perceived "weak" subject: homeless, migrants, women...
Cases of discrimination and physical violence against male homosexuals
have increased in Italy in recent times. It has become dangerous even in
broad daylight for two men to walk hand in hand or kiss in public.
Several cases have been reported in cities in the north, but even in the
south things are no different, see the case of the Neapolitan father who
attacked his fifteen-year-old son with a wrench when he discovered he
was gay. It would seem to be spontaneous and individual violence, but
from what can be deduced from the cases reported in the newspapers, real
expeditions are carried out by packs of young men near gay nightclubs,
and perhaps they are the same ones who then gather in black to sing
Faccetta nera. The case of the Cassero in Bologna is emblematic: four
times during the month of January, the historic Lgbtqia+ headquarters
was attacked and posters and banners vandalized, leaving homophobic
writings and signs. In fact, the Bologna sensitive to sexual diversity
is disappearing, while patrols in black shirts have appeared in the
streets of the center; and the president of the Cassero does not
hesitate to point to the government itself as the inspirer and
guarantor, fueling homophobic violence.
This situation of potential aggression in public spaces creates a state
of permanent fear, which is precisely at the origin of the historical
invisibility of the universe of different sexualities, particularly
males: to assume the gestures and languages of the other "normal" to
camouflage oneself, to stay or go back into the closet, as they say, to
be able to keep one's job or not be bullied at school, giving up one's
own way of expressing oneself in gestures and words. This fear of
aggression arises, first of all, from the "nebula of the social
imaginary", (Castoriadis) fundamentally homophobic, which is expressed
in jokes, spicy stories, interdictory glances or offensive gestures, but
also explicitly in everyday discriminatory practices (not renting to
couples of men, for example) and even institutionalized ones (the
indication in public competitions to exclude the most "effeminate", as
they define them); and, finally, as we have said, in explicit violence,
pushed by the official discourse of government figures and by regime
television, real state homophobia (never before had the flag of
so-called "normality" been waved so much). Evidently, the official
discourse against the Lgbtqia+ world also has its effects on the general
population, as it happens in the case of emigrants, as shown by the
Censis 2024 Report, where there is a progressive "medievalization" of
Italian culture, especially in the increasingly explicitly homophobic
language in the popular sphere, while the number of people who believe
that homosexuality is a genetic pathology or a vice is growing (15.3%).
The situation will become increasingly serious with the seizure of power
by the black international led by Trump, especially taking into account
the presence at his enthronement of the lords of social networks such as
Elon Musk (X), Jeff Bezos (Amazón), Mark Zuckerberg, (Facebook), Sundar
Pichai (Google) and Tim Cook (Apple), and their global capacity to
impose concepts and opinions (it is not known how the homosexual Tim
Cook reacted to Trump's words denying his right to a different
identity!). I don't even know if the various Italian Lgbtqia+
organizations have the strength and the value to respond unitedly to the
denialist pressure of the right and involve other progressive political
forces (Schlein hasn't done much in this sense). I hope so... in any
case, we'll be there!
Emanuele Amodio
https://www.sicilialibertaria.it/
_________________________________________
A - I N F O S N E W S S E R V I C E
By, For, and About Anarchists
Send news reports to A-infos-en mailing list
A-infos-en@ainfos.ca
Geen opmerkingen:
Een reactie posten