Speaker 1: He's trying to conceive of it, girl Boss noised, No,
Speaker 1: I'm trying. There's trying to think of something that's about
Speaker 1: like Italian racism, um and how we should all be
Speaker 1: racist against Italians um because now it's important. Um oh hi,
Speaker 1: welcome to it could happen here the show where we're
Speaker 1: talking about anti Italian racism um and and also girl
Speaker 1: Bosses finally to two great tastes that go great together.
Speaker 1: So like mixing peanut butter and piss. That's right, the
Speaker 1: piss being Italians. Girl Boss. I usually don't say things
Speaker 1: that are that obvious, but yes, with me today is
Speaker 1: Chris James and Robert I'm Garrison, and we're talking about
Speaker 1: girl boss fascism today. Um and uh, it's are we
Speaker 1: going to say Georgia? Is that how we're going to
Speaker 1: do it? Is that how we're going to say her name? Georgia?
Speaker 1: But I don't know George Georgia Milani, Georgia Milani, Georgia
Speaker 1: Milani Atly's new prime Minister, Gia Milan. That's what I
Speaker 1: was waiting for. You put some Italian on it. Yeah,
Speaker 1: spice up that meat a ball. So since since she's
Speaker 1: been the head of the Brothers of Italy Party, which
Speaker 1: is funny because what I think of the Brothers of Italy,
Speaker 1: I just think of Mario and Luigi. Obviously, that's there,
Speaker 1: that's what most people think. So but Marco and Luigi
Speaker 1: also fascists, so well, they're monarchists. Yeah, they're monarchists. They
Speaker 1: specifically served Princess So so Bowser, who's the girl boss
Speaker 1: is Bowser is your standard issue left wing polit bureau
Speaker 1: chief type leader. Whereas what Mario and Luigi are doing,
Speaker 1: like Mussolini is installing a royal in power, is taking
Speaker 1: its Essentially every Mario game is recreating the March on Rome.
Speaker 1: I have like ten pages to get through. Stol come
Speaker 1: into it. So its for the head of the Brothers
Speaker 1: of Italy Party, a party with direct lineage from the
Speaker 1: fascist Italian Social Movement, and Melani herself has been on
Speaker 1: camera praising figures like Mussolini, uh and until very recently
Speaker 1: the Brothers of Italy Party, besides being a very pro
Speaker 1: plumbing we're we're pretty on the we're pretty on the
Speaker 1: fridges of Italian volunteer. Just four years ago, the party
Speaker 1: won only four percent of the votes in the last election,
Speaker 1: and now it's become Italy's largest political party, claiming the
Speaker 1: greatest percentage of the vote in the last month's election.
Speaker 1: So today we're gonna talk about UH Millennia is what
Speaker 1: what she believes, what she kind of what what her
Speaker 1: rhetoric is, and then also the types of how the
Speaker 1: types of ways that media has been framing her relation
Speaker 1: to fascism, because there's definitely been this perception that like
Speaker 1: liberal feminists and mainstream media have been kind of soft
Speaker 1: on Melanie because she's the first woman prime minister of
Speaker 1: Italy UM and they have they've kind of framed her
Speaker 1: ascension to power and like a girl boss, go get
Speaker 1: it sort of way, and have been downplaying her more
Speaker 1: fascist views. So we're gonna talk about kind of where
Speaker 1: this perception comes from, the few ways where it's kind
Speaker 1: of correct, and some of the ways where it's I
Speaker 1: think a little off base. To start off with this,
Speaker 1: one of the kind of one of the biggest things
Speaker 1: that UH pushed this perception into the forefront was a
Speaker 1: tweet from Political Europe accompanying an article now that this
Speaker 1: this tweet, sorry, thank you, thank you, UM And because
Speaker 1: I hate basing our research off of things that are
Speaker 1: just on Twitter. This tweet has been referenced a lot
Speaker 1: on like television, UM on like news, and like News
Speaker 1: TV has been using this tweet a lot as well.
Speaker 1: This is this kind of shaped the way that discussions
Speaker 1: happening on a national stage, even off Twitter. Um but
Speaker 1: the tweet. The tweet reads in a fifteen year old
Speaker 1: school girl went to join her local branch of the
Speaker 1: far right Youth Front in Rome. The all male group
Speaker 1: of radicals met her with amusement. Thirty years later, Georgia
Speaker 1: Milani is now on course to become Italy's first female
Speaker 1: prime minister. So the way that frameor works is like, yeah,
Speaker 1: this this little girl wanted to join her Nazi club
Speaker 1: and it was and now she's finally private minister, the
Speaker 1: first one. And so yes, obviously this is very cringe
Speaker 1: e um not not great framing. A lot of good
Speaker 1: girl Hitler jokes, even picked up presidents. Listen, I'm no really,
Speaker 1: I'm happy Wow a girl president. How progressive? And so
Speaker 1: takes venture brothers Uh no uncritical support, it's just just
Speaker 1: support to venture brothers. Um. So takes like like that,
Speaker 1: like what like what we just heard a dean of
Speaker 1: ventures say? Kind of kind of spawned a big slew
Speaker 1: of of comments. You know, I'm just gonna read, read,
Speaker 1: read some of the stuff that the people have been
Speaker 1: saying in response to stuff like that Political Europe a
Speaker 1: piece quote begging liberals to stop praising girl Bossellini for
Speaker 1: being brave enough to shatter the glass ceiling in the
Speaker 1: neo fascist parties she's joined, and like, why is media
Speaker 1: treating this as a freaking girl boss story? The girl
Speaker 1: bossification of Georgia mL has been interesting to watch. Liberals
Speaker 1: will literally stand anybody. So there's a lot of a
Speaker 1: lot of takes like that have been have been have
Speaker 1: been going around. There's there's been extremely viral viral tweets
Speaker 1: getting hundreds of thousands of of likes, thousands of thousands
Speaker 1: retweets and shares, stuff getting referenced on national TV all
Speaker 1: kind of about this, you know, people complaining the takes
Speaker 1: from Political Europe and and other other kind of various
Speaker 1: soft headlines emphasizing the girl boss nature being like the
Speaker 1: sweet little girl defies the odds and grows up to
Speaker 1: be the first female Mussolini. So, like, some of these
Speaker 1: jokes are pretty funny. I think I think they're they're funny. Um,
Speaker 1: they're fine. There's oh. Probably the worst one of these
Speaker 1: takes that I found that still got hundreds of retweets
Speaker 1: and thousands of likes was quote the American right and
Speaker 1: the American left. The aesthetics are different, but the effect
Speaker 1: is the same. Porch for the rising tide of fascism.
Speaker 1: Communists are the only people now as in the past,
Speaker 1: who truly opposed fashion fare for fox sake is true
Speaker 1: for those of you following along time. No, yeah, there
Speaker 1: was a terrible Megan McCain tweet, which is very funny
Speaker 1: because people definitely wish we'll talk about the Megan McCain
Speaker 1: can't wait I have, Yes, well, we'll talk about our
Speaker 1: good friend Megan McCain. But yeah, so you know Italy's
Speaker 1: Italy elected their first female Mussolini. Um in a remarkable
Speaker 1: victory for both girl power and diversity in politics and people. People. Uh,
Speaker 1: people had some good japes. So the other the other
Speaker 1: kind of big thing that caused this perception that that
Speaker 1: like that, like the liberals will literally stand anybody. The
Speaker 1: other big thing I kind of caused that was, uh,
Speaker 1: some viral quotes from Hillary Clinton, uh talking talking about
Speaker 1: the the rule of of women in politics and referencing Milani.
Speaker 1: So some remarks from Hillary Clinton published in Italy last September.
Speaker 1: I think it was that. I think it was that
Speaker 1: like the Venice of Film Festival. Actually, um So, some
Speaker 1: some quotes from an interview that she gave at the
Speaker 1: Venice Film Festival went viral. Um mostly because tweets included
Speaker 1: to two small clips of of these quotes when she
Speaker 1: was talking about both women in politics and uh, Georgie, George, Gia, Georgia,
Speaker 1: You're doing great, buddy. Multiple viral tweets circulated, mostly with
Speaker 1: two short quotes from Clinton getting the majority of attention, saying, quote,
Speaker 1: the election of the first woman prime minister in a
Speaker 1: country always represents a break with the past and is
Speaker 1: certainly a good thing unquote, and a second quote being
Speaker 1: every time a woman is elected to head of state
Speaker 1: or government that is a step forward unquote. Um. Obviously,
Speaker 1: those takes, in anough of themselves, not very good. I
Speaker 1: don't think there's a good opinions. UM. Shocking, shocking that
Speaker 1: we are going to criticize the statement from Hillary Clinton.
Speaker 1: This is this is rare for us. Um. It's you know,
Speaker 1: it's it's I'm I'm surprised as well. But um, these
Speaker 1: kind of are slightly cherry picked from a larger section
Speaker 1: of this interview discussing women in government and how the
Speaker 1: far right is starting to use tokenized women to uphold
Speaker 1: patriarchy and conservatism. So the first quote is taken from
Speaker 1: this from a translation of an interview that that that
Speaker 1: Clinton did at the Venice Film Festival in September, prior
Speaker 1: to Mlanni's apparent victory in the Italian elections in September.
Speaker 1: So she'd do it in Italian. She speak Italian, you know,
Speaker 1: but it was only published in Italian, so we're translating
Speaker 1: from Italian back into English, double translation. But the so
Speaker 1: in a section of the interview talking about the increase
Speaker 1: of women in governmental leadership, Roles, a translation from her
Speaker 1: remarks in the larger section of this interview reads, quote,
Speaker 1: the election of the first woman prime minister in a
Speaker 1: country always represents a break with the past and is
Speaker 1: certainly a good thing. But then, as with any leader,
Speaker 1: woman or man, she must be judged by what she does.
Speaker 1: I never agreed with Margaret Thatcher, but I admired her
Speaker 1: determination clearly than the ideas are voted for. I admired
Speaker 1: her determinating stamp on the neck of the working class.
Speaker 1: Funck Off also does does she really oppose Margaret Thatcher's policies. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know if I believe that
Speaker 1: one that lady is dead in the world is better
Speaker 1: for it and girl power, Yes, of course. Do you
Speaker 1: think she effectively uti let grow power by funneling money
Speaker 1: to illegal paramilitary des squads in Northern Ireland? I don't
Speaker 1: know about that. There's this thing that you get with
Speaker 1: like people talking about all of these ghouls where and
Speaker 1: it's specifically like a centrist thing where it's like, well,
Speaker 1: certain things are just admirable traits, no matter about who
Speaker 1: has them, and you can admire that trade. And it's like, no,
Speaker 1: it's it's not like there were a lot of men
Speaker 1: in the SS who you know, we're we're willing to
Speaker 1: do things that you would call brave, but it doesn't
Speaker 1: mean you have to consider them admirable. I think you
Speaker 1: don't have to have respect for you don't have to
Speaker 1: hand into the Nazis exactly like just certain people. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: the contribution to the world is bad. You can stop
Speaker 1: stop that uger Thatcher being a good example. I have
Speaker 1: kind of the same thoughts on the inclusion of Todet
Speaker 1: inside the new Mario Kart games. It's just really it's
Speaker 1: it's just your signifying it, but it's not actually a
Speaker 1: step forward for the toad race. It's um So. In
Speaker 1: the next section of the interview, Clinton also has come
Speaker 1: out against work mario'cut. The next section, Clinton also acknowledges
Speaker 1: a conservative women politicians role in upholding patriarchal government, saying, quote,
Speaker 1: women on the right are protected by patriarchy because they
Speaker 1: are often the first to support the fundamental pillars of
Speaker 1: male power and privilege. Today in America, the right wing
Speaker 1: leaders are very much against abortion. Um So, she she
Speaker 1: did like it was part of this section talking about
Speaker 1: how women who are on the right and are running
Speaker 1: is concerned of politicians actually support all of the all
Speaker 1: the things that keep patriarchy alive and blah blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah blah blah. Well, it's it's true centrism, right.
Speaker 1: It's half of a good take and half of a
Speaker 1: terrible exactly exactly so so yeah, so our snippets of
Speaker 1: her comments embarrassing rewomen being a break from the past
Speaker 1: always been a good thing. Yes, most certainly. M Are
Speaker 1: they taken out of context enough to change the scope
Speaker 1: of what's being said? I suppose that's the subjective. Um.
Speaker 1: But I just thought that's interesting that there was very
Speaker 1: select few quotes that were getting a whole bunch of traction,
Speaker 1: and her larger statements are actually slightly more interesting. Article.
Speaker 1: Don't don't do the Alex Jones ship of getting mad
Speaker 1: at a headline? Yeah, six seconds, Like, come on, people,
Speaker 1: you have to be better than this. And I think still,
Speaker 1: you know, I see the same thing whenever I'm playing
Speaker 1: Mario Sunshine and there's the graffiti. Um, you can you
Speaker 1: can get mad at just saying it's the graffiti all over? Definitely,
Speaker 1: no pasa. You can get mad about that. But once
Speaker 1: you actually start learning how Bowser Jr. Was treated as
Speaker 1: a kid, it's it's there's actually more, there's more that
Speaker 1: you actually can understand about what's going on and what
Speaker 1: leads to that behavior from Bowser Jr. Very identifiable. Everybody
Speaker 1: understands those references. Garrett, good work. Yeah. I just want
Speaker 1: to say that there is only one square in Italy
Speaker 1: that matters, and that is piet Saliretto. And you can
Speaker 1: you can google it. I just I love the juxtaposition
Speaker 1: of Garrison struggling over every single word that's in the
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood of Italy, and then James just perfectly saying,
Speaker 1: some fucking Italian ship. My Italian is bad. My Italian
Speaker 1: comes exclusively. Your Italian is much better than anyone else.
Speaker 1: Here's maybe I know I swear, I swear other managed
Speaker 1: bandex is. I know a couple of curse words from
Speaker 1: watching my uncle's play pool when I was a kid.
Speaker 1: But that's about all I've got. I rely on that
Speaker 1: hand gesture, which works very well, and hand gestures are
Speaker 1: eight percent of Italian. Yeah, yes, it's true. Okay, So now,
Speaker 1: having now exhausted every conceivable Italian joke, we could proceed
Speaker 1: with the spirit. We can actually proceed with an ad break.
Speaker 1: Do you do you know what else is in supportive
Speaker 1: anti Italian racism? Who won't kill miss Lenian hang him
Speaker 1: upside down in a square? I mean probably the current
Speaker 1: Prime Minister of Yeah, that's true. Also probably these advertisers. Okay,
Speaker 1: and we are back. So there was there has been
Speaker 1: this kind of perception that the media kind of by
Speaker 1: and large dropped the ball on this one, and this
Speaker 1: element was pretty widespread among leftists that the kind of
Speaker 1: there was a lot of emphasis on the the breaking
Speaker 1: the fascist glass of ceiling and less on the fascist part.
Speaker 1: There was even people like the MSNBC hosts Meddi Hassan
Speaker 1: who ran a whole segment on his show about kind
Speaker 1: of mainstream liberal media, let's downplaying the fascistic elements of
Speaker 1: milani uh in headlines in favor of the girl power angle.
Speaker 1: What's been so depressing. It's to see so much of
Speaker 1: the quote unquote liberal media, the mainstream media, the m
Speaker 1: s M giving a pass to Maloney or playing down
Speaker 1: on her and her party's fascist roots, focusing more on
Speaker 1: the fact that she's female and less on the fact
Speaker 1: that she's you know, fascistic. That has been deeply, deeply
Speaker 1: depressing to see. There was the Washington Post headline, Georgia
Speaker 1: Maloney could become Italy's first female prime minister. Here's what
Speaker 1: to know. Now, here's what you wouldn't know from that headline.
Speaker 1: You wouldn't know that she has ties to fascism, but hey,
Speaker 1: she's female. There was the headline in the Financial Times.
Speaker 1: We can pull that up as well. Likely victory for
Speaker 1: Italian right portends risks, but no lurch into extremism. Don't worry,
Speaker 1: no lurch to extremism, even though they just elected card
Speaker 1: carrying extremists. But still hers is a heartwarming tale, isn't it?
Speaker 1: I kid you not? This was the tweet from Political Europe.
Speaker 1: Let's pull up the tweet from Political Europe. In July nine,
Speaker 1: a fifteen year old school girl rang the doorbell at
Speaker 1: a local branch of the Youth Front, a far right
Speaker 1: movement in Rome, and asked to be let in this
Speaker 1: weekend that same schoolgirl could become Italy's next prime minister. Wow,
Speaker 1: forget the fascism, forget the fascism, focus on the inspiration there.
Speaker 1: Then there was this op ed in the New York Times,
Speaker 1: Georgia Maloney is extreme, but she's no tyrant. Well that's
Speaker 1: all right. Then, at least she's not a tyrant. There
Speaker 1: was this OpEd in The Atlantic, which argued that the
Speaker 1: most immediate concern about Italy's new government is not any
Speaker 1: threat to the country's democratic institution. Still less a return
Speaker 1: to fascism. Did you notice a trend? Yet It's not
Speaker 1: as bad as you think. This isn't really fascism, So
Speaker 1: we'll we'll talk a bit more about media coverage of
Speaker 1: Milani's election in a bit and how I think some
Speaker 1: people are kind of desperate to see the stupid Democrat
Speaker 1: Libs shill for fascism trope, especially with the whole girl
Speaker 1: buss thing that they actually kind of miss how the
Speaker 1: framing of Milanni's fascist ties has been perceived on a
Speaker 1: broad scale. But first I want to get into who
Speaker 1: she actually is, what her views are, and what her
Speaker 1: election means. So it leaves a home. Italy is home
Speaker 1: to sixty million people well with Robin, and it's continental
Speaker 1: Europe's third largest economy. When it comes to the actual election,
Speaker 1: the right wing coalition that Melani led one around of
Speaker 1: the vote, with Melani's Brothers of Italy party getting around
Speaker 1: twenty for the Senate race. So in all around three
Speaker 1: out of four voters did not vote for Melani and
Speaker 1: one in three didn't even vote at all, no surprise there,
Speaker 1: But overall that means like only one in six Italian
Speaker 1: adults voted for the Brothers of Italy party. Uh, and
Speaker 1: that that does that does make them the biggest party
Speaker 1: in the new parliament, but it's long term legitimacy is
Speaker 1: still kind of in question because she was leading a
Speaker 1: larger right wing block, but the but the actual party
Speaker 1: that she's in and leads got like the vote, so
Speaker 1: it's it's right, it's I think that's an important perspective
Speaker 1: on like how long she'll actually stay in power. Italian
Speaker 1: politics are kind of known for their kind of residing
Speaker 1: government not lasting very long. There's there's usually a pretty
Speaker 1: high like turnover rate, so we'll see. Um, yeah, they
Speaker 1: it's an interesting composition right of like like moderate moderate
Speaker 1: ish right wing people and then like some more hardcore
Speaker 1: like no that it's the people who used to be
Speaker 1: the League of the North, I think of the second
Speaker 1: largest party, so it's not like a homogeneous block that
Speaker 1: she's in charge of. Be kind of interesting to see
Speaker 1: how they hold together. Yeah, and I think Melanie can
Speaker 1: be an example of what political scientists called gender washing,
Speaker 1: when when female politicians adopt a non threatening image to
Speaker 1: blunt the force of their extremism. I think you can
Speaker 1: see this as well with Daisy inside Mario Kart for
Speaker 1: the for the Wei, extremely brutal character play style, very brawley,
Speaker 1: but you know she acts very nice and that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: she's just like just powers through other other carts on
Speaker 1: the track. Um and it's it's It leads to this
Speaker 1: slightly war perception of what Daisy actually does. Um So
Speaker 1: and Melanie's signature look involves flowing outfits and pastel shades,
Speaker 1: kind of like Princess Peach um and uninformed foreigners. Her
Speaker 1: asthetic could look like female empowerment. She poses as like
Speaker 1: a defender of women, even though her party has rolled
Speaker 1: back women's rights. Just like in uh the two US
Speaker 1: and six Princess Peach game, she was did brutal suppression
Speaker 1: of protests around them ushroom Kingdom. So. David Broder, author
Speaker 1: of Mussolini's Grandchildren, Fascism and Contemporary Italy, wrote in Political
Speaker 1: Europe Get Funny. It's a very different take from Political
Speaker 1: Europe and this one uh quote. Milani owes much more
Speaker 1: to the moderate forces in what Italians call the center
Speaker 1: right Alliance. They've allowed her the opportunity to present herself
Speaker 1: as part of the main stream, not just because she's
Speaker 1: been softening her policies, at least in presentation, but also
Speaker 1: because the center right politicians jumping on her bandwag and
Speaker 1: has given her of an eer of respectability and credibility. Um.
Speaker 1: You can see this in Super Passionatest Brawl when Warrio
Speaker 1: shows up a biker outfit, not wearing the regular Italian
Speaker 1: uniform and they just let him play like Mario Luigi
Speaker 1: are wearing their proper outfit and Warrior just like showed
Speaker 1: up in like like a leather jacket and like ripped shorts.
Speaker 1: That's not okay, but it gave him the veneer of respectability.
Speaker 1: But because others allowed it to take place kind of
Speaker 1: kind of the same thing here with Milani. At the
Speaker 1: same time, attempts by the main like center left rivals
Speaker 1: to make the election about this kind of ghost of
Speaker 1: fascism uh spreading again through Milani have proved unsuccessful. Voters
Speaker 1: by enlarged and did not buy the narrative kind of
Speaker 1: that that the left was trying to push that Milanni
Speaker 1: was this reincarnation of fascism. They just it just that
Speaker 1: that they were not. They were not convinced enough to
Speaker 1: affect the election results in any in any meaningful way. Um.
Speaker 1: Same way, Nintendo is not convinced that putting Walluiji in
Speaker 1: the new Smash Bros. Will actually lead to more people
Speaker 1: buying the game. Italian essayist Roberto Slavinio wrote, quote, the
Speaker 1: far right can succeed in Italy because the left has failed,
Speaker 1: exactly as in much of the world, to offer credible
Speaker 1: visions or strategies. The left asks people to vote against
Speaker 1: the right, but it lacks the political vision or an
Speaker 1: economic alternative. And I think these are all the kind
Speaker 1: of factors that actually led Milani to win this election.
Speaker 1: Should we talk a little bit about the sort of
Speaker 1: democratic party like five Star Alliance things? That was sure
Speaker 1: if you want to do like t ld R on
Speaker 1: that that would be great. So alright, long ago in
Speaker 1: a galaxy far far away, Italy had a very very
Speaker 1: large and powerful left um and then when the Soviet
Speaker 1: Union fell so that they had the Communist Party. The
Speaker 1: Comunist Party was like one of the most powerful communist
Speaker 1: parties in the world. That wasn't like a sort of
Speaker 1: like dictorial ruling party. But when the Soviet, like when
Speaker 1: the USSR felt it like voted dissolve, itself basically became
Speaker 1: the Democratic Party, and all of their sort of militant
Speaker 1: like much of the militants basically turned into Libs, and
Speaker 1: you know, I mean, and the Italian left like hell
Speaker 1: together for kind of a long time after that because
Speaker 1: they had you know that there's there there's a very
Speaker 1: long tradition is sort of an extra parliamentary left and
Speaker 1: like tartically an anarchist left in Italy, but like the
Speaker 1: modern I don't know, it's kind of a ship show
Speaker 1: like in in terms of actual party politics, like there's
Speaker 1: a there was this thing called the Five Stars Movements,
Speaker 1: which was like kind of like basically AstroTurf by Abilionaire.
Speaker 1: It was just like very weird, very like early two
Speaker 1: thousand tens party that was like doing the whole sort
Speaker 1: of like we're going to do direct democracy by like
Speaker 1: online polls things. It has just like really weird mish
Speaker 1: match like the main social Democratic for us. Yeah, well
Speaker 1: sort of, but like they're very weird, like like I
Speaker 1: don't know, you'll you'll get things from them, like okay,
Speaker 1: we want like like they're they're not a normal social
Speaker 1: democratic party right there, closing to like the Pirate Party,
Speaker 1: but like way weirder. Like so you you'll you'll you'll
Speaker 1: get people in this party who are like you know,
Speaker 1: who who were who are like you know, sort of
Speaker 1: like old school like like leftist militants. Because this is
Speaker 1: where sort of like the energy was going right, but
Speaker 1: also like there's like anti vaxers in it. It was
Speaker 1: just it was just really weird iological like sort of mishmash.
Speaker 1: And then when they sort of got into power, like
Speaker 1: none of these people have ever been in politics before,
Speaker 1: and so like you know, you'd get someone who was
Speaker 1: like the head of garbage collection, right, who's from this party,
Speaker 1: and they have no fucking idea how to collect garbage, right,
Speaker 1: and it was it's it's this real ship show because
Speaker 1: like you know, and then you have the Democratic Party,
Speaker 1: which are basically sort of just like lib hacks at
Speaker 1: this point. And this meant that, like you know, and
Speaker 1: they eventually sort of aligned with each other to try
Speaker 1: to keep like other like fascist basically like right wing
Speaker 1: groups out of power. But they like they also they
Speaker 1: also like had an alliance for a little bit with
Speaker 1: one of the right wing parties. It's it's an incredibly
Speaker 1: like bizarre story ends like honestly like deserves like its
Speaker 1: own episode one day. But yeah, yeah, they're they're very weird.
Speaker 1: They're not in effective left thing at all. They're just
Speaker 1: very very sort of like mishmash, confused populist thing, and
Speaker 1: it didn't like they yeah, like they definitely did not
Speaker 1: sort of like succeed in preventing an alternative, etcetera, etcetera.
Speaker 1: It was, I don't know, kind of a disaster. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Italy's like it's worth noting as well. I think that,
Speaker 1: like anti fascism is, it is sort of baked in
Speaker 1: to the myth of the Italian Republic, right, like the
Speaker 1: that's what the republic rests are, that's where it comes from.
Speaker 1: That's creation myth. But like much in the same way
Speaker 1: as people living in the United States will be familiar
Speaker 1: with how these creation miss kind of lose all relevancy
Speaker 1: apart from some kind of totemic, meaning like their repetition
Speaker 1: has some kind of linked to that, but they don't
Speaker 1: really have any any value in the contemporary discourse in
Speaker 1: terms of animating and the way people act. I think
Speaker 1: you could say that that's happened in Italy, right Like
Speaker 1: people talk about people in institutions talk about anti fascism
Speaker 1: as where they come from and its foundational to it
Speaker 1: leaves democracy, But it's been so subsumed into structures of
Speaker 1: power that it that institutional discussion of anti fascism has
Speaker 1: lost its relevance from like the street fighting, like anti
Speaker 1: fascism that created the Republic in the first place, So
Speaker 1: that concept is kind of defunct along with like Italian
Speaker 1: liberals have always walked hand in hand with like fish
Speaker 1: and interests and the right wing right, like from even
Speaker 1: previous to fascism, like there was a quote unquote liberal monarchy, right,
Speaker 1: So Italian liberalism isn't necessarily this anti authoritarian force. It
Speaker 1: was briefly like it got made to be briefly by
Speaker 1: the organized working class movement, but it hasn't been and
Speaker 1: it's going back to not being. Yeah, I mean, I
Speaker 1: think I now think we should may as well get
Speaker 1: into milani is actual like views and what she actually
Speaker 1: believes in this passes, which you mean, what she actually
Speaker 1: believes in this pass is maybe slightly different things. Um,
Speaker 1: but we'll we'll, we'll at least at least start. So
Speaker 1: Milani's party, the Brothers of Italy Party, was formed to
Speaker 1: quote carry forth the spirit and legacy unquote of the
Speaker 1: Italian Social Movement or the m s I the end,
Speaker 1: and the the m s I is the descendant of
Speaker 1: Mussolini's National Fascist Party. It's it's it's like a has
Speaker 1: a direct lineage. They even have the flame, right, they
Speaker 1: are still using the same logo, which is the flame
Speaker 1: on his tomb. I think that's where it comes from,
Speaker 1: right Yeah. So uh Milani has said that quote LGBT
Speaker 1: lobbies are out there to harm the women and and
Speaker 1: they're and they're attacking the family by destroying gender identity. Um.
Speaker 1: She's made statements about George Soros, calling him an international speculator.
Speaker 1: More on more on that. In the sec UH he
Speaker 1: says that that that Soros finances global mass immigration that
Speaker 1: threatens a great replacement of white native born Italians. Um.
Speaker 1: Milani shows affinity for other kind of authoritarian strong men,
Speaker 1: like the the the marine Lee Penn who's the leader
Speaker 1: of the of the National Rally Party in France. So
Speaker 1: strong woman and that's not a man. It's part of
Speaker 1: this section on strong men, like political political strong men.
Speaker 1: She's she's she's previously supported as Joe Rogan taught me,
Speaker 1: Garrison strong times, mega hard men and also what I've
Speaker 1: learned from Matt Well, she's what is a woman? So yeah,
Speaker 1: strong man. But like Malani's previously supported Putin, although she's
Speaker 1: kind of lowered that enthusiasm since the invasion of Ukraine.
Speaker 1: She has she does have a pro Ukraine position on
Speaker 1: that publicly, um but she's expressed kind of affinity for
Speaker 1: the types of other fascist leaders across Europe. We've see
Speaker 1: in Sweden, we've see in Poland, we've seen Hungary's kind
Speaker 1: of aligned aligned herself with some of some of that
Speaker 1: kind of trend inside of Europe. Milani wants to ban
Speaker 1: same sex couples from adopting children and possibly dissolved same
Speaker 1: sex couples legal parentage for the children that they've already adopted.
Speaker 1: Her party has sought to ban a cartoon featuring a
Speaker 1: bear with two mothers, arguing that kids should not be
Speaker 1: seeing same sex adoption as natural or normal because it's
Speaker 1: not um so basic kind of right wings censorship of
Speaker 1: materials that they don't like. I don't think children should
Speaker 1: be allowed to watch cartoons with bears in them. Okay,
Speaker 1: good for you. It's going to reduce their readiness when
Speaker 1: it becomes time to fight the bears. But Milannia also
Speaker 1: wants to ban gay Italians from traveling elsewhere for surrogacy.
Speaker 1: Um so like so like they can't they can't leave
Speaker 1: the country to get to get like to have them
Speaker 1: become parents and return less like it's it's this, it's this,
Speaker 1: it's this whole whole thing. I'm gonna read a quote
Speaker 1: from Ruth bend Guite, a professor of history and Italian
Speaker 1: studies at New York University. Quote, since she has tweeted
Speaker 1: repeatedly that Italian identity is being deliver really erased by
Speaker 1: globalists such as Soros and European Union officials who have
Speaker 1: conspired to unleash quote uncontrollable mass migration. Um. So normal
Speaker 1: normal stuff there and more on so so in in
Speaker 1: a in a speech, in a few speeches, and repeatedly
Speaker 1: she refers to financial speculators and has called people like
Speaker 1: George Soros an international speculator. Um. And you know when
Speaker 1: when she says, uh, financial speculators, I don't think she
Speaker 1: actually means just people who speculated about finances. I think
Speaker 1: she means something slightly different. Michael bench Laws, who is
Speaker 1: kind of history political person who works for NBC MSNBCPPS,
Speaker 1: had a really good, uh thread on on this, and
Speaker 1: I think it's important, like this is this is a
Speaker 1: mainstream media guy, like this is not coming from and
Speaker 1: t FA one six one on Twitter this is like
Speaker 1: coming from like like in terms of like mainstream media
Speaker 1: actually talking about this. Uh quote. The new Italian Prime
Speaker 1: Minister says that quote, we will never be slaves at
Speaker 1: the mercy of financial speculators sounds just like nineteen thirties
Speaker 1: in Italy and Germany. Uh No, thanks for the memories
Speaker 1: Mussolini enjoyed publicly referring to Jewish people as financial speculators
Speaker 1: who needed to be controlled. When a fascist leader speaks,
Speaker 1: whether it be in Europe or America, never brush aside
Speaker 1: what you are hearing as meaningless rhetoric. Do not fail
Speaker 1: to learn from the history of the nineteen thirties. History
Speaker 1: of the nineteen shows us that fascist leaders in the
Speaker 1: United States have been very eager to link us and
Speaker 1: pool resources, often in secret, with fascist leaders in Europe.
Speaker 1: Monitor carefully and beware, and please never take it at
Speaker 1: face value when and if fascist leaders in America and
Speaker 1: Europe tell you that they have no personal or political
Speaker 1: animists towards Jews or other mino any groups in society.
Speaker 1: Too many examples in history tells us the opposite. Unquote.
Speaker 1: So that is like you know, regular MSNBC NBC people
Speaker 1: being like hey, when she says this thing she reads
Speaker 1: Jews should should should. We also talk about like the
Speaker 1: way parts of like the left on Twitter reacted to this,
Speaker 1: and also the sort of history of like how some
Speaker 1: people were like, oh wow, she's calling out the capitalists.
Speaker 1: That's not a lot of this is like you guys
Speaker 1: are maybe the doubt people who have ever lived like
Speaker 1: she immediately like acted the know she like, this is
Speaker 1: the same thing we see with people like like Dugan
Speaker 1: even right what she's saying, She's not saying that, you know,
Speaker 1: international capital is bad because it hurts the poor people
Speaker 1: or workers. She's she's mad about it because it's because
Speaker 1: it's a threat to traditional identities. It's it's it's it's
Speaker 1: a threat to the way that you want the the
Speaker 1: idea of the family, it's the way it's it's it's
Speaker 1: it's threatening all of these things that are about your
Speaker 1: like god, family, country, brotherhood, ship. It's not about actual
Speaker 1: poor people, working class people at all. That's not that's
Speaker 1: not what it is. It's it's not a good criticism
Speaker 1: of capitalist modernity just to just to propose another form
Speaker 1: of more like authoritarian capitalist modernity. It's it's, it's it's
Speaker 1: not it's not good. Um, the original fascists in Italy
Speaker 1: did the same thing when they denounced like British um placrats.
Speaker 1: It's just it's it's not it's not the it's not
Speaker 1: a good critique of capitalists of well, and we should
Speaker 1: point out to that. Like like so Mateo Savini, who
Speaker 1: was like the former like he basically until the selection,
Speaker 1: he was like the guy he was in charge of
Speaker 1: the right wing. Like he he's a guy who got
Speaker 1: like arrested basically for trying to sink a migrant boat.
Speaker 1: Like so that's actually this guys, he sucks um And
Speaker 1: but he he would do this like pft more expeciitly.
Speaker 1: He would you know, like specifically used Marxist terminal need
Speaker 1: to push right wing stuff. So he he he had
Speaker 1: a speech where he talked about like the reserve army
Speaker 1: of labor, which is that this concept of Marxism that's
Speaker 1: about like basically Mark Mark is arguing that like, like
Speaker 1: capitalism inherently produces this like quote unquote like reserve army
Speaker 1: of labor, like industrial army of labor, which is like
Speaker 1: an enormous mass of people who are unemployed. You've been
Speaker 1: spit out of the labor process, and you know, okay,
Speaker 1: and like and and and and like Mark Marx is
Speaker 1: like Marx is pro these people, which is the very
Speaker 1: important thing. He's like, these people are part of the pouletariat,
Speaker 1: but they've been spit out of like like the capital
Speaker 1: wage relation to spit them out. And they're yeah, they're
Speaker 1: they're they're they're to sort of like regulate like wages
Speaker 1: and stuff happens. But also they're people who have just
Speaker 1: been sort of like disfranchise, et etcetera. Salvini when he
Speaker 1: talks about the reserve army of labor specifically, is like
Speaker 1: there is a reserve army of labor. Uh. These people
Speaker 1: are immigrants to North Africa and like the like the
Speaker 1: elites are like shipping these people into Italy to like
Speaker 1: destroy your jobs. And it is it is again very
Speaker 1: very important that you understand. This is what he like
Speaker 1: when he's using the marks term, he is using it.
Speaker 1: He is using it marks racism and not like Mark's
Speaker 1: anti capitalism. And you you need to be able to
Speaker 1: tell what difference between these two things, because yeah, like
Speaker 1: especially in time poltics like this this is the thing
Speaker 1: that happens, like people people will use like even literally
Speaker 1: explicitly stuff that is from Marx, but they will use
Speaker 1: it to be like we need to like machine gun
Speaker 1: every like boat of small children trying to fite Libya.
Speaker 1: Like it's like cherry yeah, cherry picking these these bits
Speaker 1: of Marxism and arranging them into a racist as fuck
Speaker 1: college that you used to justify your bagotry. It's fashion.
Speaker 1: It did that the first time, it's doing it again then.
Speaker 1: And the other thing that kind of that is that's notable.
Speaker 1: In case people have not have not seen it. There's
Speaker 1: been uh lots of video going around of of Melani
Speaker 1: openly praising um Mussolini, saying, quote, I believe MUSSLINI was
Speaker 1: a good politician. Everything he did he did for Italy
Speaker 1: and they have been no other politicians like him in
Speaker 1: the past fifty years. That now. These interviews all come
Speaker 1: from the mid nineties. She has since said that her
Speaker 1: opinions on Mussolini have changed. She has nuts she has
Speaker 1: not said what her opinions have changed to she changed,
Speaker 1: but this was this was These interviews all come from
Speaker 1: when she was when she was a young plucky girl
Speaker 1: getting into the boy's Nazi club of and leading the
Speaker 1: youth wing of a fascist party founded by veterans of
Speaker 1: Musolini's dictatorship. UM. Since since her her own modern party,
Speaker 1: the Brothers of Italy, which was again started emerged from
Speaker 1: the fascist National Alliance, which grew out of the Italian
Speaker 1: Social Movement, which was founded by Mussolini regime officials. UM,
Speaker 1: and she still uses the same logo for her current
Speaker 1: Mario Luigian Sorry Brothers of Italy party. UM. So yeah,
Speaker 1: let's have let's have one more ad break and then
Speaker 1: we'll talk about how mainstream media has been talking about
Speaker 1: the new girl Boss Mussolini and we are back. Oh,
Speaker 1: I'm so excited. I'm so excited. So we're actually gonna talk.
Speaker 1: I'm first gonna read some stuff from the intercept, just
Speaker 1: not I would not say is actually mainstream media. It's
Speaker 1: a little bit outside of that. But it sets a
Speaker 1: good stage for the rest of the stuff that we
Speaker 1: will be talking about, which actually is dealing with how
Speaker 1: mainstream media has been framing uh Milani's election. So quote,
Speaker 1: the media got this right much of the time, giving
Speaker 1: predominant building to Melanie's fall right nationalism, but numerous English
Speaker 1: language headlines focused solely on her being Italy's first woman
Speaker 1: prime minister is tempting to say that her position as
Speaker 1: a woman leader should be considered irrelevant given her and
Speaker 1: her parties via anti immigrant, nationalist, racist, anti l g
Speaker 1: B t Q plus policies, but ignoring her womanhood misses
Speaker 1: some crucial points about her political ideology. Being a woman,
Speaker 1: a white woman that is, is not in conflict with
Speaker 1: Milanni's fascism. White supremacy has always relied on active enforcement
Speaker 1: by white women, especially when it comes to upholding racist,
Speaker 1: po nationalist narratives. So yeah, I think that that's that's
Speaker 1: that's a good stage for kind of how every other
Speaker 1: headline and article we're going to talk about here. Let's
Speaker 1: start with The Guardian. The Guardian ran a piece saying, quote,
Speaker 1: the election of Italy's fascist adjacent Georgia Milani is a
Speaker 1: public reminder that women can be just as awful as men.
Speaker 1: That's a good headline. And this was was was this
Speaker 1: was the Guardian to us the Guardian UK. This was
Speaker 1: Guardian UK. Yeah, fashionist and this and this article was
Speaker 1: Jeff Guardian and this this article is actually directly in
Speaker 1: opposition to Australia's a Sky News headline Georgia. Milani is
Speaker 1: not a fascist. Um this is this is just directly
Speaker 1: in opposition to this Sky News article, which is kind
Speaker 1: of funny. Um uh NPRS morning edition went with quote
Speaker 1: a far right group with neo fascist roots wins big
Speaker 1: in Italy's election. Um a CBS Mornings host said, Milani
Speaker 1: rejects the label of fascism while embracing its symbols, just
Speaker 1: its symbols, just you know, like they were specially talking
Speaker 1: about like the actual like iconography that they directly left
Speaker 1: like this, like the slogans like brotherhood, God, country type things,
Speaker 1: and like like the logo and it's it was a
Speaker 1: part actually a part of a larger thing around around fascism. Look,
Speaker 1: we'll actually get bit more into that on our Tucker
Speaker 1: Carlson's section. Oh good. The Washington Post headlined quote, the
Speaker 1: mainstreaming of the West's far right is complete and then
Speaker 1: opened that article was saying in the land that invented fascism,
Speaker 1: the far right is back in power. Milani has a
Speaker 1: lengthy record of extremist rhetoric, has embraced the white supremacist
Speaker 1: narrative of the great Replacement theory, and has engaged in
Speaker 1: frequent dog whistling to a radical base. The Atlantic had
Speaker 1: a good piece titled the Return of Fascism in Italy um,
Speaker 1: saying that the Brothers of Italy, which Milanni has led since,
Speaker 1: has an underlying and sinister familiarity. The party formed a
Speaker 1: decade ago to carry on the spirit and legacy of
Speaker 1: the extreme right in Italy, which dates back to the
Speaker 1: Italian Social Movement, the party that formed in place of
Speaker 1: the National Fascist Party, which was banned after World War Two. Now,
Speaker 1: just weeks before the one d anniversary of the March
Speaker 1: on Rome, the October nineteen event that put Musolini in power,
Speaker 1: Italy may have a former Italian Social Movement activist for
Speaker 1: its prime minister and a government rooted in fascism. So
Speaker 1: that's like overall, there was a lot of really good
Speaker 1: Like most of the of the extremely reference or viral
Speaker 1: kind of articles on this had decent headlines and decent
Speaker 1: content actually emphasizing the fascist nature. Now it's funny because
Speaker 1: the Atlantic had this Return of Fascism in Italy one
Speaker 1: but The Atlantic also ran an op ed piece titled
Speaker 1: Melanie's election Win is not a vote for Fascism, which
Speaker 1: later changed its title to Italians didn't exactly vote for
Speaker 1: fascism Um, which to its credit, still discusses uh Melani's
Speaker 1: links to fascism, but it questioned how much power she
Speaker 1: actually will have to enact said fascism um. But so
Speaker 1: there was there was some like both sides and going
Speaker 1: on on some A lot of these news outlets, they'll
Speaker 1: put one up, they'll put one piece out that's actually
Speaker 1: very good about centering the fascist rhetoric, another one being
Speaker 1: like she may be a fascion, but it's not like
Speaker 1: she could do much and she's a woman. I think
Speaker 1: this is kind of like I think, I think it's
Speaker 1: just kind of a post JA six thing. Like I
Speaker 1: I think if this had happened in I don't think
Speaker 1: the LA media would have been like as willing to
Speaker 1: just do this. Absolutely that is that is undoubtedly true. Um.
Speaker 1: I think I think they kind of, like like liberals
Speaker 1: in general, kind of were shaking out of their complacency
Speaker 1: when they're sort of like beautiful symbols were under like
Speaker 1: finally actually came under attack and not just like US.
Speaker 1: Routers ran a confusing headline titled nationalist Milani set to
Speaker 1: smash Italy's glass sea leg and become premier, which is
Speaker 1: really weird. She just just sounds super weird nationalist Malany
Speaker 1: smashes glass sea like it's just like it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I guess the cos it's it's what. That was one
Speaker 1: of the weirder headlines because it still has nationalists in it,
Speaker 1: but it has the whole glass stealing bit, which is
Speaker 1: just like why there was another Guardian UK piece uh
Speaker 1: that had the headline uh at Italy's Georgia Melani is
Speaker 1: no Mussolini, but she may be a Trump, which is
Speaker 1: an interesting article. Um it. It has some a lot
Speaker 1: of it's actually pretty reasonable, uh, and it emphasizes her
Speaker 1: more recent comments trying to align herself more with the
Speaker 1: modern US Republican Party rather than any kind of form
Speaker 1: of nineteen thirties style fascism quote, hawkish on foreign policies,
Speaker 1: orthodox on economic policies, nostalgic nationalists, and inimical to civil liberties.
Speaker 1: This right wing politics is illiberal at heart, but it
Speaker 1: would aim for respectability in what used to be called
Speaker 1: the establishment, including by not undermining the rule of law
Speaker 1: in the way that Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban has
Speaker 1: done unquote. So there, it's kind of I do like
Speaker 1: the there is some things that are worth we're thinking
Speaker 1: about in terms of how she has a lot in
Speaker 1: the past year tried to align herself more with the
Speaker 1: modern Republican Party in the States, which still is as
Speaker 1: we discussed the show, a lot is kind of getting
Speaker 1: more fashion I would say, so, so I will say
Speaker 1: it is has I don't know if you're gonna talk
Speaker 1: about this, but it has been very funny. She managed
Speaker 1: to sort of like lose like the like really hardline
Speaker 1: like American right wingers because she did some sort of
Speaker 1: like pronato e things and so now there's like like
Speaker 1: so like like Snovich and a whole bunch of other
Speaker 1: people like that were posting about how like she's like
Speaker 1: an op and she was part of some I don't
Speaker 1: can't remember. I don't even I don't. I don't even
Speaker 1: think even believes that because I don't. I don't. I've
Speaker 1: seen much more people be very enthusiastic about her than
Speaker 1: people being critical of her who are on the fashionst
Speaker 1: rite in the States. Yeah, I mean, I don't know,
Speaker 1: like there's there's definitely was especially like there's a whole
Speaker 1: thing about her being like remember the ASP Institute but
Speaker 1: I think was happening for like, I don't know, maybe
Speaker 1: maybe that maybe that's just a thing like right after
Speaker 1: she got like, I don't I don't know. I mean
Speaker 1: on kind of on this note of of her trying
Speaker 1: to align more with like modern United States conservatism. UM.
Speaker 1: In one of their newsletters, Political included that Melanie has
Speaker 1: appeared at see Pack this past year on the National
Speaker 1: Prayer Breakfast and uh and it did did join the
Speaker 1: Aspen Institute in but she and Steve Bannon were films
Speaker 1: strategizing together as far back and Bannon instead of her
Speaker 1: back then quote you put a reasonable face on right
Speaker 1: wing populism, you will get elected. UM. So her and
Speaker 1: Bannon have been strategizing for years. She's at Sepack, uh.
Speaker 1: This past year. She gave a speech there that Tucker
Speaker 1: was very enthusiastic about. In his segment about her. That
Speaker 1: Political newsletter that included the bits about Bannon and Spack
Speaker 1: also had I think this line, which sums up some
Speaker 1: of my thoughts on this quote. You've already read in
Speaker 1: dozens of headlines that Milani will be Italy's most far
Speaker 1: right leader since Miscellani. But don't fall for the trap
Speaker 1: of reducing this far right firebrand too simple labels like
Speaker 1: the Italian Donald Trump, or Victor or band or Marine
Speaker 1: Lepen global takeaway. Right wing populism is getting smarter. It
Speaker 1: could have died off with trump selection loss or Boris
Speaker 1: Johnson's humiliating ejection from Downing Street, but that isn't happening.
Speaker 1: So I have I have a few more of a
Speaker 1: few more things here which will lead into kind of
Speaker 1: how the right has been talking about this um. There
Speaker 1: was a scene. There was a scene an article on
Speaker 1: the victory that headlined the conditions are perfect for a
Speaker 1: populist resurgence in Europe, which also referenced the anti immigration
Speaker 1: Sweden Democrats, who are expected to play a major role
Speaker 1: in the new government. After winning the second largest share
Speaker 1: of seats in the general election last month. The party
Speaker 1: has been now mainstreamed and initially had its roots in
Speaker 1: very strict neo Nazism. Overall, I was less happy with
Speaker 1: some of the New York Times headlines relating to Milani's election.
Speaker 1: There was there was the the cheeky headline Georgia Milani
Speaker 1: is extreme, but She's no tyrant, which is of again
Speaker 1: a weird way to frame a headline. Um, but even
Speaker 1: that peace still opens with this line saying, quote, it
Speaker 1: happened here again nearly one hundred years since the March
Speaker 1: on Rome, Italy on Sunday voted in a right wing
Speaker 1: coalition headed by a party directly descended from Mussolini's fascist regime.
Speaker 1: Mrs Milani is the first post fascist leader to win
Speaker 1: a national election in Italy after World War Two, and
Speaker 1: her party is the heir to the Italian Social Movement,
Speaker 1: the reincarnation of the long dissolved and constitutionally banned Fascist party.
Speaker 1: So weird headline still it includes stuff in the article.
Speaker 1: But in the age of social media and honestly on
Speaker 1: news media, headlines are way more important. Unfortunate. Um and
Speaker 1: there was an actual New York Times article, not just
Speaker 1: not just opinion piece, had the headlined Milani wins voting
Speaker 1: in Italy and breakthrough for Europe's hard right. Another Times
Speaker 1: piece read Europe looks at Italy's Milanni with caution and trepidation. Uh,
Speaker 1: Milanni posed to be the country's first far right leader
Speaker 1: since Mussolini. So still not the worst, not the best
Speaker 1: from the New York Times, which you mean no no
Speaker 1: shockers there? Um Now? On to kind of the right.
Speaker 1: So the right had a really big mix of reactions
Speaker 1: based on how the left was talking and liberals were
Speaker 1: talking about this. There was a lot of enthusiasm coming
Speaker 1: from the right. A lot of people on the right
Speaker 1: questioning the fascist framing, being like, I can't believe Megan.
Speaker 1: I mean, we can talk about the Megan Bicayan tweet.
Speaker 1: Everyone wants a woman in power until it's the conservative
Speaker 1: woman in power. This one right bar reporter said quote
Speaker 1: calling her Mussolini just because she's Italian is racist, which
Speaker 1: is one of the best, one of the best tweets
Speaker 1: about this. Laverne Spicer said, so everyone calls Melania fascist,
Speaker 1: can anyone offer proof of that? And most most of
Speaker 1: people just replied with videos of her prising Mussolini. Um yeah,
Speaker 1: will bang you Mussolini picture. Lauren Bobbert had the extremely
Speaker 1: bad tweet. This month, Sweden voted for a right wing government.
Speaker 1: Now Italy voted for a strong right wing government. The
Speaker 1: entire world is beginning to understand that the woke left
Speaker 1: does nothing but destroy November eight. November eight is coming
Speaker 1: and the USA will fix our House and Senate. Let
Speaker 1: freedom rain. Um great great prose there um, just shouting
Speaker 1: at Cloud. But I I it is rush. It is
Speaker 1: actually super messed up to be praising Sweden's new right
Speaker 1: wing government because they're pretty pretty bad. The Wall Street
Speaker 1: Journal had the great headline Milani is no fascist, but
Speaker 1: can she revive Italy's economy? Um? Yeah, that's now, that
Speaker 1: is perfect. That's that's the classic. Well I'm very I'm
Speaker 1: very excited in about eight months when the Italian economy
Speaker 1: is like it makes the British economy look fucking great
Speaker 1: when the West there turnaround, like can some other random
Speaker 1: persons save Italy's Yeah, like somebody further to the right,
Speaker 1: and they'll just continue to be like, well, maybe it's
Speaker 1: good for the economy. The economy I have running in
Speaker 1: my Super Mario RPG game is better than the current
Speaker 1: UK economy. So again, it's not saying more on that, right.
Speaker 1: A Fox News headline in the lead up to the
Speaker 1: election read Italy on track to elect first right wing
Speaker 1: prime minister since World War Two, first female to hold office.
Speaker 1: I really, I really do that. This is one thing
Speaker 1: I really need to get people on, Like, is fucking
Speaker 1: Sylvia Berlisconi a joke to you? Like the answer should
Speaker 1: be yes. But also like come on man like forever.
Speaker 1: A few days later, another Fox headline read Milani's Italian
Speaker 1: election win renews spotlight on Europe's continued migrant woes. Great, great,
Speaker 1: great heading there, that's definitely what we should be focusing on.
Speaker 1: And so now onto a friend of the pod, Tucker Carlson.
Speaker 1: So on September twenty six, Tucker Carlson ran a fifteen
Speaker 1: minute segment titled we live in a fake democracy and
Speaker 1: there will be a revolution like Italy. So the segment
Speaker 1: was on the election of Melanie and how she's daring
Speaker 1: to address the issues that voters really care about but
Speaker 1: aren't allowed to talk about, like the attacks on the family, immigration,
Speaker 1: the unpopular climate change policies that are ruining the economy,
Speaker 1: aren't allowed to talk about. Bill Ascoti has literally been
Speaker 1: saying whatever the funk comes into his brain for like
Speaker 1: thirty years at this point. That was that was a
Speaker 1: big thing of the Tucker segment was that voters have
Speaker 1: all these issues they care about, but they're not allowed
Speaker 1: to talk about it. It's actually illegal in some places
Speaker 1: to talk about this. That's an actual quote from what
Speaker 1: he's at um And obviously Tucker offiscated her lings to
Speaker 1: Mussolini style fascism while still praising the fascist rhetoric that
Speaker 1: Melania espouses. Here is a clip from the segment. She's
Speaker 1: not the first person to say this, people have said
Speaker 1: it before, but she's just been rewarded for saying it.
Speaker 1: That's the point. The population likes it. This is what
Speaker 1: they actually want. They're not that worried about global warming.
Speaker 1: They don't want open borders. They think the woke stuff
Speaker 1: is absurd. They want to say what they think. And
Speaker 1: now it's obvious because she just won. And so even
Speaker 1: in this country, the people running and benefiting from a
Speaker 1: deeply corrupt and doom system are hysterical. Watch the reaction
Speaker 1: to that. I want to start today by talking about
Speaker 1: a politician on the right who we should all be
Speaker 1: worried about, who's on the rise today. A politician who
Speaker 1: was brushed off accusations of fascism. What separates us from
Speaker 1: let's say, Italy who elected a fascist. She is from
Speaker 1: Fascist Fruits, a far right political party whose roots go
Speaker 1: back to post World War two neo fascist party that
Speaker 1: has its roots in Italian fascism, its roots in Italian fascism.
Speaker 1: To find that for us if you would Joe Scarboro, sorry,
Speaker 1: you're an idiot, you can't. But the point is fascist
Speaker 1: means unacceptable. Whatever this chick is saying, you're not allowed
Speaker 1: to agree with. They're very worried that that many Italians
Speaker 1: do agree with it, so she has to be completely unacceptable.
Speaker 1: Don't read further. She's a fascist. So yeah, that's that sucks,
Speaker 1: That's not great. Um M, I don't need to waste
Speaker 1: any more time talking about Tucker's segment because it's it's
Speaker 1: typical Tucker Carlson stuff. Pretty fascistic, pretty awful Durburg at
Speaker 1: the end of every time anyway. Um So yeah. Kind
Speaker 1: of the reaction was as one might expect. American right
Speaker 1: wing operatives have celebrated her rise to power. For example,
Speaker 1: Keith Robert's, head of the Heritage Foundation, drew on some
Speaker 1: of the familiar kind of language in terms of and
Speaker 1: I'll just I'll just say this. This is what he
Speaker 1: said about her victory on Twitter. This can be a trend.
Speaker 1: Conservatives everywhere need to define the choice as to what
Speaker 1: it is us versus them, everyday people versus globalst elites
Speaker 1: shown they hate us, so familiar dog whistles and ship.
Speaker 1: But to kind of close this up, I'm actually gonna do, uh,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna do a guy deboored quote one of our
Speaker 1: favorite philosophers on this. Can we put a little French
Speaker 1: on it? Can we of gudor quote? So he he
Speaker 1: wrote the situations the Situation's phosopher wrote this in nineteen eight.
Speaker 1: Italy sums up the social contradictions of the entire world
Speaker 1: as such. It is a laboratory for international counter revolution. Um.
Speaker 1: So hilariously they held out longer than the French did.
Speaker 1: So well, what what What He's trying to say there
Speaker 1: is that it's a way to try out social change
Speaker 1: and try out the suppression of like progressive social change. UM.
Speaker 1: And it's like a model for the rest of Europe. Um.
Speaker 1: Like it's like it's it's this owns like miniature model
Speaker 1: that you can try out things and see how they'll
Speaker 1: react on a on a grounder European political scale. Um.
Speaker 1: And kind of rough in in the in the vein
Speaker 1: of that, I'm actually gonna do a quote from one
Speaker 1: of the Washington Post articles about what what what, one
Speaker 1: of the better articles about Milani to kind of finish
Speaker 1: up the types of stuff that I wanted to talk about. So,
Speaker 1: if there's been one dominant story in Western politics over
Speaker 1: the past decade, it's that the far right is no
Speaker 1: longer beyond the pale. Indeed, it has taken over the
Speaker 1: right wing mainstream in many countries, including and arguably most significantly,
Speaker 1: the United States. In France, the far right has long
Speaker 1: been the leading force of the opposition. In Spain, it's
Speaker 1: also gained ground in Sweden, a party originally founded by
Speaker 1: Neo Nazis and other right wing extremists will now be
Speaker 1: the second largest faction in parliament. In Hungary and Poland,
Speaker 1: the far right is already in power. So, just in
Speaker 1: terms of this overall trend of how people are trying
Speaker 1: to mainstream far right things, and how they're getting more
Speaker 1: normalized across Europe, in the United States here, and the
Speaker 1: types of asthetics that they're using to gain such ground.
Speaker 1: Because the Italian voters were not convinced by the attempts
Speaker 1: to paint Melani as a reincarnation of Mussolini, the way
Speaker 1: that she wrapped her fascism in contemporary US style conservatism
Speaker 1: was convincing, and the left did not offer any viable
Speaker 1: alternatives to fix the problems that the country is facing.
Speaker 1: So she got the vote, which was enough to get
Speaker 1: a majority. So yeah, that's that's kind of That's most
Speaker 1: of the stuff I have on the girl Boss Mussolini,
Speaker 1: Um any any other any other uh comments on how
Speaker 1: the rights been talking about this, how the liberals have
Speaker 1: been talking about this, how media has or any anything
Speaker 1: at all. Before we close up, No, I wish her
Speaker 1: the best of getting strung up in the street. It's
Speaker 1: very funny to turn pictures of her upside down. People
Speaker 1: will tell you it's not funny. It's funny, you know.
Speaker 1: I like the seemed to be turning into the nineteen twenties,
Speaker 1: but like, tragedy is farce version of it. But this
Speaker 1: means we can do it funnier. We can. We can
Speaker 1: do it funnier. We can. I'll go to Italy wearing
Speaker 1: Mario costumes. That's right, we can. We can do it.
Speaker 1: We can do it funnier. It's always possible to be
Speaker 1: more funny. Hmm, that's what we striful. So yeah, I'm
Speaker 1: still laughing about the Brothers of Italy thing. That's wow,
Speaker 1: that's pretty funny. Anyway, Uh, go have fun fighting anthropomorphic
Speaker 1: lizards who steal the princess and hang her in a
Speaker 1: cage and go race around the mushroom Kingdom on your
Speaker 1: way to save her with your brother. Is how I
Speaker 1: spend most of my free time in the mushroom Kingdom.
Speaker 1: In the mushroom Kingdom, jumping on lizards. Yeah, okay, let's
Speaker 1: let's a go. It Could Happen Here is a production
Speaker 1: of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media,
Speaker 1: visit our website cool zone media dot com, or check
Speaker 1: us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,
Speaker 1: or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources
Speaker 1: for It Could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zone
Speaker 1: Media dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.