Girlboss Fascism

piss being Italians. Girl Boss. I usually don't say things that are that obvious, but yes, with me today is Chris James and Robert I'm Garrison, and we're talking about girl boss fascism today. Um and uh, it's are we going to say Georgia? Is that how we're going to do it? Is that how we're going to say her name? Georgia? But I don't know George Georgia Milani, Georgia Milani, Georgia Milani Atly's new prime Minister, Gia Milan. That's what I was waiting for. You put some Italian on it. Yeah,

spice up that meat a ball. So since since she's been the head of the Brothers of Italy Party, which is funny because what I think of the Brothers of Italy, I just think of Mario and Luigi. Obviously, that's there, that's what most people think. So but Marco and Luigi also fascists, so well, they're monarchists. Yeah, they're monarchists. They specifically served Princess So so Bowser, who's the girl boss is Bowser is your standard issue left wing polit bureau

chief type leader. Whereas what Mario and Luigi are doing, like Mussolini is installing a royal in power, is taking its Essentially every Mario game is recreating the March on Rome. I have like ten pages to get through. Stol come

into it. So its for the head of the Brothers of Italy Party, a party with direct lineage from the fascist Italian Social Movement, and Melani herself has been on camera praising figures like Mussolini, uh and until very recently the Brothers of Italy Party, besides being a very pro plumbing we're we're pretty on the we're pretty on the

fridges of Italian volunteer. Just four years ago, the party won only four percent of the votes in the last election, and now it's become Italy's largest political party, claiming the greatest percentage of the vote in the last month's election.

So today we're gonna talk about UH Millennia is what what she believes, what she kind of what what her rhetoric is, and then also the types of how the types of ways that media has been framing her relation to fascism, because there's definitely been this perception that like liberal feminists and mainstream media have been kind of soft on Melanie because she's the first woman prime minister of Italy UM and they have they've kind of framed her ascension to power and like a girl boss, go get

it sort of way, and have been downplaying her more fascist views. So we're gonna talk about kind of where this perception comes from, the few ways where it's kind of correct, and some of the ways where it's I

think a little off base. To start off with this, one of the kind of one of the biggest things that UH pushed this perception into the forefront was a tweet from Political Europe accompanying an article now that this this tweet, sorry, thank you, thank you, UM And because I hate basing our research off of things that are just on Twitter. This tweet has been referenced a lot on like television, UM on like news, and like News TV has been using this tweet a lot as well.

This is this kind of shaped the way that discussions happening on a national stage, even off Twitter. Um but the tweet. The tweet reads in a fifteen year old school girl went to join her local branch of the far right Youth Front in Rome. The all male group of radicals met her with amusement. Thirty years later, Georgia Milani is now on course to become Italy's first female

prime minister. So the way that frameor works is like, yeah, this this little girl wanted to join her Nazi club and it was and now she's finally private minister, the first one. And so yes, obviously this is very cringe e um not not great framing. A lot of good girl Hitler jokes, even picked up presidents. Listen, I'm no really, I'm happy Wow a girl president. How progressive? And so takes venture brothers Uh no uncritical support, it's just just

support to venture brothers. Um. So takes like like that, like what like what we just heard a dean of ventures say? Kind of kind of spawned a big slew of of comments. You know, I'm just gonna read, read, read some of the stuff that the people have been saying in response to stuff like that Political Europe a piece quote begging liberals to stop praising girl Bossellini for being brave enough to shatter the glass ceiling in the neo fascist parties she's joined, and like, why is media

treating this as a freaking girl boss story? The girl bossification of Georgia mL has been interesting to watch. Liberals will literally stand anybody. So there's a lot of a lot of takes like that have been have been have

been going around. There's there's been extremely viral viral tweets getting hundreds of thousands of of likes, thousands of thousands retweets and shares, stuff getting referenced on national TV all kind of about this, you know, people complaining the takes from Political Europe and and other other kind of various soft headlines emphasizing the girl boss nature being like the sweet little girl defies the odds and grows up to be the first female Mussolini. So, like, some of these

jokes are pretty funny. I think I think they're they're funny. Um, they're fine. There's oh. Probably the worst one of these takes that I found that still got hundreds of retweets and thousands of likes was quote the American right and the American left. The aesthetics are different, but the effect is the same. Porch for the rising tide of fascism. Communists are the only people now as in the past, who truly opposed fashion fare for fox sake is true

for those of you following along time. No, yeah, there was a terrible Megan McCain tweet, which is very funny because people definitely wish we'll talk about the Megan McCain can't wait I have, Yes, well, we'll talk about our good friend Megan McCain. But yeah, so you know Italy's Italy elected their first female Mussolini. Um in a remarkable victory for both girl power and diversity in politics and people. People. Uh,

people had some good japes. So the other the other kind of big thing that caused this perception that that like that, like the liberals will literally stand anybody. The other big thing I kind of caused that was, uh, some viral quotes from Hillary Clinton, uh talking talking about the the rule of of women in politics and referencing Milani. So some remarks from Hillary Clinton published in Italy last September. I think it was that. I think it was that

like the Venice of Film Festival. Actually, um So, some some quotes from an interview that she gave at the Venice Film Festival went viral. Um mostly because tweets included to two small clips of of these quotes when she was talking about both women in politics and uh, Georgie, George, Gia, Georgia,

You're doing great, buddy. Multiple viral tweets circulated, mostly with two short quotes from Clinton getting the majority of attention, saying, quote, the election of the first woman prime minister in a country always represents a break with the past and is certainly a good thing unquote, and a second quote being every time a woman is elected to head of state or government that is a step forward unquote. Um. Obviously, those takes, in anough of themselves, not very good. I

don't think there's a good opinions. UM. Shocking, shocking that we are going to criticize the statement from Hillary Clinton. This is this is rare for us. Um. It's you know, it's it's I'm I'm surprised as well. But um, these kind of are slightly cherry picked from a larger section of this interview discussing women in government and how the far right is starting to use tokenized women to uphold

patriarchy and conservatism. So the first quote is taken from this from a translation of an interview that that that Clinton did at the Venice Film Festival in September, prior to Mlanni's apparent victory in the Italian elections in September. So she'd do it in Italian. She speak Italian, you know, but it was only published in Italian, so we're translating

from Italian back into English, double translation. But the so in a section of the interview talking about the increase of women in governmental leadership, Roles, a translation from her remarks in the larger section of this interview reads, quote, the election of the first woman prime minister in a country always represents a break with the past and is certainly a good thing. But then, as with any leader, woman or man, she must be judged by what she does.

I never agreed with Margaret Thatcher, but I admired her determination clearly than the ideas are voted for. I admired her determinating stamp on the neck of the working class. Funck Off also does does she really oppose Margaret Thatcher's policies. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know if I believe that one that lady is dead in the world is better for it and girl power, Yes, of course. Do you think she effectively uti let grow power by funneling money

to illegal paramilitary des squads in Northern Ireland? I don't know about that. There's this thing that you get with like people talking about all of these ghouls where and it's specifically like a centrist thing where it's like, well, certain things are just admirable traits, no matter about who has them, and you can admire that trade. And it's like, no, it's it's not like there were a lot of men in the SS who you know, we're we're willing to do things that you would call brave, but it doesn't

mean you have to consider them admirable. I think you don't have to have respect for you don't have to hand into the Nazis exactly like just certain people. Yeah, yeah, the contribution to the world is bad. You can stop stop that uger Thatcher being a good example. I have kind of the same thoughts on the inclusion of Todet inside the new Mario Kart games. It's just really it's it's just your signifying it, but it's not actually a

step forward for the toad race. It's um So. In the next section of the interview, Clinton also has come out against work mario'cut. The next section, Clinton also acknowledges a conservative women politicians role in upholding patriarchal government, saying, quote, women on the right are protected by patriarchy because they are often the first to support the fundamental pillars of male power and privilege. Today in America, the right wing

leaders are very much against abortion. Um So, she she did like it was part of this section talking about how women who are on the right and are running is concerned of politicians actually support all of the all the things that keep patriarchy alive and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. Well, it's it's true centrism, right. It's half of a good take and half of a terrible exactly exactly so so yeah, so our snippets of her comments embarrassing rewomen being a break from the past

always been a good thing. Yes, most certainly. M Are they taken out of context enough to change the scope of what's being said? I suppose that's the subjective. Um. But I just thought that's interesting that there was very select few quotes that were getting a whole bunch of traction, and her larger statements are actually slightly more interesting. Article. Don't don't do the Alex Jones ship of getting mad at a headline? Yeah, six seconds, Like, come on, people,

you have to be better than this. And I think still, you know, I see the same thing whenever I'm playing Mario Sunshine and there's the graffiti. Um, you can you can get mad at just saying it's the graffiti all over? Definitely, no pasa. You can get mad about that. But once you actually start learning how Bowser Jr. Was treated as a kid, it's it's there's actually more, there's more that you actually can understand about what's going on and what

leads to that behavior from Bowser Jr. Very identifiable. Everybody understands those references. Garrett, good work. Yeah. I just want to say that there is only one square in Italy that matters, and that is piet Saliretto. And you can you can google it. I just I love the juxtaposition of Garrison struggling over every single word that's in the in the neighborhood of Italy, and then James just perfectly saying, some fucking Italian ship. My Italian is bad. My Italian

comes exclusively. Your Italian is much better than anyone else. Here's maybe I know I swear, I swear other managed bandex is. I know a couple of curse words from watching my uncle's play pool when I was a kid. But that's about all I've got. I rely on that hand gesture, which works very well, and hand gestures are eight percent of Italian. Yeah, yes, it's true. Okay, So now, having now exhausted every conceivable Italian joke, we could proceed

with the spirit. We can actually proceed with an ad break. Do you do you know what else is in supportive anti Italian racism? Who won't kill miss Lenian hang him upside down in a square? I mean probably the current Prime Minister of Yeah, that's true. Also probably these advertisers. Okay,

and we are back. So there was there has been this kind of perception that the media kind of by and large dropped the ball on this one, and this element was pretty widespread among leftists that the kind of there was a lot of emphasis on the the breaking the fascist glass of ceiling and less on the fascist part.

There was even people like the MSNBC hosts Meddi Hassan who ran a whole segment on his show about kind of mainstream liberal media, let's downplaying the fascistic elements of milani uh in headlines in favor of the girl power angle. What's been so depressing. It's to see so much of the quote unquote liberal media, the mainstream media, the m s M giving a pass to Maloney or playing down on her and her party's fascist roots, focusing more on the fact that she's female and less on the fact

that she's you know, fascistic. That has been deeply, deeply depressing to see. There was the Washington Post headline, Georgia Maloney could become Italy's first female prime minister. Here's what to know. Now, here's what you wouldn't know from that headline. You wouldn't know that she has ties to fascism, but hey, she's female. There was the headline in the Financial Times. We can pull that up as well. Likely victory for

Italian right portends risks, but no lurch into extremism. Don't worry, no lurch to extremism, even though they just elected card carrying extremists. But still hers is a heartwarming tale, isn't it? I kid you not? This was the tweet from Political Europe. Let's pull up the tweet from Political Europe. In July nine, a fifteen year old school girl rang the doorbell at a local branch of the Youth Front, a far right movement in Rome, and asked to be let in this

weekend that same schoolgirl could become Italy's next prime minister. Wow, forget the fascism, forget the fascism, focus on the inspiration there. Then there was this op ed in the New York Times, Georgia Maloney is extreme, but she's no tyrant. Well that's all right. Then, at least she's not a tyrant. There was this OpEd in The Atlantic, which argued that the most immediate concern about Italy's new government is not any threat to the country's democratic institution. Still less a return

to fascism. Did you notice a trend? Yet It's not as bad as you think. This isn't really fascism, So we'll we'll talk a bit more about media coverage of Milani's election in a bit and how I think some people are kind of desperate to see the stupid Democrat Libs shill for fascism trope, especially with the whole girl buss thing that they actually kind of miss how the framing of Milanni's fascist ties has been perceived on a

broad scale. But first I want to get into who she actually is, what her views are, and what her election means. So it leaves a home. Italy is home to sixty million people well with Robin, and it's continental Europe's third largest economy. When it comes to the actual election, the right wing coalition that Melani led one around of the vote, with Melani's Brothers of Italy party getting around

twenty for the Senate race. So in all around three out of four voters did not vote for Melani and one in three didn't even vote at all, no surprise there, But overall that means like only one in six Italian

adults voted for the Brothers of Italy party. Uh, and that that does that does make them the biggest party in the new parliament, but it's long term legitimacy is still kind of in question because she was leading a larger right wing block, but the but the actual party that she's in and leads got like the vote, so it's it's right, it's I think that's an important perspective on like how long she'll actually stay in power. Italian politics are kind of known for their kind of residing

government not lasting very long. There's there's usually a pretty high like turnover rate, so we'll see. Um, yeah, they it's an interesting composition right of like like moderate moderate ish right wing people and then like some more hardcore like no that it's the people who used to be the League of the North, I think of the second largest party, so it's not like a homogeneous block that she's in charge of. Be kind of interesting to see

how they hold together. Yeah, and I think Melanie can be an example of what political scientists called gender washing, when when female politicians adopt a non threatening image to blunt the force of their extremism. I think you can see this as well with Daisy inside Mario Kart for the for the Wei, extremely brutal character play style, very brawley, but you know she acts very nice and that. Yeah, she's just like just powers through other other carts on

the track. Um and it's it's It leads to this slightly war perception of what Daisy actually does. Um So and Melanie's signature look involves flowing outfits and pastel shades, kind of like Princess Peach um and uninformed foreigners. Her asthetic could look like female empowerment. She poses as like a defender of women, even though her party has rolled back women's rights. Just like in uh the two US and six Princess Peach game, she was did brutal suppression

of protests around them ushroom Kingdom. So. David Broder, author of Mussolini's Grandchildren, Fascism and Contemporary Italy, wrote in Political Europe Get Funny. It's a very different take from Political Europe and this one uh quote. Milani owes much more to the moderate forces in what Italians call the center

right Alliance. They've allowed her the opportunity to present herself as part of the main stream, not just because she's been softening her policies, at least in presentation, but also because the center right politicians jumping on her bandwag and

has given her of an eer of respectability and credibility. Um. You can see this in Super Passionatest Brawl when Warrio shows up a biker outfit, not wearing the regular Italian uniform and they just let him play like Mario Luigi are wearing their proper outfit and Warrior just like showed up in like like a leather jacket and like ripped shorts. That's not okay, but it gave him the veneer of respectability. But because others allowed it to take place kind of

kind of the same thing here with Milani. At the same time, attempts by the main like center left rivals to make the election about this kind of ghost of fascism uh spreading again through Milani have proved unsuccessful. Voters by enlarged and did not buy the narrative kind of that that the left was trying to push that Milanni was this reincarnation of fascism. They just it just that that they were not. They were not convinced enough to

affect the election results in any in any meaningful way. Um. Same way, Nintendo is not convinced that putting Walluiji in the new Smash Bros. Will actually lead to more people buying the game. Italian essayist Roberto Slavinio wrote, quote, the far right can succeed in Italy because the left has failed, exactly as in much of the world, to offer credible visions or strategies. The left asks people to vote against the right, but it lacks the political vision or an

economic alternative. And I think these are all the kind of factors that actually led Milani to win this election. Should we talk a little bit about the sort of democratic party like five Star Alliance things? That was sure if you want to do like t ld R on that that would be great. So alright, long ago in a galaxy far far away, Italy had a very very large and powerful left um and then when the Soviet

Union fell so that they had the Communist Party. The Comunist Party was like one of the most powerful communist parties in the world. That wasn't like a sort of

like dictorial ruling party. But when the Soviet, like when the USSR felt it like voted dissolve, itself basically became the Democratic Party, and all of their sort of militant like much of the militants basically turned into Libs, and you know, I mean, and the Italian left like hell together for kind of a long time after that because they had you know that there's there there's a very long tradition is sort of an extra parliamentary left and

like tartically an anarchist left in Italy, but like the modern I don't know, it's kind of a ship show like in in terms of actual party politics, like there's a there was this thing called the Five Stars Movements, which was like kind of like basically AstroTurf by Abilionaire. It was just like very weird, very like early two thousand tens party that was like doing the whole sort of like we're going to do direct democracy by like online polls things. It has just like really weird mish

match like the main social Democratic for us. Yeah, well sort of, but like they're very weird, like like I don't know, you'll you'll get things from them, like okay, we want like like they're they're not a normal social democratic party right there, closing to like the Pirate Party, but like way weirder. Like so you you'll you'll you'll get people in this party who are like you know, who who were who are like you know, sort of

like old school like like leftist militants. Because this is where sort of like the energy was going right, but also like there's like anti vaxers in it. It was just it was just really weird iological like sort of mishmash.

And then when they sort of got into power, like none of these people have ever been in politics before, and so like you know, you'd get someone who was like the head of garbage collection, right, who's from this party, and they have no fucking idea how to collect garbage, right, and it was it's it's this real ship show because like you know, and then you have the Democratic Party, which are basically sort of just like lib hacks at

this point. And this meant that, like you know, and they eventually sort of aligned with each other to try to keep like other like fascist basically like right wing groups out of power. But they like they also they also like had an alliance for a little bit with one of the right wing parties. It's it's an incredibly like bizarre story ends like honestly like deserves like its own episode one day. But yeah, yeah, they're they're very weird.

They're not in effective left thing at all. They're just very very sort of like mishmash, confused populist thing, and it didn't like they yeah, like they definitely did not sort of like succeed in preventing an alternative, etcetera, etcetera. It was, I don't know, kind of a disaster. Yeah,

Italy's like it's worth noting as well. I think that, like anti fascism is, it is sort of baked in to the myth of the Italian Republic, right, like the that's what the republic rests are, that's where it comes from.

That's creation myth. But like much in the same way as people living in the United States will be familiar with how these creation miss kind of lose all relevancy apart from some kind of totemic, meaning like their repetition has some kind of linked to that, but they don't really have any any value in the contemporary discourse in

terms of animating and the way people act. I think you could say that that's happened in Italy, right Like people talk about people in institutions talk about anti fascism as where they come from and its foundational to it leaves democracy, But it's been so subsumed into structures of power that it that institutional discussion of anti fascism has lost its relevance from like the street fighting, like anti fascism that created the Republic in the first place, So

that concept is kind of defunct along with like Italian liberals have always walked hand in hand with like fish and interests and the right wing right, like from even previous to fascism, like there was a quote unquote liberal monarchy, right, So Italian liberalism isn't necessarily this anti authoritarian force. It was briefly like it got made to be briefly by the organized working class movement, but it hasn't been and

it's going back to not being. Yeah, I mean, I think I now think we should may as well get into milani is actual like views and what she actually believes in this passes, which you mean, what she actually believes in this pass is maybe slightly different things. Um,

but we'll we'll, we'll at least at least start. So Milani's party, the Brothers of Italy Party, was formed to quote carry forth the spirit and legacy unquote of the Italian Social Movement or the m s I the end, and the the m s I is the descendant of Mussolini's National Fascist Party. It's it's it's like a has a direct lineage. They even have the flame, right, they are still using the same logo, which is the flame on his tomb. I think that's where it comes from,

right Yeah. So uh Milani has said that quote LGBT lobbies are out there to harm the women and and they're and they're attacking the family by destroying gender identity. Um. She's made statements about George Soros, calling him an international speculator. More on more on that. In the sec UH he says that that that Soros finances global mass immigration that

threatens a great replacement of white native born Italians. Um. Milani shows affinity for other kind of authoritarian strong men, like the the the marine Lee Penn who's the leader of the of the National Rally Party in France. So strong woman and that's not a man. It's part of this section on strong men, like political political strong men. She's she's she's previously supported as Joe Rogan taught me, Garrison strong times, mega hard men and also what I've

learned from Matt Well, she's what is a woman? So yeah, strong man. But like Malani's previously supported Putin, although she's kind of lowered that enthusiasm since the invasion of Ukraine. She has she does have a pro Ukraine position on that publicly, um but she's expressed kind of affinity for the types of other fascist leaders across Europe. We've see in Sweden, we've see in Poland, we've seen Hungary's kind of aligned aligned herself with some of some of that

kind of trend inside of Europe. Milani wants to ban same sex couples from adopting children and possibly dissolved same sex couples legal parentage for the children that they've already adopted. Her party has sought to ban a cartoon featuring a bear with two mothers, arguing that kids should not be seeing same sex adoption as natural or normal because it's not um so basic kind of right wings censorship of materials that they don't like. I don't think children should

be allowed to watch cartoons with bears in them. Okay, good for you. It's going to reduce their readiness when it becomes time to fight the bears. But Milannia also wants to ban gay Italians from traveling elsewhere for surrogacy. Um so like so like they can't they can't leave the country to get to get like to have them become parents and return less like it's it's this, it's this, it's this whole whole thing. I'm gonna read a quote from Ruth bend Guite, a professor of history and Italian

studies at New York University. Quote, since she has tweeted repeatedly that Italian identity is being deliver really erased by globalists such as Soros and European Union officials who have conspired to unleash quote uncontrollable mass migration. Um. So normal normal stuff there and more on so so in in a in a speech, in a few speeches, and repeatedly she refers to financial speculators and has called people like

George Soros an international speculator. Um. And you know when when she says, uh, financial speculators, I don't think she actually means just people who speculated about finances. I think

she means something slightly different. Michael bench Laws, who is kind of history political person who works for NBC MSNBCPPS, had a really good, uh thread on on this, and I think it's important, like this is this is a mainstream media guy, like this is not coming from and t FA one six one on Twitter this is like coming from like like in terms of like mainstream media

actually talking about this. Uh quote. The new Italian Prime Minister says that quote, we will never be slaves at the mercy of financial speculators sounds just like nineteen thirties in Italy and Germany. Uh No, thanks for the memories Mussolini enjoyed publicly referring to Jewish people as financial speculators who needed to be controlled. When a fascist leader speaks, whether it be in Europe or America, never brush aside what you are hearing as meaningless rhetoric. Do not fail

to learn from the history of the nineteen thirties. History of the nineteen shows us that fascist leaders in the United States have been very eager to link us and pool resources, often in secret, with fascist leaders in Europe. Monitor carefully and beware, and please never take it at face value when and if fascist leaders in America and Europe tell you that they have no personal or political animists towards Jews or other mino any groups in society.

Too many examples in history tells us the opposite. Unquote. So that is like you know, regular MSNBC NBC people being like hey, when she says this thing she reads Jews should should should. We also talk about like the way parts of like the left on Twitter reacted to this, and also the sort of history of like how some people were like, oh wow, she's calling out the capitalists.

That's not a lot of this is like you guys are maybe the doubt people who have ever lived like she immediately like acted the know she like, this is the same thing we see with people like like Dugan even right what she's saying, She's not saying that, you know, international capital is bad because it hurts the poor people or workers. She's she's mad about it because it's because

it's a threat to traditional identities. It's it's it's it's a threat to the way that you want the the idea of the family, it's the way it's it's it's it's threatening all of these things that are about your like god, family, country, brotherhood, ship. It's not about actual poor people, working class people at all. That's not that's not what it is. It's it's not a good criticism of capitalist modernity just to just to propose another form

of more like authoritarian capitalist modernity. It's it's, it's it's not it's not good. Um, the original fascists in Italy did the same thing when they denounced like British um placrats. It's just it's it's not it's not the it's not a good critique of capitalists of well, and we should point out to that. Like like so Mateo Savini, who was like the former like he basically until the selection, he was like the guy he was in charge of

the right wing. Like he he's a guy who got like arrested basically for trying to sink a migrant boat. Like so that's actually this guys, he sucks um And but he he would do this like pft more expeciitly. He would you know, like specifically used Marxist terminal need

to push right wing stuff. So he he he had a speech where he talked about like the reserve army of labor, which is that this concept of Marxism that's about like basically Mark Mark is arguing that like, like capitalism inherently produces this like quote unquote like reserve army of labor, like industrial army of labor, which is like

an enormous mass of people who are unemployed. You've been spit out of the labor process, and you know, okay, and like and and and and like Mark Marx is like Marx is pro these people, which is the very important thing. He's like, these people are part of the pouletariat, but they've been spit out of like like the capital wage relation to spit them out. And they're yeah, they're they're they're they're to sort of like regulate like wages and stuff happens. But also they're people who have just

been sort of like disfranchise, et etcetera. Salvini when he talks about the reserve army of labor specifically, is like there is a reserve army of labor. Uh. These people are immigrants to North Africa and like the like the elites are like shipping these people into Italy to like destroy your jobs. And it is it is again very very important that you understand. This is what he like when he's using the marks term, he is using it. He is using it marks racism and not like Mark's

anti capitalism. And you you need to be able to tell what difference between these two things, because yeah, like especially in time poltics like this this is the thing that happens, like people people will use like even literally explicitly stuff that is from Marx, but they will use it to be like we need to like machine gun every like boat of small children trying to fite Libya. Like it's like cherry yeah, cherry picking these these bits of Marxism and arranging them into a racist as fuck

college that you used to justify your bagotry. It's fashion. It did that the first time, it's doing it again then. And the other thing that kind of that is that's notable. In case people have not have not seen it. There's been uh lots of video going around of of Melani openly praising um Mussolini, saying, quote, I believe MUSSLINI was a good politician. Everything he did he did for Italy and they have been no other politicians like him in

the past fifty years. That now. These interviews all come from the mid nineties. She has since said that her opinions on Mussolini have changed. She has nuts she has not said what her opinions have changed to she changed, but this was this was These interviews all come from when she was when she was a young plucky girl getting into the boy's Nazi club of and leading the youth wing of a fascist party founded by veterans of

Musolini's dictatorship. UM. Since since her her own modern party, the Brothers of Italy, which was again started emerged from the fascist National Alliance, which grew out of the Italian Social Movement, which was founded by Mussolini regime officials. UM, and she still uses the same logo for her current Mario Luigian Sorry Brothers of Italy party. UM. So yeah, let's have let's have one more ad break and then we'll talk about how mainstream media has been talking about

the new girl Boss Mussolini and we are back. Oh, I'm so excited. I'm so excited. So we're actually gonna talk. I'm first gonna read some stuff from the intercept, just not I would not say is actually mainstream media. It's a little bit outside of that. But it sets a good stage for the rest of the stuff that we will be talking about, which actually is dealing with how

mainstream media has been framing uh Milani's election. So quote, the media got this right much of the time, giving predominant building to Melanie's fall right nationalism, but numerous English language headlines focused solely on her being Italy's first woman prime minister is tempting to say that her position as a woman leader should be considered irrelevant given her and her parties via anti immigrant, nationalist, racist, anti l g B t Q plus policies, but ignoring her womanhood misses

some crucial points about her political ideology. Being a woman, a white woman that is, is not in conflict with Milanni's fascism. White supremacy has always relied on active enforcement by white women, especially when it comes to upholding racist, po nationalist narratives. So yeah, I think that that's that's that's a good stage for kind of how every other headline and article we're going to talk about here. Let's

start with The Guardian. The Guardian ran a piece saying, quote, the election of Italy's fascist adjacent Georgia Milani is a public reminder that women can be just as awful as men. That's a good headline. And this was was was this was the Guardian to us the Guardian UK. This was Guardian UK. Yeah, fashionist and this and this article was Jeff Guardian and this this article is actually directly in opposition to Australia's a Sky News headline Georgia. Milani is

not a fascist. Um this is this is just directly in opposition to this Sky News article, which is kind of funny. Um uh NPRS morning edition went with quote a far right group with neo fascist roots wins big

in Italy's election. Um a CBS Mornings host said, Milani rejects the label of fascism while embracing its symbols, just its symbols, just you know, like they were specially talking about like the actual like iconography that they directly left like this, like the slogans like brotherhood, God, country type things, and like like the logo and it's it was a part actually a part of a larger thing around around fascism. Look, we'll actually get bit more into that on our Tucker

Carlson's section. Oh good. The Washington Post headlined quote, the mainstreaming of the West's far right is complete and then opened that article was saying in the land that invented fascism, the far right is back in power. Milani has a lengthy record of extremist rhetoric, has embraced the white supremacist narrative of the great Replacement theory, and has engaged in

frequent dog whistling to a radical base. The Atlantic had a good piece titled the Return of Fascism in Italy um, saying that the Brothers of Italy, which Milanni has led since, has an underlying and sinister familiarity. The party formed a decade ago to carry on the spirit and legacy of the extreme right in Italy, which dates back to the Italian Social Movement, the party that formed in place of

the National Fascist Party, which was banned after World War Two. Now, just weeks before the one d anniversary of the March on Rome, the October nineteen event that put Musolini in power, Italy may have a former Italian Social Movement activist for its prime minister and a government rooted in fascism. So that's like overall, there was a lot of really good Like most of the of the extremely reference or viral kind of articles on this had decent headlines and decent

content actually emphasizing the fascist nature. Now it's funny because the Atlantic had this Return of Fascism in Italy one but The Atlantic also ran an op ed piece titled Melanie's election Win is not a vote for Fascism, which later changed its title to Italians didn't exactly vote for fascism Um, which to its credit, still discusses uh Melani's links to fascism, but it questioned how much power she

actually will have to enact said fascism um. But so there was there was some like both sides and going on on some A lot of these news outlets, they'll put one up, they'll put one piece out that's actually very good about centering the fascist rhetoric, another one being like she may be a fascion, but it's not like she could do much and she's a woman. I think this is kind of like I think, I think it's

just kind of a post JA six thing. Like I I think if this had happened in I don't think the LA media would have been like as willing to just do this. Absolutely that is that is undoubtedly true. Um. I think I think they kind of, like like liberals in general, kind of were shaking out of their complacency when they're sort of like beautiful symbols were under like finally actually came under attack and not just like US.

Routers ran a confusing headline titled nationalist Milani set to smash Italy's glass sea leg and become premier, which is really weird. She just just sounds super weird nationalist Malany smashes glass sea like it's just like it's like, yeah,

I guess the cos it's it's what. That was one of the weirder headlines because it still has nationalists in it, but it has the whole glass stealing bit, which is just like why there was another Guardian UK piece uh that had the headline uh at Italy's Georgia Melani is no Mussolini, but she may be a Trump, which is

an interesting article. Um it. It has some a lot of it's actually pretty reasonable, uh, and it emphasizes her more recent comments trying to align herself more with the modern US Republican Party rather than any kind of form of nineteen thirties style fascism quote, hawkish on foreign policies, orthodox on economic policies, nostalgic nationalists, and inimical to civil liberties.

This right wing politics is illiberal at heart, but it would aim for respectability in what used to be called the establishment, including by not undermining the rule of law in the way that Hungarian Prime Minister Victor Orban has

done unquote. So there, it's kind of I do like the there is some things that are worth we're thinking about in terms of how she has a lot in the past year tried to align herself more with the modern Republican Party in the States, which still is as we discussed the show, a lot is kind of getting more fashion I would say, so, so I will say it is has I don't know if you're gonna talk

about this, but it has been very funny. She managed to sort of like lose like the like really hardline like American right wingers because she did some sort of like pronato e things and so now there's like like so like like Snovich and a whole bunch of other people like that were posting about how like she's like an op and she was part of some I don't can't remember. I don't even I don't. I don't even

think even believes that because I don't. I don't. I've seen much more people be very enthusiastic about her than people being critical of her who are on the fashionst rite in the States. Yeah, I mean, I don't know, like there's there's definitely was especially like there's a whole thing about her being like remember the ASP Institute but I think was happening for like, I don't know, maybe maybe that maybe that's just a thing like right after

she got like, I don't I don't know. I mean on kind of on this note of of her trying to align more with like modern United States conservatism. UM. In one of their newsletters, Political included that Melanie has appeared at see Pack this past year on the National Prayer Breakfast and uh and it did did join the Aspen Institute in but she and Steve Bannon were films strategizing together as far back and Bannon instead of her back then quote you put a reasonable face on right

wing populism, you will get elected. UM. So her and Bannon have been strategizing for years. She's at Sepack, uh. This past year. She gave a speech there that Tucker was very enthusiastic about. In his segment about her. That Political newsletter that included the bits about Bannon and Spack also had I think this line, which sums up some of my thoughts on this quote. You've already read in dozens of headlines that Milani will be Italy's most far

right leader since Miscellani. But don't fall for the trap of reducing this far right firebrand too simple labels like the Italian Donald Trump, or Victor or band or Marine Lepen global takeaway. Right wing populism is getting smarter. It could have died off with trump selection loss or Boris Johnson's humiliating ejection from Downing Street, but that isn't happening. So I have I have a few more of a few more things here which will lead into kind of

how the right has been talking about this um. There was a scene. There was a scene an article on the victory that headlined the conditions are perfect for a populist resurgence in Europe, which also referenced the anti immigration Sweden Democrats, who are expected to play a major role in the new government. After winning the second largest share of seats in the general election last month. The party has been now mainstreamed and initially had its roots in

very strict neo Nazism. Overall, I was less happy with some of the New York Times headlines relating to Milani's election. There was there was the the cheeky headline Georgia Milani is extreme, but She's no tyrant, which is of again

a weird way to frame a headline. Um, but even that peace still opens with this line saying, quote, it happened here again nearly one hundred years since the March on Rome, Italy on Sunday voted in a right wing coalition headed by a party directly descended from Mussolini's fascist regime.

Mrs Milani is the first post fascist leader to win a national election in Italy after World War Two, and her party is the heir to the Italian Social Movement, the reincarnation of the long dissolved and constitutionally banned Fascist party. So weird headline still it includes stuff in the article. But in the age of social media and honestly on

news media, headlines are way more important. Unfortunate. Um and there was an actual New York Times article, not just not just opinion piece, had the headlined Milani wins voting in Italy and breakthrough for Europe's hard right. Another Times piece read Europe looks at Italy's Milanni with caution and trepidation. Uh, Milanni posed to be the country's first far right leader since Mussolini. So still not the worst, not the best from the New York Times, which you mean no no

shockers there? Um Now? On to kind of the right. So the right had a really big mix of reactions based on how the left was talking and liberals were talking about this. There was a lot of enthusiasm coming from the right. A lot of people on the right questioning the fascist framing, being like, I can't believe Megan. I mean, we can talk about the Megan Bicayan tweet. Everyone wants a woman in power until it's the conservative

woman in power. This one right bar reporter said quote calling her Mussolini just because she's Italian is racist, which is one of the best, one of the best tweets about this. Laverne Spicer said, so everyone calls Melania fascist, can anyone offer proof of that? And most most of people just replied with videos of her prising Mussolini. Um yeah, will bang you Mussolini picture. Lauren Bobbert had the extremely bad tweet. This month, Sweden voted for a right wing government.

Now Italy voted for a strong right wing government. The entire world is beginning to understand that the woke left does nothing but destroy November eight. November eight is coming and the USA will fix our House and Senate. Let freedom rain. Um great great prose there um, just shouting at Cloud. But I I it is rush. It is actually super messed up to be praising Sweden's new right

wing government because they're pretty pretty bad. The Wall Street Journal had the great headline Milani is no fascist, but can she revive Italy's economy? Um? Yeah, that's now, that

is perfect. That's that's the classic. Well I'm very I'm very excited in about eight months when the Italian economy is like it makes the British economy look fucking great when the West there turnaround, like can some other random persons save Italy's Yeah, like somebody further to the right, and they'll just continue to be like, well, maybe it's good for the economy. The economy I have running in my Super Mario RPG game is better than the current

UK economy. So again, it's not saying more on that, right. A Fox News headline in the lead up to the election read Italy on track to elect first right wing prime minister since World War Two, first female to hold office. I really, I really do that. This is one thing I really need to get people on, Like, is fucking Sylvia Berlisconi a joke to you? Like the answer should be yes. But also like come on man like forever. A few days later, another Fox headline read Milani's Italian

election win renews spotlight on Europe's continued migrant woes. Great, great, great heading there, that's definitely what we should be focusing on. And so now onto a friend of the pod, Tucker Carlson. So on September twenty six, Tucker Carlson ran a fifteen minute segment titled we live in a fake democracy and

there will be a revolution like Italy. So the segment was on the election of Melanie and how she's daring to address the issues that voters really care about but aren't allowed to talk about, like the attacks on the family, immigration, the unpopular climate change policies that are ruining the economy, aren't allowed to talk about. Bill Ascoti has literally been saying whatever the funk comes into his brain for like

thirty years at this point. That was that was a big thing of the Tucker segment was that voters have all these issues they care about, but they're not allowed to talk about it. It's actually illegal in some places to talk about this. That's an actual quote from what he's at um And obviously Tucker offiscated her lings to Mussolini style fascism while still praising the fascist rhetoric that

Melania espouses. Here is a clip from the segment. She's not the first person to say this, people have said it before, but she's just been rewarded for saying it. That's the point. The population likes it. This is what they actually want. They're not that worried about global warming. They don't want open borders. They think the woke stuff is absurd. They want to say what they think. And now it's obvious because she just won. And so even in this country, the people running and benefiting from a

deeply corrupt and doom system are hysterical. Watch the reaction to that. I want to start today by talking about a politician on the right who we should all be worried about, who's on the rise today. A politician who was brushed off accusations of fascism. What separates us from

let's say, Italy who elected a fascist. She is from Fascist Fruits, a far right political party whose roots go back to post World War two neo fascist party that has its roots in Italian fascism, its roots in Italian fascism. To find that for us if you would Joe Scarboro, sorry, you're an idiot, you can't. But the point is fascist means unacceptable. Whatever this chick is saying, you're not allowed

to agree with. They're very worried that that many Italians do agree with it, so she has to be completely unacceptable. Don't read further. She's a fascist. So yeah, that's that sucks, That's not great. Um M, I don't need to waste any more time talking about Tucker's segment because it's it's typical Tucker Carlson stuff. Pretty fascistic, pretty awful Durburg at the end of every time anyway. Um So yeah. Kind of the reaction was as one might expect. American right

wing operatives have celebrated her rise to power. For example, Keith Robert's, head of the Heritage Foundation, drew on some of the familiar kind of language in terms of and I'll just I'll just say this. This is what he said about her victory on Twitter. This can be a trend. Conservatives everywhere need to define the choice as to what it is us versus them, everyday people versus globalst elites shown they hate us, so familiar dog whistles and ship.

But to kind of close this up, I'm actually gonna do, uh, I'm gonna do a guy deboored quote one of our favorite philosophers on this. Can we put a little French on it? Can we of gudor quote? So he he wrote the situations the Situation's phosopher wrote this in nineteen eight. Italy sums up the social contradictions of the entire world as such. It is a laboratory for international counter revolution. Um. So hilariously they held out longer than the French did.

So well, what what What He's trying to say there is that it's a way to try out social change and try out the suppression of like progressive social change. UM. And it's like a model for the rest of Europe. Um. Like it's like it's it's this owns like miniature model that you can try out things and see how they'll

react on a on a grounder European political scale. Um. And kind of rough in in the in the vein of that, I'm actually gonna do a quote from one of the Washington Post articles about what what what, one of the better articles about Milani to kind of finish up the types of stuff that I wanted to talk about. So, if there's been one dominant story in Western politics over the past decade, it's that the far right is no

longer beyond the pale. Indeed, it has taken over the right wing mainstream in many countries, including and arguably most significantly, the United States. In France, the far right has long been the leading force of the opposition. In Spain, it's also gained ground in Sweden, a party originally founded by Neo Nazis and other right wing extremists will now be the second largest faction in parliament. In Hungary and Poland,

the far right is already in power. So, just in terms of this overall trend of how people are trying to mainstream far right things, and how they're getting more normalized across Europe, in the United States here, and the types of asthetics that they're using to gain such ground.

Because the Italian voters were not convinced by the attempts to paint Melani as a reincarnation of Mussolini, the way that she wrapped her fascism in contemporary US style conservatism was convincing, and the left did not offer any viable alternatives to fix the problems that the country is facing. So she got the vote, which was enough to get

a majority. So yeah, that's that's kind of That's most of the stuff I have on the girl Boss Mussolini, Um any any other any other uh comments on how the rights been talking about this, how the liberals have been talking about this, how media has or any anything at all. Before we close up, No, I wish her the best of getting strung up in the street. It's very funny to turn pictures of her upside down. People will tell you it's not funny. It's funny, you know.

I like the seemed to be turning into the nineteen twenties, but like, tragedy is farce version of it. But this means we can do it funnier. We can. We can do it funnier. We can. I'll go to Italy wearing Mario costumes. That's right, we can. We can do it. We can do it funnier. It's always possible to be more funny. Hmm, that's what we striful. So yeah, I'm still laughing about the Brothers of Italy thing. That's wow,

that's pretty funny. Anyway, Uh, go have fun fighting anthropomorphic lizards who steal the princess and hang her in a cage and go race around the mushroom Kingdom on your way to save her with your brother. Is how I spend most of my free time in the mushroom Kingdom. In the mushroom Kingdom, jumping on lizards. Yeah, okay, let's let's a go. It Could Happen Here is a production

of cool Zone Media. For more podcasts from cool Zone Media, visit our website cool zone media dot com, or check us out on the I Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zone Media dot com slash sources. Thanks for listening.