Interesting message Barbara, but there's another difference for Anglo-Saxons: whereas "fascist" means something quite specific for Italians, and has done since the 1920s, as far back as 1944 George Orwell suggested that "fascist" had been rendered almost meaningless as a word in English, or that if it meant anything it was just a synonym for "bully". This is one reason why I think a more specific word is needed for what's happening in right-wing parties in the UK, USA, France, and various other places.
Much of this in all 3 countries (and in Italy) is fuelled by "immigration" numbers, and the nature of those "immigrants". I put the word in inverted commas because what we get from ONS (in the UK) includes people like Chinese and South Asian students at UK universities (most of which have degenerated into scam businesses these days, delivering nothing like value for money), and also nurses and care workers (e.g. from the Philippines), all of whom have come to the UK on FIXED-TERM visas!
"Immigrants" is in fact a strangely political, and inflammatory, term for the ONS to be using. These numbers (net immigration) have risen over recent years to an alarming figure (> 700k net "entrants" PER YEAR! in the UK). But that rise cannot continue: as these university courses and care contracts come to an end, this "net entrants" figure must start to decline.
As ever, this rhetoric is all about a handful of very rich newspaper owners (Harmsworth in particular), working hand-in-hand with the Tory strategists to inflame the specific passions of quite a small number of very uneducated older people in a handful of marginal constituencies ... where their votes actually matter in 2024.
I read this a while ago: "Rather than distancing herself from her neofascist past, as some people might have expected, she’s trying to distance her neofascist past from fascism itself."
As an African I’m quite conflicted about Georgia Meloni for a couple of reasons. After Nigeria’s recent elections the first foreign visit by the Nigerian vice president was Italy. I saw pictures which his aides posted on facebook of him meeting with Meloni and she appeared, at least in the photo, to be quite animated by their discussion. She really warmed up to her guest. More recently, I’ve heard her promise to make support for Africa at the heart of the G7 Summit. For a right wing politician that is totally unexpected
Interesting message Barbara, but there's another difference for Anglo-Saxons: whereas "fascist" means something quite specific for Italians, and has done since the 1920s, as far back as 1944 George Orwell suggested that "fascist" had been rendered almost meaningless as a word in English, or that if it meant anything it was just a synonym for "bully". This is one reason why I think a more specific word is needed for what's happening in right-wing parties in the UK, USA, France, and various other places.
Much of this in all 3 countries (and in Italy) is fuelled by "immigration" numbers, and the nature of those "immigrants". I put the word in inverted commas because what we get from ONS (in the UK) includes people like Chinese and South Asian students at UK universities (most of which have degenerated into scam businesses these days, delivering nothing like value for money), and also nurses and care workers (e.g. from the Philippines), all of whom have come to the UK on FIXED-TERM visas!
"Immigrants" is in fact a strangely political, and inflammatory, term for the ONS to be using. These numbers (net immigration) have risen over recent years to an alarming figure (> 700k net "entrants" PER YEAR! in the UK). But that rise cannot continue: as these university courses and care contracts come to an end, this "net entrants" figure must start to decline.
As ever, this rhetoric is all about a handful of very rich newspaper owners (Harmsworth in particular), working hand-in-hand with the Tory strategists to inflame the specific passions of quite a small number of very uneducated older people in a handful of marginal constituencies ... where their votes actually matter in 2024.
I read this a while ago: "Rather than distancing herself from her neofascist past, as some people might have expected, she’s trying to distance her neofascist past from fascism itself."
https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/02/06/why-giorgia-meloni-wont-distance-herself-from-italys-fascist-past/
Some very good points about what we can learn from history. That video of the facist salutes is a bit scary!
No doubt about this. She is. Unfortunatelly italian people don't understand it.
As an African I’m quite conflicted about Georgia Meloni for a couple of reasons. After Nigeria’s recent elections the first foreign visit by the Nigerian vice president was Italy. I saw pictures which his aides posted on facebook of him meeting with Meloni and she appeared, at least in the photo, to be quite animated by their discussion. She really warmed up to her guest. More recently, I’ve heard her promise to make support for Africa at the heart of the G7 Summit. For a right wing politician that is totally unexpected