This is a very superficial analysis of the nazi-fascist phenomenon that, by not taking into account numerous sociopolitical factors, ends up being tragically wrong, even though there is an element of black comedy in how wrong it is.Â
Let me explain: while Britain had an empire, Italy was in pieces and so was Germany. The UK benefited of a huge colonial domain that busted their economy and made them powerful enough to actually allow them to have a hand in the creation of the Italian state itself, where fascism first reared its ugly head.Â
Why did fascism have such an appeal on the Italian people?
Because we were a young state (the kingdom of Italy was only declared in 1861 and Rome conquered from the Vatican State only in 1870), poor, with huge inequalities, with virtually no colonies and we wanted in on the colonial pie!
Too bad the Great War did not give Italy what it wanted but costed a lot of blood and money to the whole population.Â
Fascism began as an offshoot of socialism in one of the âreddestâ regions of our peninsula. Lenin himself praised a young Mussolini, declaring him âthe only man who could lead the Italian people in a revolutionâ.Â
Mussoliniâs most famous lover was Ida Dalser a remarkable woman from a Jewish family and close to socialist environments (Mussolini wrote on socialist newspapers, being a socialist), whom he lated had institutionalised and likely killed.
It was only when Mussoliniâs more violent nature became too much to ignore, with his insistence that Italy join WWI, that he was expelled from the Socialist party.
Then, after the WWI ended and Italy found itself ârobbedâ of its âvictoryâ, he started fighting with violence, making more and more violent statements, justifying violence as the only possible path towards a true revolution, moving the unsatisfied masses with calls to violence. He wanted CHANGE, he wanted Italians to have what they thought was OWED to them.
There was violence in Italy as fascism rose to power, a lot of it, we did not just lay down : socialist unions fought, politicians fought, yet the ones who really knew how to make use of violence, the ones that had no pity and could win when it came to violence, were the fascists.
I am an Italian who knows her own history and that is why similar posts make my skin crawl.Â
Two of my great-grandfathers found themselves booted out of socialist cooperatives (one of them with his head split open) since they were âtoo tiepidâ, âunwilling to really fight for changeâ, as those cooperatives became fascist ones.Â
Germany was a ridiculously poor state, thanks to the Versailles treaty too, as Nazism rose to power.
Spain was ruined when Franco started its war.Â
Fascism and Nazism have their roots in desperation and poverty, even though they offer no real solutions to them and will only propagate misery.Â
This should be understood to fight fascism. Its causes, the fact that the call to violence only makes the desperate masses dumber and more dangerous to minorities.
Calling to violence NOW means not knowing what there is to loose.Â
And do not tell me that I condemn insurrections against fascist regimes, most of my family was involved in the Italian Resistance and we are proud of that, even though it costed us blood, lives, and hopes.Â
I suggest a deeper study of the global social, political, and economic landscape of the time before making such broad statements.Â