For some reason, when we’re talking about political tendencies, here in Italy we’re often ahead of time. Usually, when we’re talking about the worst political tendencies. Just think about how Mussolini’s fascism quickly became a model in other European countries. But, due to our own, inconclusive nature, we need someone else to push our premises to the limit. We need some German efficiency to transform fascism in the hell on Earth that was Nazism.
Although there are plenty more differences, it’s quite easy, now, to see that Donald Trump has a lot in common with “our” Silvio Berlusconi. Both millionaires, both obsessed with women, both friends with Vladimir Putin, both heavily involved in media, both managed to succeed presenting themselves as an alternative to the old political system. Once again, we were (more than) a decade ahead. How lucky, isn’t it?
Wow, that’s a good one!
But the true parallelism isn’t in these two over-the-top characters. What’s truly worrying is that Americans - both Trump supporters and Trump opponents -are getting obsessed with Donald Trump. In the very same way Italians -both Berlusconi’s supporters and Berlusconi’s opponents - have been obsessed by Silvio Berlusconi for almost twenty years.
Everything, now, is about Donald Trump. This, however, is a problem only for Trump’s opponents, as it was for Berlusconi’s opponents. Because being against Trump means only being against Trump. And nothing more. Yes, of course, being anti-Trump could also mean being against racism, against populism, against a lot of things. But all of these things are quickly being absorbed by this Black Hole known by the name of Donald Trump.
Donald Trump is so “beyond” that satire can’t keep pace with him and is becoming booooring.
Being against Donald Trump is becoming the core identity of its opponents. They aren’t something else anymore. They are anti-Trump. Maybe they still can’t notice this process, but it’s slowly happening. With a far more worrying effect.
Donald Trump managed to convince people not just to vote for him: he made them root for him. He made them supporters, not just voters, as it happens in sports. So if you’re not in his team, you’re in the other team. You’re a supporter of this other team, and you begin to act like a supporter. Sometimes a violent one. A hooligan.
Donald Trump about to receive the infamous Steve Austin’s Cold Stunner… something many of his opponents would like to see again, maybe soon.
Donald Trump used hate as a weapon, and as a poison hate infected his enemies. That now just hate Donald Trump and all those morons who voted him. Trump’s opponents don’t try to propose alternative, independent ideas to those of Trump, they just propose an alternative to Trump. An alternative that is dependent on Trump. The idea isn’t the point anymore. Trump is the point.
A lot of people stopped arguing. And just started insulting. Donald Trump isn’t wrong because his ideas are wrong. Donald Trump is wrong because he’s a pig, he’s a populist, he’s a fascist. And his supporters are rednecks, neonazis, retarded. There’s no point in arguing with them. There’s no point in dealing with them. So fuck them.
The average Trump supporter in his opponents’ mind… and maybe also in reality, sincerely I don’t know!
The problem is that this attitude reinforces Trump’s supporters choice. Because they see his opponents acting like hooligans. They see his opponents insulting Trump. Insulting them. They’re biased. They’re just haters. We can’t argue with them, they think, so we don’t listen to them. Fuck them.
This, exactly, is how everyone in Italy became obsessed with Silvio Berlusconi. We stopped talking about the ideas. We started talking about him. About his finances. About his women. About bunga bunga. And we forgot everything else.
Yo!!1!!
Political opposition ceased to exist on its own and began to exist just because of Silvio Berlusconi. In a certain way, Silvio Berlusconi was at the same time the majority and the opposition.
Italian culture and society, although maybe not evidently, has been strongly affected by this weird political season. We’re still dealing, now that Silvio Berlusconi is slowly fading away, with the damages of what we call Berlusconismo (mostly caused not by Silvio’s direct actions, but by the aforementioned side effects of our attitude). Maybe we won’t fully recover anymore.
United States are just at the beginning of their obsession with Trump. Being the US, they could push this attitude, although under the name of Trumpism, to the limit. But maybe, Americans can stop this whole process until it becomes too late.
This one came out when I googled Trumpocalypse…
