Ask Battista Minola 1616 Anything - One

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

I am not kidding at all.

What do you know about Italy?  

Well to make things more interesting and in the context of our two nations, India and Italy just recently re-established semi-friendly relations after Gentiloni and Modi met in 2017.  As you know, India has been pretty pissed at Italy for the Enrica Lexie affair.  

I know that. Italy was pretty pissed too, although I think by now many Italians have even forgot that story.
Funnily my Indian pen pal referenced above had never heard anything about it until I told her.

[President Johnson]

Your English is very good. Is this the general quality of English-speaking/writing among middle-class Italians?

Thank you.
Absolutely not, Italians generally are bad at English.
Also did you just infer my social status? Classist.

You're certainly better than your Foreign Minister

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Do you like cooking Italian?

I am not able to cook that much.

Your English is very good. Is this the general quality of English-speaking/writing among middle-class Italians?

Thank you.
Absolutely not, Italians generally are bad at English.
Also did you just infer my social status? Classist.

You're certainly better than your Foreign Minister

I am better than many Italian politicians sadly.

[Continential]

Opinion of the Italian Communist Party and Euro communism.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Opinion of the Italian Communist Party and Euro communism.

The original one for right or for wrong was the main force on the left and probably got less than what it deserved.
The current party with that name is a joke as are all the other dozen parties the Italian far-left is split into.

Eurocommunism was an interesting idea that never went anywhere.

[Clarko95 📚💰📈]

Would you have voted for DC, PC, PSI, or one of the smaller parties between 1948 and 1992?



Also, is there any meaning to your username? Just wondering...

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Would you have voted for DC, PC, PSI, or one of the smaller parties between 1948 and 1992?



Also, is there any meaning to your username? Just wondering...

As for politics, I don't know. I think I might have been a casual left-leaning swing voter.
A very interesting party switch history is that of Antonio Giolitti.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antonio_Giolitti


Now for the good part:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Taming_of_the_Shrew

And now you know where I took my username from. It's not because I like the character particularly, but because I like very much the idea of a Shakespeare character with an Italian name and also surname. Yes, I guess I could have chosen Romeo Montecchi but that is too obvious.

Not mentioned in the original thread, but I played Gremio in that comedy in high school.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Bump.

Just because things are befalling me and I want to see if there are new topics.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

How do you feel about Giorgio La Pira, Aldo Moro, and other "Red Catholic"/DC Left figures from the First Republic?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

How do you feel about Giorgio La Pira, Aldo Moro, and other "Red Catholic"/DC Left figures from the First Republic?

I have always found Aldo Moro a massive freedom fighter bar his original (though brief) opposition to the centre-left ca. 1958/1959.
Giorgio La Pira seems to have been a great mayor but I am not too knowledgeable about him.

A person who really knows everything about this is my grandfather. He has been a lifelong DC/successor parties member and while I don't think he was in Moro's current he has always been much warmer towards the left than towards the right. He knows a very lot about the political history of Italy. He also knows a lot about the history of the Church and other religious topics by the way.

[Chips]

What do you think of current Italy-US relations?

Do you support Conte?

That's all I got.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

What do you think of current Italy-US relations?

Do you support Conte?

That's all I got.

Well I don't know what to think, they seem to be good and non-controversial.

I think Conte is an empty suit. I prefer his new government to the previous one for partisan reasons, but I am no great fan. Also, there will be some regional elections plus a constitutional referendum in two weeks, after which all sorts of things could happen.

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

What are your thoughts on the US role in Italian politics between 1947 and the end of the Cold War?

And is it common for Italians to regard various instances of intrigue in their Cold War-era politics as the result of US intelligence operations?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

What are your thoughts on the US role in Italian politics between 1947 and the end of the Cold War?

And is it common for Italians to regard various instances of intrigue in their Cold War-era politics as the result of US intelligence operations?

The US role in Italian politics during the Cold War was on some level understandable but generally pretty shady and with possibly lots of shenanigans.
Of course tons of respect to Craxi for kicking the crap out of Reagan at Sigonella, by the way.

I don't know how common it is really, and likely it is highly dependent on which party one comes from. I'd note that the discover of Gladio in 1991 sparked lots of outrage.
Personally I am ambivalent, like I don't really buy that the CIA orchestrated the Moro affair or something.

[It's Perro Sanxe wot won it]

Why do you think Italy hasn't legalized same-sex marriage yet?

[darklordoftech]

Who would you have voted for in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 US Presidential elections?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Why do you think Italy hasn't legalized same-sex marriage yet?

Because we passed civil unions four years ago and I am not sure same-sex marriage is on anyone's agenda, although according to polls a majority of Italians are in favour.

Who would you have voted for in the 1992, 1996, and 2000 US Presidential elections?

I don't know. Presumably Perot in 1992 and not sure about 1996 or 2000. To be honest I would probably vote very irrationally if I lived in a safe state.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

Was Gabriele D'Annunzio really that bad in his capacity as a political actor, or was he more of a heavily implicated fellow-traveler?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

Was Gabriele D'Annunzio really that bad in his capacity as a political actor, or was he more of a heavily implicated fellow-traveler?

Gabriele D'Annunzio was obviously a massive piece of shıt insofar as his political views are concerned and had an obvious influence on fascism and in some way contributed to its rise.

However D'Annunzio semi-retired from public life roughly at the same time as Mussolini came to power, and Mussolini continually made sure that he keep quiet by covering D'Annunzio with honours and money (roughly the same applies to futurist poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti), since of course he had no interest in heterodox intellectuals potentially outshining him.
For the record D'Annunzio never actually became a member of the PNF, even though he signed the Manifesto of the Fascist Intellectuals in 1925.

Also, D'Annunzio mysteriously fell off his villa's window and injured himself in 1922 and there are people who speculate it was an attempted murder (and also people who speculate it was an attempted suicide).

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

IIRC, weren't there those hoping to invite D'Annunzio into government to "save" the state from Mussolini--at which point the aforementioned fall happened?

[FEMA Camp Administrator]

What are your thoughts on the US role in Italian politics between 1947 and the end of the Cold War?

And is it common for Italians to regard various instances of intrigue in their Cold War-era politics as the result of US intelligence operations?

The US role in Italian politics during the Cold War was on some level understandable but generally pretty shady and with possibly lots of shenanigans.
Of course tons of respect to Craxi for kicking the crap out of Reagan at Sigonella, by the way.

Do you know if the invasion of Italy by US troops was viewed as a realistic possibility should the Italian left win control of government? I was reading a paper on US-Italy relations in the 70s and apparently this was viewed with some fear by Italians, who received very mixed signals from the Carter administration regarding the US' stance on--I believe--the PCI.

In said same paper, apparently then-US ambassador Volpe (think the Nixon-Ford term of '73 to '77) hung out with both mobsters and members of the Italian far right. Fairly ironic that a liberal Republican in the US suddenly shifted several steps once overseas, even if not entirely surprising given how foreign policy was run. I guess there's no question in there, but w/e.

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

IIRC, weren't there those hoping to invite D'Annunzio into government to "save" the state from Mussolini--at which point the aforementioned fall happened?

I don't think D'Annunzio was part of any such plan.
The people who wanted to save the state from Mussolini I think were pushing for some kind of socialists + populars + liberals governement chaired by Giolitti, which could not happen for all sorts of reasons.

Do you know if the invasion of Italy by US troops was viewed as a realistic possibility should the Italian left win control of government? I was reading a paper on US-Italy relations in the 70s and apparently this was viewed with some fear by Italians, who received very mixed signals from the Carter administration regarding the US' stance on--I believe--the PCI.

In said same paper, apparently then-US ambassador Volpe (think the Nixon-Ford term of '73 to '77) hung out with both mobsters and members of the Italian far right. Fairly ironic that a liberal Republican in the US suddenly shifted several steps once overseas, even if not entirely surprising given how foreign policy was run. I guess there's no question in there, but w/e.

I am not sure how much people feared a US invasion. Probably a small but sizable minority. I'd argue that an equal number feared a USSR invasion.
Of course it depends on the exact scenario, a hypothetical Historic Compromise government would not have been the same as a hypothetical "hey, PCI broke 40% and mopped out DC" election.


Yes, it's clear that some people of power in the United States hung out with whomever was an ally against the Communists, including the Mafia and neofascists, which is part of what I referred to as "shenanigans".
Ironically there was a minority current in the MSI that emphasized the anti-imperalist, anti-plutocratic part of fascism and preferred Communists to Christian Democrats (see: Pino Rauti).

[Wikipedia delenda est]

As a Catholic, do you believe that premarital sex is immoral?

[𝕭𝖆𝖕𝖙𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖆 𝕸𝖎𝖓𝖔𝖑𝖆]

As a Catholic, do you believe that premarital sex is immoral?

As a Protestant, do you believe that Marian devotion is a bunch of nonsense? Because my sister is convinced it is.

[Okay, maybe Mike Johnson is a competent parliamentarian.]

As a Catholic, do you believe that premarital sex is immoral?

As a Protestant, do you believe that Marian devotion is a bunch of nonsense? Because my sister is convinced it is.

Is your sister straight? I think there's an element of psychosexual sublimation to a lot of Marian devotion that people who aren't attracted to women sometimes have a harder time seeing the point of. Everyone I know with a really intense Marian devotion is either a straight or bisexual man or a lesbian or bisexual woman.