Stoney

Biaspoint, thank heaven there’s still a place on the web where you can freely talk about politics and anything else that comes to mind. I wouldn’t take that for granted.

Sure, aside from the (very valid) discussions about how voting is a real joke, the fact remains that in Italy, people don’t mark the party they like; they mark the opposite symbol of the one they can’t stand. Silvio B. doesn’t win because the majority of people find him likable; he wins because the majority of people can’t stand the left. Even on this page, there has been discussion about who is less awful, certainly not about who is the best. The emblem of an entire country. @PIXIES77. But I know that the cleanest has a scabies, I meant to say that the left hasn’t understood that it’s not the candidate who says the most right things or handles issues better who wins, as they struggle to do. They are ridiculous because they work hard to say all the right things, they pay attention to millions of formalities, they speak perfect Italian, then Bossi comes along and shouts a couple of vaffanculi at immigrants and Arabs, and the center-right takes 70%. That’s what I meant.

Dude, I remember an ex from high school who was really into these. I put up with them just to get with her.

Telespalla, aside from the fact that you’re great just for bringing the Simpsons into a discussion like this, hehehe... the discourse of the intellectual goes well beyond that. Unfortunately, here we should be talking about a political class that has dredged up, amplified to the incredible and instilled in every citizen of this damn country that adolescent sense of hatred towards the top student, as I mentioned a few posts above. You know how in school, you target the one who studies and does well in all subjects? Well, as long as it happens among kids at school, it can be somewhat understandable, but when this kind of "bullying" populism becomes institutionalized at a national level, perhaps some problems start to emerge. And if you look closely, you’ll notice that there is no criticism of the left, just to name one, that isn’t based on this; any reasoning, even simple, stupid, a simple "2+2" to demonstrate that the majority is talking nonsense has become an "intellectualism" that’s annoying. In this way (very clever, I must say) the current majority has shielded and will forever shield itself from any type of criticism that comes on a logical level, no matter how elementary it may be, whether it’s "but if we don’t pay taxes, where do we get the money from?" or "if we promote patrols, chaos will ensue." Nowadays, anyone who thinks about the consequences of something is stupid; anyone who reasons is a fool; what matters is only those who say half a slogan and show they’re "doing a lot for the country." This way everyone is happy, especially the Italians who no longer have to strain their synapses when reading the newspaper headlines, because now that the debate between right and left has been reduced to a couple of stadium chants, they finally feel like they understand something about politics.

And let’s not forget that the fantastic thing is that everyone wants a police state with easy batons, but only for those who annoy them: those who have it in for immigrants want batons against immigrants, those who dislike ultras want batons against ultras, those who are against gypsies want them against gypsies, and then there are the Albanians, the Southerners, the Arabs, even university students, intellectuals, politicians, entrepreneurs... A nation of frustrated people oppressed by suffocating 12-hour workdays that now only serve to survive, who come home, turn on the TV, and find programs designed specifically to both anesthetize and stir outrage, a lethal schizophrenic mix. So why be surprised if people say we need "more severe punishments," more kicks to the teeth for those who don't obey; why be surprised if everyone, from the right and the left, is only looking for a guilty party to eliminate; why be surprised if this mentality exists, far worse than the squadrist fascism common to both political sides. The serious thing is that when an entire country resorts to police and laws in a desperate attempt to enforce some common value that must exist but no one knows what it is, it means they have truly hit rock bottom. And then, let’s talk about it, they are all indignant, asking for "more justice" until "justice" turns on them and sticks its nose into their business, for example when the financial police show up to close their shop for evading tens of millions in taxes, or more simply because they find them smoking a joint outside their home. There the state is a "parasite" and "unjust," indeed, "communist" (because it’s communist when the state eats your savings... I suspect that those who say this have no real grasp of the horror that communism has been), and they take it out on the "poor souls who have worked their entire lives." Schizophrenia, pure schizophrenia. In such a climate, it’s evident that political voting reflects this: does the public have any capacity to discern between good and evil, right and wrong, convenient and inconvenient? Absolutely not. And in a climate of total chaos like this, who benefits? The answer is all too obvious.

Good job, Telespallabob. Finally, someone who understands how things really are.

Oh yes, it's a shame that repeating something 10,000 times doesn’t make it true automatically. Everyone knows the troubles of the "Nano," I believe even the stones of Italy are now aware of his controversial legal affairs. To think he wins only because he has the television networks is a bit like thinking that Inter wins because they have favorable referees: it’s half the truth and, moreover, it discourages the desire to train to defeat it (forgive me the comparison, and I hope you don’t spark a football debate, as it’s not really the case). Because a team, as strong as it may be and backed from the outside, can only be beaten on the playing field, if there are no other means to counter it. Unfortunately, the left has been living for 25 years in a perpetual shock of not being able to explain why the electorate rewards a class of politicians so far removed from the categories it is accustomed to: for the left, the issue is born and dies solely from a logical standpoint; it is irrational that people vote for an industrialist who owns the television networks, who is the richest in Italy, who has ongoing trials, etc., period. This is the maximum of political analysis they allow themselves. They say, “But how can this be? We are all nice and clean and speak good Italian, we excel in all subjects, and you vote for this bunch of ruffians who curse and mock public morals?” Well, yes. They stop at the irrationality of an apparently illogical, “stupid” gesture, and they wallow in the suffering typical of the straight-A student who sees the rowdy classmates enjoying a popularity they can only dream of. The most they allow themselves is to search for the motivations of all this in ignorance, in the TV circus phenomena that depict the Italian people as an indistinct mass of sheep, but it is merely a pathetic attempt to save face. This effectively means understanding NOTHING of the social and ideological inclinations of our country; it means appealing to a very basic populism that is far more vulgar than what they criticize in their opponents. The “drift” that causes so much fear, then, is also and above all the fault of a political class incapable of the sensitivity that historically has always belonged to it: the ability to understand the people. Because this is not how politics is done; it is not by searching for pale excuses that one aspires to lead a country. Understanding the inclination of the masses is the first step, no matter how incomprehensible their behavior may seem. To think it’s all the fault of Maria De Filippi and Big Brother is sweeping, and above all, it absolves all responsibility.

The Marco Masini of overseas rock

Good job Bartle, long live the tits

The only way this kind of music survives is by fooling the audience with tits and asses; otherwise, who would ever listen to it? And you, the reviewers, come on, don't pretend you actually care about the music. If it had been crap, it wouldn't even have crossed your mind to listen to it.