Steve Bannon Says He's 'Fascinated By Mussolini'
Source: Talking Points Memo
By Caitlin MacNeal | March 16, 2018 11:53 am
Former White House aide Steve Bannon, now in Europe touting his populist-nationalist movement, said in an interview published Wednesday that he is fascinated by Italian fascist dictator Benito Mussolini. Bannon made the comment to Nicholas Farrell, who in 2003 authored a biography of the dictator.
You put the juice back in Mussolini, Bannon said, referring to Farrells book. He was clearly loved by women. He was a guys guy. He has all that virility. He also had amazing fashion sense, right, that whole thing with the uniforms. Im fascinated by Mussolini.
Bannon has described himself as an economic nationalist and a fire-breathing populist. During his brief stint at the White House, he pushed for President Donald Trump and cabinet officials to roll back regulations and supported Trumps anti-immigrant rhetoric and policies.
When Farrell asked Bannon whether his ideology is similar to fascism, Bannon replied, This is all theoretical bullshit. I dont know. Populism, fascism who cares?
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Read more: https://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/bannon-fascinated-mussolini
Read Bannon's full interview at the Spectator.
Sneederbunk
(14,291 posts)dameatball
(7,398 posts)Dave Starsky
(5,914 posts)Things did not end well for Il Duce or his family.
Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,035 posts)lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)I'd post a pic, but that would be mean.
Sophia4
(3,515 posts)Dare I ask?
Politicub
(12,165 posts)Bannon is nuts.
Mussolini didn't end well. I wonder if he's as fascinated with that part of the story?
DFW
(54,407 posts)It doesn't mean I will necessarily dedicate my life to trying to emulate him.
lagomorph777
(30,613 posts)Perhaps Bannon would like the same?
DFW
(54,407 posts)Bannon would have been hanging by his toes in Rome a long time ago.
no_hypocrisy
(46,122 posts)The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,735 posts)FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin
(108,035 posts)He was executed by Henry VIII
maxsolomon
(33,345 posts)Henry the 8th executed him because he (Henry) was a dumbass Narcissist, and regretted doing so.
CanonRay
(14,104 posts)murielm99
(30,745 posts)as very inept. Good role model, Steve.
dameatball
(7,398 posts)magicarpet
(14,155 posts)Fuck off Nazi !
Tiggeroshii
(11,088 posts)The Mouth
(3,150 posts)I think he was the only case of a journalist coming to power.
The first few years, 1922-1925, before he became dictator he was highly regarded throughout a lot of the world for stabilizing Italy.
In hindsight we see the road he went down, how he set up a template that others would use. But a lot of that footage that NOW screams 'strutting idiot' appeared to a lot of the world in 1924/25 as 'this guy took a failed state and got it functioning'. yes, there was anti-Semitism, but no more than (ddisgustingly) "normal" for a lot of European states, at first...
Really, Fascism (as opposed to National Socialism) is a rather potent synthesis of state and market. One could say the Chinese actually have a fascist system, as Mussolini defined it (and shouldn't the person who creates and implements something have prime definition): a semi-free market capitalist economy guided by a single party state. In some cases it works, if your goal is a growing economy, military strength and decline in political chaos.
National Socialism, under Hitler initially used the Fascist model to deal with the economic chaos, but always as a tool, rather than an end in itself, for 'racial hygiene'.
No defense of Herr Bannon, but I can see in Mussolini some interesting things to study once you pull him out of the shadow of Hitler. But then I've been trying to write an opera about Stalin, a man I certainly do not admire but find interesting as hell.
GeorgeHayduke
(1,227 posts)and lexocogriphers because I never had time to drill-down much into the meat of history and language. I can tell you which base-pairs caused your cancer, but I'm old and bored with that now.
More books, please.
geretogo
(1,281 posts)muntrv
(14,505 posts)dchill
(38,505 posts)Dave Starsky
(5,914 posts)A lot of people don't know that the Mussolini family were health nuts and were pioneers of using gravity boots to promote spinal realignment.
kwassa
(23,340 posts)tenderfoot
(8,437 posts)eom
paleotn
(17,931 posts)Hanging upside down. Stevie the drunk should take head of it.
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)I well remember the first time I saw it...
paleotn
(17,931 posts)and I won't post it either, but if anyone had it coming it was Il Duce. Stevie should take care in who he admires.
marble falls
(57,106 posts)FakeNoose
(32,645 posts)He just says things to get people going, he probably doesn't even mean half the stuff he says.
He wants people to disagree with him, and then he shows how "smart" he is.
I read Fire and Fury and he's like that all through the book. Looks like he's still doing it in Europe.
Maybe he should just stay over there.
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)He admires snappy dressers?
Steve always had everyone beaten, himself.
Who wouldn't want a red nose of his own?
CTyankee
(63,912 posts)is that blood on his collar?
The Velveteen Ocelot
(115,735 posts)after falling out of a freight car in a drunken stupor.
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)Dave Starsky
(5,914 posts)The first one looks like he was punched in the face, and the second to last looks like his liver is the size of a Christmas turkey and is struggling to escape his body.
Judi Lynn
(160,545 posts)I had never heard that term, and it really stuck in my mind. I have heard that some people do eventually get splotchy red blobs on their faces after a lifetime of slamming them down.
I was puzzled about why one side of his stomach area was swollen and the other wasn't. Glad you mentioned seeing it, too.
greyl
(22,990 posts)Scroll down a bit for original shot:
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/national/king-o-reilly-kicked-curb-trump-couldn-save-article-1.3080506
Dave Starsky
(5,914 posts)They are both from The Onion.
GeorgeHayduke
(1,227 posts)fascinated with Ernesto Guevara de la Cerna (this was in the late 80s). I in no way had any interest in adopting his politics, but the study of such a chatacter was, indeed, fascinating.
errant boy
(69 posts)Turbineguy
(37,343 posts)making the trains run on time is an accomplishment anywhere.
Except perhaps, Switzerland.
Orange Free State
(611 posts)Bannon looks like they scraped him out of the gutter, propped him up and stuck a microphone in his face. Living proof that internalized hatred ages one prematurely.
FreepFryer
(7,077 posts)Mussolini met an ignominious end...
alphafemale
(18,497 posts)Just sayin'
sandensea
(21,639 posts)And just as Benito owed his rise to the rabidly fascist Italian royal family, Cheeto owes his to miscreants like the Mercers.
Abu Pepe
(637 posts)Having one's stomped body hung for public view or Bannon complementing your fashion sense?