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Benito Mussolini: Difference between revisions
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{{quote|''"Fascism is a religion. The twentieth century will be known in history as [[Harsher in Hindsight|the century of Fascism]]." ''}}
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'''Benito Amilcare Andrea Mussolini''' (1883-1945) was an [[Fascist Italy|Italian fascist]] politician who was leader of Italy from 1922, pretty much up to his death. Unlike his German contemporary [[Adolf Hitler]], [[The Man Behind the Man|he was never in official command of his nation]] due to King Victor Emmanuel nominally being Mussolini's boss.
Mussolini first got the idea for fascism when he was a [[Red Shirt Reporter|war reporter]] in the trenches of [[World War
Today, he is most famous for being the [[Older Than They Think|first fascist ruler of any country]], and for his colonial war against Ethiopia in 1935 (called Abyssinia at the time) which proved the ridiculous incompetence of the [[Doomed Moral Victor|League of Nations]]. He was a close ally of [[Adolf Hitler]] and fought on [[Nazi Germany]]'s side during the war, although the Italian Army were [[Stop Helping Me!|more of a hindrance to the Nazis than a help]]. To be fair, when Hitler wanted Italy to enter the war, Mussolini said what amounted to [[Unfinished, Untested, Used Anyway|Can it wait until I've industrialize my country in five years?]] (this may have been a random number chosen to delay Italian entry ''indefinitely''...until Germany [[Curb Stomp Battle|annexed half the continent with ease]], at least).
That all said, there is a real historiographical debate about how much of a Fascist Mussolini really was, as the most notable members of his cabinet consisted of political opportunists rather than die-hard Fascist fanatics, and Mussolini seemed to waver a lot when the question of how far the Fascist revolution was meant to go came up, on at least one occasion saying that Italy was not ready to be Fascist. In other words he believed in Fascism, but was too cynical about Italy and politics in general to believe that a Fascist revolution could take place, and thus was content to run a straight-up dictatorship with Fascist dressing, electing to maintain his position rather than upset the status quo. Thus, [[Fascist Italy]] was not as totalitarian as [[Nazi Germany]] nor Stalinist Russia- it was a one-party state with media controlled and opposition banned and such, but it was still a monarchy, had a shaky, up and down relationship with the Catholic Church, tolerated (if not permitted) a degree of freedom of speech, and had an aggressive foreign policy that was more bark than bite.<ref>
Mussolini was [[You Have Outlived Your Usefulness|deposed]] by the King in July 1943. In September [[Heel Face Turn|the Italians joined the Allies and declared war on Germany]]. The Germans responded by invading Italy and forcing Mussolini, by now wanting to retire, to form a Nazi state called the Italian Social Republic. He was caught and executed by the [[La Résistance|Italian resistance]] in 1945, by first being shot in the gut, and then being [[No Kill Like Overkill|dragged into the nearby city of Milan and hung upside-down while crowds of angry Italians threw things at his body]].
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* [[Butt Monkey]]: Called himself "el duce" and had the initials BM. TWO triple entendres. And he brought "el duce" on himself.
* [[The Casanova]]: Mussolini had for all of his life numerous flirts and lovers. And he was not ashamed to show it, building a womanizer reputation for himself. He believed (perhaps correctly, being in Italy) that his success with women contributes to his perception as a strong leader.
* [[Conservation of Ninjitsu]]: A real life justified example. He regarded Italy's military as a display of his vanity and not a defense of Italy's security. Hence he expanded the mere numbers serving far beyond his capacity to officer them or provide adaquate infrastructure. As a result he got beat up by the British(with a tough, but not cutting edge Imperial army), the Greeks(a local Ruitania), and in the end even the Ethiopians who were far below other beligerents in technology.
* [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]]: Not by him personally but by Otto Skorzeny the German commando(who was a fervant Nazi, but it must be admitted, had a new Crowning Momment of Awesome every time he changed his shirt) who engineered his rescue from prison.
* [[Dead Guy on Display]]: Along with his mistress.
* [[Embarrassing Middle Name]]: Andrea?
** It means "manly".<ref>Andrea, like Andrew, comes from [[wikipedia:Andrea|the greek ''aner'', "man"]]</ref>
*** It's quite a common name for Italian men.
* [[Fascist but Inefficient]]: The [[Trope Namer]]. Ironically, because this is the man who was said to have "made the trains run on time." ([[Reality Is Unrealistic|They actually didn't.]])
**If this troper remembers they [[Fridge Logic|made one train run on time]] in front of camera crews.
* [[Fascist Italy]]: Well, duh.
* [[Generation Xerox]]: Not with Mussolini himself, but it turns out that his granddaughter Alessandra, who's a self-proclaimed fascist (even though she's a member of the [[Irony|"People of Freedom" Party]]), is apparently following in Il Duce's footsteps. Let the fact that there's still a Mussolini around in Italian politics sink in.
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* [[Kneel Before Zod]]: What a lot of his propaganda said. [[Large Ham|OBEY!]]
** It's either that or "SI!" (Yes in Italian)
* [[I Like Swords]]: Unsurprisingly given his absurd [[Testosterone Poisoning]]. Not only did he attend one or two real duels with lethal blades(it is not widely known that dueling still took place that late in history), but he several times took part in one himself.
* [[Large Ham]]
* [[Less Disturbing in Context]]: Zig-zagged. He actually advocated totalitarianism. However he did not mean "I am going to be evil". He meant the state should have complete control of everything. Of course as it is kind of hard to manage that without being evil it is at the same time more disturbing in context. But [[For the Evulz]] was not his campaign platform. And indeed he never actually fulfilled his goal because to do so you of course actually do have to make the trains run on time.
* [[Modern Major-General]]
* [[Nice Hat]]: his fez, that he would wear almost always (including the page picture). Bonus point for the fez being proof he served in World War I as a Bersagliere, Italy's elite infantry.
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* [[Squick]]: Look up how he and [[Dark Mistress|his mistress]] died. Seriously, it's bad.
* [[Take That]]: Mussolini's book, ''The Cardinal's Mistress''<ref>That or ''[[Atlas Shrugged]]''</ref> was the subject of [[Deadpan Snarker|Dorothy Parker's]] famous quip, "This is not a novel to be tossed aside lightly. It should be thrown with great force."
* [[Testosterone Poisoning]]: He would be funny if he [[Dude, Not Funny| didn't cause so much suffering.]]
* [[Unnecessarily Large Interior]]: Mussolini had his visitors cross an excessively large hall to meet him, as a psychological intimidation tactic.
* [[Villain with Good Publicity]]: Many intellectuals, including so-called "progressive" thinkers praised him for his handling of the Great Depression in Italy, and Mussolini himself described corporatism as being similar to the New Deal. That said, these days, "progressives" don't like fascism.
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* Is parodied along with Hitler in ''[[The Great Dictator]]'', in which the two conflict over which country would invade Austria. [[Truth in Television]] at the time, though the two became close allies later.
* In [[Mafalda]], Miguelito's grandfather is an admirer of Mussolini. He even manages to trace the [[Space Race|Moon Landing]] to Mussolini (Mussolini -> Hitler -> Von Braun -> NASA -> Moon Landing).
* This [
* In ''[[H. Beam Piper|Space Viking]]'', historian Otto Harkaman describes a government on one planet as analogous to the "Corporate State, First Century Pre-Atomic on Terra. Benny the Moose."
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