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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]]." ''}}
'''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 One]], following around the soldiers. And he liked what he saw in the army. He wanted to create a society organized like a military battalion, a rigid conformist society with no dissenters to undermine patriotic values.
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> They invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia) and entered World War 2 on the Nazi side of course, but Mussolini had been variously promoting or downplaying war for at least a decade before that</ref>. Though Mussolini ruled for more than 20 years, several parts of Italy barely noticed any change from the previous fifty.
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]].
Mussolini does not come up in history quite as often as Hitler does, despite [[Follow the Leader|numerous of Hitler's famous actions being imitations of Mussolini's.]]
Basically, he was the [[Simon and Garfunkel|Kamina]] to Hitler's [[Simon and Garfunkel|Simon]].
{{tropelist|Tropes associated with Benito Mussolini include:}}
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* [[Asshole Victim]]: Ended up being shot by partisans in the woods, then his corpse strung up in the city square of Milan to be kicked, spat on, and generally abused for three days. Mussolini was also a ruthless dictator.
* [[Bald of Evil]]
* [[Beam Me Up, Scotty]]: Although he is popularly supposed to have coined the phrase "fascism should more appropriately be termed corporatism, since it is the merger of state and corporate power," this was actually first said by Giovanni Gentile in his ''Doctrine of Fascism'', which Mussolini co-authored.
* [[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.
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* [[Embarrassing Middle Name]]: Andrea?
** It means "manly".<ref>Andrea, like Andrew, comes from [[wikipedia:Andrea|the greek ''aner'', "man"]]</ref>. That means it's actually the female use that's embarassing.
*** 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.]])
* [[Fascist Italy]]: Well, duh.
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** She is far from having something that resembles a position of power. She is marginalized as a fanatic and while she sits in the Italian parliament in the majority coalition she is far from being influential. By the way, she was on a [[Playboy]] cover in the seventies.
* [[Get It Over With]]: When Mussolini was executed by local communist partisans, his [[Famous Last Words/Real Life|last words]] were "Shoot me in the chest!"
** Then they hanged him from his feet instead (and did the same to his girlfriend).
* [[Good Republic, Evil Empire]]: At *least* played with in the Italian invasion of Ethiopia. While [[Historical Hero Upgrade|Hallie Selasse]] and the [[Deadly Decadent Court|Ethopian aristocracy and government]] were not exactly grade-A good guys, they were nowhere close to people like Il Dunce and [[Disproportionate Retribution|Graziani]], but technically it was a war between the Ethopian *[[The Empire|Empire]]*, which was really [[The Kingdom]], and [[The Kingdom]] of Italy, which-considering the fact that it was [[Fascist Italy]]- was [[The Empire]]. Confused yet?
* [[Kneel Before Zod]]: What a lot of his propaganda said. [[Large Ham|OBEY!]]
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* [[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.
* [[Shirtless Scene]]: Believing it was a sign of a strong and virile Roman man, Mussolini was frequently photographed with his shirt off, posing with rifles or diving into the sea.
* [[Shout-Out]]: He was named after Benito Juarez, one of the most revered presidents of Mexico's history (the Italian form of his name would be "Benedetto").
* [[The Social Darwinist]]: The ultimate real-world definition of the trope.
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* [[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.
** The odd thing is that Mussolini had actually been a socialist (albeit a patriotic one) before the war, at a time when "socialist" and "communist" were not so clearly defined and frequently used interchangeably (among Marxists, anyway).
* [[War Is Glorious]]: He loved war (even though he was a reporter, rather than a soldier). In fact, Mussolini modeled fascism after the discipline and unity of the military. He viewed the besieged trenches of World War 1 as a perfect microcosm of his ideal Italy.
** He even said that "War is to a man what maternity is to a woman". Mussolini's utopian society would always be at war.
* [[Ye Goode Olde Days]] : Mussolini wanted to make his regime a grandiose revival of [[The Roman Empire]]. It is hard to tell whether the Romans would have been amused or insulted.
* [[Yes-Man]]: While Mussolini ''initially'' appointed competent and free-thinking individuals to important government positions, he eventually bought into his own hype so much that he would only tolerate the spineless yes-men, and quickly surrounded himself with them. Needless to say, this was to have [[World War Two|disastrous consequences]].
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* Frequently appeared in the wartime comics of [[Carl Giles]]. Giles was saddened to hear of Mussolini's death, as it meant he would no longer be able to mock him, uttering the immortal words: "''I've lost my Musso!''".
* Mussolini makes an appearance in [[Disney]]'s [[World War II]] propaganda short, "[[Der Fuehrer's Face|Der Fuehrers Face]]".
* He is the narrator of a chapter in ''Captain Corelli's Mandolin''. The entire chapter is a furious megalomaniac rant by Mussolini, where he raves about [[The Social Darwinist|the "survival of the fittest"]], praises the discipline and martial virtues of the Roman Empire, and how he wants the Italian people to have "ice in their soul". It ends with Mussolini being disturbed by his cat, and promptly [[Kick the Dog|kicking the cat to death.]]
* Mussolini plays an important part in [[Larry Niven]] and Jerry Pournelle's [[The Divine Comedy|Dante]]-based [[Science Fiction]] novel, ''[[Inferno]]'', where he {{spoiler|guides the novel's protagonist [[To Hell and Back|Through Hell And (Not-Quite) Back]]}}.
* In ''[[The Pride of Life]]'', Othello's superbeasts are named for European dictators, including "Mussol" for Mussolini.
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* ''Tea With Mussolini'', obviously.
* In ''[[The Office]]'' Dwight reads a speech by Benito Mussolini apparently trying to say that paper salesmen are a [[Proud Warrior Race]].
** [[Punctuated!
* Mussolini was brought to the present in a time machine to fight against Roberto Benigni in an episode of ''[[Celebrity Deathmatch]]''.
* While Moe is doing his best Hitler impersonation in ''[[The Three Stooges]]'' short "You Nazty Spy", Curly does a spot-on impersonation of Mussolini.
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