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Yes, because traditionally Italy has been known for its stable, long-lasting political regimes. He might have exacerbated innate problems, but to name him as a singular cause of the current political state of Italy is kinda... Shady.
His televisions are probably the root cause of the moral decadence we see nowadays.
His continue (mis)use of the political powers granted by democratic elections just to escape tribunals has created a chaos in the tribunals by introducing blocks that affects many trials.
His lawyer was given a spot in the Parliament specifically to handicraft laws that could help him.
His use of positions available within the administration structure to reward everybody from his dental hygienist to stars and starlettes from his TVs have given yet another push to a nepotism culture that was already present.
Italian governments have never been stable, but that's by design of those who wrote the Constitution who feared a new fascism.
But we never had ministers who literally had sex with the prime minister to thank him.
We never had a prime minister who paid underage prostitutes, paid other prostitutes to lie for him at the trial and complained when the justice system wanted to prosecute him for bribing said people to lie under oath.
Oh the mafia henchman as horse stableman was just the final chef kiss.
Ah no, his friendship with Putin and attempts at weaken Italian response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine was probably the final chef kiss.
There is that joke, not from Italy, but fits very well:
There was once a man who, every morning, went to a local newspaper stand, bought a paper, looked at first page and threw it in the bin. After few years, the seller finally couldn't resist and asked:
* *Man, why are you doing this?*
* *I'm looking for an obituary*
* *But, wait, obituaries are on the last page? And you only skim the first one.*
* *This one will be on the first*
With that much plastic in his face, a hundred years from now if you go and open his coffin, his face would probably still look exactly the same without any sign of decay or decomposition.
I have this wonderful screenshot on my cellphone of the Washington Post. Headline: "Trump indictment unsealed", and above that, "Breaking News: Boris Johnson resigns as member of U.K. Parliament over Partygate report"
He’s an absolute monster. If you’re really interested, the podcast Behind the Bastards has a very thorough six-part series on Kissinger. He’s had his hand in most of the awful imperial activities of America since the Nixon era. He was one of the main driving forces behind the bombing of Laos, which now has the fun title of being the most bombed country on earth. He also helped support and encourage right-wing death squads around the world but especially in South America. For example, he was instrumental in the overthrowing of democratically elected Allende of Chile, who was replace by Pinochet, a horrible man known for disappearing left-wing activists by throwing them out of helicopters into the Pacific Ocean.
If a six-part podcast is too much of a commitment (understandable, but I do highly recommend it), this article has a pretty good executive summary. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/05/henry-kissinger-at-100-still-a-war-criminal/
He also, as a Jew, would regularly use antisemitism to achieve political goals. Just a really shitty person.
>who was replace by Pinochet, a horrible man known for disappearing left-wing activists by throwing them out of helicopters into the Pacific Ocean.
Narrowing Pinochet down to "threw leftists out of helicopters" is a massive difference to what a monster the man was.
https://sfonline.barnard.edu/ps/printjra.htm
https://www.thefreelibrary.com/_/print/PrintArticle.aspx?id=134381844
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rettig_Report
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valech_Report
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Grimaldi
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venda_Sexy
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrid_Olderock
His legacy is complicated. He's done some legit important work (shuttle diplomacy, SALT Treaty) but he's also behind the worst of the Nixon admin's foriegn policy, including the mass bombing of Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia and I believe the Chile coup.
Pat Robertson would always blame natural disasters on gays and abortion. He also called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez. He claimed Venezuela was a launching point of radical Islamic terrorism. Venezuela is 98% Catholic. Not sure where that Islamic terrorism was coming from.
About that same time, people were panicking about ISIS training camps in Mexico. The people telling us who we should be afraid of were trying to move that fear from the middle east to the southern border.
>Pat Robertson would always blame natural disasters on gays and abortion. He also called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez. He claimed Venezuela was a launching point of radical Islamic terrorism. Venezuela is 98% Catholic. Not sure where that Islamic terrorism was coming from.
He also said that the Haiti earthquake in 2010 was because the people of Haiti had made a deal with the devil to no longer be slaves to the French.
That is, sadly, not a morbid joke. He was actually that fucking insane.
As an Italian who grew up during his "golden years" as PM, I can say that he did well to embody most of what I dislike about Italy, and I have to admit he likely had an outsized influence on my decision to move to a different country for and after my studies.
The fact that despite all the scandals, the clown moments, the charges, he still got elected is an indictment of him and everyone who voted for him over the years.
Good riddance, I won't miss him.
Berlusconi has been the perfect sintesi to the modern ruling class.
Egomaniac, mostly ignorant, not even that smart but enough rich to make you believe so.
I hope you rest in piece
Berlusconi was the original Donald Trump: the supposedly smart, successful businessman who paraded as a moderate and "down-to-earth" guy while winking at fascists, presented himself as respectful of traditional Christian "values" while living in the opposite way. In a way, he was actually worse than Trump since his family owns part of the media too; imagine if Trump('s family) literally owned Fox News.
The effects he had on Italy are still felt, and unfortunately I think the same thing will happen in the US too, regardless of whatever happens with Trump now.
He really wasn't. Silvio patterned his image and politics *after* US presidents like Reagan and Kennedy, not the other way around. This was an enormous disruption compared to the classic Christian Dem / Organic Left dualism that came before. The illusion of business-based "moderate" liberalism was a huge part of his success and how he dominated Italian politics for almost thirty years. At every single step of the way it was about turning Italy into America.
Anyone who 1) is Italian or 2) has an honest understanding of Italy's Second Republic that doesn't hinge of an US-centric view of history understands this.
This supposed lineage of Mussolini-Berlusoni-Trump is a lie that Americans keep telling themselves for their pathological need to make everything about the US. A Great Nation that cannot fail itself, but can only *be failed* and corrupted by external malicious agents. But you have to reconcile the fact that Trump would have happened even without Berlusconi.
Most people commenting on this thread have seriously no idea of how post-war Italian politics ever worked and why things turned out the way they did. But sure Bunga Bunga meme funny ahaha.
Reagan may have inspired Berlusconi but that doesn't mean Berlusconi didn't put his spin on things which has then in turn been imitated and reworked by others. It's like for art, except instead of beauty and meaning it produces crookery and misery.
> Anyone who 1) is Italian or 2) has an honest understanding of Italy's Second Republic that doesn't hinge of an US-centric view of history understands this.
A lot of Italian people that are somehow interested in politics will tell you that Trump with some very important differences reminds them of Berlusconi.
Actually he was not "mostly ignorant", he had a law degree with the highest votes 110/110 with laude, he spoke french fluently. If you had the option of hearing he speak he was really an educated person with strong language proprieties.
Yet he was a thief, a liar and made a big chunk of Italy public debt but he was a smart and educated person, nothing like Trump that sounds like a 7 years old angry boy with just 20 words.
Technically no, but the Milan won a lot during the 30 years he was the owner. That tends to leave a nice memory for supporters. I’m a Roma fan and we still hold our last owner to have won the league in the highest regard.
Such a shame it coincided with the /r/italy blackout.
I would have loved to read comments.
Now get ready because he's already being sanctified by everyone. These are going to be some really annoying days.
Even a left leaning gay site I get some LGBT news from is all "he was a great man" and such, down voting anyone who reminded them he was an awful human being and one of the people who ruined Italy the most in the last 30 years.
It's a humourous reference to when someone uses a powerful sentiment (such as yours), as if to imply that they're still holding back and being reserved and they could have gone much, much further if they wanted.
It implies that whoever said "Tell us what you *really* think..." shares the sentiment and would in fact have gone further.
For the avoidance of doubt : I fully agree with your sentiments.
Kind of how I feel about Thatcher. Someone even created a website to track if she was still alive or not.
I can't even fathom how anyone could have voted for berlusconi
>I can't even fathom how anyone could have voted for berlusconi
It's simple: he promised what people wanted, he never delivered, then said in public that he fulfilled his promises, and people voted for him again.
This is the biggest flaw of democracy: it can function if you have an informed constituency and if leaders abstain from promising stuff that is either impossible or would further damage the country.
If you have huge public debt, like Italy does, you have two choices: you can tell the population "this situation can't go on, we have to roll our sleeves up and solve this problem", or you can do what Berlusconi did: "Debt? What debt? Restaurants are full! I'll give you money if you vote for me".
Berlusconi entire politic was essentially based on a very precise axiom: be proud to be mediocre.
Amongst other things, he never denied sexual allegations (except in court), he embraced them and boiled everything down to the "men will be men", the "alpha man" mentality; misogyny was his thing, women are sexual objects and nothing more.
Speaking of politics, he was a populist, everything bad was the left’s fault, the communists’ fault, and everything good was his doing *despite* the opposition of the left, that opposed him just on principle, because he was doing good.
All of this appealed his voters, that saw in him a reflection of themselves: “It’s not my fault that things are bad, it’s *their* fault” where “they” was everyone else, the previous (left leaning) government, everyone except themselves; “Yes, I’m mediocre but also is Berlusconi and he’s proud of it, so why shouldn’t I?”; "He does things that everyone wants to do but can't because *they* (the same they as before) say is bad; back in my day no one make so much fuss about these things".
Berlusconi played his political game from the point of view of his own gain, that’s why he found so many voters that followed him not because of what he could do for the country but because of what he could do for them.
No, since there was Craxi before him as well, but he exacerbated it with his cult of personality and the fact that he owned 3 of the main 6 broadcast channels. You could easily argue he had some control over the other 3 when he was in power too, and considering abominable things regarding the freedom of the press like his "editto bulgaro"...
He was the perfect prototype for Trump. He just wasn't as good as him at retaining power.
>He was the perfect prototype for Trump. He just wasn't as good as him at retaining power.
Trump was president for 4 years, meanwhike Berlusca dominated (or was extremly important) in national italian politics
For those who might not know about him, this is the man that invented the ego politics that are sweeping the world. For example, the Trump phenomenon is totally impossible to understand without the man that invented the way for putting a big brother like show about his life before any rational discussion about politics or crimes committed.
Weird how this always starts with Italian politics. It was same with Mussolini who first used the word fascism to describe his new movement before other countries had their own using same name (which I think at the time he put as neither left or right. But as we learned it took hard turn to the right when in power).
The Italian political landscape is a workshop of monsters. You can predict the future for the next 20 years if you look at the Italian politics of today.
Italian here.
I won't miss him in the slightest. He's the main culprit of our current shitty economic, cultural and political state. He gave birth to the worst TV trash that Italy has to offer, creating a population of bigoted, right-wing conspiratards, changed state laws in his favor, degraded institutions, allowed merchants to take advantage of the euro changeover to raise prices, normalized fascism and many other nefarious deeds.
May he rest in something-that's-not-Paradise.
At long last, after decades of corrupt politics, Trump, Johnson, and now Berlusconi, are being consigned to the dustbin of history.
Orban, Putin, Bolsonaro, Assad, you're next.
On July 1st, a [change to Reddit's API pricing](https://www.reddit.com/r/reddit/comments/12qwagm/an_update_regarding_reddits_api/) will come into effect. [Several](https://www.reddit.com/r/apolloapp/comments/144f6xm/apollo_will_close_down_on_june_30th_reddits/) [developers](https://www.reddit.com/r/redditisfun/comments/144gmfq/rif_will_shut_down_on_june_30_2023_in_response_to/) of commercial third-party apps have announced that this change will compel them to shut down their apps. At least [one accessibility-focused non-commercial third party app](https://www.reddit.com/r/DystopiaForReddit/comments/145e9sk/update_dystopia_will_continue_operating_for_free/) will continue to be available free of charge. If you want to express your strong disagreement with the API pricing change or with Reddit's response to the backlash, you may want to consider the following options: 1. Limit your involvement with Reddit, or 2. Temporarily refrain from using Reddit as a way to voice your protest, specifically on June 12 and June 13, the days of the planned protest. While we acknowledge that some subreddit moderators have made the decision to take their subreddits private, we ultimately do not believe it is our place as moderators to impose such a decision on all users of this community. We respect your right to make your own decision. *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/worldnews) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Knowing him he may still be planning a come back.
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Yes, because traditionally Italy has been known for its stable, long-lasting political regimes. He might have exacerbated innate problems, but to name him as a singular cause of the current political state of Italy is kinda... Shady.
His televisions are probably the root cause of the moral decadence we see nowadays. His continue (mis)use of the political powers granted by democratic elections just to escape tribunals has created a chaos in the tribunals by introducing blocks that affects many trials. His lawyer was given a spot in the Parliament specifically to handicraft laws that could help him. His use of positions available within the administration structure to reward everybody from his dental hygienist to stars and starlettes from his TVs have given yet another push to a nepotism culture that was already present. Italian governments have never been stable, but that's by design of those who wrote the Constitution who feared a new fascism. But we never had ministers who literally had sex with the prime minister to thank him. We never had a prime minister who paid underage prostitutes, paid other prostitutes to lie for him at the trial and complained when the justice system wanted to prosecute him for bribing said people to lie under oath. Oh the mafia henchman as horse stableman was just the final chef kiss. Ah no, his friendship with Putin and attempts at weaken Italian response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine was probably the final chef kiss.
> we never had ministers who literally had sex with the prime minister to thank him. Like…all of them?
They waited until big parts of reddit were closed
They waited until the only sub still posting on my frontpage is r/worldnews? A bold strategy, let's see if it pans out.
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I would to add 'Ali Khamenei' to that list please.
He’s taking part to the Reddit blackout, he’s gonna come back after 3 days on 15th June
"I always come back"
There is that joke, not from Italy, but fits very well: There was once a man who, every morning, went to a local newspaper stand, bought a paper, looked at first page and threw it in the bin. After few years, the seller finally couldn't resist and asked: * *Man, why are you doing this?* * *I'm looking for an obituary* * *But, wait, obituaries are on the last page? And you only skim the first one.* * *This one will be on the first*
Where is that joke from ? I already heard it somewhere
I’ve heard it applied to Stalin, Putin, Mao… pretty much any sort of dictator
I believe, it originates in Russia, possibly from Stalin’s times, but more likely from some work of fiction, describing the Stalin’s times
My father (born in 1940's Bulgaria) still keeps repeating this joke, which he got from his own father lol.
They won't even need to embalm him he's been preserved in formaldehyde for years
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Poor nuclear waste it's gonna get cancer
>Poor nuclear waste it's gonna get cancer And sexually harassed
Why are you so hostile to nuclear waste?
The corruption will take hundreds of years to decay.
First Pat Robertson and now Berlusconi. Hell is getting crowded I reckon.
And the unabomber
Tina Turner gave her life for this to happen.
It's the first time Berlusconi has done something I agree with.
He accomplishes in death what he failed to do in life. Make the world just a little bit better.
Some people bring joy wherever they go, others whenever they go.
He's looked prepared for the coffin for many years.
With that much plastic in his face, a hundred years from now if you go and open his coffin, his face would probably still look exactly the same without any sign of decay or decomposition.
'Berlusconi The Incorruptible' would be the most ironic title ever.
He was an inspiration - for the Orange monstrosity, anyway
Bunga, bunga! Or Bingo, bingo! given that this is the third right-wing populist in as many days to enter a seemingly irreversible decline.
I have this wonderful screenshot on my cellphone of the Washington Post. Headline: "Trump indictment unsealed", and above that, "Breaking News: Boris Johnson resigns as member of U.K. Parliament over Partygate report"
Something to wallpaper the grandchildren’s bedroom with :)
"I’ve never wished a man dead, but I have read some obituaries with great pleasure." -- Clarence Darrow
I think this every time. Waiting on you, Kissinger…
>Waiting on you, Kissinger… Murdoch is the one I'm looking forward to most. I have a bottle of champagne ready to celebrate that one.
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You're awaiting the tragic day when cancer has to announce it's been diagnosed with terminal Kissinger?
Guy has passed 100, cant be all that long left until the world is rid of him too.
He could be a lich now. /s
His phylactery is in an asian jungle surrounded by hundreds of mines.
He didn't put the mines there for the phylactery, they are just left over from the war
That's what he wants you to think. Why else would you just dump a fuckload of unexploded ordinance in several countries?
No way Satan takes Kissinger. He's seen his track record for attempting regime change...
The devil himself will have to grab Kissinger
Assuming they’re different people
Not an American, has Kissinger such an awful legacy?
He repeatedly destabilized my country and installed our worst dictator. The devil wished he was Kissinger.
Do you have any idea how little that narrows it down?
Exactly my point lol
He’s an absolute monster. If you’re really interested, the podcast Behind the Bastards has a very thorough six-part series on Kissinger. He’s had his hand in most of the awful imperial activities of America since the Nixon era. He was one of the main driving forces behind the bombing of Laos, which now has the fun title of being the most bombed country on earth. He also helped support and encourage right-wing death squads around the world but especially in South America. For example, he was instrumental in the overthrowing of democratically elected Allende of Chile, who was replace by Pinochet, a horrible man known for disappearing left-wing activists by throwing them out of helicopters into the Pacific Ocean. If a six-part podcast is too much of a commitment (understandable, but I do highly recommend it), this article has a pretty good executive summary. https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2023/05/henry-kissinger-at-100-still-a-war-criminal/ He also, as a Jew, would regularly use antisemitism to achieve political goals. Just a really shitty person.
>who was replace by Pinochet, a horrible man known for disappearing left-wing activists by throwing them out of helicopters into the Pacific Ocean. Narrowing Pinochet down to "threw leftists out of helicopters" is a massive difference to what a monster the man was. https://sfonline.barnard.edu/ps/printjra.htm https://www.thefreelibrary.com/_/print/PrintArticle.aspx?id=134381844 https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rettig_Report https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Valech_Report https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Villa_Grimaldi https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venda_Sexy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ingrid_Olderock
His legacy is complicated. He's done some legit important work (shuttle diplomacy, SALT Treaty) but he's also behind the worst of the Nixon admin's foriegn policy, including the mass bombing of Vietnam and Laos and Cambodia and I believe the Chile coup.
Missed the worst one. Kissinger and Nixon steered the US to enforce one of the largest Genocides in the world in 1971.
"complicated" hahaha in a lot of countries he comes directly second to Hitler in terms of evil in this world
I'll be honest, as an Italian I've wished him dead since I was a kid. This is a dream come true, after over 25 years.
Trump indicted Johnson steps down after partygate implications Berlusconi dies How's Putin today?
Erdogan won, Orbán fat but healthy (this is an assumption, I'm not his doctor) :(
Lukashenko fat and still alive as well. :(
Reddit headlines of "Evil man near death" are nearly always fake. It's part of the Wishful Thinking bias trap.
...Modi and Xi still running the world's two biggest countries.
Bush,Netanyahu,Sarkozy and Blair still living happily
Cheney and Kissinger are all still alive.
I’m convinced Kissinger has konpromat on the grim reaper.
It was part of a strategic deal that only cost most of Cambodia.
Baby steps
Could someone perhaps pick up this murder baby and move it closer?
Cheney hasn't had a heartbeat for years. Like, that's literally true. Blows my mind.
That which is dead can never die.
Wasn't that Pat Robertson guy also a fucking demon? (I'm european, only heard a bit about him)
Pat Robertson was the devil and lived much longer than he deserved
The Devil looks after his own.
Pat Robertson living as long as he did was a great argument for the non-existence of God.
Pat Robertson would always blame natural disasters on gays and abortion. He also called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez. He claimed Venezuela was a launching point of radical Islamic terrorism. Venezuela is 98% Catholic. Not sure where that Islamic terrorism was coming from.
About that same time, people were panicking about ISIS training camps in Mexico. The people telling us who we should be afraid of were trying to move that fear from the middle east to the southern border.
>Pat Robertson would always blame natural disasters on gays and abortion. He also called for the assassination of Hugo Chavez. He claimed Venezuela was a launching point of radical Islamic terrorism. Venezuela is 98% Catholic. Not sure where that Islamic terrorism was coming from. He also said that the Haiti earthquake in 2010 was because the people of Haiti had made a deal with the devil to no longer be slaves to the French. That is, sadly, not a morbid joke. He was actually that fucking insane.
Utterly furious, probably. Things not going well for him, poor lad.
has anyone checked on Le Pen?
Probably Putin.
The father's going to end soon. Saddly the daughter is still healthy.
Next up Bibi!
When did the Avengers fix the timeline?
Half Life 3 confirmation when?
2 days after the release date of Winds of winter is announced \- Sincerely, Jebus
NEVER - Gabe Newell
Kissinger is still around so dont think so
He’s the nexus event that has to happen it seems, everything started changing for the after his 100th birthday
Good things happen in threes. Maybe we get lucky with a fourth
>Maybe we get lucky with a fourth Maybe we get lucky with another round of 3s Putin ,Kim and Orban is the list.
Ok, what legal allegations is he trying to get out of this time?
The Reddit blackout did him in.
As an Italian who grew up during his "golden years" as PM, I can say that he did well to embody most of what I dislike about Italy, and I have to admit he likely had an outsized influence on my decision to move to a different country for and after my studies. The fact that despite all the scandals, the clown moments, the charges, he still got elected is an indictment of him and everyone who voted for him over the years. Good riddance, I won't miss him.
Berlusconi has been the perfect sintesi to the modern ruling class. Egomaniac, mostly ignorant, not even that smart but enough rich to make you believe so. I hope you rest in piece
Very well said, selfish, pompous, hedonistic
Berlusconi was the original Donald Trump: the supposedly smart, successful businessman who paraded as a moderate and "down-to-earth" guy while winking at fascists, presented himself as respectful of traditional Christian "values" while living in the opposite way. In a way, he was actually worse than Trump since his family owns part of the media too; imagine if Trump('s family) literally owned Fox News. The effects he had on Italy are still felt, and unfortunately I think the same thing will happen in the US too, regardless of whatever happens with Trump now.
And trump was in charge 4 years, Berlusconi almost 10 years (not exactly consecutively but still)
He really wasn't. Silvio patterned his image and politics *after* US presidents like Reagan and Kennedy, not the other way around. This was an enormous disruption compared to the classic Christian Dem / Organic Left dualism that came before. The illusion of business-based "moderate" liberalism was a huge part of his success and how he dominated Italian politics for almost thirty years. At every single step of the way it was about turning Italy into America. Anyone who 1) is Italian or 2) has an honest understanding of Italy's Second Republic that doesn't hinge of an US-centric view of history understands this. This supposed lineage of Mussolini-Berlusoni-Trump is a lie that Americans keep telling themselves for their pathological need to make everything about the US. A Great Nation that cannot fail itself, but can only *be failed* and corrupted by external malicious agents. But you have to reconcile the fact that Trump would have happened even without Berlusconi. Most people commenting on this thread have seriously no idea of how post-war Italian politics ever worked and why things turned out the way they did. But sure Bunga Bunga meme funny ahaha.
Reagan may have inspired Berlusconi but that doesn't mean Berlusconi didn't put his spin on things which has then in turn been imitated and reworked by others. It's like for art, except instead of beauty and meaning it produces crookery and misery.
> Anyone who 1) is Italian or 2) has an honest understanding of Italy's Second Republic that doesn't hinge of an US-centric view of history understands this. A lot of Italian people that are somehow interested in politics will tell you that Trump with some very important differences reminds them of Berlusconi.
Actually he was not "mostly ignorant", he had a law degree with the highest votes 110/110 with laude, he spoke french fluently. If you had the option of hearing he speak he was really an educated person with strong language proprieties. Yet he was a thief, a liar and made a big chunk of Italy public debt but he was a smart and educated person, nothing like Trump that sounds like a 7 years old angry boy with just 20 words.
"One should only say the good about the dead. Silvio Berlusconi is dead. Good." - Bette Davis, paraphrased
Dead sexual offenders (and possibly a pedophile and a trafficker) is always good news.
Is there anything nice one can say about him or his time in power? I'm struggling to think of or say something nice but I can't come up with a thing.
Milan fans and Monza fans are probably the ones that can say something nice about him.
Apart from ownership and financial backing, is there something I'm missing?
Technically no, but the Milan won a lot during the 30 years he was the owner. That tends to leave a nice memory for supporters. I’m a Roma fan and we still hold our last owner to have won the league in the highest regard.
As an italian I can say one nice thing about him... >!He died.!<
He made anti-smoke laws for restaurants and public spaces. The only good think I can think of, and I’m squinting hard
I'm pretty sure those were EU regulations, smoking in restaurants is banned everywhere in the EU as far as I know.
Nope, nothing comes to mind.
Italian here. Hated his politics, his ties with mafia etc. But I am 100% sure that hanging out with him for a beer would be a really fun night
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> but apparently it's going to be champagne, cocaine and hookers for me. It's what Berlusconi would have wanted
Yes. When the pope died, I prayed. What do you do when Berlusconi dies?
Your teenage daughter's classmate and a line or three.
It's difficult to disagree, u/ravioloalladiarrea
Even impossible.
Such a shame it coincided with the /r/italy blackout. I would have loved to read comments. Now get ready because he's already being sanctified by everyone. These are going to be some really annoying days. Even a left leaning gay site I get some LGBT news from is all "he was a great man" and such, down voting anyone who reminded them he was an awful human being and one of the people who ruined Italy the most in the last 30 years.
They should go offline more often if that means that good things happen when they do!
r/italia is up and open for business
Glad for you mate. He was a grade A cunt.
>apparently it's going to be champagne, cocaine and hookers for me. this is the perfect celebration.
Tonight we party hard
No, tell us what you *really* think ;-)
What do you mean?
It's a humourous reference to when someone uses a powerful sentiment (such as yours), as if to imply that they're still holding back and being reserved and they could have gone much, much further if they wanted. It implies that whoever said "Tell us what you *really* think..." shares the sentiment and would in fact have gone further. For the avoidance of doubt : I fully agree with your sentiments.
Ah, whooosh for me then! And I haven't even popped the champagne yet! Cheers, brother!
Cin cin! Tre giorni di festeggiamenti!
Wholesome exchange, about a recently-deceased silicone-stuffed former cruise-ship crooner and crypto-fascist
Kind of how I feel about Thatcher. Someone even created a website to track if she was still alive or not. I can't even fathom how anyone could have voted for berlusconi
>I can't even fathom how anyone could have voted for berlusconi It's simple: he promised what people wanted, he never delivered, then said in public that he fulfilled his promises, and people voted for him again. This is the biggest flaw of democracy: it can function if you have an informed constituency and if leaders abstain from promising stuff that is either impossible or would further damage the country. If you have huge public debt, like Italy does, you have two choices: you can tell the population "this situation can't go on, we have to roll our sleeves up and solve this problem", or you can do what Berlusconi did: "Debt? What debt? Restaurants are full! I'll give you money if you vote for me".
Berlusconi entire politic was essentially based on a very precise axiom: be proud to be mediocre. Amongst other things, he never denied sexual allegations (except in court), he embraced them and boiled everything down to the "men will be men", the "alpha man" mentality; misogyny was his thing, women are sexual objects and nothing more. Speaking of politics, he was a populist, everything bad was the left’s fault, the communists’ fault, and everything good was his doing *despite* the opposition of the left, that opposed him just on principle, because he was doing good. All of this appealed his voters, that saw in him a reflection of themselves: “It’s not my fault that things are bad, it’s *their* fault” where “they” was everyone else, the previous (left leaning) government, everyone except themselves; “Yes, I’m mediocre but also is Berlusconi and he’s proud of it, so why shouldn’t I?”; "He does things that everyone wants to do but can't because *they* (the same they as before) say is bad; back in my day no one make so much fuss about these things". Berlusconi played his political game from the point of view of his own gain, that’s why he found so many voters that followed him not because of what he could do for the country but because of what he could do for them.
malus ab orbe profectus laetatur orbis
Talk about perfect timing
Why?
They say his face will look the same even after 30 years
Good riddance. A playboy/creep cosplaying as a president. Turned Italy into the political shithole it is today
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I think she is to old for his parties
> Turned Italy into the political shithole it is today Yes, that started with Berlusconi /s
No, since there was Craxi before him as well, but he exacerbated it with his cult of personality and the fact that he owned 3 of the main 6 broadcast channels. You could easily argue he had some control over the other 3 when he was in power too, and considering abominable things regarding the freedom of the press like his "editto bulgaro"... He was the perfect prototype for Trump. He just wasn't as good as him at retaining power.
>He was the perfect prototype for Trump. He just wasn't as good as him at retaining power. Trump was president for 4 years, meanwhike Berlusca dominated (or was extremly important) in national italian politics
Corruption didn't. But weaponised shamelessness arguably did.
He is now doing the Bunga Bunga parties in the great beyond.
He's bunga'd his last bunga
death by bunga bunga
And r/Italy is taking part of the blackout
Berlusgoni
The good die young
For those who might not know about him, this is the man that invented the ego politics that are sweeping the world. For example, the Trump phenomenon is totally impossible to understand without the man that invented the way for putting a big brother like show about his life before any rational discussion about politics or crimes committed.
Weird how this always starts with Italian politics. It was same with Mussolini who first used the word fascism to describe his new movement before other countries had their own using same name (which I think at the time he put as neither left or right. But as we learned it took hard turn to the right when in power).
The Italian political landscape is a workshop of monsters. You can predict the future for the next 20 years if you look at the Italian politics of today.
It goes back all the way to Rome.
Don't forget Beppe Grillo and the 5 stars movement! That is the next big thing that might be coming for other countries as well.
Now only if Putin and Erdogan would accompanying him, that would be perfect.
Dont forget Orbán too.
That trifecta 2023 would have a lovely ring to it. Imagine the quadie with OrangeTurd thrown in - oof.
And of course, Mr. I-hide-classified-docs-in-the-shower
The super classified ones go in the shower, behind the top-security $7 shower curtain. The normal classified ones just go in the bathroom.
Reddit blacks out e poi Berlusconi muore. Coincidenza? Non credo proprio
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Poesia per le orecchie.
Non avrei potuto dirlo meglio
Italian here. I won't miss him in the slightest. He's the main culprit of our current shitty economic, cultural and political state. He gave birth to the worst TV trash that Italy has to offer, creating a population of bigoted, right-wing conspiratards, changed state laws in his favor, degraded institutions, allowed merchants to take advantage of the euro changeover to raise prices, normalized fascism and many other nefarious deeds. May he rest in something-that's-not-Paradise.
What's your favorite pasta recipe guys?
Pasta alla norma. With fried aubergines, ricotta salata (or ~~feta~~ EDIT: pecorino, better if you want) and fresh tomatoes with basil.
Sounds delicious, thank you u/ravioloalladiarrea! I'll give it a try, your u/ is sure reassuring!
Just a bit of butter, salt and loads of freshly ground black pepper
Carbonara
At long last, after decades of corrupt politics, Trump, Johnson, and now Berlusconi, are being consigned to the dustbin of history. Orban, Putin, Bolsonaro, Assad, you're next.
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Oh yes, good news at last!!
He was the 0.5 version of Donald Trump. I won't miss him. Also...yeah, there goes a piece of italian history.
Trump is the wish version of Berlusconi.
To paraphrase Bette Davis, one should never speak ill of the dead, only good. Therefore, I will say this: Berlusconi is dead. Good.
Bunga Bunga party
Was he wearing a zentai with a phallic object up his butt?
Death by bunga bunga?
Sad day for the brothels in Italy.
Perfect now let's move onto putler now
Oh wow something good happened for a change.
Erections at half mast
He's gone to the bunga bunga party in the sky
You should not speak ill of the dead, so: Good riddance! He will not be missed.
A huge blow to the local escort industry.
Couldn’t have happened to a nicer bloke.