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Saturday: all the Pios
May. 11th, 2024 11:00 pmI innocently got out of bed in the morning, thinking, okay, let’s get A. through that last slide in her WW2 presentation/assessment/wtf. All I need to do is come up with an answer to the question of how/why Italy entered WW2. I figured it would take me maybe 15 minutes.
Wow, was that wrong.
The short form of how Italy entered WW2 is that they trailed into France after Germany. But why would Italy do that? They were on the opposite side in the previous war.
Well, there was the Pact of Steel, nailing down that they were likely to do something along those lines within three years.
And there was an earlier agreement, cementing their cooperation in supporting Franco, and a bunch of other stuff.
And then there was that Hitler consciously modeled himself on Mussolini.
And then there was that Mussolini had been trying to get Germany to back him in territorial disputes involving France since _before Hitler’s first coup attempt_.
Along the way, I learned that the reparations caused hyperinflation and that caused Hitler thing is completely wrong, because of Dawes plan, and the golden second half of the 1920s. But honestly, that was just a blip compared to the dawning realization that the Four Powers Pact is what undermined the League, and the Four Powers Pact is what enabled appeasement. When you take a good look at it, it really looks like this was all Mussolini’s plan all along.
Really?
Seems a bit sus, but when I was discussing this in fits and starts with R., he said a Thing about Mussolini’s March to Rome and how the Pope went along with it out of fear of the consequences otherwise. And I was like, oh come on, Father Coughlin, Kennedy trying to talk England into the war on the side of the Nazis, and you really believe someone made it to the top of the Catholic Church and they’re _afraid_ of Fascists? Orange guy and the Pope were in basically exactly the same situation. They had nothing to fear from their own mobs.
But then I got to thinking. Well, who was Pope and for how long? Well, it was Pius XI and then in 1939 it was Pius XII. These guys pick their names for a reason, so there’s reason to expect continuity of planning between these two. I honestly legit do not understand how they continue to disclaim any responsibility for the bloodbaths of the middle of the 20th century without people absolutely laughing at them (I mean, not them personally; they’re dead — but the institution they sat at the top of). Next question: wait, have _all_ the Pius’s (all the Pios) been like that?
Oh hell yeah. I spent yesterday reading all their wikipedia entries and spiraling out from there. They were all like that. I hesitate to say that Popes Pius are the worst Popes — there’s some competition — but they’re very reactionary. They’d lost Russia, and then they lost Spain. They fucking lost their shit and caused WW2.
Also! Since I’m probably going to have to abandon my little The South Shot First pop quiz (now that everyone is catching up to Fort Sumter), I think I’m going to go with: what economic conditions led to a dramatic increase in NSDAP held seats in Germany, and thus Hitler? Not _quite_ as catchy as How Did the Civil War Start — could use some work. The answer, of course, is “Deflation and Austerity Programs”. But everyone’s gonna say, “Hyperinflation due to reparations”.
It’ll be fun for about a minute.
At some point, I’ll make it all the way up to the present day, and I’ll be doing a bit on how someone figured out that SCOTUS was susceptible to the kinds of shenanigans they’d been practicing on the College of Cardinals for over a thousand years.
Wow, was that wrong.
The short form of how Italy entered WW2 is that they trailed into France after Germany. But why would Italy do that? They were on the opposite side in the previous war.
Well, there was the Pact of Steel, nailing down that they were likely to do something along those lines within three years.
And there was an earlier agreement, cementing their cooperation in supporting Franco, and a bunch of other stuff.
And then there was that Hitler consciously modeled himself on Mussolini.
And then there was that Mussolini had been trying to get Germany to back him in territorial disputes involving France since _before Hitler’s first coup attempt_.
Along the way, I learned that the reparations caused hyperinflation and that caused Hitler thing is completely wrong, because of Dawes plan, and the golden second half of the 1920s. But honestly, that was just a blip compared to the dawning realization that the Four Powers Pact is what undermined the League, and the Four Powers Pact is what enabled appeasement. When you take a good look at it, it really looks like this was all Mussolini’s plan all along.
Really?
Seems a bit sus, but when I was discussing this in fits and starts with R., he said a Thing about Mussolini’s March to Rome and how the Pope went along with it out of fear of the consequences otherwise. And I was like, oh come on, Father Coughlin, Kennedy trying to talk England into the war on the side of the Nazis, and you really believe someone made it to the top of the Catholic Church and they’re _afraid_ of Fascists? Orange guy and the Pope were in basically exactly the same situation. They had nothing to fear from their own mobs.
But then I got to thinking. Well, who was Pope and for how long? Well, it was Pius XI and then in 1939 it was Pius XII. These guys pick their names for a reason, so there’s reason to expect continuity of planning between these two. I honestly legit do not understand how they continue to disclaim any responsibility for the bloodbaths of the middle of the 20th century without people absolutely laughing at them (I mean, not them personally; they’re dead — but the institution they sat at the top of). Next question: wait, have _all_ the Pius’s (all the Pios) been like that?
Oh hell yeah. I spent yesterday reading all their wikipedia entries and spiraling out from there. They were all like that. I hesitate to say that Popes Pius are the worst Popes — there’s some competition — but they’re very reactionary. They’d lost Russia, and then they lost Spain. They fucking lost their shit and caused WW2.
Also! Since I’m probably going to have to abandon my little The South Shot First pop quiz (now that everyone is catching up to Fort Sumter), I think I’m going to go with: what economic conditions led to a dramatic increase in NSDAP held seats in Germany, and thus Hitler? Not _quite_ as catchy as How Did the Civil War Start — could use some work. The answer, of course, is “Deflation and Austerity Programs”. But everyone’s gonna say, “Hyperinflation due to reparations”.
It’ll be fun for about a minute.
At some point, I’ll make it all the way up to the present day, and I’ll be doing a bit on how someone figured out that SCOTUS was susceptible to the kinds of shenanigans they’d been practicing on the College of Cardinals for over a thousand years.