Chapter 98: Scientism

369     suspects . . . at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier Amy King, “Contested Memory in Giorgia Meloni’s Italy: How Her Far-Right Party Is Waging a Subtle Campaign to Commemorate Fascist Figures,” The Conversation, August 14, 2023, theconversation.com/contested-memory-in-giorgia-melonis-italy-how-her-far-right-party-is-waging-a-subtle-campaign-to-commemorate-fascist-figures-211465.

369     “the objective of those who, in preparation . . .” “President Meloni’s Letter to the Corriere della Sera Newspaper on Liberation Day,” Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Italian Government, April 25, 2023,” www.governo.it/it/node/22468.

369     “using the category of fascism . . .” “President Meloni’s letter to the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Liberation Day,” Presidency of the Council of Ministers, Italian Government, www.governo.it/it/node/22468.

369     “a kind of weapon of mass exclusion . . .” “President Meloni’s letter to the Corriere della Sera newspaper on Liberation Day,” www.governo.it/it/node/22468.

369      “surrender of religion to science” . . . “the ‘totalitarian’ conception of science . . .”  Augusto Del Noce, “Toward a New Totalitarianism,” 1970, in Augusto Del Noce, The Crisis of Modernity, ed. and trans. Carlo Lancellotti (Montreal, Canada: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2014), 89. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/879528729.

370     “This could be how the ‘sunset of the West’ . . .” Augusto Del Noce, “The Shadow of Tomorrow,” 1970, in Del Noce, The Crisis of Modernity, 95. Find the library book at search.worldcat.org/title/879528729.

370     Meloni co-authored  Zach Campbell and Lorenzo D’Agostino, “This Supposed Mafia Manifesto Doesn’t Stand Up to a Google Search, Bloomberg, July 20, 2023, www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2023-07-20/the-mafia-manifesto-used-in-italy-s-war-on-nigerian-gangs-is-suspect.

370     “attacked by the young Nigerians . . .”  Alessandro Meluzzi, Giorgia Meloni, and Valentina Mercurio (hereafter “Meloni et al.”), Nigerian Mafia, 2019, excerpt in “Eurafrica Seen Through a Smartphone: Immigration According to Giorgia Meloni’s ‘Nigerian Mafia,’” El Grand Continent, May 25, 2024, legrandcontinent.eu/es/2024/05/25/eurafrica-vista-desde-el-smartphone-la-inmigracion-segun-la-mafia-nigeriana-de-giorgia-meloni/, via Google Translate.

370     “Nigerian asylum seekers” . . . released Meloni et al., Nigerian Mafia, excerpt in “Eurafrica Seen Through a Smartphone: Immigration According to Giorgia Meloni’s ‘Nigerian Mafia,’” legrandcontinent.eu/es/2024/05/25/eurafrica-vista-desde-el-smartphone-la-inmigracion-segun-la-mafia-nigeriana-de-giorgia-meloni/.

370     “privileges” . . . “a nobility above the law . . . ”  Meloni et al., Nigerian Mafia, excerpt in “Eurafrica Seen Through a Smartphone: Immigration According to Giorgia Meloni’s ‘Nigerian Mafia,’” legrandcontinent.eu/es/2024/05/25/eurafrica-vista-desde-el-smartphone-la-inmigracion-segun-la-mafia-nigeriana-de-giorgia-meloni/.

370     convicted of murdering, raping, and dismembering . . . in Macerata, Italy  “Italian Man Who Shot Migrants Given 12-Year Prison Term,” Reuters, October 3, 2018, www.reuters.com/article/us-italy-shooting-macerata/italian-man-who-shot-migrants-given-12-year-prison-term-idUSKCN1MD2IY/; and Enrico Mingori, “Death of Pamela Mastropietro: Oseghale Sentenced to Life Imprisonment,” The Post Internazionale (TPI), May 29, 2019, www.tpi.it/cronaca/pamela-mastropietro-sentenza-osenghale-20190529329723/, via Google Translate.

370     denied raping and killing  Mingori, “Death of Pamela Mastropietro,” www.tpi.it/cronaca/pamela-mastropietro-sentenza-osenghale-20190529329723/.

370     died of an overdose Mingori, “Death of Pamela Mastropietro,” www.tpi.it/cronaca/pamela-mastropietro-sentenza-osenghale-20190529329723/.

370     Two other Nigerian men . . . charges were dropped  Enrico Mingori, “Pamela Mastropietro Story: The Death of the 18 Year Old Roman: Reconstruction,” TPI, May 29, 2019, www.tpi.it/cronaca/pamela-mastropietro-storia-20190529329509/; and “Pair’s Pamela-Murder Detention Revoked (2),” ANSA English, June 7, 2018, accessed via Wayback Machine, December 31, 2025 capture, web.archive.org/web/20251231121052/https://www.ansa.it/english/news/general_news/2018/06/07/pairs-pamela-murder-detention-revoked-2_7082582e-9158-45b3-9741-a4909ca7903c.html/.

370     “Shoot the beasts on sight”  Quoted in Frederika Randall, “‘Shoot the Beasts on Sight’: The Far Right and Italy’s Elections,” The Nation, February 21, 2018, www.thenation.com/article/archive/shoot-the-beasts-on-sight-the-far-right-and-italys-elections/.

370     most popular great replacement party  Giorgia Meloni’s Brothers of Italy only surpassed Matteo Salvini’s League as the country’s leading great replacement party in the 2022 election. See Daniele Albertazzi and Mattia Zulianello, “Italy’s Election Is a Case Study in a New Phase for the Radical Right,” The Conversation, October 13, 2022, theconversation.com/italys-election-is-a-case-study-in-a-new-phase-for-the-radical-right-92198. 

370     “What was this worm still doing in Italy?”  Matteo Salvini, Facebook, February 1, 2018, quoted in Jason Horowitz, “This Italian Town Once Welcomed Migrants: Now, It’s a Symbol for Right-Wing Politics,” New York Times, July 7, 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/07/07/world/europe/italy-macerata-migrants.html. For Salvini’s Facebook post, which appears to have been edited from the original quoted in the media, see Matteo Salvini, “Nigerian immigrant, expired residence permit, drug dealer . . .” Facebook, February 1, 2018, www.facebook.com/salviniofficial/photos/a.10151670912208155/10155504139498155, via Google Translate.

370     “He wasn’t fleeing a war . . . ”  Salvini, Facebook, February 1, 2018, quoted in Jason Horowitz, “This Italian Town Once Welcomed Migrants: Now, It’s a Symbol for Right-Wing Politics,” New York Times, July 7, 2018, www.nytimes.com/2018/07/07/world/europe/italy-macerata-migrants.html; and Salvini, “Nigerian immigrant, expired residence permit, drug dealer . . .” www.facebook.com/salviniofficial/photos/a.10151670912208155/10155504139498155.

371     Originally . . . founded . . . leading northern Italy to secede . . .“Padania”  “Factsheet: The League (Lega, Lega Nord, the Northern League),” Bridge Initiative, Georgetown University, September 14, 2020, accessed via Wayback Machine, September 28, 2020 capture, web.archive.org/web/20200928122244/bridge.georgetown.edu/research/factsheet-the-league-lega-lega-nord-the-northern-league/.

371     cast Italy’s north . . . shunned those . . . from the south  Benito Giordano, “A Political-Economic Geography of Italian Regionalism: The Northern League (Lega Nord), 1984–96” (Ph.D. diss., University of Durham, 1997), etheses.dur.ac.uk/5082/1/5082_2535.PDF, 166–173; Keith Botsford, “Arrivederci, Thieving Roma: Umberto Bossi Is Loud in the Land, a Disconcerting Voice with Disturbing Echoes, Says Keith Botsford,” The Independent, October 12, 1992, www.independent.co.uk/voices/arrivederci-thieving-roma-umberto-bossi-is-loud-in-the-land-a-disconcerting-voice-with-disturbing-echoes-says-keith-botsford-1556957.html; and David Willey, “The Rise and Fall of Northern League Founder Umberto Bossi,” BBC News, April 14, 2012, www.bbc.com/news/magazine-17703460.

371     the third party . . . in 1994 Benito Giordano, “The Contrasting Geographies of ‘Padania’: The Case of the Lega Nord in Northern Italy,” Area 33, no. 1 (March 2001), www.jstor.org/stable/20004121, 30.

371     transformed . . . by promoting great replacement theory  “Factsheet: The League (Lega, Lega Nord, the Northern League),” web.archive.org/web/20200928122244/bridge.georgetown.edu/research/factsheet-the-league-lega-lega-nord-the-northern-league/; and Albertazzi and Zulianello, “Italy’s Election Is a Case Study in a New Phase for the Radical Right,” theconversation.com/italys-election-is-a-case-study-in-a-new-phase-for-the-radical-right-92198; and Anna Momigliano, “Italy’s Northern League Goes Local to Stay National,” Politico, October 18, 2017, www.politico.eu/article/italys-northern-league-goes-local-to-stay-national/.

371     “There is an ongoing attempt at genocide . . .”  Matteo Salvini quoted in John Drogo, “Matteo Salvini Against the Terrible Kalergi Plan,” Next Quotidiano, August 17, 2015, www.nextquotidiano.it/matteo-salvini-contro-il-terribile-piano-kalergi/, via Google Translate.

371     became the new “south” Alexander Stille, “How Matteo Salvini Pulled Italy to the Far Right,” The Guardian, August 9, 2018, www.theguardian.com/news/2018/aug/09/how-matteo-salvini-pulled-italy-to-the-far-right; and Cecilia Biancalana, “The Spectrum of Italian Populist Parties in the 2024 European Elections: A Shift in the Balance of Power on the Right,” European Center for Populism Studies, October 29, 2024, www.populismstudies.org/the-spectrum-of-italian-populist-parties-in-the-2024-european-elections-a-shift-to-the-right/.

371     the new national party Lega . . . Salvini as premier  “Lega: Here’s the Symbol: Via Nord but with Salvini as Prime Minister,” Rai News, December 21, 2017, www.rainews.it/archivio-rainews/articoli/lega-simbolo-via-nord-Salvini-premier-a6ca9637-6154-45e2-a98c-f91fda0893ea.html, via Google Translate; and Biancalana, “The Spectrum of Italian Populist Parties in the 2024 European Elections,” www.populismstudies.org/the-spectrum-of-italian-populist-parties-in-the-2024-european-elections-a-shift-to-the-right/.

371     lost a race for town council . . . in 2017  Colleen Barry, “Police: Extreme-Right Gunman Shoots 6 Africans in Italy,” Associated Press (AP) News, February 3, 2018, apnews.com/article/b643ccb5726b481ca2c86072d20ef9a8.

371     a Nazi tattoo on his forehead Pietro Castelli Gattinara and Francis O’Connor, “An Italian Neo-Fascist Shot 6 Immigrants: So Why Won’t Italy’s Political Parties Condemn Xenophobia?” Washington Post, February 9, 2018, www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2018/02/09/an-italian-neo-fascist-shot-6-migrants-how-does-this-play-into-the-upcoming-elections/.

371      reading Hitler’s Mein Kampf  “Nazi Literature Found in Italy Shooting Suspect’s Home,” CBS News, February 5, 2018, www.cbsnews.com/news/italy-macerata-attack-luca-traini-hitler-nazi-literature-shooting-africans./.

371     his “captain” Luca Traini quoted in Horowitz, “This Italian Town Once Welcomed Migrants: Now, It’s a Symbol for Right-Wing Politics,” www.nytimes.com/2018/07/07/world/europe/italy-macerata-migrants.html.