Who responded to criticism with the aphorism “many enemies, much honor”? Yes, him, Benito Mussolini. Who knows if this thought came to Roberto Vannacci… The monitoring carried out by Arcadia, exclusively for Italpress, on the sentiment emerging from social media regarding leaders, records that the general is the politician who saw the most explosion of online hatred against him in July. For the founder of Futuro Nazionale, negative interactions and comments increased by 67% in one month, perhaps also due to videos made with artificial intelligence showing him dressed as a Roman centurion sending political rivals to death.
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THE GENERAL
This performance, which in an increasingly polarized political environment risks being more of a blessing than a curse, has an explanation in the novelty effect, since the phenomenon of the general has re-exploded in the media in recent weeks, but also in the general’s political positioning. Indeed, center-right and right-wing leaders are the preferred targets of social hatred: they occupy four of the top five positions in the ranking that records the increase in web attacks. Behind the general is Giorgia Meloni (+49%), followed by Elly Schlein (+41%), Matteo Salvini (+30%), and Antonio Tajani (+9.9%).
Switching from the increase to the absolute value, the situation does not change much: the premier is the most hated, with the Lega captain second, Giuseppe Conte and Elly Schlein third and fourth, and the general fifth. What makes the difference in this case is the number of interactions, which naturally is higher the more active one is on social media (the Meloni-Vannacci-Salvini trio is in that order on the podium of views). It also matters to have government responsibilities and to lead politically significant forces: this explains why Schlein and Conte are more criticized than the unlikely Nicola Fratoianni and Angelo Bonelli, who tend to fill the web with outlandish posts. Curious is the case of Carlo Calenda, the most polemical and scornful politician in the chamber, who despite being very busy – he was the most prolific on X with 145 posts in a month, over four a day – is only sixth in the list of most criticized leaders. Is it because few pay attention to him or because he often hits the mark? Both are good, more the first than the second.
The Arcadia study also highlights the overall views recorded by the leaders. If these were the parameter of consensus, they would certify the triumph of the center-right and right, since the sum of the results of Conte (35.9 million) and Schlein (28.4) does not reach half of Meloni’s (120.4) and is well below Salvini’s (72.8), with Vannacci third at 48.6. But the question that perhaps should make us reflect most, given that we are heading towards a year of electoral campaign characterized by tension between electorates and parties and attacks on political opponents rather than the search for and consequent proposal of effective government programs, is whether the political positioning of the web user is decisive for their aggressiveness on social media.
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The premise to be made is that the tendency towards affective polarization, which favors faith and therefore the unyielding defense of one’s champions over reflection and thus consideration of the reasons of political rivals, is now high in both camps.
THE RESEARCH
The answer is that, according to a recent study by the University La Sapienza of Rome and the IRCCS Santa Lucia, one of the main Italian neuroscience centers, people active on social media who identify with left-wing parties show on average greater aggressiveness and a higher degree of prejudice towards politicians of the opposing camp. Naturally, this is not an ontological difference but the result of the indoctrination that the reference parties exert on them and the way these parties do politics, criminalizing the opponent and attacking them, even pretextually, at every opportunity.
Who sows the wind, reaps the whirlwind. This was not said by Mussolini but by Hosea in the Bible, warning those who fuel tensions, because they end up suffering the worst consequences. At least that’s what the prophet said.
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