One of the podcast episodes from the BBC History Magazine podcast I am listening to is entitled “Franco’s Spain: paranoia, conspiracy & antisemitism”.
The extent to which Franco went to inspire his generals that communism and Jewry was a threat to Spanish civilization and Catholicism in Spain involved the spinning of lies which have frightening parallels in Ireland today.
The lies, untruths, propaganda being spread by a certain group of far-right agitators and lunatics in Ireland about “foreign nationals” in Ireland are not dissimilar to Franco’s efforts to lead his generals with a subscription to a certain magazine being published in Geneva at the time.
It is truly frightening the extent to which a person, or a group of persons, can lead and influence others with demonstrable untruths.
I read this morning, too, that Leo Varadkar and his partner are going to share less of their public life and retain more privacy as the climate for homophobia has deteriorated.
This is tragic in 2023 in Ireland.