Italian Politics

[HVC]

Cyclists can and do kill pedestrians. Seriously injure them too. 74 people cyclists die iin Canada per year according to Google.  Tragic but small. Stay on the road.

*edit* and 27% of those don't include vehicles.

[Josquius]

Cyclists can and do kill pedestrians. Seriously injure them too. 74 people cyclists die iin Canada per year according to Google.  Tragic but small. Stay on the road.

*edit* and 27% of those don't include vehicles.

All kinds of freak accidents are possible.
Regardless it's simple physics that being hit by something going at running speed and weighing just 10kg more than a person is infinitely safer than 1500kg going 30mph+
Checking up for the uk i see 400 people killed in collisions with vehicles per year with 2.5 involving a cyclist.

Do what is safest I say. Zero blame for cyclists going on the path along busy fast roads with no pedestrians in sight.

[HVC]

Getting shot is more dangerous than getting stabbed. Doesn't give you the right to throw knives in and around people so you feel safer. Roads are for vehicles. Sidewalks are for pedestrians.

*edit* I can't tell you how many pedestrians are killed or injured by bikes in Canada as it's recorded as in incident and not a collision.  In New York " bicyclists have injured more than 2,250 pedestrians — including at least seven who died" from 2011 to 2018 as a comparison.

[Josquius]

Getting shot is more dangerous than getting stabbed. Doesn't give you the right to throw knives in and around people so you feel safer. Roads are for vehicles. Sidewalks are for pedestrians.

*edit* I can't tell you how many pedestrians are killed or injured by bikes in Canada as it's recorded as in incident and not a collision.  In New York " bicyclists have injured more than 2,250 pedestrians — including at least seven who died" from 2011 to 2018 as a comparison.

That's a terrible analogy. Throwing knives around serves no purpose. Riding a bike does.

It's not just my feelings that it's a grey area. It's in law as well in the UK at least. There are rules against cycling on the pavement and the potential for small fines but also clear guidance alongside this that it isn't meant to bar safe cycling on the pavement when you're afraid of the traffic.

I don't have numbers for it but I'd wager there's a few deaths a year from people on foot colliding with each other. Unexpected shit happens.

The clear solution is proper segregated cycle paths.

[garbon]

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/feb/18/placebo-frontman-brian-molko-charged-with-defaming-italian-prime-minister-giorgia-meloni

Placebo frontman Brian Molko charged with calling Meloni 'fascist' and 'racist'

Placebo frontman Brian Molko is being charged with defamation after appearing to call the Italian prime minister, Giorgia Meloni, a "piece of shit, fascist, racist" in Italian while performing at a festival in Turin in 2023.

In August 2023, Meloni sued Molko over the comments. Prosecutors subsequently opened an investigation into the claims and have charged Molko with "contempt of the institutions".

On Monday, Italy's justice ministry allowed prosecutors in Turin to move forward with the legal proceedings. Defaming the Italian government, parliament, courts or army carries a fine of up to €5,000 (£4,146) and a direct summons to trial. Although public defamation in Italy can carry a prison term of up to three years, a spokesperson for justice minister Carlo Nordio has said Molko is unlikely to receive a custodial sentence.

A spokesperson for the band said there would be no comment.

Meloni leads the nationalist Brothers of Italy party and the hard-right coalition that has led the country since 2022 and pursued hardline policies on immigration, abortion and same-sex parenting. She recently joined far-right figures at the inauguration of Donald Trump.

Her party has recently banned surrogacy, putting those who go abroad to access it on a par with terrorists, paedophiles and war criminals – seemingly as part of the party's homophobic stance – but ignoring the fact that nine out of 10 of the 250 Italian couples who seek surrogacy overseas each year are heterosexual. In September, the granddaughter of Italian wartime dictator Benito Mussolini said she was leaving Brothers of Italy because it was too rightwing.

In May, the philosopher Donatella Di Cesare, who was being sued by Meloni's brother-in-law for comparing one of his speeches to Hitler's Mein Kampf, claimed that her government was strategically using defamation suits to silence public intellectuals. Meloni's first year in office recorded the highest number of lawsuits against public participation, according to the European parliament's civil liberties committee.

Molko formed Placebo in 1994. The British rock band are known for their androgynous appearance and lyrics discussing sexuality, drug use and mental health. Their single Nancy Boy reached UK No 4 in 1997. Their most recent album, Never Let Me Go, was released in 2022.

[celedhring]

See? Vance was right. 

[Maladict]

So they can fine anyone who defames the Italian army and they're still broke?

[Sheilbh]

Erm...


If you don't want to be called a fascist, don't use the symbol of the political party (which she joined the youth wing of at the age of 15) founded by veterans of the Salo Republic. The MSI were post-fascist but explicitly in continuity with the Fascist period. In the early days they rejected members who'd been fascists but didn't go north to join the Salo Republic - it was the party of the dead-end of the dead-enders.

It's like someone complaining that they're called a Communist if they lead a party whose symbol is the hammer and sickle, or called a Christian Democrat when they lead a party with a crusader shield as their symbol.