Death makes you trend topic: Silvio Berlusconi is hospitalized at San Raffaele and it emerged that he would be suffering from leukemia. A wonderful news for many who, especially on Twitter, make quick irony when they don’t openly wish a speedy departure of the Knight. But weren’t they all activists fighting for rights, inclusion and a better world?
Stilvio Berlusconi is hospitalized in San Raffaele. On the afternoon of Thursday 6 April it was announced, almost without the customary parole, that he would be ill with leukemia. The whole family gathers around his bedside, while Mediaset chooses the line of circumspection and cautious optimism speaking of “stationary conditions”. On social media, there are jokes, on the fact that the Knight will shut down on Friday and then rise again on Easter Sunday. Certain that the authors of these essential jokes have a glorious future in stand up comedy ahead of them, let’s come to the short circuit that we most want to underline: in a (social) world where “huge battles” are waged every day for rights, inclusion and but ‘ndo go if you don’t do activism, to many it seems perfectly normal, indeed even dutiful and fun, to wish an 87-year-old death with leukemia. Because at the moment this is Silvio Berlusconi: an 87-year-old with leukemia. Give it a laugh.
PLuckily, there are many who condemn such enthusiastic releases regarding the speedy death of the Knight. We don’t write it “fortunately” because we voted for him, we don’t write it because we have any kind of political sympathy for him. We write it because, while it is true that one can joke about everything, the brutality with which Silvio Berlusconi is wished dead is off the charts if we are to use a minimum sense of humanity as a unit of measurement.
To do so, in addition to ordinary users, unsuspected ones also arrive. Like Daniela Collu, author, radio speaker and also TV presenter as well as writer. More than 300,000 followers on Instagram, ours was produced in a tweet with a triumphal and coarse tone that she was forced to delete after a few minutes, given the not exactly “positive” sentiment generated by her words. Words that we reproduce below:
ORIn addition to a rain of criticisms for the tones used which we do not hesitate to define at the very least vulgar, there are also those who have pointed out that Collu has worked for Mediaset for years. “Yes, but Endemol paid me,” she replies. On her publications for Mondadori, however, silence. And then the choice to eliminate the chirping “because you’re boring me”. Not a bad misstep for someone who stood out precisely for the impeccable management of social communication, on the self-branding side. The unfortunate exit is fine, for heaven’s sake, but then it should be accompanied by a line of apologies. She excuses that, for example, all those prominent characters who dare to make a joke about the LGBTQIA + community must necessarily be provided. Michela Giraud knows this well, despite being a comedian by profession, who had to cancel a twitter in which she compared Demi Lovato, who had just rediscovered herself “non-binary”, to the Magician Otelma, then sprinkling her head with ashes.
Anything can be said about an eighty-seven-year-old apparently dying, but woe to touch, even if only to give a caress tinged with irony to those who are dear to those who tweet well. Because it’s not respectful. In a social world where the maximum offense is not putting an asterisk at the end of the words, on the leukemia of Silvio Berlusconi it is instead possible, almost a duty, to shoot zero. Also feeling on the side of reason. Indeed, blocking anyone who dares to point out the unhappiness of what was tweeted. After all, no schwas had been questioned. What’s wrong?