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Since romanticizing Mafia is kind of a trend lately let me break this down for you. Mafia is not about rough, rich, powerful, hot Italian men. It's about illiterate assholes beating the shit out of people, dissolving 13year olds in acid and killing who dares to stand in their way
I'm Sicilian, Mafia has affected my day to day life since I was born, when I was a kid, during the 90s, state attorneys and head of the police exploded almost weekly if they dared to oppose Mafia around here. The first bomb I remember hearing was from when I was four.
I know, dear international friends, that moral relativity and power can be extremely charming in fiction, I love myself a layered villain, but this is not fiction. This is not about a dark lord on a spaceship, this is about real people that are still dangerous.
I know it might sound exotic and exciting to non-Italians, to hear about hot heated, powerful men willing to do whatever it takes to maintain their power, but this is very, very real for many people, even today.
A friend of my dad almost lost his life and his business cause he refused to pay protection money. My aunt almost got killed cause she lived next door to a state attorney and Mafia used a car bomb to tear down the whole building to kill him.
And I'm one of the lucky ones. I live in a nice neighborhood where they generally don't recruit, and I'm living my adult life in an era in which the Mafia is getting smart, not daring to work in broad daylight as it did once. This doesn't mean it is defeated.
Brave men and women risk their lives every day to eradicate it. My best friend's dad has been under protection for the last 20 years, we've lost count of the number of threats he and his family received, goons were sent to assault his daughter, at one point. She was 14 back then.
I'm all about freedom when it comes to fiction, taste in personal, but also, if your fiction is based on reality, do some research. Consider the actual, IRL implications of what you're romanticizing, and if you still like it it's okay, you do you, but educate yourself first.
Also, if you're willing, consider donating to associations that help people against Mafia. There are plenty of them, and they play a huge role in educating the population so that recruitment becomes harder and harder.
Maybe one day Mafia will truly be something so far and forgotten we can all romanticize without hurting anyone, something that can't truly scare anyone, but until then, be mindful of the very real people that have lost so much to it.
If you're interested, this is my opinion after a month spent interacting with this thread. https://twitter.com/spiegatrix/status/1287653742209388544
