Colonialism aside (can’t believe I’m saying this), the fascists in Italy did none of these things. They were shit at governing and running the country. The only people who benefited were the large industrialists, large land holders, northern Italian petit bourgeois and to some extent urban, industrial worker men. Not even the trains worked properly.

Everyone else was being asked to throw themselves into the meat grinder of production for some vague future glory of the nation, and no one had a clear idea how they would get there. Women were given awards for having over 5 children (most times without money, and when it did have a cash payment it was a paltry sum), agricultural workers from the south lived in near-chattel slavery, and any attempt at asking for anything was quickly met with violence.

Mussolini rose to power by leveraging the collective trauma of tens of thousands of men who fought in ww1, turning their violent minds into instruments of control. It was government by brute force, no more, no less.

Oh mama mia I don’t-a want-a

Yes sir, can you now face the building please bang bang bang