Wow, I just read an essay that was talking to me more than anything than, well I guess since that Molly Lambert essay that was literally directed at me, or since I discovered Gabriele d'Annunzio. Or Nietzsche in senior seminar, or Rand back in middle school.

Which: hilarious, because it’s basically every internet liberal’s “why Ayn Rand is so popular, terrible” essay, only ten times better and more insightful.

Written by Trotsky, about Nietzsche, in 1900.

Bourgeois society has elaborated certain moral and juridical codes that it is strictly forbidden to transgress. Since it likes to exploit others, the bourgeoisie doesn’t like to be exploited. But the Uebermensch of all kinds grow fat dipping into the bourgeois funds of surplus value, i.e., they live directly at the expense of the bourgeoisie. It goes without saying that they can’t place themselves under the protection of its ethical laws. Consequently, they must create moral principles corresponding to their way of life.

Okay and know what tops it? The last two paragraphs before the conclusion are “Oh, yeah, Gabriele d'Annunzio? Watch out for that guy.” This in 1900, a full two decades before he took Italy into war and then conquered Fiume by himself and basically was so awesome his fanclub became a movement (they called it fascism).