Quote Originally Posted by thir View Post
Another thing is the close relationship between the Franco regime and the Catholic church. It wasn't just doctors -whose word were apparently law - but very much nuns as well as priests engaging it these cruelties. Why?
When I was at school we had a couple of teachers who were refugees from Franco, so we got to hear a lot about it. The Church was always in bed with the Facisti (the term is overused these days, but these were the people who actually called themselves that) because the Fascists sold themselves as conservatives who would restore proper respect for authority (including, of course, priests' authority) and moral values. You know, the old fashioned values like keeping women in the kitchen and beating stroppy kids into line, and banning dangerous books and political troublemakers, and stamping out gays and adulterers and suchlike. No wonder many people are nostalgic for it; if you're a conservative middle-class straight male, it must sound like a golden age.

If you want to know why the politically savvy are so scared of the alliance between religious fundamentalists and political conservatives, you don't have go as far afield as the Middle East: just look at the old Fascist states in Europe.