Letters
Letters to the editor •
If you are 18 or a partisan with the X Factor, please write to Il Foglio TV.
Who wrote to the editor, Claudio Cerasa
29 AUG 26
Translated by AI
Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
To the Editor – At this point, the idea of entrusting the leadership of the broad coalition to an algorithm strikes me as the most sensible option. It would have no personal ambitions to protect. It would not have to choose between risking a bloodbath in the primaries or stepping aside. It would not need to mediate between incompatible positions on Ukraine, Europe, taxation, welfare and wages while pretending they are mere details. It could govern without concern for opinion polls, electoral support, parliamentary constraints or policy consistency, without jeopardising its position.
Michele Magno
Together with Il Foglio and our Foglio TV channel, we have launched a casting call to find the leaders of the future, with the help of our friend Valsecchi, who devised the format. If you are 18, or even a partisan, or believe you have the right formula and the right X factor to be a contender, please send your videos to: [email protected].
To the Editor – Thank you for the wonderful ‘Odissea’ initiative. I have one question: where did you obtain those magnificent illustrations?
Luca Marini
The images were generated by Davide Lopopolo, the graphic designer responsible for the layout of our *Odyssey*, using ChatGPT Plus with a specific prompt for each canto and the instruction to illustrate each instalment in a Pre-Raphaelite style. Example: “Create a Pre-Raphaelite-style illustration showing Ulysses and his old dog Argo reuniting after years apart.” The results are impressive.
To the Editor – The death of a four-year-old girl in Palermo, in a case that has brought diphtheria back into the spotlight, should compel us to reflect beyond the issue of criminal liability, which it is up to the judiciary to ascertain. According to the account, the little girl had not been vaccinated because her family believed that a vaccine had caused a relative’s autism. On this point, however, there is no trial to await: vaccines do not cause autism. It is a falsehood disproved by decades of research, which for too long we have treated as a legitimate opinion. One scientist would present data, someone else would recount an anecdote found on the internet, and we called all this a ‘debate’. It was not. There is also political responsibility. In recent years, a section of the political establishment has courted the anti-vaccine movement: sometimes out of conviction, more often out of opportunism. There is no need to openly support a lie. It is enough to say that ‘we must listen to everyone’, to invoke ‘freedom of choice’, to turn mistrust of science into an identity to be championed. And so, bit by bit, a falsehood gains acceptance. But it would be all too easy to stop at blaming the parents. Vaccination against diphtheria is compulsory. So we must ask ourselves how it is possible for a child to reach the age of four, six or eight without being vaccinated and without the state managing to identify them. A requirement that nobody enforces risks becoming little more than a recommendation with the Official Gazette attached. We need paediatricians, efficient vaccination registers, accessible services and a system to track down children who miss their booster jabs. Prevention has one flaw: when it works, it doesn’t make the news. A vaccinated child doesn’t end up on the telly. They go to school, play and grow up. It is this invisibility that has made us forget just how terrible certain diseases used to be. Votes are counted at elections. The consequences of propaganda are sometimes counted in hospitals.
Davide Faraone
Conspiracy theorists are often tempted to escape from reality. When that reality pertains to health, however, conspiracy theorists do not merely offer alternative truths; they disseminate harmful advice masquerading as a remedy. Such claims are best rejected.