Thanks. It's very interesting that Mussolini labelled himself a moral relativist. But I'm not sure he was using the label consistent with how moral philosophers use the label. Consider the inference he draws from the falseness of all ideologies:
the modern relativist infers that (A) everybody has the right to create for himself his own ideology, and (B) to attempt to enforce it with all the energy of which he is capable.
(A) is a straightforward conclusion from anti-realism - although I'm not sure every moral anti-realist endorses it.
(B) comes out of left field - there is no reason to think it follows from the premise that morality is not objective. If morality is not objective, then what justifies imposing the morality one created on others? Superior force predicts who will succeed in imposing their views. But from the outside view, there is no reason to think that actually winning is identical to deserving to win.
Contrast with physical realism, which has an outside view justification for deciding which theory is better: the theory with more accurate predictions should win. To get that kind of certainty in morality, one must adopt some inside view. And justifying which particular inside view to adopt by relying on the view adopted is just circular reasoning.
(B) follows from (A), at least if we take (B) as elliptical for
(B') to attempt to enforce it, if the ideology indicates that this is valuable, with all the energy of which he is capable.
And Mussolini's ideology presumably did indicate that enforcement of Italian values is valuable.
From Being a Realist (even if you believe in God):
My mother, who doesn't call herself a theist (I think she's agnostic), doesn't even accept realism. She doesn't even agree with this:
That's little more than tautologies here. Yet it elicited an impression of being forced to believe. I know because she told me about the totalitarian dangers from such narrow thinking.
I'm happy to have finally found the root cause of our ongoing disagreement, but now, how can I deal with that? It looks pretty hopeless, but just in case, does someone have a suggestion, or should I just leave it at that? (My ego doesn't like it, but giving up is an option.)
Now I'm relieved to know that in near mode, she's a complete realist. This craziness only shows up in far mode.