Thread by @hradzka

Since I was talking about political extremists earlier, let me note that today, December 26th, is the 122nd birthday of Franco's mad aristocrat Gonzalo de Aguilera

for the love of God, don't celebrate it the way he would

I learned about Gonzalo de Aguilera while reading about the Spanish Civil War and since then I have been fascinated by him and occasionally ranted about the perfection of his lunacy, which is absolute

basically: picture David Niven

now make him a fascist and insane

Righties, you know how Lefties accuse you of believing psychotic things?

LEFTY. "You think the poor are only fit for slaves and shouldn't even have sewers"
RIGHTY. "That is... completely insane and literally no one believes it"
GONZALO DE AGUILERA. "I BELIEVE THAT AND MORE"

At the start of the Spanish Civil War, Gonzalo de Aguilera lined up six farmworkers on his estate and shot them dead

not because they'd done anything

but to set an example for the others

one time Gonzalo de Aguilera's driver accidentally went off the road

de Aguilera shot him dead, yelling, "I KNEW HE WAS A RED THE WHOLE TIME!"

naturally, with these amazing qualifications, there was only one possible position on Franco's staff for Gonzalo de Aguilera

ME, wincing. "Press officer?"
FRANCO, beaming. "PRESS OFFICER!"

Gonzalo de Aguilera was personally charming, had been educated in England, spoke something like five or six languages

and talked cheerfully and at length about the awesomeness of slaughtering reds and the poor in all of them

anyway, today is the birthday of a wild psychotic who believed bootblacks were inherently communists and should all be shot

late in life he murdered both his adult sons after one knelt to help him take off his shoes

coincidence? you be the judge

All I know is: I would never wanna be ruled by this dude, but holy shit would I follow him on Twitter

I mean

for the five seconds until his permaban

History is full of curious creatures like Gonzalo de Aguilera. I'm sorry for the people who had the misfortune to cross his path, but I'm glad I read about him.