to wonder if other people grew up thinking the mafia aren't real?

[Alameda]

I know they are but deep down I still don't think I completely believe

don't shout at me, am just curious to know if dismissing them as a sort of conspiracy theory was common once upon a time

The mafia is very real and very scarey. I am as certain of this as you can be.

You think the mafia might be a conspiracy theory?

I think they are real.

I also think aliens are real too.

I know what you mean
I went to a country where they drive around in black hummers. I was too scared to even look at them
To me they were the the stuff of bad dreams rather than reality

no, I was told that as I was growing up though - that they didn't really exist, that things were blamed on them that were really the government and that sort of thing

there are quite a few priests who flatly deny the existence of the mafia too

just checking to see if anyone else grew up in an insane family

(was just reading about the naples camorra boss and it reminded me)

Nope, just you.

lots of politicians, priests, police etc are on the mafias pay role.
So a government does something illegal, probably back by the mafia and eo yes it is the mafia.
Jfks presidential campaign was paid for backed by the mafia.
They are very real very scary. Its like saying the ira doesn't exist.

I certainly believed in the Mafia. Still do. Never disbelieved it for a second.

Can't imagine why priests would be telling you that they didn't really exist, how bizarre!

(am not a descendant of Hoover, for avoidance of doubt)

If, by mafia, you mean protection rackets in large cities connected to the murder and maiming of people who do not pay, a level of control/influence among the local police/government etc, then yes, they certainly exist.

My family are from the east end, originally. Take my word for it

Are you talking of "proper" Sicilian Mafia, or the kind of thing described by Psammead above?

My online friend is hiding in China....

no no I mean the Sicilian mafia in the states - the idea that it had a central locus of control rather than just, as in the East End, indigenous gangsters

perhaps it was a reasonably widely held view at one time

maybe I should watch some of the films

The 'mafia' in America are American. I am sorry, I am quite confused.

Do you mean you don't believe in groups of mafia known as a Family, with a figure head?

Go on holiday to Napoli and you'll see. Read any Italian newspaper every now and again. Priests would deny the mafia existed as the Vatican bank was heavily involved with fraud that was alleged to be Mafia connected to the mafiosa and therefore they would be distancing the church from that.

Priests also denied child abuse but we al know that perversion is rife and still being covered up and downplayed by the Church.

My brother thought they were made up for films!

You're not being completely unreasonable. There certainly are people who believe the existence of a Mafia, (Cosa Nostra, or however you want to call it) is a myth, even though organised crime is clearly a reality. The rise of the Mafia in Sicily in the mid nineteenth century was a little like the concept of Al Quaeda in the Middle East in the late twentieth. Cells of terrorists or criminals are operating quite independently but a catchy name appears and suddenly there's a 'movement' they can claim allegiance to, even though they may have no physical connection whatsoever.

The reason a priest might especially deny it existed is that 'Mafia' to many Sicilians and Italian Americans is seen as a racist stereotype rather than something tangible.

but the contested view is/was that organised crime on that sort of level, in the US, was a sicilian import, tightly run by Sicilian immigrants and beyond - and definitely not 'American'

oh I missed lots of posts

I was just planning another trip to Naples actually! Last time I was there it was about minus 12, I don't know what the fuck was wrong with the climate but you can't blame THAT on the mafia

obviously I know there are mafia families, was just wondering if anyone else absorbed a similar message of denial growing up

Given that there's not really any such culture as 'American' and it's more a melting pot of the various imported cultures down the years, I'm sure every ethnic group brought their own kind of criminality to the US with them. Maybe the Sicilians were just more successful?

I don't know, for clarity am offspring of US (not Italian) and dual UK/US parents

if that helps to explain the insanity at all

is ok, am happy to go through this one alone :)

I thought they existed.

Priests in the Catholic church may be nieve, or crooks who told you that.