‘In a real sense, US democracy has died’: how Trump is emulating Hungary’s Orbán

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Oh it's gone now. Republicans never really liked democracy in the first place, and Epstein's bestie clearly stated that will never leave power. USA chose an authoritarian regime, they got it and you have to be pretty stupid to believe there will be another free election in the US before decades. The question now is, will there soon be a third world war with the US plays the role of fascist Germany, or will they have to struggle with a civil war before they can achieve their colonial ambitions. One way or another, millions will die in the coming years.

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So there's this funny thing about colour. I'm not talking about race here. Actual colours. Wherein certain languages always seem to have the same colours when they only have a certain number of base words for colours. When the language has words for only two colours, these usually correspond to light and dark. Black and white.

I'm still not talking about race.

And when there's three, the third is always red.

Then if there's another it's yellow or green.

Then if there's five, they're generally the other one from above and then blue.

Then you get an old and heavily moulded language like English with hundreds of colour names.

But there are languages which only discern only two colours.

Has the penny dropped yet?

Decrying gender ideology is like saying that there's only light and dark. "What's all this 'red' business? And don't get me started on green."

Now I'm certainly not going to tell people whose languages lack words for primary colours that they're backward, because they have other ways of describing those things, or can learn names from other languages.

But if someone from one of those cultures was to insist that there's only two and can't accept that other languages break things up into separate categories, that's denying a fact, and that's a problem.

And if they get violent and start painting things black and white because "that's all there is", that's an even bigger problem.

Do you understand yet?

"But black can't change to white and white can't change to black!!1!"

Not all things are the same colour all the way through. What's on the outside is not necessarily representative of what's going on on the inside. This here red apple, sorry, dark apple, is light on the inside.

And now it's illegal to peel an apple.

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I'm sorry, but I chafe at the notion that America was a democracy within the recent past and has ceased to be particularly in the last month.

America was a weak democracy throughout its entire history; it has become weaker in the last generation, but still remains more democratic even under a fascist leader in the process of attempting to further dismantle it.

We should absolutely be disturbed and angry about the loss of civic power. We should also avoid defeatism or doomerism, as there is still a lot of room for this to get better or worse depending on what each of us do. And, we should absolutely reject any framing that suggests that the oligarchy we had last year and every year of our lifetimes before that was some sacred ideal.

America neither was a true democracy previously, nor has it ceased to be one at all. Ergo: democracy has not died.

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I feel like that term is ambiguous.

Are you saying that gender ideology is crazy as in 'It's crazy that all these gender abolitionists are trying to force a complex ideology of new gender norms' or that it's crazy as in 'it's nuts that all these people think that any change in gender norms is part of a New World Order conspiracy to indoctrinate their kids into believing that everyone should have the right to do whatever they want with their bodies without approval from a patriarchal leader' ?

It's not clear where in that fog you're pointing.

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Fair points.

But I still believe there was a tiny bit of democracy left, up to the last election, otherwise democrats would not have accepted a peaceful transition. As a Canadian, it make no doubts in my mind that US will try to annex us in the coming months or years. I will be fighting against it and I hope we can build a resistance we some of the US citizens.

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The land of the free is fast becoming a human rights wasteland. I'm still reeling from the sheer number of people who seemingly had no idea it was going to be exactly like this.

I'm really hoping this will be the wake up call America needed to get its shit together, because if they don't, the oligarchs aren't going to stop there. They're coming for everything eventually.

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A 1940s US sabotage manual goes viral

Simple Sabotage Field Manual
https://www.gutenberg.org/cache/epub/26184/pg26184-images.html

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how it got to be (over the course of the last 50 years):

Jesus and John Wayne
https://www.agathonlibrary.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/04/DuMez-Kristin-Kobes-Jesus_and_John_Wayne-oceanofpdf.pdf

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The last line of the US national anthem has become the biggest joke now.

The land of the free and the home of the brave.

Neither of which America is at the moment.

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I thought January 6th could be a come to Jesus moment for us, but seeing how quickly people absolved Trump and the rest of the Republican enablers has made it clear we’re fucked, in my opinion. Shit, he pardoned people that assaulted cops. The law only applies for some. Fucking depressing.

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I don't mean to come at you in particular, but when I hear a phrase like "a tine bit of democracy left", I can't help but think about the fact that there is so much democratic power available to citizens in the US, and the primary tool for disenfranchisement is just demoralizing and inactivating people.

Let's just set aside all the people who just do not pay attention to politics and focus on folks in this thread. Within a thread of people who follow and react to international news, how many know who their county representative is? How many people vote in the primaries that determine who gets to run for their city council?

I'm not blaming anyone. It's a ton of work. Until recently I didn't know these things. But if we're looking for a revival of democracy, we should all be working together to solidify power among the people who control our local cops and school boards. This is really a key point at which we can either push fascism back to the fringes or let it actually end democracy.

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Cool, I've always wanted the US to be just like fucking Hungary

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Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but no fucking way it's a wakeup call: the majority of Americans have no idea of the nauseating stuff that makes you feel like you're having a stroke in the middle of the twilight zone. The level of curated 100% individualized echo chambers everyone around you is exposed to is massively underestimated. Everyone is in an algorithmiclly designed, perpetually-improving news and info echosystem basically designed to keep them engaged and hooked... They DONT SEE WHAT YOU SEE... How do you wake them up if you don't share the same reality?

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Is Orban not, in turn, emulating putin? It's dictators all the way down

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Fascism goes all the way back down to Roman times. That's where the word originates anyhow. " Modern" Fascism has a different outward symbolism, fashion style if you will, but the end game is always the same. Bad for normal people, good for elitist. And propaganda is always involved.

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Only in a real democracy could an idiot like trump become president the first time round. Even the russians were surprised, they never expected Hillary to lose.

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This example is great, because it shows where there is sanity, and order.

Gender identity is none of that. Every person with their own gender identity has their own special rules for their version of the subject.

If gender identity followed a set of rules (it doesn't) then it would be much easier to grasp and understand for the world. But it's not - it's a mental illness. Or...maybe it looks like a mental illness because we don't have the words to describe what people are trying to convey, but it has no similarities at all to the thing you describe.

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Democracy flatlined—time of death: circa 1980. Trump’s Orbán fanfic is bootleg authoritarianism, but both parties built the coffin. “Freedom” is just the brand name for auctioned infrastructure. Christian nationalism? A faith-based grift to sanctify oligarchic looting. Courts, media, schools—compliant subsidiaries, not casualties.

The rot isn’t new—it’s generational decay dressed as crisis. “Erosion” absolves the architects; we’ve been drowning in neoliberal rot since they sold labor to Wall Street. MAGA’s the stench, not the wound. Voting? A ritual to pacify the herd. The machine runs on apathy and cheap outrage. Wake up—you’re the product.

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Every American who wasn't armed should have taken a clue on 01/06, or taken a class on WWII history.

Sick to fucking death of liberal pansies, "Guns bad!" Meanwhile, blacks, women and LGBT were, and still are, the leading gun purchasers. Suburban white boys: "But guns aren't a solution! BAD!"

Well, it's far too late for that rhetoric, we should have that convo in the 90s, too late kids. Get strapped or get on a fucking train.

"BUH BUH BUH they might shoot back and kill me!"

That was already in the cards you fucking pussies. I'll choose to die with my boots on.

And we wonder why our Democratic politicians are milquetoast. Because Democrats voted for milquetoast and that's what we got. Cowards. Suprised_pikachu.jpeg.

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and they expect everyone around them to know those rules that are internal to them

Yep. Fuck your pronouns. I'll make a logical assumption, correct myself if asked to. Not going to fucking seek your preference. Fuck they.

huge echo-chambers which refuse to interact with anyone who doesn't 200% agree with them

I'm ALREADY on your side! FFS give it a fucking rest already. There are plenty of others hurting without the constant wailing, "What about ME!"

the person on the other side of the conversation gets IRRATIONALLY angry at you

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I'm so done. These motherfuckers, arguing about bullshit when their very lives are on the line. STFU already. Been blocking all the non-stop trans posts and comms. It's overwhelming.

tl;dr: I'm with you, but you aren't with me. Fight among yourselves. I'll help if I can.

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‘In a real sense, US democracy has died’: how Trump is emulating Hungary’s Orbán