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

[email protected]

A pitiless crackdown on on illegal immigration. A hardline approach to law and order. A purge of “gender ideology” and “wokeness” from the nation’s schools. Erosions of academic freedom, judicial independence and the free press. An alliance with Christian nationalism. An assault on democratic institutions.

The “electoral autocracy” that is Viktor Orbán’s Hungary has been long revered by Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” (Maga) movement. Now admiration is turning into emulation. In the early weeks of Trump’s second term as US president, analysts say, there are alarming signs that the Orbánisation of America has begun.

[email protected]

Hope world mods let me keep this post.. It is imo worldnews at this point, unfortunately.

[email protected]

I’m the same side of the Atlantic as you. Him doing this in the USA is one thing, it being so accepted is a totally different thing.

[email protected]

it being so accepted is a totally different thing.

Only US citizens should change their President. I hope they succeed to stop his nonsensical violence and or Government.

Personally, I'm sure that I'm as much accepting of his policies as I am of Orban's, i. e. not acceptable.

[email protected]

The Heritage foundation has ties to Orbán.

"[a] formal agreement struck last year [2023] between a think tank funded by Orbán’s Fidesz Party, the Danube Institute, and The Heritage Foundation..."

https://www.politico.com/news/2024/09/01/trump-orban-embrace-00176832

[email protected]

To be fair, "Gender Ideology" is fucking craziness. Additionally, there has been this weird constantly pervasive push to just simply be anti-american, anti-colonial, anti-stability and anti-sanity.

We're a colonial nation, and the constant push to tear that down has worn on for a very long time. I can see how these kinds of people have been created.

[email protected]

Of course they do. Thanks for the info.

[email protected]

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.

[email protected]

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.

[email protected]

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.

[email protected]

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.

[email protected]

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.

[email protected]

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.

[email protected]

A 1940s US sabotage manual goes viral

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

[email protected]

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

[email protected]

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.

[email protected]

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.

[email protected]

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.

[email protected]

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

[email protected]

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?

agnos.is Forums

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