There’s been very little coverage of this very unsettling continuation of a shared purpose between Hungary and leading Right wing figures in the U.S., including CPAC. Hungary has been demoted from a democracy and is now to be considered a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy,” which is a scheme conservatives hope to achieve in the U.S.
EuroNews summarized, “Hungary is no longer a fully functioning democracy, members of the European Parliament declared on Thursday in a non-binding but highly symbolic report. Instead, the country should be considered a “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy” in which elections are regularly held but without respecting basic democratic norms.”
This brings us to Elon Musk’s meeting with the President of Hungary Katalin Novák on Monday, after he missed the “Demographic Summit” in Budapest.
“Elon Musk couldn’t come to the Demographic Summit in Budapest. Now we will replace the meeting,” Katalin Novák wrote on her official Facebook page. The biannual Demographic Summit was the previous week, during which “discussions on population decline were taking place.”
That’s DEMOGRAPHIC, not democratic, of course. Demographics “are statistics that describe populations and their characteristics. Demographic analysis is the study of a population-based on factors such as age, race, and sex.” This is made even more clear by the caption on Twitter:
Hungary President Katalin Novák and Elon Musk in Austin, Texas
What’s that about “population collapse”? Yeah. Good question. Let’s start off by saying it aligns with the “great replacement theory” hawked by fired Fox News hysteric and not very subtly white-hooded Tucker Carlson, even though the population is set to triple in Africa. That, apparently, isn’t the right “demographics.”
While racist to its core, it’s obviously not sold that way or it wouldn’t be so successful. They sell it as “pro family” values. And while it’s not actually admitted very often in the media here, I offer to you the take of a paper in Hungary with the note that mentioned here, it will all too often be sold as these conservatives wish it to be sold — i.e., as a “business” meeting about economic ties (my bold):
The President of the Republic, Katalin Novák, discussed the demographic crisis affecting the Western world and possible solutions with the founder and CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk, at the car manufacturer’s recently handed-over headquarters in Austin.
Farkas Vajk, the communication director of the Sándor Palace, told the public media that one of the main goals of the Hungarian president’s visit to the United States is to meet people who are allies of steps aimed at solving population problems. The meeting with Elon Musk, as well as the previously held meeting with the Governor of Texas, Greg Abbott and Greg Gianforte, Governor of the State of Montana, is in line with this, emphasized the communications director.
The official visit of the President of the Republic will end on Tuesday in the capital of the state of Utah, where Novák will also discuss demographic issues with Governor Katalin Spencer Cox.
For good measure, the Hungarian Conservative pointed out, “The social media giant’s owner commented on Tucker Carlon’s interview with PM Viktor Orbán on X (Twitter), praising Hungary for its family protection measures. In response, President Novák invited him to the Budapest Demographic Summit this fall. Jordan Peterson also joined the discussion.”
Jordan Peterson, for those who are blissfully unaware, is probably responsible for a fair amount of young male misogyny. He is currently in the news for boycotting Burger King after it pulled its ads from Rumble after prominent user Russell Brand was accused of rape and YouTube demonitized his content. It’s not even clear that Burger King pulled their ads over Brand, and it’s fair to say Rumble is not a great place to hang out for healthy minds. But when it’s gotten to the point that even Burger King has fled, that is the white flag of surrender to the ever growing pro-rape crowd. Yes, that is the same Russell Brand that Elon Musk “believed” after he was credibly accused of rape.
Elon is only just now disappointed in Brand because Brand put videos on Rumble instead of using Elon’s platform exclusively. One might couch this as a “business” concern if one were more interested in cultivating relationships with such types than this writer.
Maybe you’re wondering, aside from the pro-rape, anti-semitism, anti-LGBTQ bigotry and racism, what kind of legit threat can a little meeting among comrades about breeding pose? The threat is not just the current culture war, but the underlying policies and attack on laws that uphold democracy that the culture wars give cover to. This is how the goal posts are moved in broad daylight.
Family protection. Pro-Family. Parental Choice. Pro-Life. Aka, Anti-others.
These benign phrases represent anti-democratic values couched as happy white blonde families frolicking in the sun. It won’t surprise you that conservative rule in Hungary has not led to well fed and well paid families. That’s one part they always leave off the agenda, although they managed more than the conservatives here as they do offer a tax exemption for women with four or more children.
Politico Pro summed it up in a piece on this summit titled, ” Hungary’s baby-making summit dominated by paranoia, not policy Culture wars and ethnic grievances took the place of a debate on what really moves birth rates.”
What do people really get when sold “ethnic grievances” as a shiny object to watch while the elites steal more power?
In Budapest City Park, people’s concerns were more prosaic, miles away from fears of moral drift and civilizational decline.
Istvan was a tired-looking 45-year-old with two blonde three-year-old boys on tricycles. He’d gone to the family day festival with his wife. Asked how he found raising his kids in Hungary, he said “so-so” and then paused. “It is difficult.”
What would make his life easier? “Better job. More money,” he said with a laugh. “This is the problem in Hungary I think.”
If you are willing to breed for the state four times, you can get a tax exemption. One need only look to rural areas in the U.S. to see the reality of selling poor white people the notion that getting pregnant is serving the nation and God and is what good girls do. What one does after giving birth is often their own problem.
For all of conservative obsession with imagined attacks on masculinity posed by women’s bodily autonomy, they never address the issue that men are way too often taught that it’s their job to provide for their families and then all too often unable to keep decent paying jobs due to a manufacturing shift to cheaper labor in other countries that is supported by the very people selling the lie about ethnic grievances. How’s that for a real kick in the gut.
Anti-unions and anti-labor Elon Musk is reportedly obsessed with breeding children. He often does this using surrogates with various women who meet his criteria for his beliefs about the declining population. His ex-wife says he pushed her to dye her hair blonde.
This meeting comes at the same time as Musk’s Twitter rebrand into Twitter/X was called out for being “the biggest outlet for peddlers of disinformation as the European Union urged Silicon Valley platforms to step up their vigilance to combat Russia’s ‘war of ideas.’”
Twitter/X is basically allowing Russia Today propaganda to flourish as Ukraine tries to fight off expansionist aggressor Russia, in what is widely seen as a fight to protect western democracy.
So we can see where Musk stands on this issue, as we note that while he claims he is a centrist and legacy media pretends to be confused about his politics, he regularly amplifies neo-Nazis on his platform, has reinstated their accounts, and has some kind of bizarre empathy reserved solely for those accused of rape and human trafficking (Andrew Tate and Russell Brand, recently), while he spreads dangerous anti-semitism and a hatred for women’s rights and the LGBTQ community that brings to mind grumpy Fox News watching Archie Bunker on Facebook types, with the stale, unfunny memes to match that only angry control freaks think are edgy. So yes, your basic aging right winger who thinks he’s the hero of the comic but is actually not even the evil doer, but just a follower of the losers before who would rather not have to confront a world where women are free.
Here’s more from Euro News on the degradation of democracy in Hungary, and you can see how it correlates with current conservative attacks here in the U.S., a fact which is not an accident as Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orbán has given basic lectures to CPAC on how to achieve this result:
In their resolution, MEPs point the finger directly at Prime Minister Viktor Orbán, who has been in power since 2010, and condemn his government’s “deliberate and systematic efforts” to undermine the EU’s core values.
Lawmakers raise concerns about a long list of fundamental rights they believe to be under threat, including the electoral system, the independence of judiciary, privacy, freedom of expression, media pluralism, academic freedom, LGBTIQ rights and the protection of minorities and asylum seekers.
Governor Abbott proudly sold his meeting with a leading destroyer of the values of western democracy under the guise of the “economic partnership”:
Governor Greg Abbott today held a meeting with the President of the Republic of Hungary Katalin Novák and other Hungarian leaders to discuss strengthening and expanding the international economic partnership between Texas and Hungary. Held at the Governor’s Mansion in Austin, this was President Novák’s first official visit to Texas and her first meeting with Governor Abbott.
We have been warned about the “hybrid regime of electoral autocracy” that Hungary represents. Certainly, Republicans ongoing defense of Donald Trump’s continuing three-year attack against the most secure election in modern history that he lost by millions of votes is symbolic of the kind of government Republicans seek to establish here: One in which the law only binds those with whom they disagree, and one in which elections are a show guaranteed to keep them in power. Seizing the Supreme Court as they have is but one step in this mission.
It’s not an accident that this kind of mission attracts criminals, accused rapists and human traffickers, while presenting itself as the opposite. It’s all a shiny, white, glossy advertisement for Happy Families that is as genuine as any reasonable person would expect such empty promises to be. It’s not simply that the world they present is so noxious on its homogeneous surface, although it is, but most importantly that it is fundamentally a trap set for the gullible and the desperate.
Elon Musk owns what used to be the global town square, and he has amassed so much power through his contracts with the Defense Department and NASA that he is apparently running a type of “shadow government” here in the U.S. via his private companies. In this sense, his radical beliefs can be seen as presenting a threat to the national security of the United States, something Rachel Maddow has explored, noting: “It is important that this one middle-aged red-pilled right-wing billionaire has taken one of the world’s major social networks and turned it into a fire hose of totally toxic anti-semitic and pro-nazi content.”
Republican Senator and former presidential candidate Mitt Romney has even warned, “A very large portion of my party, really doesn’t believe in the Constitution.” Conservative, old-school Republican and legacy Republican public servant at that, Mitt Romney is hardly a left-wing partisan. Believe him when he warns of creeping authoritarianism.
Republicans and far right pretend centrists running a shadow government meeting with the President of Hungary is yet another red flag. And for anyone who wants to play devil’s advocate man-in-the-middle on this topic (most likely to afflict Elon Musk bootlickers who still believe that being wealthy indicates great knowledge and personal characteristics worthy of respect), it’s way past time to pick a side: Democracy or Autocracy. Those are the choices.
And to those bootlickers, I would suggest finding some self-respect and looking at what you have and who is helping you build a better life for yourself right now rather than salivating after every gold-toileted, branded steak-selling, pro-rape con man that comes your way telling you that your worst instincts should be indulged and nothing is your fault or your responsibility. It’s just really not a good look and it only works for billionaires and cult leaders. But I repeat myself.
Image: From Twitter/X
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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