Which side believes more in "fear" politics.

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Last week, Carlson’s Fox News beamed an admiring show from Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, even though there is every indication that Orbán will make it Europe’s first rightwing dictatorship since the fall of Franco’s Spain in 1975. Fox News built its audience and Orbán built his power by creating paranoid fears of an enemy so dangerous, any tactics can be justified to defeat it. Usually, it is the globalised liberal elite that turns against its own people by allowing mass immigration. Orbán has added a fascistic twist to the great replacement conspiracy theory by blaming the Jewish financier George Soros for plotting to flood Christian Hungary with Muslims. If it is not migrants, it is the gay men he implies are paedophiles, and if it is not gay men, it is the European Union. The name of the enemy is incidental. The point about modern far-right politics is that there must always be an enemy.

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The right he represents says it believes in freedom of speech when liberals threaten it. Yet in Hungary, freedom of the press is in its death agonies. Regime supporters control state and most private TV stations and newspapers, while the rest must fear a government-appointed media council that can issue heavy fines for “immoral” reporting. Conservatives who cheer on Orbán are against cancel culture it appears but only when their opponents are doing the cancelling.

The lesson of recent history is that the right can abandon the constitutional order and be rewarded rather than punished
The right says it believes in free societies, yet in Hungary higher education is under state control so “liberals” cannot pollute the minds of the young. It says it is on the side of the people. Yet in Hungary corruption runs from Orbán’s elevation of a childhood friend into a billionaire to the everyday bribes ordinary Hungarians must pay to receive healthcare. Elections are gerrymandered and judges and state bureaucrats are chosen for their loyalty rather than their competence.

The next election in 2022 will be worth watching. If somehow the opposition manage to beat a rigged system, many are asking if Orbán would concede power. Like Putin and other thieves in office, he must fear he will go to prison if he does.

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the willingness not just of Fox News but of a stream of conservative intellectuals and politicians to abase themselves before Orbán, as leftists abase themselves before the Cuban and Venezuelan regimes, raises what he calls the most important question in politics today: will conservatives abandon the principles of constitutional government? Ignatieff is well placed to ask it.

Quote: rxwine

Right of Left? Depends on who you ask.

Duffman says in Coronavirus thread "...What I am getting is an education in how fear will make people do all kinds of things they said they will not do. And how pols use fear to take power. My fear remains not of the virus, but the reaction of people to the virus."

So from this article...

Quote:

Last week, Carlson’s Fox News beamed an admiring show from Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, even though there is every indication that Orbán will make it Europe’s first rightwing dictatorship since the fall of Franco’s Spain in 1975. Fox News built its audience and Orbán built his power by creating paranoid fears of an enemy so dangerous, any tactics can be justified to defeat it. Usually, it is the globalised liberal elite that turns against its own people by allowing mass immigration. Orbán has added a fascistic twist to the great replacement conspiracy theory by blaming the Jewish financier George Soros for plotting to flood Christian Hungary with Muslims. If it is not migrants, it is the gay men he implies are paedophiles, and if it is not gay men, it is the European Union. The name of the enemy is incidental. The point about modern far-right politics is that there must always be an enemy.

Yes fear is always a great motivator. Certainly worked well for the left when they turned Trump into the devil. That is why the UN passed a motion to up the fear factor on the reporting of global warming news.

"but if you make yourselves sheep, the wolves will eat you." Benjamin Franklin

Quote: rxwine

So from this article...

Last week, Carlson’s Fox News beamed an admiring show from Viktor Orbán’s Hungary, even though there is every indication that Orbán will make it Europe’s first rightwing dictatorship since the fall of Franco’s Spain in 1975. Fox News built its audience and Orbán built his power by creating paranoid fears ....

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The point about modern far-right politics is that there must always be an enemy.

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the willingness not just of Fox News but of a stream of conservative intellectuals and politicians to abase themselves before Orbán

Quote: odiousgambit

I'll buy the idea that developments in Hungary are not encouraging, however, it's pretty clear that there's no world movement it is aligning with, so it's hard to get too excited. Probably a bad time to live in Hungary.

Quote: kenarman

Yes fear is always a great motivator. Certainly worked well for the left when they turned Trump into the devil. .

Quote: rxwine

Even forgetting statements about Putin and Kim which would normally be unforgivable from the right. Even forgetting all of his other crazy statements which might have more fantasy than substance, Trump is the all time American GOAT in attacking the American election process without being able to sumstantiate credible evidence even to Republican appointees. Calling the Georgia election personally to ask them to find votes was beyond the pale.

While I don't think he's the GOAT in this other area, (though he may be tied or close to the top) in untoward interfering with the justice department, that is the other unforgiveable sin.

Presidents obviously have some legal and ethical influence in both areas, but Trump was close to Satan's will in both. IMO, this makes him very dangerous, much beyond just complaining about the usual polices I don't like which is just difference of viewpoint.

Justice and elections --2 serious infractions from Trump.

Quote: kenarman

The hate and the 'trumped' up charges started long before the second term elections. It was an organized attack of vilification by the left and the MSM from the day he announced he candidacy, unprecedented in US history.

Quote: kenarman

The hate and the 'trumped' up charges started long before the second term elections. It was an organized attack of vilification by the left and the MSM from the day he announced he candidacy, unprecedented in US history.