Updates from a Failing Democracy

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Updates from a Failing Democracy

Post Post #0 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:31 am

Post by Korts »

As you may have heard, Hungary is circling the drain as a salvageable democracy. I've certainly been harassing scumchat with hilariously sad news of my country on an increasingly regular basis. This time, I'm giving all of MafiaScum the pleasure, because these are some genuinely great stories.

Spoiler: A Short History of Contemporary Hungarian Democracy and its Governing Party
As you may or may not care to know, Hungarian democracy will be 25 years old this October. I'm not sure what the outside world thinks, but we're pretty sure we single-handedly toppled communism over here - and our current Prime Minister Viktor Orbán is pretty sure he single-handedly orchestrated our single-handedness. Long story short, he was the leading figure of the coalition of illegal opposition parties that negotiated the country's first free elections since the end of World War II, and he's been milking that ever since.

Here's what you need to know up to 2010: Orbán's party, FiDeSZ (the Young Democrats' Alliance, now almost exclusively populated by aging plutocrats) was initially a radical liberal party with a bunch of youthful vim and vigor. They got a decent amount of votes in the first election, but a more conservative party won. Then the second time around the socialists won. This must have felt like a big slap in the face to the guys who were much of the driving force behind the fall of communism in Hungary.

By the time the third elections rolled up, FiDeSZ must have realized that democracy isn't about principles, but about pandering to votes. They definitely noticed a power vacuum in the political right, and they capitalized on it in a big way. They gobbled up a bunch of smaller parties and formed a government with whoever remained in name. And then they began building their base.

Unfortunately, four years later the people changed their minds again. The socialist party came back into power over the next two terms, and it didn't go so well. First, there was a leaked recording of the then Prime Minister being way too honest about politics at a party conference, and there were some sound bites that of course when taken out of context sounded horribly offensive to anyone with the slightest sense of national pride. And then all the cumulative fuck-ups of a budding democracy with no experience in capitalism finally came crashing down as the recession hit just around the end of the second socialist term - so it was pretty inevitable that, without any other alternative, FiDeSZ would be given another shot.

And they won in 2010. Big time. Two thirds of the vote. Which gave them unlimited access to the constitution itself. And it didn't seem like a good idea, no, but it's been way worse and way more absurd than anyone could have predicted.


tl;dr: if you don't want to read the spoilers, the gist is this: our governing party is a bunch of power-crazed megalomaniacs and their crazy and/or greedy friends, who were given an all-access pass to the constitution in 2010 when they received two-thirds of the vote.

Since then, media freedom has been restricted in multiple ways, the economy is crumbling, practically every system of checks and balances has been stripped, and more.

And this thread is for the sad, maddening, hilarious things that our Beloved Leader and his friends' hubris leads them to do.
Last edited by Korts on Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:45 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post Post #1 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:35 am

Post by Untrod Tripod »

hey Korts the NC commune is recruiting
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Post Post #2 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:35 am

Post by Psyche »

This is really cool and really well-written.
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Post Post #3 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:39 am

Post by shaft.ed »

In post 1, Untrod Tripod wrote:hey Korts the NC commune is recruiting
but Boston Commons has Keytar Bear
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Post Post #4 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:44 am

Post by Korts »

Today's story!

Our Prime Minister got VIP tickets to the World Cup Final. He got to sit in front of Angela Merkel and Vladimir Putin, among others. He was also the only person on the VVIP list who decided he was entitled to a plus one.

Image

The young, moustached man in glasses is Gáspár Orbán, the Prime Minister's son and a recently signed football player in the team whose newly built stadium stands literally across the street from the PM's weekend house.

So !!444!!!, one of the few independent news sites that doesn't have to hold back for fear of retaliation, notes this, and they immediately get a letter from Gáspár Orbán asking them not to write about him because he isn't a public figure. And of course they publish this letter.

This was yesterday; all of today's articles on 444 have been exclusively about this since then.
Last edited by Korts on Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:50 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post Post #5 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:46 am

Post by SleepyKrew »

444 sounds cool.
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Post Post #6 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:49 am

Post by Korts »

Their name in English, by the way, would be !!111!!!
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Post Post #7 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:50 am

Post by SleepyKrew »

Hungarian is weird.
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Post Post #8 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:52 am

Post by Korts »

Tomorrow I'm going to tell you about the government's own magazine. That was a particularly funny one!
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Post Post #9 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 10:55 am

Post by Korts »

In post 1, Untrod Tripod wrote:hey Korts the NC commune is recruiting


I have some unfinished business over here, but if the offer still stands in a year or two, I may just take you up on it.
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Post Post #10 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:08 am

Post by Rob14 »

How does a 4 become a 1?
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Post Post #11 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:10 am

Post by shaft.ed »

guessing the ! is on the 4 and not the 1 key
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Post Post #12 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:12 am

Post by Rob14 »

That would make too much sense.
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Post Post #13 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:21 am

Post by Vi »

And they won in <year>. Big time. Two thirds of the vote. Which gave them unlimited access to the constitution itself. And it didn't seem like a good idea, no, but it's been way worse and way more absurd than anyone could have predicted.
I always wonder if that could happen in my country.
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Post Post #14 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:43 am

Post by BlackPawn14 »

I would like that around here too!
Except the current strongest opposition party is even worse than the governing coalition. So it might not be a good thing after all...
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Post Post #15 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:47 am

Post by T-Bone »

Get out while you can? I always wonder if this could happen in the US, where one party takes control and re-writes everything to pander to the base. Heck our political parties have redrawn district lines based on party affiliation rather than sense.

Is Hungary at risk from some foreign intervention? At you at the 'rioting on the streets' phase?
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Post Post #16 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:48 am

Post by Vi »

There's an element of gripping fear in my post that didn't come across, because of which party is more likely to be in that circumstance.
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Post Post #17 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:49 am

Post by SleepyKrew »

The US is too divided for that to happen.
Unfortunately.
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Post Post #18 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:51 am

Post by Vi »

In post 17, SleepyKrew wrote:The US is too divided for that to happen.
Unfortunately.
(mutiny)
Actually, a one-party takeover is more likely
because
the US is so divided. It's just a matter of what percentage of power is on either side.
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Post Post #19 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:53 am

Post by SleepyKrew »

By "that" I meant getting two thirds of the vote. Unless you think that could happen in the near to middle future?
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Post Post #20 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:55 am

Post by Psyche »

we still have the second amendment
with my bear arms they'll think twice about disenfranchising us

But no seriously the US is practically the most stable nation existing right now.
Last edited by Psyche on Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:55 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Post Post #21 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:55 am

Post by SleepyKrew »

Democrats vote on Saturday, Republicans vote on Sunday, everyone else gets Tuesday.
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Post Post #22 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:56 am

Post by SleepyKrew »

In post 20, Psyche wrote:we still have the second amendment
with my bear arms they'll think twice about disenfranchising us!

Silly little ethnic child. That doesn't apply to you!

Okay that's enough spreading American liberty in a Hungarian thread for me.
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Post Post #23 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 11:57 am

Post by shaft.ed »

yeah
the blah people arming their bears was the reason that St. Reagan passed a bunch of gun control when he was dictating in Cali
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Post Post #24 (ISO) » Tue Jul 15, 2014 12:00 pm

Post by SleepyKrew »

He was confused! Early onset dementia!
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