Where to begin. The writer gestures at the average Hungarian salary, then proceeds to wield the purplish prose of just the literary "cafe culture" he's purportedly here to skewer. More bizarrely, the piece suggests something like, "Dreher is an affable chap, this isn't about him, but of course he's a fraud. Look!"
I don't agree with Dreher on everything, and don't live in Budapest. I'm just one of his readers. But here's the thing. He was maybe the only English-speaking writer who was there to push against the propaganda the whole of the Western press threw at Fidesz and Orban for years straight. At the very least, Dreher allowed those outside Hungary to see another angle.
Pace the NYT and the UK and pro-Brussels press, Orban was not a dictator, but was repeatedly *elected* by Hungarians. And now, rejecting him, they've elected another figure who agrees with "the dictator" on much. Fancy that.
I can't speak for the other Western conservatives who lived in Budapest, but as for Dreher, he wrote *a lot*. So he was paid for it. So what? How much media budget was spent by the usual suspects in the West in their years of shrill anti-Hungary hit pieces? Orban's government in Budapest surely got their money's worth having Dreher there. At least someone was not doing the Brussels copy-paste thing.
And he wasn't a shill either. For years, underlining the pluses of Orban's policies, he'd raise the problems. The cronyism that, likely, was the final thing that pissed off voters. Dreher never shied from these downsides.
The title of this paper "J'accuse" offers another odd paradox in this context. While writing about Hungary, Dreher has been doggedly tracing the rising tide of antisemitism in both the US and Europe. What would Zola say? Would Zola be carping against Orban and mocking the American journalist? I suppose Zola would be with islamogauchisme and railing against the JOOOS. Yeah?
Moi, j'accuse.
The prose really gets ahead of itself: "Normal autocrats flex their power through vast public works or monuments; Orbán built a glittering façade of think tanks, conferences, and podcasts on a brittle framework of prefab ideas and exorbitant contractors’ fees, only for it all to collapse in the blink of an eye."
"Autocrat"? No. Elected. Repeatedly. And he stepped down without protest when he finally lost.
"Only for it all to collapse in the blink of an eye.” The blink of an eye? Orban won FOUR consecutive elections and was in office 16 years.
As for selfies taken with oysters, yeah, I get it. Dreher likes oysters. And has a problem taking selfies when oysters are around. It's celebratory in an odd way, because me, as reader, I don't need it.
But this, mon ami, is a very small thing. And yes, I know, your piece is not about Rod Dreher, but my comment mostly is. Perhaps some of your depictions of the pro-Orban Budapest Western Right are more on target. I wasn't there to verify.
Sigh. Never been to Hungary, have you. Antisemitism has been rampant there in the Orbán era. I don’t care what sweet little nothings your little toad blogger tapped out today. Or how actually, it turns out he was against monumental reactionary corruption all along (as MAGA will no doubt be a month after Trump leaves office for good). But hey, with masterpieces like “Another day, another Tranny Killer” I’m sure he was and is worth your attention.
Ah yes, rampant antisemitism in Hungary because of the right-wing Christian dictator. Meanwhile Jewish communities are safe in London, Paris, Madrid. We’ve all read this.
Where to begin. The writer gestures at the average Hungarian salary, then proceeds to wield the purplish prose of just the literary "cafe culture" he's purportedly here to skewer. More bizarrely, the piece suggests something like, "Dreher is an affable chap, this isn't about him, but of course he's a fraud. Look!"
I don't agree with Dreher on everything, and don't live in Budapest. I'm just one of his readers. But here's the thing. He was maybe the only English-speaking writer who was there to push against the propaganda the whole of the Western press threw at Fidesz and Orban for years straight. At the very least, Dreher allowed those outside Hungary to see another angle.
Pace the NYT and the UK and pro-Brussels press, Orban was not a dictator, but was repeatedly *elected* by Hungarians. And now, rejecting him, they've elected another figure who agrees with "the dictator" on much. Fancy that.
I can't speak for the other Western conservatives who lived in Budapest, but as for Dreher, he wrote *a lot*. So he was paid for it. So what? How much media budget was spent by the usual suspects in the West in their years of shrill anti-Hungary hit pieces? Orban's government in Budapest surely got their money's worth having Dreher there. At least someone was not doing the Brussels copy-paste thing.
And he wasn't a shill either. For years, underlining the pluses of Orban's policies, he'd raise the problems. The cronyism that, likely, was the final thing that pissed off voters. Dreher never shied from these downsides.
The title of this paper "J'accuse" offers another odd paradox in this context. While writing about Hungary, Dreher has been doggedly tracing the rising tide of antisemitism in both the US and Europe. What would Zola say? Would Zola be carping against Orban and mocking the American journalist? I suppose Zola would be with islamogauchisme and railing against the JOOOS. Yeah?
Moi, j'accuse.
The prose really gets ahead of itself: "Normal autocrats flex their power through vast public works or monuments; Orbán built a glittering façade of think tanks, conferences, and podcasts on a brittle framework of prefab ideas and exorbitant contractors’ fees, only for it all to collapse in the blink of an eye."
"Autocrat"? No. Elected. Repeatedly. And he stepped down without protest when he finally lost.
"Only for it all to collapse in the blink of an eye.” The blink of an eye? Orban won FOUR consecutive elections and was in office 16 years.
As for selfies taken with oysters, yeah, I get it. Dreher likes oysters. And has a problem taking selfies when oysters are around. It's celebratory in an odd way, because me, as reader, I don't need it.
But this, mon ami, is a very small thing. And yes, I know, your piece is not about Rod Dreher, but my comment mostly is. Perhaps some of your depictions of the pro-Orban Budapest Western Right are more on target. I wasn't there to verify.
Sigh. Never been to Hungary, have you. Antisemitism has been rampant there in the Orbán era. I don’t care what sweet little nothings your little toad blogger tapped out today. Or how actually, it turns out he was against monumental reactionary corruption all along (as MAGA will no doubt be a month after Trump leaves office for good). But hey, with masterpieces like “Another day, another Tranny Killer” I’m sure he was and is worth your attention.
Ah yes, rampant antisemitism in Hungary because of the right-wing Christian dictator. Meanwhile Jewish communities are safe in London, Paris, Madrid. We’ve all read this.
But perhaps we should ask the Jews.
https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-892930
Oh.
The data backs up this assessment. Another thing the data backs up:
Leftists. Always. And only. Project.
Not dead
Perfect companion piece to the most recent episode of Chapo where they talk about Dreher.