Oh, that’s the point, in an Orbánesque society, some protests are allowed. A very often used playbook is to create an issue that his base can rabidly frothe about, most people don’t give a shit about, but it hurts a small minority of people enough that they will be very loud about being on the opposite side.
For Hungary, it was academic freedom for a university teaching mostly social sciences. Most people never even heard of it and had no opinion when laws were made to make its position untenable and basically destroy it. But the people immediately close to the issue were protesting like hell! They were out in orderly groups, with loudspeakers and signs on the streets of Budapest, week after week.
Orbán was very happy about this. Hungarian state media was frothing about how this university was destroying the fabric of society, so his base was rabidly against it. The people close to the issue were loudly trying to save it, but they were a minority. And you had a situation where there were weekly protests for half a year, representing a clear minority opinion, basically defanging all other protests for any other issue, while people got jaded into an opinion that protests don’t mean anything.
Orbán was not in the country even for most of this, that’s how much he cared.
Now imagine the same with Trump deciding to repeal the ADA. Most people don’t care about people with disabilities enough, but just enough people will be marching around the country to keep it in the news cycle constantly. All the while his supporters will be out in counterprotests dwarfing the others. And all the while if the economy tanks and there was real discontent, and there was space for real protests, you’d be called a Nazi and a Republican if you didn’t join in the existing “movement” headed by the Dems and didn’t abide by the “civil and high road” ways of protesting. Most people won’t even join your protest because they are tired of protests and protesters, and it will never work anyway, see all those other protests?
Sorry for the rant, I am really jaded by all this, and it just seemed so obvious years ago that the US was going down a Hungary path, and it’s just a boring dystopia from now on going forward. It doesn’t look like the people getting shot by the National Guard for protesting, it looks like you can do anything, you will always stay a minority, and decency dies a death of thousand cuts.
Oh, that’s the point, in an Orbánesque society, some protests are allowed. A very often used playbook is to create an issue that his base can rabidly frothe about, most people don’t give a shit about, but it hurts a small minority of people enough that they will be very loud about being on the opposite side.
For Hungary, it was academic freedom for a university teaching mostly social sciences. Most people never even heard of it and had no opinion when laws were made to make its position untenable and basically destroy it. But the people immediately close to the issue were protesting like hell! They were out in orderly groups, with loudspeakers and signs on the streets of Budapest, week after week.
Orbán was very happy about this. Hungarian state media was frothing about how this university was destroying the fabric of society, so his base was rabidly against it. The people close to the issue were loudly trying to save it, but they were a minority. And you had a situation where there were weekly protests for half a year, representing a clear minority opinion, basically defanging all other protests for any other issue, while people got jaded into an opinion that protests don’t mean anything.
Orbán was not in the country even for most of this, that’s how much he cared.
Now imagine the same with Trump deciding to repeal the ADA. Most people don’t care about people with disabilities enough, but just enough people will be marching around the country to keep it in the news cycle constantly. All the while his supporters will be out in counterprotests dwarfing the others. And all the while if the economy tanks and there was real discontent, and there was space for real protests, you’d be called a Nazi and a Republican if you didn’t join in the existing “movement” headed by the Dems and didn’t abide by the “civil and high road” ways of protesting. Most people won’t even join your protest because they are tired of protests and protesters, and it will never work anyway, see all those other protests?
Sorry for the rant, I am really jaded by all this, and it just seemed so obvious years ago that the US was going down a Hungary path, and it’s just a boring dystopia from now on going forward. It doesn’t look like the people getting shot by the National Guard for protesting, it looks like you can do anything, you will always stay a minority, and decency dies a death of thousand cuts.