We Need To Talk About Hungary – SOME MORE NEWS

Hi. In today's episode, we look at how Hungary turned swiftly from a representative democracy into Viktor Orbán's autocratic regime, and how it is absolutely not at all in any way similar to what is currently happening in the United States. Except for, like, all the specific details.

Executive Producer - Katy Stoll
Directed by Will Gordh
Written by Alex Schmidt
Edited by Gregg Meller
Post-Production Supervisor - John Conway
Produced by Jonathan Harris
Associate Producer - Quincy Tucker
Researcher - Marco Siler-Gonzales
Graphics by Clint DeNisco
Head Writer - David Christopher Bell

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Chapters:
00:00 - Introduction
08:44 - Hungarian History Time!
17:54 - How Hungary's Democracy Crumbled
24:57 - Hungary's Illiberal Democracy
34:04 - Viktor Orban: A Racist, Messed-Up Guy
43:47 - Wait, What Country Is This Video About?

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[micorockup]

Greetings from Hungary.
May we both avoid full on fascism.

[leanykakicsi]

To summarize for Americans:
If you are not careful, you will end up like us.
Sincerely: a Hungarian

[martaszabo]

"Florida is our most Hungarian state."
As a Hungarian, that fucking hurt.

[cassiusdhami]

"Although the Forrest grew thin the Trees made the Axe their leader. They saw the handle was made of wood and thought it one of them."
-Swedish Proverb

[FroggyGizmo]

Me (from poland):
"Oh finally an EU country doing worse things than us"
Cody: And what Hungary does wouldn't be possible without Poland!
Me: ofcourse yeah checks out

[fietehermans]

Hearing Americans talk about European politics the way we Europeans talk about America is such a weird vibe…

[bencesarvari]

"We fucked up, not a little, but a lot" is probably the most memorable quote for hungarians from that öszöd speech.

[cernunnos]

It is so amazing you know all about Orbán, Lőrinc Mészáros, the Öszöd meeting, the stadiums, all of it. Thank you! Ah, on a side-note, please send help!

[oxtcn]

As a child, 30ish years ago, I dreamed that Hungary would be in the news all over the world. I should have been more specific with my wish. The innocent hope of a better future got dashed pretty quickly as I started following politics.

[LeBatteur]

Wow. That nugget about the college is legitimately astonishing. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen a better example of “No good deed goes unpunished”.

[markpukey]

Cody saying the Patreon is "ad free" is not a selling point. Watching him and Katy drink that awful green goo is one of the highlights of these videos!

[rfldss]

43:23 as someone who works in wood framing/roofing, I gotta say that stadium is the most awe-inspiring manifestation of the rampant corruption within the construction industry.

[kalla]

As a Hungarian I'm so thankful that you are using your platform to talk about whats going on over here!

[emmaselmeci]

Holy shit, as a hungarian who've been following your chanel for 2 years, I've been dreaming of this all along. Thank you for your work!!!

Edit: Cody, you've got a few bits wrong and I'm here to correct them for you and the rest here.

-Hungarian history before the forming of the state is very scetchy, hungarians being under roman rule is definitely historically unbased.
-Károlyi's office preceded the office of Kun Béla, not the other way around
-WW1 ended with the Treaty of Trianon for Hungary, which meant the lost of two thirds of the country's former territories. This should be considered as a "nationall trauma" which is kept artificially on the surface by nationalists and the country's biased education system. I have to add that hundreds of thousands of hungarians still live on these former territories, and they are often disrespected and were denied some privileges such as education in their native of hungarian. The Treaty of Trianon is the main historical event which can be pointed at by the right as an example of foreign influence, conspiracy and national decline. Many people's lack of trust in the west is due to this event.
I remember being in primary school around the year of 10 when they told me about this. "It is as if you had a 100 books and somebody came and took 66 of them". That sure sounded horrible to me and it took some readjustment when I learned that not all of those territories supported a hungarian population.
-The anti-gay referendum is actually widely supported. The reason it did not turn out to be supportive is because of the high number of invalid votes (I myself cast one of them)
-What I think you didn't emphasize enough is the mentality behind people voting for Orbán. Most of my family votes for Orbán while thinking that free speech and other values are important. They just don't see how and why Orbán's system opposes these ideas. When I told my father about the lies in one of the anti-gay hate campaigns, he simply said "if they are lying, the opposition have all the power to spread a truthful message"

Edit2: ​ @personofgirth accused me of shifting the narrative by downplaying the factor of incompetence in the opposition. At the 2022 election, a nigh-collective opposition coalition was formed to gain the upper hand in the election. Every party appointed presidential candidates, and votes were conducted to decide between them. The 5 main candidates were Fekete-Győr András were Jakab Péter (leader of the "Jobbik" or "the Right" party, which funnily and arguably is less right now than Fidesz. He resigned later this year), Dobrev Klára (wife of the "we lied in the day and night" Gyurcsány), Karácsony Gergely (the mayor of Budapest), and Márki-Zay Péter (who was the leader of a smaller party if I'm not mistaken). After a tie with Karácsony and Márki-Zay, Karácsony stepped back in favor of Márki-Zay. By this time me and most of the people I know was certain in Fidesz's fourth victory, and it happened. To be honest, I didn't care enough to follow the events but Fidesz led a successful campaign against the candidates (first against the most likely winner of Karácsony), blaming Márki-Zay with plans to end socialized healthcare, do migration stuff, make utilities more expensive, and lead the country into war (which late was definitely the most hianous lie). As a result, Fidesz once again won with a landslide which in part is due to the coalition failing to put up a fight with a famous and respected candidate.

[Zealant]

As a trans Hungarian, it’s been really depressing feeling like I can never go back. Honestly all the political history is trash but it seems so hostile and has most of my life.

[stlf]

fun fact about the "Hungarian politicians use the word 'woke' inspired by the GOP" thing:

that's happening all around Europe. the US are so influential that their politics are often topics for discussion at the dinner table in pretty much any country that speaks English.
For example the German far right populist party AfD is very loud about how bad it is to be "woke".

[moritzjedlicka]

Your show is kinda like if John Oliver was borderline insane and nobody would stop him rabbling. I love it.

[vauiarex]

Károlyi was before Béla Kun, not after him. It was First Republic -> Soviet Republic -> Romanian Occupation -> Horthy Era

[szipszi]

Some corrections/suggestions for the "Hungarian History Time" segment:
14:17 - "Hungary is a multiethnic modern state": It is most certainly not. 94-97% of Hungary's population considers themselves ethnic Hungarians. It is one of the most ethnically homogenous countries in the world. The on-screen description ("Hungary WAS a multiethnic country") is correct, it was until 1920.
"ancient roots involving tribes of magyar people": magyar is just the Hungarian word for Hungarian, it's like saying French people had Français ancestors.
"From its inception in the 10th century" - Hungarians moved to the Carpathian basin in 895 around the Battle of Southern Buh. Sources disagree on whether 895 or 896 should be the official date, but it's definitely late 9th century. We celebrate State Foundation Day (Államalapítás Ünnepe) that commemorates the crowning of the first King of Hungary but even that was in the early 11th century (25 December 1000 or 1 January 1001).
14:29 -"with brief periods of independence": Hungary was independent from it's inception in the late 9th century until 1526 with the exception of the Mongol invasion of 1241 to 1242. Over six centuries is hardly a "brief period".
14:33 - "Hungary was an independent kingdom under the Habsburg Monarchy": Hungary was not independent in any sense of the word until 1867. In fact, most demands of the 1848 revolution were about establishing some autonomy. They explicitly asked for an "Independent Hungarian government in Buda-Pest" (12 Pont, 1848).
By the way, the Austro-Hungarian Compromise of 1867 is arguably more important than the Revolution of 1848, that's when Austria recognized Hungary as co-equal (even the name was changed from Habsburg Empire to Austria-Hungary).
15:35 - "Then this guy (Károlyi Mihály) threw the communist guy (Kun Béla) into jail...": Károlyi was prime minister before Kun Béla, so he definitely didn't do that. In fact, he left the country to flee from the "communist guy"
It is probably worth mentioning that Orbán was a somewhat popular figurehead of the 1989 regime change (Rendszerváltás).

[barbaramongoose]

As a Hungarian I am highly impressed how well your video is researched. I haven't lived in Hungary for over 22 years, however my whole family still lives there. It's heartbreaking to see freedom and democracy being taken away from Hungarians along with their future. You are right, everyone should pay attention to what's happening there, because it can and will happen in Europe and America if people will not defend democracy. Its too easy to become complacent.