Western European Elites’ Hungary Hypocrisy. Are Their Crooks So Different from Our Crooks?

In his article published in The American Conservative, Ben Sixsmith, a British publicist, reflects on the outcome of the election in Hungary.

Western media have been hypocritical in criticizing Viktor Orbán. ‘Democratic backsliding’ in Hungary cannot be compared to some sort of principled and righteous Western European alternative.

In Western Europe, e.g. in Britain, successive governments have completely ignored the popular will on matters as existential as mass migration. The same phenomenon has been seen throughout Europe. Governments can ignore and mislead their voters without being accused of ‘democratic backsliding.’

Orbán has been criticized and mocked for funding institutions like the Mathias Corvinus Collegium, which critics argue are right-wing ideological projects. It would be mischievous to dismiss such claims outright. Yet State funding for ideological projects is hardly an alien concept in Western Europe. Britons will be all too familiar with the analytic-activistic ecosystem known as ‘the Blob.’

‘It is a mixture of State institutions, State-funded institutions, and private trusts and charities,’ one influential essay puts it. ‘It is a groupthink bubble. It is a network, an ecosystem, in which everyone operates with a set of similar superficial assumptions about the legitimate domain of State action derived from similar assumptions about human nature.’ ‘The Blob’ maintains and promotes ideological orthodoxies while feeding on public funds. How different is that from what Orbán did?

Ben Sixsmith does not object to Orbán being criticized but does object to his alleged flaws being presented as exceptional. The critique of ‘populism,’ of which Orbán is a representative, has always had value in its argument that the idea of standing up for the ‘common people’ can obscure opportunism. What is left unasked is how governments can align indifference, if not hostility, towards majoritarianism with wide-eyed attachment to ‘democracy.’ What does the ‘demos’ even mean?

Ben Sixsmith writes that most people have no opportunity to promote their opinions. Indeed, they often have to be wary of expressing them. Britain has led the way when it comes to curbing speech. Be a little too crass or a little too irreverent, and you might end up with the police at your door. In Germany, a couple of years ago, a rape victim was prosecuted for insulting her attacker. Western European leaders should look in a mirror.

For Western European elites, a ‘democratic’ government is one that reflects Western European elites’ opinions rather than its voters’. Orbán’s cardinal sin was not gerrymandering or corruption but disagreeing with them over migrants and Ukraine.

Ben Sixsmith warns the new Hungarian leader Péter Magyar that he should be very wary when it comes to his new allies in Western Europe. Your enemy’s enemy is not always your friend.