WideningGyro

If NATO governments weren't ruled by jingoistic Slava Ukraini brained ghouls, this could be a cool opportunity to increase infrastructure spending, disaster relief etc. actually useful things that could be realistically framed as "military".

Pretty sure there is already an enhanced edition which is the "upscaled png"-version. So feels like this (if real) would have to be more substantial. But who knows.

Thanks, comrade. I figure that he's been in a really bad place for years at this point. He's clearly not improving on his own. If something I do could be the thing that gets him the help he needs (unlikely, but still) then I have to do it.

Found out that I have a friend who's sister is a mental health professional working specifically with really bad cases of schizophrenia. She might know who to contact/where to go, so I'll give that a try.

Thanks again for the advice, and for listening.

Thank you for the advice. I'm also leaning towards not answering him, as it feels like I'd either have to indulge in his delusion (don't see the point of that), or try to challenge them, which seems like it would only confirm to him that I'm part of whatever group he thinks are out to get him/mind control him.

I hadn't thought about some kind of anonymous tip. I doubt he'll accept treatment, given that his paranoia seems to make him extremely suspicious of medical professionals. I also worry that if I do it now, right after he messaged me, he'll know it was me. I probably have to accept that I don't know him at all anymore and can't predict how he'd react. But maybe I'll let some time pass, then look at what options exist here.

Baby formula, food, clothes etc. being withheld from people who need it for the sake of corporate profits is violence. Stealing is completely right in that scenario, just like occupying a place to live is morally just when homes are withheld for the sake of speculation. You don't have to hedge on that point at all.

"What's the difference between the wealth being siphoned by national bourgeoisie cronies or foreign multinational cronies"

• In principle? Nothing. In reality? Massive difference in scale. It's very obvious from your dismissive tone that you don't actually understand the amounts in question. I'm not saying that other EU countries are free from corruption (legal and otherwise), but a massive amount of the money that would otherwise go to fund infrastructure, healthcare, etc. in Hungary were directly siphoned off. The prospect of that changing is going to benefit the Hungarian working class. I find it callous and a bit out of touch to tut-tut them for celebrating that fact.

"So, uh, they haven't really been that deeply compromised after all?"

• That's your words, not mine. We're talking about a country where supreme court justices have publicly apologized and grovelled before the president after fining his party a symbolic amount for breach of campaign laws. The same president who suspended term limits and ruled for 16 years. Who built a massive football stadium in his tiny home village. I hate my own EU country for a variety of reasons, but that shit simply couldn't currently happen here. The system, as flawed as it is, has brakes built into it that prevent this kind of open and massive embezzlement of public funds. It's fine if you don't think that matters, but it's unserious to act like it shouldn't matter to the average Hungarian.

You just know he is dying to wear an even more ridiculous and gold-encrusted hat

Yes, and various institutions are packed with Orbán men - a few years ago a supreme court justice (iirc) apologized to Orbán after slapping Fidesz with a symbolic fine for breaching election campaign rules, literally groveling in public. It's definitely possible that the new government is going to have it's hands tied behind its back. But I don't think it's a given that Orbán can maintain loyalty among his people once his hand is off the money spigot.

But yeah, I don't want to give the impression that I'm super optimistic about this. Magyar's positions on Israel and Russia are same and worse, respectively. But domestically, I think it would be out of touch to blame the Hungarian working class for celebrating that their public and EU funds might now find more productive use than solely lining the pockets of a handful of kleptocrats. Don't get me wrong - all liberal governments do this to some extent, but there are levels to this.

I'm not sure I get that position. It's a material fact that astounding amounts of wealth have been siphoned out of the Hungarian state and into the pockets of Orbán and a selection of his cronies. It's also a material fact that Hungary's democratic institutions (which, yeah, liberal democracy - were never great to begin with) have been systematically hollowed out to the point that it is a genuine shock for my friend that the supreme court (which has been packed with Orbán toadies) didn't overturn the election. I don't think it's exaggeration to believe that beginning to revert either of these facts will benefit the Hungarian working class - even if they are just reverting to what is essentially status quo in many European countries.

I'm not particularly optimistic about Magyar either. And I'm painfully aware that an incumbent has real little incentive to undo constitutional changes that benefit the incumbent. He also faces an uphill battle against hostile courts, media etc. and it's possible he'll have his hands tied. We'll see. I think Hungarians can have cautious optimism about having ended 16 years of high-handed kleptocracy, as a treat.

Take this with as many grains of salt you want, but I have a Hungarian friend who is at least sympathetic to communism, and while he would under no normal circumstances ever like someone a zionist neolib like Magyar, but even he is celebrating right now. It's not that Magyar is good, but rather that outsiders struggle to understand the depth of corruption and depravity that was the Orbán regime. Seeing someone systematically dismantle every institution in your country while powerless to stop it is pretty traumatic. And Magyar has even promised to set up a committee to prosecute corruption in the previous government, perhaps even Orbán himself (although like Trump, I'll believe it when I see it).

Anyway, I guess my point is that for Hungarians things did change, and you can't fault them for being optimistic right now. It remains to be seen if this is just going to be a Trump-Biden-Trump dynamic, or if the Magyar government can actually make meaningful changes to ensure this kind of takeover can't happen again (big if).

Agreed, it's not like the USSR was blindsided - they knew exactly what was coming.

Just want to point out that Abby participated in the "before talking about Gaza, it's super important to talk at length about the rise of antisemitic violence"-cliché in a (semi) recent video. I don't generally watch her content, so maybe it's an exception to otherwise good takes, but that one left a sour taste in my mouth.