I get a bit fatigued by articles from left-leaning sources like this that ignore the history of the place they're pointing to as the next big bad warning sign of what is yet to come. Like, people...
I get a bit fatigued by articles from left-leaning sources like this that ignore the history of the place they're pointing to as the next big bad warning sign of what is yet to come. Like, people do realize that Hungary was on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain until 1989, right? Democracy of the kind this article is talking about only started to exist less than 30 years ago (and even then with fits and starts). It isn't some centuries or generations old thing where uprooting would be a cultural as well as logistical feat.
In my experience over the past year and change, Vox has been especially blatant about this lack of context. I typically try to avoid these articles at any cost. Today I didn't succeed. I guess I'll try better.
Lack of context is a huge problem in modern media to be sure. Especially when the authors of articles obviously don't know enough about the topics they're writing about. Even so, I still think...
Lack of context is a huge problem in modern media to be sure. Especially when the authors of articles obviously don't know enough about the topics they're writing about.
Even so, I still think both Hungary and Poland are good examples of how you can democratically elect government in western democracies that actively wish to build down or weaken democracy. It's a trend that may spread to other places. I can't easily find reasons to explain why this can't spread to other European countries.
Of course, the analysis actually makes sense when you get it from sources that do have the prerequisite knowledge to be writing about the topics. I think The Economist's coverage of Poland over the last years has been particularly good, for example.
Literally as long as there have been democracies, harking even back to Ancient Greece, there has been the tendency for a democracy to fall to despotic oligarchs, including through actively voting...
Literally as long as there have been democracies, harking even back to Ancient Greece, there has been the tendency for a democracy to fall to despotic oligarchs, including through actively voting for them.
I clicked because I was expecting someone who knew something about what they were talking about to explain what was happening. Instead I got ideologically driven drivel. It's very important to know what's happening to Polish and Hungarian (and Ukranian, I'd say) democracies right now. Europe as a whole is experiencing this crisis and watching itself burning from the inside out. That needs good coverage. This just isn't it.
Their problem is that their title, "It Happened There: how democracy died in Hungary," heavily suggests and weights the article from the get go to a historic context. They are intentionally...
Their problem is that their title, "It Happened There: how democracy died in Hungary," heavily suggests and weights the article from the get go to a historic context. They are intentionally playing into an ideological fear and narrative about the erosion of democratic norms and values, for an American audience, while simultaneously trying to leverage that fear into getting people to click their story. If you poison your audience, it doesn't matter what good reporting you do afterward. The audience is poisoned.
Come on, you don't actually think that's the same sort of democracy Vox is suggesting is being eroded here, do you? It isn't like the (austrio-)Hungarian emperor was toothless, and the diet's...
Come on, you don't actually think that's the same sort of democracy Vox is suggesting is being eroded here, do you? It isn't like the (austrio-)Hungarian emperor was toothless, and the diet's realm of duties was considerably more limited than a modern understanding of government would imply.
This just reads disingenuously to me. Vox had no right to ignore the history of the place they were talking about and it is vitally important context to realize that less than 30 years ago, Hungary did not have a democracy at all. 30 years before that, they did not have a democracy. And it is a bit of a stretch to call the Hungarian diet system a democracy unless you plan on extending the same distinction to the British government in 1740.
I get a bit fatigued by articles from left-leaning sources like this that ignore the history of the place they're pointing to as the next big bad warning sign of what is yet to come. Like, people do realize that Hungary was on the eastern side of the Iron Curtain until 1989, right? Democracy of the kind this article is talking about only started to exist less than 30 years ago (and even then with fits and starts). It isn't some centuries or generations old thing where uprooting would be a cultural as well as logistical feat.
In my experience over the past year and change, Vox has been especially blatant about this lack of context. I typically try to avoid these articles at any cost. Today I didn't succeed. I guess I'll try better.
Lack of context is a huge problem in modern media to be sure. Especially when the authors of articles obviously don't know enough about the topics they're writing about.
Even so, I still think both Hungary and Poland are good examples of how you can democratically elect government in western democracies that actively wish to build down or weaken democracy. It's a trend that may spread to other places. I can't easily find reasons to explain why this can't spread to other European countries.
Of course, the analysis actually makes sense when you get it from sources that do have the prerequisite knowledge to be writing about the topics. I think The Economist's coverage of Poland over the last years has been particularly good, for example.
Literally as long as there have been democracies, harking even back to Ancient Greece, there has been the tendency for a democracy to fall to despotic oligarchs, including through actively voting for them.
I clicked because I was expecting someone who knew something about what they were talking about to explain what was happening. Instead I got ideologically driven drivel. It's very important to know what's happening to Polish and Hungarian (and Ukranian, I'd say) democracies right now. Europe as a whole is experiencing this crisis and watching itself burning from the inside out. That needs good coverage. This just isn't it.
https://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2018/04/08/600713336/hungarys-viktor-orb-n-sweeps-to-re-election-securing-populist-party-majority
https://www.npr.org/2018/08/22/640849555/hungary-intentionally-denying-food-to-asylum-seekers-watchdog-groups-say
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2017/05/03/hungary-is-backsliding-what-is-the-european-parliament-doing-about-this/
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/democracys-slow-fade-in-central-europe/2018/07/07/d155d1e4-8099-11e8-b0ef-fffcabeff946_story.html * note, this is an opinion article.
If you wanted something news worthy: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/12/world/europe/hungary-eu-viktor-orban.html
Almost any other site that isn't making its buck pandering to left-leaning readers (even if they are largely left-leaning writers) would do.
Their problem is that their title, "It Happened There: how democracy died in Hungary," heavily suggests and weights the article from the get go to a historic context. They are intentionally playing into an ideological fear and narrative about the erosion of democratic norms and values, for an American audience, while simultaneously trying to leverage that fear into getting people to click their story. If you poison your audience, it doesn't matter what good reporting you do afterward. The audience is poisoned.
It plays similarly to other stories that fatigue me as well, like "America restored German democracy, now Germany wants to return the favor," a title that similarly poisons the reader to the content while presenting a skewed and horribly incomplete view of historical trajectory.
Where was Franz Josef during all of this? Pretty sure he still technically led Hungary continuously from 1850 until world war 1.
Come on, you don't actually think that's the same sort of democracy Vox is suggesting is being eroded here, do you? It isn't like the (austrio-)Hungarian emperor was toothless, and the diet's realm of duties was considerably more limited than a modern understanding of government would imply.
This just reads disingenuously to me. Vox had no right to ignore the history of the place they were talking about and it is vitally important context to realize that less than 30 years ago, Hungary did not have a democracy at all. 30 years before that, they did not have a democracy. And it is a bit of a stretch to call the Hungarian diet system a democracy unless you plan on extending the same distinction to the British government in 1740.