A pitiless crackdown on on illegal immigration. A hardline approach to law and order. A purge of “gender ideology” and “wokeness” from the nation’s schools. Erosions of academic freedom, judicial independence and the free press. An alliance with Christian nationalism. An assault on democratic institutions.

The “electoral autocracy” that is Viktor Orbán’s Hungary has been long revered by Donald Trump and his “Make America Great Again” (Maga) movement. Now admiration is turning into emulation. In the early weeks of Trump’s second term as US president, analysts say, there are alarming signs that the Orbánisation of America has begun.

  • nutsack@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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    6 hours ago

    the guy is completely bypassing congress by abusing the executive order thing. it’s a constitutional crisis in my opinion

  • gandalf_der_12te@discuss.tchncs.de
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    7 hours ago

    Democracy is inherently tied to progress.

    For a more elaborate explanation, see below.

    I am considering that progress on Earth is slowing down or halting long-term, and only continued progress could sustain Democracy.


    Democracy is tied to progress because progress creates demand for workers, and as such gives them a say in the direction things go. Progress is what “free people can do” or sth. Without progress, there is neither a demand for workers or freedom, and both are at risk.

  • AItoothbrush@lemmy.zip
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    12 hours ago

    I saw what happened in hungary, warned you fuckers but nobody listened. “Umm, but the us has checks and balances” checks and balances are worth fuckall to fascists. Do you actually think hungary didnt have any mechanisms to prevent this? It did have them but they were worth as much as the us’s.

    • makyo@lemmy.world
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      10 hours ago

      Besides, anyone paying attention has watched the checks and balances slowly collapsing over the last decade.

  • meowmeowbeanz@sh.itjust.works
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    17 hours ago

    Democracy flatlined—time of death: circa 1980. Trump’s Orbán fanfic is bootleg authoritarianism, but both parties built the coffin. “Freedom” is just the brand name for auctioned infrastructure. Christian nationalism? A faith-based grift to sanctify oligarchic looting. Courts, media, schoolscompliant subsidiaries, not casualties.

    The rot isn’t new—it’s generational decay dressed as crisis. “Erosion” absolves the architects; we’ve been drowning in neoliberal rot since they sold labor to Wall Street. MAGA’s the stench, not the wound. Voting? A ritual to pacify the herd. The machine runs on apathy and cheap outrage. Wake up—you’re the product.

  • Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works
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    23 hours ago

    Oh it’s gone now. Republicans never really liked democracy in the first place, and Epstein’s bestie clearly stated that will never leave power. USA chose an authoritarian regime, they got it and you have to be pretty stupid to believe there will be another free election in the US before decades. The question now is, will there soon be a third world war with the US plays the role of fascist Germany, or will they have to struggle with a civil war before they can achieve their colonial ambitions. One way or another, millions will die in the coming years.

    • Andy@slrpnk.net
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      22 hours ago

      I’m sorry, but I chafe at the notion that America was a democracy within the recent past and has ceased to be particularly in the last month.

      America was a weak democracy throughout its entire history; it has become weaker in the last generation, but still affords more democratic power – even under a fascist leader in the process of attempting to further dismantle it – than most citizens in the world enjoy today. A lot of people literally risk their lives for the political power that we often take for granted.

      We should absolutely be disturbed and angry about the loss of civic power. We should also avoid defeatism or doomerism, as there is still a lot of room for this to get better or worse depending on what each of us do. And, we should absolutely reject any framing that suggests that the oligarchy we had last year and every year of our lifetimes before that was some sacred ideal.

      America neither was a true democracy previously, nor has it ceased to be one at all. Ergo: democracy has not died.

      • Gsus4@mander.xyz
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        17 hours ago

        Only in a real democracy could an idiot like trump become president the first time round. Even the russians were surprised, they never expected Hillary could lose. Now is the Democratic party a democracy? Eh, no, it’s a superdelegate oligarchy, with what happened to Bernie and got into this disastrous timeline.

      • Yerbouti@sh.itjust.works
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        22 hours ago

        Fair points.

        But I still believe there was a tiny bit of democracy left, up to the last election, otherwise democrats would not have accepted a peaceful transition. As a Canadian, it make no doubts in my mind that US will try to annex us in the coming months or years. I will be fighting against it and I hope we can build a resistance we some of the US citizens.

        • Andy@slrpnk.net
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          20 hours ago

          I don’t mean to come at you in particular, but when I hear a phrase like “a tiny bit of democracy left”, I can’t help but think about the fact that there is so much unexercised democratic power available to citizens in the US, and the primary tool for disenfranchisement is just demoralizing and inactivating people.

          Let’s just set aside all the people who just do not pay attention to politics and focus on folks in this thread. Within a thread of people who follow and react to international news, how many know who their county representative is? How many people vote in the primaries that determine who gets to run for their city council?

          I’m not blaming anyone. It’s a ton of work. Until recently I didn’t know these things. But if we’re looking for a revival of democracy, we should all be working together to solidify power among the people who control our local cops and school boards and have authority over our state national guards and our state-level medical records, and regulate labor rights in our states and counties, and so on. This is really a key point at which we can either push fascism back to the fringes or let it actually end democracy.

    • Riddick3001@lemmy.worldOP
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      18 hours ago

      Fascism goes all the way back down to Roman times. That’s where the word originates anyhow. " Modern" Fascism has a different outward symbolism, fashion style if you will, but the end game is always the same. Bad for normal people, good for elitist. And propaganda is always involved.

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    22 hours ago

    The land of the free is fast becoming a human rights wasteland. I’m still reeling from the sheer number of people who seemingly had no idea it was going to be exactly like this.

    I’m really hoping this will be the wake up call America needed to get its shit together, because if they don’t, the oligarchs aren’t going to stop there. They’re coming for everything eventually.

    • Ulvain@sh.itjust.works
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      19 hours ago

      Sorry to be a Debbie Downer but no fucking way it’s a wakeup call: the majority of Americans have no idea of the nauseating stuff that makes you feel like you’re having a stroke in the middle of the twilight zone. The level of curated 100% individualized echo chambers everyone around you is exposed to is massively underestimated. Everyone is in an algorithmiclly designed, perpetually-improving news and info echosystem basically designed to keep them engaged and hooked… They DONT SEE WHAT YOU SEE… How do you wake them up if you don’t share the same reality?

    • stephen01king@lemmy.zip
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      13 hours ago

      I’m more reeling from the sheer number of government employees who would just go along with such blatant attampt at fascism. I actually thought Americans had more guts than this.

      • TheCriticalMember@aussie.zone
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        13 hours ago

        I imagine a lot of them feel very threatened, for themselves and their families. There’s not a lot of evidence that if maga decided to just start locking up anyone who causes them inconvenience, there would be any authority coming to your aid. It’s survival at this point for them.

    • NOT_RICK@lemmy.world
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      20 hours ago

      I thought January 6th could be a come to Jesus moment for us, but seeing how quickly people absolved Trump and the rest of the Republican enablers has made it clear we’re fucked, in my opinion. Shit, he pardoned people that assaulted cops. The law only applies for some. Fucking depressing.

      • shalafi@lemmy.world
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        15 hours ago

        Every American who wasn’t armed should have taken a clue on 01/06, or taken a class on WWII history.

        Sick to fucking death of liberal pansies, “Guns bad!” Meanwhile, blacks, women and LGBT were, and still are, the leading gun purchasers. Suburban white boys: “But guns aren’t a solution! BAD!”

        Well, it’s far too late for that rhetoric, we should have that convo in the 90s, too late kids. Get strapped or get on a fucking train.

        “BUH BUH BUH they might shoot back and kill me!”

        That was already in the cards you fucking pussies. I’ll choose to die with my boots on.

        And we wonder why our Democratic politicians are milquetoast. Because Democrats voted for milquetoast and that’s what we got. Cowards. Suprised_pikachu.jpeg.

  • Riddick3001@lemmy.worldOP
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    22 hours ago

    Hope world mods let me keep this post. It is imo worldnews at this point, unfortunately. We are literally non- stop being bombarded with his shit, every damn day on the other side of the Atlantic ( added: actually, the fallout is worldwide).

  • dumbass@leminal.space
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    21 hours ago

    The last line of the US national anthem has become the biggest joke now.

    The land of the free and the home of the brave.

    Neither of which America is at the moment.