Tucker Carlson is broadcasting from Hungary because he and the right love fascism

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Fox News' Tucker Carlson is broadcasting from Budapest, Hungary this week. For a lot of people, this might be perplexing. But for those who've closely followed the far-right in recent years, it makes perfect sense.

Many American conservatives admire Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán - a xenophobic, anti-LGBTQ authoritarian who's been in power for 11 years and who endorsed President Donald Trump's reelection campaign last year - and they've made no secret of it. They look to Orbán as a more effective version of Trump - and a model for the future of right-wing politics in the US.

Carlson is effectively in Hungary to promote Orbán's nationalism and anti-democratic approach to governance, and authoritarianism experts are concerned - particularly over what this says about the direction of American conservatism. The Fox host's Hungarian excursion comes at a time when Republicans continue to whitewash the pro-Trump Capitol insurrection, vie to restrict voting in states across the US, and as recent polling shows that more than a quarter of Americans qualify as having right-wing authoritarian political beliefs.

"There's nothing funny about this encounter," Ruth Ben-Ghiat, a New York University historian and expert on strongman leaders, wrote of Carlson's visit with Orbán. "Carlson's world aligns to an alarming degree with that of Orbán ... The goal of these alliances has always been to mainstream far-right values."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/tucker-carlson-is-broadcasting-from-hungary-because-its-authoritarian-anti-immigrant-leader-has-set-a-model-for-americas-far-right/ar-AAMWI0X

[BlueJac]

1. Asshole!

Stay there!

[JoanofArgh]

2. It started way before Carlson. GOP consultants worked to get Orban elected. It's what they want for

America.

Link to tweet

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Link to tweet

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Then Orban hired a Republican lobbyist, in 2014, to burnish his image on Capitol Hill and in the US press


At the time, supporting Orban was considered a fringe position in the DC foreign policy establishment, and even in the Republican party. Dana Rohrabacher was the standard-bearer of this position.

But thanks to the work of DC strategists and lobbyists--and the growing affection for Orban's "illiberal democracy" within the right *and* the religious right (more on that later in the thread), embracing Orban was increasingly becoming the mainstream position in GOP.

Meanwhile, as I reported in
@VICE

@typeinvestigate
in 2019, the religious right was also developing an admiration for Orban and other European autocrats

On the surface, it looked simply like shared ideology against LGBTQ and reproductive rights, broadly disparaged as "gender ideology." And yes, this shared oppo is anti-democratic, as in opposed to democratic values like equal rights. Bu

It was more than that. They actually also admired Orban's very successful efforts to dismantle democratic institutions--which helps us understand why they support same in U.S

Is it terrifying that Carlson is embracing Orban as TV spectacle? Absolutely. But to understand the effect this is going to have on his audience, it's also important to understand the groundwork has been laid for quite some time--making it ever more terrifying.

Here's the thread with article excerpts. It's very informative. https://threader.app/thread/1422537900831412226

[ret5hd]

3. It's less obvious to meet his "handlers" there...

They don’t stand out in the crowd so much.