Budapest Diary (Steven Hayward)

[Valin]

Power Line

Steven Haywars

July 20 2021

I am quickly learning why the New York Times and the left (but I repeat myself) are so spun up about Hungary: the government here actually wants to defend Western civilization—and religion—from its enemies. Whether they are doing this well or badly I cannot fully judge yet, but that they mean to do it seriously is clear.

So I guess I shouldn’t be surprised to find out that my visit here has not gone unnoticed back home:

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Second, as a charter inmate of the Bush Derangement Asylum back in the 2000s, I guess Chait needs new hate figures, and he is indeed right that I have been enjoying hanging out in Cafe Scruton, which is alive especially with young people popping in and out, sitting in the small upstairs conference room with laptops and books strewn abut the table, engaged in serious conversation, along with lots of people coming up and down from the well-appointed basement meeting room. I’ve been happy just to sit with a cup of cafe Americano, noodling away on my computer, and watching the passing scene.

One of the things that so upsets the New York Times about Hungary is that the Orban government has funded a college, Mathias Corvinus Collegium, or M.C.C., and—gasp!—it appears to be a self-consciously conservative college. Imagine that! Here’s the New York Times wringing its hands about it:

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And just for the heck of it:

OUCH