Things not to like about „I don’t like the system”

„Free speech isn’t just for you

It also cheezed me off more than a little to hear that a man was apparently arrested at the free speech demonstration for engaging in some free speech not in tune with the other demonstrators.

According to Index, one György N. – who they ID’d as a journalist best known for publishing a lengthy prison interview with far-right activist György Budaházy – was taken in after showing up with a sign denying the Holocaust (in Hebrew!), something that was made illegal in Hungary by the previous government.

I don’t know if anyone in the crowd tried to intervene on this jerk’s behalf, but I fear they not only didn’t intervene, but failed to see the irony in failing to do so.

Which leads to me to my last – and biggest – problem with the whole »I don’t like the system« thing.
They don’t really dislike the system

While it’s easy to get Hungarians to say they don’t like »the system« when they get a chance to actually vote on changing the system they don’t. Indeed, if there is one striking thing about Hungarian politics vis-à-vis other countries, it is how similar the “system” proposed by the various parties is. None of the four parties represented in Parliament has shown any sign of breaking with the Hungarian »tradition« of a massive, overweening state of the sort that will always trample on individual liberties and stunt the growth of a true civil society. Something makes me doubt that the folks lining up behind the “I don’t like the system” banner are any different: Their only real problem with the system is that they’re not the ones running it.

All that said, I think the video is totally underrated.”