Elections in various countries

[malloc]

It's worth noting that the Tisza party is also staunchly right wing, which made this election rather like Ronald Reagan versus Donald Trump. It also means that Hungary has nothing but right wingers in its parliament now.

[WeepingElf]

It's worth noting that the Tisza party is also staunchly right wing, which made this election rather like Ronald Reagan versus Donald Trump. It also means that Hungary has nothing but right wingers in its parliament now.

I'm not very happy about Tisza myself. It is at least a center-right party; I'd be happier if there was a major progressive party in the Hungarian parliament, but at least, it is a step in the right direction that Orbán and his cronies are gone.

What I read from your words is that you seem to think that all rightists were equally bad - which they aren't. It is a common sentiment among far leftists, but it is nevertheless wrong.

[malloc]

What I read from your words is that you seem to think that all rightists were equally bad - which they aren't. It is a common sentiment among far leftists, but it is nevertheless wrong.

Certainly I'm glad that Orbán lost and not suggesting that this is nothing. But like you, I would be happier if progressives had won.

[WeepingElf]

What I read from your words is that you seem to think that all rightists were equally bad - which they aren't. It is a common sentiment among far leftists, but it is nevertheless wrong.

Certainly I'm glad that Orbán lost and not suggesting that this is nothing. But like you, I would be happier if progressives had won.

Then we basically agree.

[Raphael]

Discovered this on Bluesky:

https://bsky.app/profile/robertscotthor ... fxieqxh224

Hungary's prime minister elect announcing that Orbán was funding CPAC and other Trump-related political activities (also Heritage Foundation's Project 2025), and this will now end.

Not that right-wing political activities ever suffer from serious lack of money, of course, but this is still good.

[rotting bones]

The murderous horde of Bob Dylan fans (yes, really) who are the fascists in Kolkata are celebrating today: https://polymarket.com/event/west-benga ... ion-winner

Are rich people deliberately doing things that increase the nervousness of informed poor people to even prediction market odds?

The market is glutted with fiction depicting Communist societies as individuals finding ways to live with their sorrow. Is there any fiction showing the heartbreaking sorrow of living in a democratic free market society?

[rotting bones]

Context:

In Kolkata, it's a thing to respond with Ballad of a Thin Man to opposition against demolishing Muslim properties. Fascists really don't understand how sucking Dear Leader's cock is not the ultimate expression of freedom. Have times changed since The Mass Psychology of Fascism by Wilhelm Reich?

SIR before the vote: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2026/ ... ed-of-vote

Dilip Ghosh: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilip_Gho ... troversies

[rotting bones]

Regarding Tisza: https://www.oxfordstudent.com/2026/02/2 ... the-ducks/

[rotting bones]

I know the West is allied with some dictators. Is Nayib Bukele one of them or not? Trump seems allied with him. What about Europe?

[Lērisama]

I know the West is allied with some dictators. Is Nayib Bukele one of them or not? Trump seems allied with him. What about Europe?

I believe the answer is ‘couldn't care that much about what the leader of a tiny Central American country is doing.’ Given his reputation, approval will depend on whether you're far right or not, with the turnover point being roughly the same as that for Trump, but I can't speak for an entire continent, most of which¹ manages to conduct two separate levels of foreign policy.

¹ Insert sad Brexity noises

[Travis B.]

I know the West is allied with some dictators. Is Nayib Bukele one of them or not? Trump seems allied with him. What about Europe?

I think European support for minor Third World dictators is more a matter of things like Françafrique, which itself is/was mostly a French thing (hence the name) even though it has had American support.

[Lērisama]

I know the West is allied with some dictators. Is Nayib Bukele one of them or not? Trump seems allied with him. What about Europe?

I think European support for minor Third World dictators is more a matter of things like Françafrique, which itself is/was mostly a French thing (hence the name) even though it has had American support.

Oh, we've done some interesting things too in our time.

[Travis B.]

I know the West is allied with some dictators. Is Nayib Bukele one of them or not? Trump seems allied with him. What about Europe?

I think European support for minor Third World dictators is more a matter of things like Françafrique, which itself is/was mostly a French thing (hence the name) even though it has had American support.

Oh, we've done some interesting things too in our time.

Yes, but French neocolonialism has largely outlasted that of their British counterparts, even if Françafrique seems to be finally drawing to a close (but you could argue that French neocolonialism lives on in places like French Polynesia).

[Travis B.]

To me British neocolonialism does live on in cases like the Chagos Islands and for a long time you could consider Northern Ireland to be a neocolonial project though.

Then again I have very little sympathy for 'Malvinas Argentinas' or the Spanish claims to Gibraltar -- the sovereignty of actual people alive today is what matters, not the legalistics of theoretical centuries-old claims that are not supported by the people living in the places in question.

[rotting bones]

Britain has good relations with oil Arabs too, right? Doesn't Europe have any interest in preventing CommunistTM incursion into America's hinterland?

[Lērisama]

(Talking only about Britain here because it's what I know best)
Yeah, the Chagos islands case is frustrating¹, but there is definitely some surprise in certain quarters that the Commonwealth doesn't want to do whatever we say, despite our wonderful shared history, and are even asking for reparations for parts of it⁵. That said, our remaining overseas territories⁶ are mainly that because they don't want independence, and when there's a controversy we usually have the referenda to prove it.

¹ If you haven't been keeping up on your small Indian Ocean islands without permanent inhabitants² news, just before Britain gave Mauritius independence, it split off a small archipelago, the Chagos islands, so it could build a joint US-UK military base there, and kicked out all the inhabitants. The International Court of Justice has declared them rightfully Mauritian, and we almost gave them back³, but Trump vetoed it⁴ in a strop probably related to not fully supporting his Iran fantasies.
² Any more
³ With a lease to be allowed to continue to use the base, so it was effectively just paying Mauritius off for no change to the status quo
⁴ No idea why he gets a veto. It's probably something to do with the military base, but still…
⁵ The enslaving specifically. Given large parts of Britain would rather forget about all the enslaving and concentrate on all the work done to make it illegal and then stop other people's slave trading, this tends to confuse and insult them a little.
⁶ Not colonies obviously, just areas whose governments don't have control of some things, can be overruled the British one, require the UK's consent for any constitutional changes but don't have any representation in it. A completely different concept you understand. Given we have established that devolution doesn't destroy the fabric of the United Kingdom, I'm not sure why they can't be regularised into devolved nations with representation in parliament, but the fact that they mostly⁷ are smaller than a single constituency in population might have something to do with it⁸.
⁷ I think all
⁸ Although protected constituencies are a thing.

[alice]

I'm not sure why they can't be regularised into devolved nations with representation in parliament

I'd love to see the Right Honourable Member for the Falkland Islands flying 100 degrees of latitude once a week to attend Parliament.

[Lērisama]

I'm not sure why they can't be regularised into devolved nations with representation in parliament

I'd love to see the Right Honourable Member for the Falkland Islands flying 100 degrees of latitude once a week to attend Parliament.

Twice, surely? There on Sunday and back on Thursday.

(And yes, this is probably the reason why, although it doesn't cut it for the Crown Dependencies)

[alice]

I'm not sure why they can't be regularised into devolved nations with representation in parliament

I'd love to see the Right Honourable Member for the Falkland Islands flying 100 degrees of latitude once a week to attend Parliament.

Twice, surely? There on Sunday and back on Thursday.

No, because in return for representing such a remote location the Member would be given special SoopaPowaz to teleport back.

[Travis B.]

I'd love to see the Right Honourable Member for the Falkland Islands flying 100 degrees of latitude once a week to attend Parliament.

Twice, surely? There on Sunday and back on Thursday.

No, because in return for representing such a remote location the Member would be given special SoopaPowaz to teleport back.

Maybe the Right Honourable Member for the Falkland Islands can teleconference from there to the House of Commons, or conversely teleconference with constituents from London.