Last month on my Substack, I published an essay on Hungary’s law banning LGBT propaganda to minors and noted that Viktor Orban had responded to EU condemnation of the popular legislation by proposing a referendum to ensure that the will of the Hungarian people is followed. The elites, of course, do not care what the will of the Hungarian people is—they simply want Hungary to get in line and to follow their lead in creating a hypersexualized society. Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte stated that Hungary had to be “brought to its knees” over the law, and the EU is doing its best. From Rod Dreher at The American Conservative:
The European Commission has hit Hungary hard, withholding over 7 billion euro in Covid reconstruction money to punish Hungary for its LGBT media law. From Deutsche Welle:
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban accused the EU on Friday of not approving Hungary’s coronavirus recovery spending plan because of a row over LGBTQ rights. The European Commission is responsible for handing out the bloc’s pandemic recovery fund — worth up to €800 billion ($950 billion) — but has yet to approve Hungary’s submission.
The Commission, which is still assessing plans submitted by Orban’s government, has indicated Budapest may miss out on early backing to the value of €7.2 billion in EU grants.
“Reconstruction funds are loans that Brussels does not want to give us now because of the debate around LGBTQ policy,” Orban said in an interview given to state media.
The commission is evaluating the reforms each EU member state has committed to, in exchange for their share of the recovery package.
From a leading German-Hungarian journalist:
Incredible. As Kalnoky goes on to say, if Orban’s party loses next year’s election, a good case can be made that this is the first time the EU has taken down the government of a member state by tactically withholding relief funds as a stick to make sure the vote goes as they wish.
Why are they doing this? The chief (but not exclusive) reason is that they hate the law Hungary passed this summer banning LGBT content for minors. That’s it. That’s why the Western Europeans are trying to blow up the bloc…
The European Commission believes that Hungary’s LGBT media law is a violation of liberal democracy. I remind you that most, and maybe all, EU countries restrict speech to a degree shocking to Americans, whose liberal democracy protects free speech in the Constitution. Here’s Belgium, for example. Much of this I don’t understand, in the sense of it seems to go too far. But the people who best understand what is the correct policy for the Belgians are … the Belgians. Here is a link to a 2019 EU report on media laws to protect children and minors. It’s perfectly clear that the EU has no problem forbidding speech that it deems harmful to minors. Its beef with Hungary is that the Hungarians do not agree that homosexuality, bisexuality, and transgenderism are phenomena to be encouraged among children and minors. The illiberal leftist democracy that is the EU wishes to override the decisions of Hungarian parents about how their children will be educated on sex and gender matters — and then blame the Hungarians for being illiberal bigots!
Viktor Orban has contrasted “Christian democracy” with “liberal democracy,” in the EU sense. I’m not sure this works as well as it should in English, because it seems to me that Orban doesn’t think that what is called “liberal democracy” is actually liberal, in the proper sense. It sounds like he’s saying “progressive secular democracy” when he says “liberal”. I could be wrong here, because it’s clear that Orban understands that “liberalism” is not neutral. It has a substantive morality baked into it, and that moral telos is to “liberate” the desiring individual from any unchosen duties that might limit his desire.
This is why the liberal ruling class of the EU and the US can believe that teaching a kindergartner that he is free to choose his gender is liberation. This is why woke capitalists have been so eager to get on board this campaign: the more you train people up to think of their relationship to the world primarily in terms of satisfying desires, the easier they can be convinced to buy things.
Neither Poland nor Hungary are trying to force their more traditional views on LGBT on other EU member states. But this is the issue that the EU is going to the mat over — this at a time when the EU is relatively weak, and needs to strengthen itself in a world of declining US power. Incredible. They are putting Europe’s future at risk because they cannot tolerate the thought that there’s one Magyar child who hasn’t heard the gospel of gender fluidity.
Expect the same treatment here in America from our ruling class baizuocracy. They are ginning themselves up for a war they believe they can win: one on the American people, especially traditional religious people. As the media and other institutions manufacture consent to persecute us, they will begin to describe us and our institutions as undemocratic, and a violation of American ideals. And then, those who haven’t already conformed will be brought to heel. American conservatives should look at what’s being done to Hungary, and understand that the same process is coming for us, unless we can somehow stop it.
I’ll be interested to see what folks like J.D. Vance think we should do about this.
