August 1, I met up with Matt Goodwin in a riverside restaurant hotel across from the Hungarian Parliament. We were about to leave Budapest for Esztergom, for MCC Feszt, where we both did some talking on panels. But the first thing we talked about is the same thing people always talk about: Budapest is beautiful, peaceful, & there are almost no immigrants to speak of. Locals love it, tourists love it, but it’s now become something important to talk about, not just an experience to enjoy—you can tell, because often enough people whisper it rather than say it openly. It’s not just that immigrants commit so many crimes, which is incredibly offensive to any decent person, it’s that authorities shame & terrify these decent people into acting like victims, first of criminals, then a second time victims of the state. This happens to me so much that I’ve come to expect it; over the last decade it has caused me to become outspoken.
Matt doesn’t have this problem. He enjoys visiting a civilized place, but he’s not scared into silence by the barbarism enforced by liberal elites. He’s now officially “far right,” because he disagrees with elite ideology & speaks out against elite propaganda. He’s become a remarkably successful substack writer, probably the best in England—PoMoCon is a big fan of his pub, which we recommend. Matt isn’t a journalist, however, but a political scientist at the University of Kent, & he’s been writing about populism, especially but not exclusively in England, for a decade now, with more & more success while facing ever more accusations & insults from the left. In short, he’s been politicized, as so many of us have, but has grown into this manlier more confrontational posture. It’s a healthy thing, scandal…
So Matt’s become my favorite English writer on politics. I reviewed his latest, Values, Voice, & Virtue for the DC Examiner — you should buy his book! We have a common affiliation as NatCons, courtesy of Yoram Hazony; I got my friend Chris Rufo on Matt’s podcast last year, when Chris was touring with his bestseller, America’s Cultural Revolution; & generally I hope to see more fellowship between the American & English right. At this point, the ‘special relationship’ means both countries face the same crazy problems, the elite turning the power of the state against the people.
This summer, however, we have more than the typical complaints about immigration, crime, gov’t corruption, & bureaucratic malfeasance. There are race riots in the streets of England. In the spring, as last year, the rioters were immigrants who spat on the symbols of English greatness & humiliated the constabulary, who seem eager to be humiliated. Matt has written very well on the matter, starting with What Did You Expect? It’s like the summer of 2020 in America, the British press talks about mostly peaceful protests while the streets burn. But there’s a twist: Englishmen are also out in the streets, which hasn’t happened in a long time. Why? Because a second-generation immigrant, teenager I think, black, stabbed to death a number of English girls, & injured more. Needless to say, he will not be facing justice, or only a travesty of it. Needless to add, the English who are outraged by this sort of crime are treated with hatred, not compassion, by the media as well as the state. Well, I applaud their English working class mettle & despise a state that hates its own people! Here’s a short clip, two minutes, some kind of police bureaucrat demonstrating in front of the press slavishness before immigrant criminals in a situation where the Labour Gov’t of Keir Starmer is taking an incredibly harsh position against Englishmen. They call this two-tier policing, but hatred of the English is a truer statement of the problem.
So you can see what a contrast Hungary provides. It’s not the only safe place in Europe. Most everywhere East of the Iron Curtain is now safe, except East Germany, where immigrants make for an ugly contrast to otherwise beautiful places—I know Saxony best & it’s a place where about a third of the electorate votes AfD, the only pro-German party in Germany (27.5% in 2019, polling better ahead of the September elections). My native Bucharest is just as safe, as is the rest of Romania; I live in Prague & spend a lot of time in Bratislava, Czechia & Slovakia are also safe. But only in Hungary do you find a gov’t that explicitly wants to protect people from illegal immigration & the invasion unleashed about a decade back by mad NATO elites (Obama, Sarkozy, Cameron, Merkel at that time, a veritable four horsemen of the apocalypse). Immigration will be the major issue in Europe for this generation, possibly the next. The continent is being invaded with the complicity of the elites. Orban in Hungary is the only one to stand proudly & undefeated against this madness. This is why so many of us admire him & wish to have similar leaders in our countries.
Hungary, however, is isolated in elite circles precisely for that reason, which we can call simply patriotism. Orban has decided to answer this challenge by elevating his political activity to a level above electoral success, to the level of forming an Hungarian elite which wouldn’t turn treasonous, as happens in most wealthy countries. Hence the creation of the Matthias Corvinus Collegium (named for perhaps the greatest Hungarian king, who is also mentioned as a great ancestor in the Romanian anthem). MCC therefore is the result of a unique ambition now, but it was once taken for granted that the great schools in America, England, & France were supposed to produce patriotic elites. It’s this rarity & the opportunity to meet other people from Europe & America who are involved in rightwing politics that led me to accept an invitation to speak at MCC Feszt, the annual festival where politics & pop culture meet.
I’ll write some observations & some thoughts about MCC Feszt in the next couple of days—for now, I’m satisfied to note this strange atmosphere, typical of our times: Hope in the midst of decadence; a revulsion at crime & propaganda mixed with a desire to fight political battles at the side of likeminded people, mostly young men; a kind of paradise where your political opinions don’t get you humiliated or fired, but are part of the intoxication of wine & conversation. Hungary is a special place, because it’s creating a counter-elite. MCC Feszt is part of its cultural diplomacy & counter-propaganda. The populist political case—pro-family—is made from the PM’s office, not on blogs or in think tanks. It seems real when most rightwing politics seems literary. I don’t know why it’s not imitated everywhere else.
Thanks Titus, great to meet! I will share this if you don't mind in a forthcoming Stack. Best wishes and see you soon (just not in the UK, preferably!)
Share away -- people should know, you deserve plaudits!