8 Burst results for "Central European University"
Fresh Air
"central european university" Discussed on Fresh Air
"Check out the pulse available where you get your podcasts. This is fresh air. I'm Terry gross. Let's get back to the interview I recorded yesterday with New Yorker staff writer Andrew morantz about his latest article titled does Hungary offer a glimpse of our authoritarian future. He writes, American conservatives recently hosted their flagship conference cpac in Hungary, a country that experts call an autocracy. Its leader Victor Orban provides a potential model of what a Trump after Trump might look like. Orban has used George Soros as a major target. And so is a Hungarian born Jewish financier and philanthropist. Soros is also a target of the right in the U.S.. How did source become one of Orban's chief targets? I should mention Soros does fund a lot of liberal causes and humanitarian causes as a philanthropist. Yeah. Yeah, so it is true that George Soros is a rich international elite who funds a lot of left leaning causes. That part of it is definitely true. The part that has been sort of spun up and exaggerated over the years is that Soros is somehow this international puppet master who controls all things who sends surges of migrants across borders and sends protesters to protest the murder of George Floyd. I mean, the myth of George Soros has become really multichannel over the years, but what Hungarians told me is that this was really sharpened and in some sense pioneered by Victor Orban and one of his political consultants actually an American guy Jewish guy from Brooklyn named Arthur finkelstein, who had a career as an American political consultant and worked with Roger Stone and a whole bunch of names that people would know here. Helped elect Ronald Reagan helped elect Strom Thurmond, helped elect George pataki. Many, many people, and then later in his career went over to Israel and worked with Benjamin Netanyahu and then Netanyahu apparently introduced his friend Victor Orban to this guy Arthur finkelstein and according to the lore, it was finkelstein, who came up with the idea that instead of running against these big ideas like globalism or multiculturalism or migration, Victor Orban should run against a person of face. And he decided to make the face of all that the George Soros. Said, you don't attack the Nazis. You attack Adolf Hitler. Exactly. Exactly. That's how you get it done. So and in the Hungarian context, it really wasn't clear who hate figure was going to be. It wasn't obvious. And it took a little bit of brainstorming, but eventually they hit on George Soros. He's perfect. He's this shadowy rich guy who has hated on the left, hated on the right. He's Jewish, which allows you to say a lot of dog whistle Y things about him as an international puppet master without quite coming out and saying them. So yeah, they really hit that hard and they put billboards of his kind of nefariously smiling face all over and they had a referendum called the stop Soros referendum. So they really, really used that as a political cudgel for many years. And it extended as far as, you know, Soros had done things. He hadn't lived in Hungary for a long time, but he was still interested in propping up civic institutions there because it's where he's from. And so he built this university called Central European university, which was kind of the most prestigious university in the country. And Orban basically kicked that university out. There's still a sort of vestigial presence there, but it really exists now in Vienna because the Orban regime wanted to get rid of it.
WCPT 820
"central european university" Discussed on WCPT 820
"Welcome back 35 minutes past the hour and anything goes Friday here at Ken in Seattle Hey Ken what's on your mind today Thanks for taking my call Tom I'll be brief Many times we hear the message that we need of a simple message to get out there the Democrats and progressives need to put it out there I've got one I think It's worth a consideration That is I've done this I've bought several bumper stickers a couple dozen of them and shows them what I put on them and it is in the large font GOP equals goons of Putin or GLP equals gang of gluten Anyone can order their own bumper stickers for about 20 bucks Yeah they in fact you can get them on Amazon I mean even you don't have they're all over the place Yeah So anyways I just wanted to put that out there because it's a true message It gets attention and it will tie the GOP to Putin which I don't think is going to hurt us at this point Yeah Brilliant Brilliant Can keep it up Ziggy was a regular caller to this program has been offering t-shirts and bumper stickers and stuff He tweets it pretty much every day I'll look around and see if one of his tweets came up today and retweeted it Kevin thanks I appreciate it Tom Yeah good talking to you Dick in Las Vegas Hey dick what's on your mind today We have to go and Tom Good What's up So all this you know all this stuff about messaging I think it's all about billionaires And I think it goes back in the I remember back in 1972 during that first oil embargo and everybody was talking you know got mad at I owned a service station then And I was getting all I did was get grief about how I was ripping people off and making a whole two cents a gallon Sure And they were talking and that's all that's all that continually happens Billionaires rich people make money either side of the coin And I think it's in their in their best interest to cause the trouble that they're causing It's not Trump Trump is you know he's just a symptom of what's been going on since the 70s and maybe before And then Reagan was really good at it Yeah But we need to talk about how billionaires need working people to vote against their best interests To give billionaires power Yeah well this is why both Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk have now started pitching and Republicans you know They're billionaires They don't want their taxes to go up Well no No so anyway how do we how do we create a message that says that if you're working guy don't vote for billionaires Well I think that's it You know the Republican Party is the party of billionaires and giant corporations in the Democratic Party is the party working people and we just need to say it over and over and over again because it's been that way since the 1930s And in fact arguably it's been that way since the 1880s It was Grover Cleveland the Democrat The only Democrat who was president during the reconstruction era or post Civil War before Woodrow Wilson He was literally the only Democrat who got elected and he gave this incredible speech It was either 1886 or 1887 his State of the Union address in which he talked about how we're seeing trusts and combinations in business and the iron heel of corporate America is upon the neck of the average American worker on paraphrasing but if you search my name and Grover Cleveland you'll find multiple articles where I've quoted in verbatim And Democrats have been singing this song literally since the 1880s and Republicans have been the Stooges of giant corporations and very rich people ever since 1876 ever since that giant betrayal of reconstruction and black people by the Rutherford B Hayes election when he lost the election but they put him into The White House anyway So yeah I'm with you dick And I think that there's a powerful message I think it needs to be repeated as often and as widely as possible And thank you for bringing it up Vivian in la puente California Hey Vivian what's on your mind today Good morning Tom Hey Thank you for taking my call Can you hear me okay I just fine yeah Okay Well my issue is with the abortion You know it can't be overturned People out there need to do their best keep it on the books When I was in my 20s I had two miscarriages And I needed to calm down by the nurse because one I did nothing to start it or create it I did nothing I started bleeding I went to the hospital you know they shot me down in a chair It's like I was left there in the hallway then when they finally took me in it was over You know and then upon release you have to sign a document when you leave And on the document it states it right their spontaneous Aboriginal Right Which is incredible Not only in the nurse to take that word off take it off take it off I was not going to sign it because it had that word I did not see Well now we're getting reports for the end from southern states There was one I was reading yesterday and my recollection is it was either Alabama or Mississippi where women who are showing up at hospitals in the middle of miscarriages acted miscarriages are being either turned away or the police are being called to determine if it was actually something that they induced No that can't be it I mean I know but this is what they're doing And this is the brain of America I was thinking of the poor women that have had endured miscarriages at these people You have to wake up if you're against abortion you really have to go out there and fight Yeah I agree I mean I agree there Sadly we can't lobby the Supreme Court So this battle is almost certainly going to be a first and foremost in the states And then of course if the Republicans seized control of the House and Senate this fall or in 2024 it's going to be a federal battle because they've already said they're going to have a national ban on abortion So now is the time to get involved in that And within the next few months a lot of states are going to be closing the window to register to vote So you need to make sure that you're registered to vote And if you're in a state where the Republican Secretary of State here in California so you don't have this problem but if you're in a state where the Republican Secretary of State now that the Supreme Court back in 20 what was a 2018 I think it was Ohio was sued for purging Democrats and black people off the voting rolls intentionally specifically caging sending out postcards to them and when they didn't come back removing them from the rolls That is now being done in every red state in the union right now So if you're in a red state be very careful and double check your voter registration Vivian thank you for the call You said it very well Christine and latrobe Pennsylvania hey Christine what's on your mind today Hey Tom There were just two things that I wanted to say about Budapest about Hungary My son and daughter in law lived there for almost two years They went over to work for the Central European university the George Soros university there And I got run out of town by ormond Kick them right out of the country And the university decided that they were going to move to.
WCPT 820
"central european university" Discussed on WCPT 820
"Regulatory agencies or people from polluting businesses And now both of them have their sites set on the American federal government by both of them I'm talking about Victor Orban in Hungary and the Republican Party in the United States He has Orban is involving himself in American politics Steve Bannon said that Orban was Trump before Trump Casey Michael over at NBC News said quote from targeting migrants to inflaming and ethno nationalist base from attacking the press of whipping up nativist conspiracies from ushering in unprecedented corruption to tearing down basic democratic productions trumpism is increasingly indistinguishable from Orban ism I've been to Hungary my best friend Jerry schneiderman and I were there back in 89 and it just before the wall fell actually And that was the summer the Victor Orban gave his first speech calling on the Soviets to back down and they did by the way I mean you know he was a hero for a while He was 29 year old first member of parliament By 2010 he was elected as prime minister and now he's an oligarch himself He's used his position to make himself fabulously wealthy and has transformed Hungary from a functioning democracy which it was for almost 20 years And during that time by the way Hungary got European Union membership in 2004 They got NATO membership in 1999 And now we've got an EU member a NATO member that has been run by an open fascist His fidesz party that Orban took over was once much like the Republican Party was a Conservative Party but he ran on themes of quote restoring Christian purity and quote making Hungary great again Yes those were his themes He had rallies all over the country that drew thousands of people He continues to do it His first campaign was on building a wall across Hungary's southern border to keep out the Syrian refugees who were fleeing the Russian violence in Syria He called them rats and rapists and murderers sound familiar He altered his own nation's constitution to allow for gerrymandering and to allow election officials in districts that might not be favorable to him to openly suppress or even reject the votes of people who voted against him He's packed the courts just like Trump and McConnell did particularly Hungary's equivalent of our Supreme Court so thoroughly that even the most serious legal challenges go nowhere Last year they passed laws requiring conservative sex education in schools In other words gay is bad abstinence only He also passed a law forbidding the positive portrayal of LGBTQ people on television In public campaigns they've completed it conflated homosexuality with pedophilia And the latest anti gay law passed by Hungary's parliament passed by a vote of a 157 to one This is how terrified the parliament is or how all in they are with and with Orban His party is railed against teaching multiracialism and racial tolerance They literally rewrote their elementary school books just like they're doing in Florida right now In this case to proclaim that refugees entering the country are a threat because quote this is from one of the books It can be problematic for different cultures to coexist He's locked up refugee children in cages with the enthusiastic support of Hungarian white supremacists And the Helsinki committee you know the international community said Hungary's quote indefinite detention of many vulnerable immigrants including families with small children as cruel and inhuman It's a minor industry now in Hungary locking up immigrants And Orban's responded by saying that this influx of Syrian refugees seeking asylum quote poses a security risk and endangers the continent's Christian culture and identity He added immigration also brings increased crime especially crimes against women and lets in the virus of terrorism Donald Trump much I mean it just goes on and on and on I mean the police stand by as armed militias in Hungary in this case armed with torches marched into a Roma community what used to be called the gypsies And said we will burn you out We will set your homes on fire They fled he has the head of his party One of the founders of his party's old buyer said that they are animals unfit to live among the people And you know he's handed government contracts to a favored few He's elevated an entire class of pro Orban small businessmen into multimillionaire and billionaire oligarchs and the smaller businesses that are not on his side have been shut down sold off bought up In some cases those businessmen have even had to flee the country All but the most marginal of the media in Hungary is now owned all the radio and television stations and the television networks are now owned by oligarchs affiliated with Orban In fact they put billboards all around the country talking about what a patriot is and what a wonderful man he is They've got an entire social media campaign running Facebook and Twitter and all that kind of stuff Talking about the wonders of Orban When he was speaking to cpac this week in Budapest he said quote have your own media It's the only way to point out the insanity of the progressive left The problem is that western media is adjusted to the leftist viewpoint Those who taught reporters and universities already have progressive leftist principles He said of course the GOP has its media allies but they can't compete with the latest mainstream liberal media My friend Tucker Carlson is the only one who puts himself out there His show is the most popular in America What does it mean It means programs like his should be broadcast day and night as you might say 24/7 Meanwhile vice news Rolling Stone box media and The New Yorker along with The Guardian and The Associated Press we're all just kicked out of the cpac conference No no press here Sorry Or bond recently began dismantling the Hungarian science academy replacing it with quote scientists who say that climate change is this is a quote from Orban quote left wing trickery made up by Barack Obama I mean this is pretty grim stuff He's helped wanna be theocrats reinvent Christianity and Hungary Rhea you know embracing hard right movements within both the Catholic Church and among Protestant evangelicals He recently reshaped Hungary's abortion laws so it's extremely difficult to get an abortion and you must have a man's signature to do so Universities have literally fled Hungary the Central European university the first because of growing threats against violence against them and bans on classes I mean it just goes on and on Women have been marginalized in Hungary since Orban came to power He said Hungarian power politics is built on continual character assassination which women can not endure Therefore women should not be in politics Well The Guardian noted a couple of years ago Orban's fidesz party and its coalition partners the Christian Democrats have a 133 members of parliament between them Only 11 of them are women Is ruthlessly using his nation's diplomatic and criminal justice systems to aid foreign corrupt foreign oligarchs he's got his own versions of Bill Barr and Mike Pompeo he's the only leader in the European Union to endorse or at least fail to condemn Putin's attack of Ukraine He said quote I don't want to get between the Ukrainian anvil and the Russian sledgehammer Right Any refuses to participate in the EU boycotts of Russian fossil fuels He has now largely crushed dissent in Hungary arresting opposition politicians troublemakers and members of the independent press much to the delight of.
WNYC 93.9 FM
"central european university" Discussed on WNYC 93.9 FM
"Hungarians are gearing up for one of the most important elections in Europe this year campaigning for it has just begun the vote will determine the political future of prime minister Viktor Orban who has been in power for 12 years now With Angela Merkel out of the chancellery in Germany he is now the longest serving political leader in the European Union and a global champion of what he calls illiberal democracy In April's election he will face a challenge from a united opposition for the first time the coalition is being led by a small town mayor called Peter Marquis On Saturday mister Obama gave his state of the nation speech to supporters in Budapest Your service attack My Friends we have never been so strong Saddle your horses the campaign has begun The time has come for us to ride out expect us in 50 days time to ride in from the right Flank Go for it hungry Go for it Hungarians Jeanne is a Professor of political science at the Central European university in Budapest How significant are these elections Is that extremely important elections or one faces his toughest contest since taking office in 2010 The opposition parties have put aside their differences to back a single candidate And therefore the two rival blogs are neck and neck They are within three percentage difference So the end of the campaign we are decide who will form government in Hungary So the campaign starts this weekend have you been able to judge what kind of campaign would it be It will be a very nasty campaign and the Hungarian political system is extremely polarized and opposition faces uphill battle There is a lack of level playing field And there are various dirty tricks used already in this campaign there were a number of conversations by NGO activists and journalists that were wired and videotaped and these recordings were then edited by some unknown agents and released in a manipulative fashion many people found that phone Pegasus spyware So it seems that the regime is really keen on keeping power and using any means to do so Miss Obama and won by a landslide in 2010 Is this the first real test study faces It's indeed the case that it has never been so close to losing power in the last 12 years That's because opposition managed to unite this time They have chosen join prime ministerial candidate and they back one single candidate in every single electoral district But given the huge disparity in resources And given the fact that the opposition has much less access to media than the government they would still need a medical to win So how credible and popular is the opposition actually They did have considerable amount of support during the primary election But afterwards a smear campaign started against their leader And now they are a little bit behind having said that the fact that the prime minister candidate is a centrist actually rather conservative figure that gives some chance for the opposition to get some voters from the right which would be the first time because typically the opposition is dominated by left wing parties some of them are actually ex communist parties And in that sense their appeal is limited But this time because they managed to recruit this politician who is by the way mayor of a countryside town and father of 7 children a Catholic person Now they have some chance to have support from people who are not otherwise part of the typical clientele of leftist parties That was a Professor of political science at the central European university in Budapest Just a reminder that you can listen to NewsHour whenever you like we've got two editions a day You can find the latest online at PBC World Service.
77WABC Radio
"central european university" Discussed on 77WABC Radio
"Great patriots Brent those other media research center in that organization which has overarching and so many other fantastic things that they do there Brent there was a piece at news busters There was absolutely fantastic much of it is By Joseph Vasquez America's most notorious billionaire leaves his mark on the world from a 2.3 billion education behemoth to racial politics First of all welcome and secondly give us sort of an over arching point about what this article is about Sure Well first happy new year to you We're not fully appreciating what George Soros is and what George Soros has done When you think George Charles conservatives say well this radical leftist pouring in money It's so much more than that It is something that conservatives and freedom loving people the world over have to understand what this man is up to This is a fellow who has put in the numbers are just beyond staggering He has put in 32 $1 billion $1 billion into the open society foundation in 2017 he put in 18 $1 billion What does that mean You put it in the foundation A foundation has to spin off at least 5% of its assets every year That's at least 900 million dollars that George Soros spends every single year $900 million And you see where he is spending it He is spending it on every single issue imaginable The Washington Post will go up a plastic line gives a $100,000 here or dick skate gave $300,000 there George sorrows If he gives a $1 million to something that's pinching pennies for this guy This guy gives the latest in the story that we did He is now announced this new educational system that he has set up the open society university network He's putting in $1.1 billion into that He already has Bart college and Central European university where he has put 2.3 $1 billion there So he's got billions of dollars He's now recruiting colleges Arizona state university University of California Berkeley Columbia University pouring money into them to push his radical agenda When you see his radical agenda that becomes frightening in and of itself Barret college president Leon farthing This is what he said time to Time Magazine He said that 2016 quote was about racism against Barack Obama He gave a quote cautionary comparison between European antisemitism that led to the Holocaust and Americans who elected Trump This is the president of that college They gave a scholar in residence for human race to get Cuomo He has of course where he teaches we will think through how to self abolition to the masses and design a multimedia ad campaign to make prison abolition go viral He also pushes abolish gender This is something you can't laugh to sing away Mark You can't say that's not important We're talking about billions of dollars being pushed worldwide George sharo said to The New York Times in 2019 that he wanted to change the arc of history This man is the only man who's been said as the only individual in the world who has his own foreign policy George SARS has the power the absolute power to change the ark of history and he's committed to it It's scary What is amazing to me Brent bozell you made a point earlier about the light great escape who inherited a couple of $1 billion and gave some of it to conservative causes libertarian causes freedom causes to try and counter what these massive funds the Ford foundation the Macarthur foundation other foundations are actually founded by conservatives among other and then taken over by the nonprofit bureaucrats And he was excoriated There were hearings in Congress there were articles and newsweek and time in The Washington Post and the usual cabal Here this man is spending as you point out as this article demonstrates billions and billions of dollars to destroy what we hold close What we hold near And they ignore him almost completely It's because they agree with them don't they Yeah it is Even if they agree with them the magnitude of his effort is so mind boggling that there's a question Some people are wondering if there is an individual in human history who has ever put as much money as he has to change the world You would think that in an of itself would be of interest never mind what he's using it for but just use it just some of some examples of what this guy will do You have to afford to get killed overnight He spent 220 there We're going to get.
The Good Fight
"central european university" Discussed on The Good Fight
"Flare. the is and it's very hard to recognize the perspective of somebody who disdains him. But that's both a sense of humor. A kind of alaska atmosphere and oddly joyous nece in his public persona is of bitterness and anger as well but but the is a sense of sort of the fund the joy of challenging the structures that be having one of the things that's missing and his imitators bat. it's sort of all of the nastiness without the sort of joy that he gives his supporters even as he ripe horrifies everybody else his rallies to me you're like you know professional wrestling event and it's not an accident because he comes from that kind of world of entertainment and has participated in a lot of world wrestling events. And so he's the perfect. He'll who fans still adore and that's halt trope in american professional wrestling and another podcast earlier. This year. I said you know there's no amount of pork rinds. That are gonna turn ted cruz. You know who went to princeton and harvard or josh foley who went to stanford and yale into authentic populace they themselves are elitists who are masquerading as populace. So i do think it makes a difference whether trump actually runs again in right. Now it's looking to me like he will run and so a lot will depend on legal system. Does he get indicted. How tied up in litigation as he in defending both criminal and civil cases and you know does that cause him to trim sale somewhat or not but if he runs you know the polling suggests he'll be formidable he'll win the nation wide you think about this prospects in general election and does bad depend on his sons in his appeal or does that depend in part on. The food is opponent with joe biden. Oh somebody else. And how many successes democrats have shown themselves will help me. Mistakes ago to make the news. Yeah what my fear is. Is that by twenty four There might be about inflation that could be very damaging president biden's prospects reelection or cameras man. I think effectively. it's either gonna be biden's harris. I don't think there's much chance at another democrat would emerge. If biden doesn't mind. It would be incredibly hot for anybody to win a primary election against come in the house. I agree and so. I've been having this debate with my son. Actually who's twenty seven and using i. It doesn't matter. And i said no. You only think that because you've never actually lived through a period of inflation and we've had very low inflation in the united states for forty years and it can be extremely corrosive. I think would be very corrosive that i would be very concerned about. Trump's chances right now. His polling nationally doesn't look very good minutes being like sixty six percent saying they don't want him to run again nationally not republicans obviously but a lot can change and when you're governing. You're alienating voters that's just the nature of the beast so my concern is it's not even whether trump could win the popular vote. I think he would almost certainly lose it but the question is by how much in in what states i mean that's one thing we've seen. Republicans ought to be very concerned by the fact that they haven't won the popular vote for president since nineteen eighty eight saved once in two thousand four when george w bush was reelected and then it was still pretty close. Think he went by three million votes. That's remarkable is somehow hadn't folded on the fact that they haven't won the popular would since nineteen eighty. Eight will be exception of two thousand four. That's remarkable about politics. I want to shift a little bit to some of the stakes for democracy. The united states around the world one thing. I'm still struggling to make sense of this. How much damage. Donald trump did ultimately do to democracy around the world. I think his actions were horrifying. The fact that he was clearly on the side of overtime popular psychic all bond in hungary is very close to render promoting india was damaging the certain circumstantial evidence bet democracy has been impacted by now the deepest democratic recession. Twenty twenty was worse than be as before. But i guess how much at this point doesn't matter who. The president of the united states is full. The fate of democracy around the world and how different would was four or five years have looked in countries like hungary like india or for that matter in turkey. We will embassador in the past. If we'd ended up with president clinton in two thousand sixteen so interesting counterfactual. I've not quite sure whether it would or wouldn't have been very different. I mean i think one thing would have been different. Which is there would have been at least somewhat. More of an emphasis on both uman rights violations in places will certainly like turkey but also more support in general for the rule of law and for institutions like central european university. A place like hungary which played an important role not just in hungary but in central europe more. Broadly is i think there would have been certainly some differences whether those differences would have only been marginal or whether they would have amounted to something that changed the trajectory of the democratic recession. As you were saying. I think is a much harder question to answer because i think the democratic recession is rooted in a lot of structural causes that it's not very easy for one president to reverse or change. I be interested in your reaction but to me this global democratic recession. There's some things that you and some of your co-authors of pointed to with regard to the general decline in appreciation globally of the importance of things like free speech and other formal elements of democracy. I'm not quite sure why that is. It may be the success of democracy which then gets taken for granted. I haven't been able to figure out how slain that. But i think there are other factors that run a little bit deeper. There are the unequal distribution of economic gains from globalization which is certainly occurred here in the united states but also in various other societies. It has fueled in some sense some understandable economic resentments. Although i think the economic resentments have not been the real driver of this. It's been more. I think the cultural elements here which have been brought to the fore by things like greater global immigration some of which has been brought about by in the eu different institutional changes were made to facilitate the at but also because of conflicts around the world and climate change which driven waves of immigration from sub saharan africa but also from conflict regions in the middle east from afghanistan all the.
The Lawfare Podcast
"central european university" Discussed on The Lawfare Podcast
"On the far from criticizing or were questioning him on hungary's increasing. Move away from liberal democracy. Carlson was all compliments praising the fence that hungary is built along its border and allowing orban's lash out against his critics at home and abroad. Carlson is not the only one with kind words for hungary's would be strong strongman in the past months. An increasing number of conservative media and intellectual elites have praised hungry as well as earlier models like portugal under the post world war two right-wing dictator antonio salazar for what they view as its willingness to use state power to fight for conservative social cultural and religious values to help me understand what this embrace of foreign authoritarianism means for the american conservative movement. I spoke with zach beecham. See your correspondent at vox. Who's written about the rights embrace of organism and what it means for the future of american democracy. It's a law firm podcast august. Eighteenth zach on the american rights. Embrace of the hungarian regime of viktor. Orban zach thanks so much for joining and let's get right into it. So what elements on. The american right are suddenly fans of hungary. And why and. Let's start in particular with tucker carlson's now notorious at least in some quarters trip buddha bash. Yeah tucker in this case and in a lot of different ways represents the fusing of two different trends on the fringe of the conservative movement. Both of which have real reasons to admire the authoritarian regime in hungary right so on the one hand you have the hardline hardcore nationalists right people who are really the principal grievances with mass immigration. And with the idea that the united states is losing its national character and sense of national cohesion as a result of people who are quote unquote not like us. I'm not saying that because any particular person said that but because they won't actually spell out what that euphemism is supposed to refer to but it's pretty clear what kind of language means right anyway. That sort of person you see on tucker show every night really admires the way that or bonn has cut off hungary from immigration into the eu and stood up in their view against the wanting to open its borders to refugees in particular during twenty fifteen refugee crisis and then on the other hand you have the sort of hardline religious types on the right who see themselves as the losers in the culture war. The people whose worldview was really defined by enlarge part the defeat in the culture war of same sex marriage. Here you have people like rod dreher. Who is an influential writer on the right. Who is currently in budapest on a fellowship at a government-sponsored think-tank right so he's he's basically the government is paying him to write pro. Hungary takes He would you know he seems to have come this view on his own but then he's accepted hungary hungarian government money and according to him played a very important role in brokering tucker carlson's visit so he helped encourage tucker to come and now for this kind of conservative the their world view is defined by what they see as increasing liberal and left persecution in united states that there is no more space for what they see a traditional christian identity in life in the way the united states is currently constituted so they need to fight back in their view against this liberal cultural behemoth right now you might say. Donald trump just controlled the government republicans. Try not that long ago. They still control the supreme court. Like what are you guys talking about. But in their view it's the cultural hegemony of the left in places like hollywood and academia and the media that create a monoculture that pushes politics inevitably in the direction of left-wing social views and crushes out space for the right and conservative subcultures to be able to live their own life and to create their own little societies inside broader america. And so a lot of them have concluded the only thing you can do about this fight back to use the power of the state where they still have the ability to access power occasionally as evidenced by the supreme court and trump and the republicans in two thousand sixteen so on against the liberal cultural juggernaut an urban in their view doing that through things like forcing central european university out of the country which is a major liberal arts school. that was funded by george soros. then you can see other examples right like banning the teaching of gender studies at accredited universities or making it illegal to broadcast certain kinds of programming related to same sex transgender identities outside the hours of ten pm to five. Am or something like that that maybe a little bit often the exact timeframe. but it's it's a you have to play at night so kids won't see it. All of these different things have have created a sense. That or bon is the guy who fights and he wins for us. That's that's their worldview. Those two different factions on the right. Both of which tucker takes the immigration stuff is more defining him. Have come together to kneel at the altar. Viktor orban and the hungarian state. I want to focus this conversation on. What's happening in america in particular on the american right but i do think it's worth spending a little more time on what's happening in hungary to provide that kind of context so you've already mentioned a couple of things that that has done. But can you zoom out. And just give us a little bit more historical context for what's happened over the decade decade-long rule of a victor or orban because my my my sense and correct me if i'm wrong is that one thing. That's so appealing notable about hungary for those on the on the right That are interested in. Is that hungary. Actually very much made a move from liberal democracy to what it now calls illiberal democracy over over the last ten years so it's more than just an authoritarian regime. It's one that in the minds of those on the right made that transition from liberal democracy with they might think of more leftist democracy to illiberal democracy and so is hoping you could provide a little context into how that how that went. Yeah yeah the key. Move on the right right now in the. Us is to say to this kind of uncomfortable to step. Which is i. Hungary is not authoritarian state. And how dare you accuse it of doing it. and second. Hungary is impressive because it has managed use the power of the state against the left to crush their cultural power. Now you wonder how those two things exist at the same time without being significant amounts of cognitive dissonance there are significant amounts of cognitive dissonance. But i guess i'll back up an answer. Your question initially about like what happened with hungary. So this is really intimately bound up with viktor. Orban as a person right or bond. During communist control of hungary was actually a pro-democracy dissident. he was funded to study abroad in the uk. By of all people george soros. Who's now his biggest enemy. A soros by the way is the hungarian pronunciation of soros. That's why i'm saying it that way. Not i'm not. I haven't just like developed a lisp randomly in this conversation so so so or bomb was the pro democracy demonstrators and he won the premiership in the nineties initially but then lost in in a free election. And now you know..
Breaking Green Ceilings
"central european university" Discussed on Breaking Green Ceilings
"All right steven. Thank you again for making time for us on vacant ceilings. I'm glad we could connect after so many months as looking back at my notes and the first time we talked to his i think june of last year twenty twenty and improve me. Many yard persevered And at that time. You were in nigeria. Doing your research correct yes yes. I was in denmark. The wall about time and it was such a good conversation. And i'm glad that we get to share it with some of our listeners and viewers here today so we'll get started so today we're going to talk to you as i mentioned about european research on how sociological theories help explain and solve the conservation problem of trade in vulture parts for traditional medicine in nigeria. It's a great title here so typically before we go into that. I just want to kind of help. People get a little bit about you. And the first question that i ask is what role has nature played in your life well i wouldn't say eventual cloudy role my life but i'll say i have evoked over the years into mon creteil when it's unconsciousness meet me kind of connected to nature respectful nature to value nature of all life phones here manzano so Makes me connect to nature. Take control evolution. Human being neutral in buffets right and so your focus of study is in wildlife conservation. So how did you decide to choose that as a focus. How did that come about i. I liked that. So i'll say it started many years ago. Bustles in two thousand and two was i wanted. This tend the calls in tropical biology and conservation because sponsored by detroit kubler So we'll do some mountains for one month during the time. Middle people from different countries so those mice press peek into what comes up is all about because original will for my degree. I didn't know much about conservation. So during the call my is it pointing to the noble professional Little box and wanting the league goes talk becomes every is that cost larger than oneself. Something donte so spiritually my own perspective that you want to sit life on. There is just like your part to medicine kind of seventy here burns. So that's ritual natural conservation world made me st to because he kind of helped me out a connection to something like that so So you mentioned that you started off. what's zoology. What was your intention of when you decided to pursue zoology and like what were you looking to achieve through zoology. And then i love that. You're talking about your spiritual connection to something bigger in greater than yourself. Was it any specific experience. That kinda like ignited the spiritual connection or help you find it too soon. Was coincidence from annabel dollars g. I didn't have growing up. I didn't have any inclination to white. Live odd know about wide length and the conventional for science students is to finish is cool. Who wants to read medicine. Everybody wants to read medicine. I didn't carry out. Was what i had in mind when i was intending university. And he didn't sing. So i've been through all edgy and hottest studying zoology. So i did it halfheartedly. Was life or chaos. Let's what happens. But i'll talk. Reasonable cost one middle. Tony point in my life was duffield's coast intro. Go by the john collins. Every in berlin is on the rise. Boggled kentucky sean. These little bulbs on Is really something meaningful. If you look out the upright shins so the by volatile tween calling for me was costs and yes so this ritual connection bit out say the in mountain likes of common long in terms of trying to find myself being was just one the mental list in my days from the angel to about twenty one in the process of finding myself i went to crisis and so imagine muscle. Beach was kind of chris. Connection to myself dot com self-awareness to these really really really gave me trinity to consol tiny auctions without worldviews. If i didn't emerged from that crises still being kind of encapsulated in my own crews minded worldview but my back crashes while some opportunity for me and so of course marriage out of the way and it is convention. That was brought it on myself. Conservational for me something. I aspire towards who contributes to the subdivide rusty crises which is Me function for me. And of course the lovely people neat while he's very very very very on the full. Yeah it's really interesting because we talked about some of the factors that religion plays into conservation that you'll so embedded in your research and so i didn't realize that there was a personal element to it where you experienced a personal crisis and it's really interesting. How that kind of experience from a religious perspective is now kinda also. I guess harnessing in your research. That's really interesting absolutely so let's start talking about your fascinating research and we can also talk about the role that religion plays in it. You're currently doing your research as we mentioned on how sociological theory helps explain and solve conservation problems of trade in vulture parts. And you're pursuing this through the central european university. And you got your degrees in zoology in nigeria. And then also in your msn cambridge so described to us in a nutshell. What is your research about Actually about to atmos about these is social cultural factors. That influence the patents tree.