Tucker Carlson, the American conservative broadcaster for Fox News, gave a speech and interview in Esztergom, at the Matthias Corvinus College Festival (MCC Strt) in Hungary
“The United States is a great country, but he who says it is freer than Hungary is lying”, – Carlson said.
In his speech at the Matthias Corwin College Festival (MCC), the influential US commentator stressed that in the United States physical threats and censorship await those who loudly criticise the mainstream policies of the Democrat party.
Carlson said that people are free to lecture in Hungary, which has free and fair elections and a much healthier media balance than in the United States.
“I stress: in the United States there is a total apathy of people, signs of this apathy are, for example, the banning of humour and total control of everything said and written in public”, – Tucker Carlson stressed.
“Firstly, they control their language to control their thoughts. Some things are impossible to say, so they make it just impossible for people to think about them”, – said the broadcaster.
“Also, you can’t make jokes about some things because humour means perspective. You find something funny when you rise above it, look at it from a distance and see it in its entirety. You’re just denied that perspective”, – he continued.
“It’s true, it’s been true, and it will always be true, that they lie all the time. To convince you of this, they won’t allow you to refer to your past, they expect you to be ashamed of what your ancestors did, to hate your country’s history, not to use old words because they describe old thoughts, and not to rise above the current situation”, – Carlson explained.
“It’s not liberalism, it’s the opposite of classical liberalism”, – the broadcaster said.
“It’s just a totalitarian idea that everyone behaves the same way, professes the same things and obeys the same things”, – he added.
“I think Hungarians have no idea how provocative their policies and life principles are to many in the rest of the world”, – Carlson said.
According to the presenter, Hungary is an example to other countries yet because of its “quiet, happy simplicity”, because of things like the country’s cleanliness, order, open society, lack of crime and reliable border controls.
“The lessons taught by Hungary really have nothing to do with the state system, with some of the country‘s leaders, or with the results of elections. These lessons are based much deeper, in the people themselves”, – he stressed.
Carlson said the most important thing should be for any leaders and politicians to care about their country and the people living in it, then people will trust them.
He stressed the universal and fundamental desire of people to live peacefully. After all, they just want to follow their traditions, which they inherited from their parents and which they want to pass on to their children without being lectured or harmed.
“They want to live in an environment that elevates them, not degrades them”, – he said.
According to the broadcaster, a government that strives for this can be proud of itself and the people who live in such a country should be grateful to their leaders and should not allow those who feed off the leadership of the world to say otherwise.
Tucker Carlson said his stay in Hungary was quite different to what he expected. Thanks to his show, he regularly travels around the world to see and show how people live outside the United States, because many Americans sincerely believe and believe that they are the only people who live happily ever after.
He noted that he was totally impressed by the Hungarian government’s management of the migration crisis in 2015. Carlson also said that a few days ago his editor sent him a message from a well-known journalist working for the Washington Post who simply lied that more than 90% of the media in Hungary was in the hands of the ruling party, that businesses were being physically and legally harassed, that Orban Viktor was manipulating the elections and that politicians were mysteriously rich.
Tucker Carlson said it was the funniest thing he had ever read, and it was from a man who calls himself a leading expert on Eastern and Central Europe.
“Reading that tweet gave me a familiar homely feeling”, – said Tucker Carlson. – “I do live in a country where lying is normal. After all, in the United States more than 90% of the media simply bluntly follow the directives of the ruling Democratic Party”, – Carlson stressed.
“On CNN, where I worked for many years before that, you will not hear a single word today that differs from the mainstream ruling party slogans”, – the broadcaster said.
“I have lived in many cities around the world and have found that in the United States it takes courage to publicly hold a different viewpoint than the liberal narrative. If someone puts a sign in their window that contradicts Democrat views on migration, human sexuality, or even indicates that they usually vote Republican, they can break your windows”, – Carlson said.
Tucker Carlson drew the audience’s attention to the fact that Barack Obama lives in a $12 million mansion on the Massachusetts River, even though he has never worked in the private sector. In other words, politicians are mysteriously getting rich, not in Hungary, but in the United States.
“If any observer recognises what is really going on in the United States today, they will also automatically recognise that it is simply not liberalism being imposed on them, but the exact opposite of classical liberalism”, – emphasised Tucker Carlson.
“Good food, clean streets, correct family-oriented politics. How complicated are these things?”, – he questioned.
“They have been important in our lives for millennia. I am convinced that it is not the size of a country’s GDP that matters, but the ability of people to live good, decent lives and follow their traditions in an environment that lifts you up”, – Tucker Carlson said.
“That’s what most people around the world want, it’s just an innate desire of people. You Hungarians are justifiably proud of what you have and what surrounds you”, – the Fox News anchor concluded.
The material was prepared by Miklos Kewehazy, Hungary, specially for News Front.